292

cess.

RELIGION OF THE GERMANS.

[CH. IX. by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of sucThe consecrated standards, long revered in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle;* and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder.†

In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities ; the wretch who had lost his shield, was alike banished from the religious and the civil assemblies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration, others imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunkenness.§ All agreed, that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world.

The immortality, so vainly promised by the priests, was in some degree conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reverence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm

History of Charles V., vol. i, note 10. * Tacit. Germ. c. 7. These standards were only the heads of wild beasts. See an instance of this custom, Tacit. Annal. 13, 57. Cæsar, Diodorus, and Lucan, seem to ascribe this doctrine to the Gauls; but M. Pelloutier (Histoire des Celtes, 1. 3, c. 18) labours to reduce their expressions to a more orthodox sense. $ Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see Fable 20, in the curious version of that book, published by M. Mallet, in his Introduction to the History of Denmark. [Gibbon was right in reterring only to this single passage in the Edda. Any attempt to frame a religious and moral system for the north of ancient Germany, out of the mutilated fragments of the Edda, would be subject to the same difficulty as has been found in making a similar use of the Zendavesta. Mallet's object was to bring the ideas of the Edda into accordance with those of the Celtic religion. In the English translation, which appeared in 1770, under the title of Northern Antiquities, many errors in the original were corrected. Mallet used the imperfect edition of Göranson, an avowed believer in Rudbeck's historical visions, who has, therefore, omitted or altered whatever did not coincide with those fancies.-SCHREITER.] [Since this note was penned, Mr. Bohn has published a revised edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, in which the latest information is made available.-ED.]

of arms and glory which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold, is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death, were the habitual sentiments of a German mind.*

Such was the situation, and such were the manners of the ancient Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honour, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet we find, that during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barbarians

*See Tacit. Germ. c. 3. Diodor. Sicul. L. 5. Strabo, 1. 4, p. 197. The classical reader may remember the rank of Demodocus in the Phæacian court, and the ardour infused by Tyrtæus into the fainting Spartans. Yet there is little probability that the Greeks and the Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be spared, if our antiquarians would condescend to reflect, that similar manners will naturally be produced by similar situations. [War was not the only subject of German song; they had odes also for their festive meetings, and others that were chanted over the bodies of deceased herocs. Theodoric, king of the Goths, killed in battle against Attila, was thus honoured, while he was borne from the field of fight: and over the remains of Attila the same ceremony was observed. (See Jornandes, c. 41 and 49.) Some historians assert, that the Germans also sang at weddings. But this seems scarcely to be in accordance with their manners, which rendered marriage little more than the purchase of a wife. Of such a practice only one example can be found, in the hymn which the Gothic king, Ataulphus, himself sang at his nuptials with Placidia, the sister of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius. (Olympiodorus, p. 8.) On that occasion, however, the Roman rito was observed, of which singing always formed a part. Adelung a

204

NATIVE ARMIES,

[CH. IX. made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression, on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their progress was checked by their want of arms and discipline, and their fury was diverted by the intestine divisions of ancient Germany.

I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and not without truth, that the command of iron soon gives a nation the command of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the possession of the one, as well as the other. The face of a German army displayed their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer kind of lances, they could seldom use. Their frame (as they called them in their own language) were long spears, headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, and which, as occasion required, they either darted from a distance or pushed in close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, scattered with incredible force, were an additional resource of the infantry. Their military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a loose mantle. A variety of colours was the only ornament of their wooden or osier shields. Few of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor practised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman manège, several of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but, in general, the principal strength of the Germans consisted in their infantry, which was drawn up in several deep columns, according to the distinction of tribes and families. Impatient of fatigue or delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks; and sometimes, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the Roman mercenaries. But as the barbarians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to rally or to retire. A repulse was a sure defeat; and a defeat was most commonly total destruction. When we recollect the complete armour of Anc. Hist. p. 382.—GUIZOT.] * Missilia spargunt. Tacit. Germ. c. 6 Either that historian used a vague expression, or he meant that they were thrown at random. It was their principal distinction from

the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evolutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it appears a just matter of surprise, how the naked and unassisted valour of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field the strength of the legions, and the various troops of the auxiliaries, which seconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, till the introduction of luxury had enervated the vigour, and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline, of the Roman armies. The introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies, was a measure attended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war and policy. Although they were admitted in small numbers, and with the strictest precaution, the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans, that the danger was not imaginary, and that their precautions were not always sufficient.* During the civil wars that followed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and Sertorius,† formed a great design of freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, renowned in the wars of Britain and Italy, repaired to his standard. He introduced an army of Germans into Gaul, prevailed on the powerful cities of Treves and Langres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions, destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Romans the military knowledge which he had acquired in their service. When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to the power of the empire, Civilis secured himself and his country by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine,‡ the allies, not the servants, of the Roman monarchy.

II. The strength of ancient Germany appears formidable, when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The wide extent of country might

the Sarmatians, who generally fought on horseback. *The relation of this enterprise occupies a great part of the fourth and fifth books of the History of Tacitus, and is more remarkable for its eloquence than perspicuity. Sir Henry Saville has observed several inaccuracies.

Tacit. Hist. 4, 13. Like them he had lost an eye. It was contained between the two branches of the old Rhine, as they subsisted before the face of the country was changed by art and nature. See Cluver. German. Antiq. 1. 3, c. 30, 37. [There is an extensive tract between Utrecht and Nimeguen, still insulated by different

296

THE NATIVE DISCORD

[CH. IX. very possibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or executing any plan of national greatress, was agitated by various, and often hostile, intentions. Germany was divided into more than forty independent states; and, even in each state, the union of the several tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians were easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive an injury, much less an insult; their resentments were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking, were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected to encompass their territories with a wide frontier of solitude and devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbours, attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions.*

"The Bructeri "+ (it is Tacitus that now speaks) "were totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes, provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity, and have nothing left to demand of fortune, except the discord of these barbarians." These sentiments,

rivers, which the Dutch call De Betuwe, and regard as the ancient island of the Batavi.-ED.] * Cæsar de Bell. Gall. 1. 6, 23. + They were a non-Suevic tribe on the banks of the Lippe, below the present duchies of Oldenburg and Lunenburg, and in the Harz Mountains. It was among them that the priestess Velleda obtained celebrity in the age of Vespasian.-GUIZOT. They are mentioned, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries by Nazarius, Ammianus, Claudian, &c., as a tribe of Franks. See Cluver. Germ. Antiq. 1. 3, c. 13. [This is one instance of the exaggerated terms, in which ancient writers described the work of slaughter.-ED.] § Urgentibus is the common reading, but good sense, Lipsius, and some MSS., declare for vergentibus. Tacit Germania, c. 33. The pious abbé de la Bleterie is very angry with