Their stories and their
prejudices
from the very first fill the
child's tender and uninstructed mind.
child's tender and uninstructed mind.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v24 - Sta to Tal
You may see the peasants — men,
women, and boys — sorting them by millions, drying and sifting
them upon the open spaces of the wood, and packing them in
sacks to send abroad through Italy. The pinocchi, or kernels, of
the stone-pine are largely used in cookery, and those of Ravenna
are prized for their good quality and aromatic flavor. When
roasted or pounded, they taste like a softer and more mealy kind
:
## p. 14364 (#558) ##########################################
14364
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
of almonds. The task of gathering this harvest is not a little
dangerous. They have to cut notches in the straight shafts, and
having climbed often to the height of eighty feet, to lean upon
the branches and detach the fir cones with a pole — and this for
every tree. Some lives, they say, are yearly lost in the business.
As may be imagined, the spaces of this great forest form
the haunt of innumerable living creatures. Lizards run about by
myriads in the grass. Doves coo among the branches of the
pines, and nightingales pour their full-throated music all day and
night from thickets of white-thorn and acacia. The air is sweet
with aromatic scents: the resin of the pine and juniper, the may-
flowers and acacia blossoms, the violets that spring by thousands
in the moss, the wild roses and faint honeysuckles which throw
fragrant arms from bough to bough of ash or maple, join to
make one most delicious perfume. And though the air upon the
neighboring marsh is poisonous, here it is dry, and spreads a
genial health. The sea wind murmuring through these thickets
at nightfall or misty sunrise conveys no fever to the peasants
stretched among their flowers. They watch the red rays of
sunset flaming through the columns of the leafy hall, and flaring
on its fretted rafters of entangled boughs; they see the stars
come out, and Hesper gleam, an eye of brightness, among dewy
branches; the moon walks silver-footed on the velvet tree-tops,
while they sleep beside the camp fires; fresh morning wakes them
to the sound of birds and scent of thyme and twinkling of dew-
drops on the grass around. Meanwhile ague, fever, and death
have been stalking all night long about the plain, within a few
yards of their couch, and not one pestilential breath has reached
the charmed precincts of the forest.
You may ride or drive for miles along green aisles between
the pines in perfect solitude; and yet the creatures of the wood,
the sunlight and the birds, the flowers and tall majestic columns
at your side, prevent all sense of loneliness or fear.
Huge oxen
haunt the wilderness - gray creatures, with mild eyes and spread-
ing horns and stealthy tread. Some are patriarchs of the forest,
.
the fathers and the mothers of many generations who have
been carried from their sides to serve in plows or wagons on
the Lombard plain. Others are yearling calves, intractable and
ignorant of labor. In order to subdue them to the yoke, it is
requisite to take them very early from their native glades, or else
they chafe and pine away with weariness. Then there is a sullen
## p. 14365 (#559) ##########################################
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
14365
canal, which flows through the forest from the marshes to the
sea; it is alive with frogs and newts and snakes.
You may see
these serpents basking on the surface among thickets of the
flowering rush, or coiled about the lily leaves and flowers, - lithe
monsters, slippery and speckled, the tyrants of the fen.
It is said that when Dante was living at Ravenna he would
spend whole days alone among the forest glades, thinking of
Florence and her civil wars, and meditating cantos of his poem.
Nor have the influences of the pine wood failed to leave their
trace upon his verse.
VENICE
V ,
"
TENICE, thou Siren of sea cities, wrought
By mirage, built on water, stair o'er stair,
Of sunbeams and cloud shadows, phantom-fair,
With naught of earth to mar thy sea-born thought!
Thou floating film upon the wonder-fraught
Ocean of dreams! Thou hast no dream so rare
As are thy sons and daughters,— they who wear
Foam flakes of charm from thine enchantment caught.
O dark-brown eyes! O tangles of dark hair!
O heaven-blue eyes, blonde tresses where the breeze
Plays over sunburned cheeks in sea-blown air!
Firm limbs of molded bronze! frank debonair
Smiles of deep-bosomed women! Loves that seize
Man's soul, and waft her on storm melodies !
THE NIGHTINGALE
1
WENT a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Hard task it were to tell how dewy-still
Were flowers and ferns and foliage in the rays
Of Hesper, white amid the daffodil
Of twilight flecked with faintest chrysoprase;
And all the while, embowered in leafy bays,
The bird prolonged her sharp soul-thrilling tone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
## p. 14366 (#560) ##########################################
14366
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
But as I stood and listened, on the air
Arose another voice, more clear and keen,
That startled silence with a sweet despair,
And stilled the bird beneath her leafy screen:
The star of Love, those lattice boughs between,
Grew large and leaned to listen from his zone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
The voice, methought, was neither man's nor boy's,
Nor bird's nor woman's, but all these in one:
In Paradise perchance such perfect noise
Resounds from angel choirs in unison,
Chanting with cherubim their antiphon
To Christ and Mary on the sapphire throne.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Then down the forest aisles there came a boy,
Unearthly pale, with passion in his eyes;
Who sang a song whereof the sound was joy,
But all the burden was of love that dies
And death that lives,- a song of sobs and sighs,
A wild swan's note of Death and Love in one.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Love burned within his luminous eyes, and Death
Had made his fluting voice so keen and high,
The wild wood trembled as he passed beneath,
With throbbing throat singing, Love-led, to die;
Then all was hushed, till in the thicket nigh
The bird resumed her sharp soul-thrilling tone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
But in my heart and in my brain the cry,
The wail, the dirge, the dirge of Death and Love,
Still throbs and throbs, flute-like, and will not die,
Piercing and clear the night-bird's tune above,-
The aching, anguished wild swan's note, whereof
The sweet sad flower of song was overblown.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
## p. 14367 (#561) ##########################################
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
14367
FAREWELL
I
Tis buried and done with,
The love that we knew :
Those cobwebs we spun with
Are beaded with dew.
I loved thee; I leave thee:
To love thee was pain;
I dare not believe thee,
To love thee again.
Like spectres unshriven
Are the years that I lost;
To thee they were given
Without count of cost.
I cannot revive them
By penance or prayer:
Hell's tempest must drive them
Through turbulent air.
Farewell, and forget me;
For I too am free
From the shame that beset me,
The sorrow of thee.
THE FEET OF THE BELOVED
F
EAR not to tread,- it is not much
To bless the meadow with your touch:
Nay, walk unshod; for as you pass,
The dust will take your feet like grass.
Oh dearest melodies, oh beat
Of musically moving feet!
Stars that have fallen from the sky
To sparkle where you let them lie;
Blossoms, a new and heavenly birth,
Rocked on the nourishing breast of earth;
Dews that on leaf and petal Aling
Multitudinous quivering;
Winged loves with light and laughter crowned;
Kind kisses pressed upon the ground!
## p. 14368 (#562) ##########################################
14368
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
EYEBRIGHT
A®
SA star from the sea new risen,
As the waft of an angel's wing,
As a lark's song heard in prison,
As the promise of summer in spring,
She came to me through the stillness,
The shadows that ring me round,
The dungeon of years and illness
Wherein my spirit is bound.
She came with her eyes love-laden,
Her laughter of lily and rose,
A fragile and flower-like maiden,
In the season of frosts and snows.
She smiled, and the shades departed;
She shone, and the snows were rain:
And he who was frozen-hearted
Bloomed up into love again.
## p. 14369 (#563) ##########################################
14369
TACITUS
(55 ? -? )
BY CHARLES E. BENNETT
UBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS (the prænomen Publius, long a mat.
ter of dispute, is now definitely assured) was born about 55
Suur A. D. The place of his birth is quite uncertain: by some
scholars this honor has been assigned to the Umbrian town Inter-
amna, by others to Rome; but neither of these views rests upon any
adequate foundation. Of the details of his
life we are but scantily informed. In his
Dialogus de Oratoribus' he tells us that
when a youth he attached himself to Mar-
cus Aper and Julius Secundus, the foren-
sic leaders of his day. Whether he also
enjoyed the instruction of Quintilian, the
famous rhetorician, is a matter of doubt.
In the year 78 he married the daughter of
Agricola, governor of Britain. Subsequently
he filled the offices of quæstor under Titus,
of prætor under Domitian, and of consul
(year 97) under Nerva. From the year 100
on, he appears to have held no public trust,
Tacitus
but to have devoted himself exclusively to
his literary labors. His death probably occurred shortly after the
publication of the Annals(115-117 A. D. ).
WORKS
1. The Dialogus de Oratoribus. Tacitus's earliest work was prob-
ably published about 81 A. D. , and gives an account of a discussion
at which the writer represents himself as having been present some
seven years previously. The chief disputants are Aper and Messalla;
the theme is the quality of contemporary eloquence. Aper maintains
that the new oratory really marks a great advance upon that of pre-
ceding epochs: it is brilliant and attractive, where the earlier oratory
was dull and tedious. An audience of to-day, Aper declares, would
not tolerate such speakers. Even Cicero, with all his fame, was not
free from the faults of his day; and was worthy of admiration only
in his later speeches.
XXIV–899
## p. 14370 (#564) ##########################################
TACITUS
14370
In reply to Aper, Messalla vigorously defends the oratory of the
Ciceronian era, and arraigns contemporary eloquence as disfigured by
meretricious embellishment. To Messalla's mind the prime cause of
this decadence is neglect in the training of the young. Formerly the
mother personally superintended the education of her children; now
these are given over to irresponsible slaves and nurses. Again, in
the earlier days, a young man preparing himself for the profession
of oratory was wont to attach himself to some eminent advocate or
jurist; and so to acquire the mastery of his art by practical experi-
ence. To-day, Messalla complains, it is the fashion merely to declaim
artificial show-pieces in the schools.
Secundus and Maternus, who share in the discussion, urge also
changed political conditions as another important reason for the
decline of eloquence. Under the republic there had been an active
political life and keen strife of parties; under the empire the for-
tunes of the State were directed by a single head. What wonder
then that eloquence had declined, when the causes that created it
were no longer in existence!
In its fine dramatic setting, its profound grasp of the moving
causes in Roman civilization, and in its elevated diction, the Dia-
logus) is a consummate literary masterpiece; Wolf well recognized
its merits and its charm when he characterized it as an aureus libellus
(golden little book).
2. The Agricola, Between the publication of the Dialogus) and
of the Agricola' seventeen years intervened. Of this period fifteen
years were occupied by the reign of Domitian, under whom freedom
of speech had been rigorously suppressed. The accession of Nerva,
however, in 96 A. D. , followed by that of Trajan at the beginning of
98, was the augury of a new era; and encouraged Tacitus to publish
his Life of Agricola' in the latter year. Agricola, Tacitus's father-
in-law, had died in 93; and it is quite possible that Tacitus's account
of his life was written in the months immediately following that
event, and then withheld from publication until the dawn of a more
auspicious period. How keenly Tacitus had felt the intellectual and
moral servitude enforced upon his countrymen by Domitian's rule
is made clear by a passage of remarkable power contained in the
preface to this work (here quoted).
The best years of Agricola's life had been spent in the service of
his country, and for the most part in the field. His most conspicu-
were achieved in Britain. He had been appointed
governor of that province in 78, and remained there seven years. In
the course of his administration he had not only reduced the entire
island to subjection, as far north as the highlands of Scotland, but
had also established the Roman civilization among the Britons. All
these achievements are pictured in glowing colors and with signal
ous
successes
## p. 14371 (#565) ##########################################
TACITUS
14371
-
affection by the writer. Tacitus's apostrophe to his departed father-
in-law (here quoted), is a lofty and impressive illustration of the
writer's genius.
3. The (Germania. ' This was published in 98 A. D. , the same
year as the Agricola. ' It is a brief treatise on the geography, peo-
ples, and institutions of the Germans. The larger portion of the
work — and by far the most interesting — is devoted to a considera-
tion of those customs and institutions which are common to the Ger-
mans as a whole; such as their political organization, their military
system, the courts, religion, dwellings, clothing, marriage, amuse-
ments, slavery, and industrial occupations. The remainder of the
work treats of the location of the separate tribes, and of the institu-
tions peculiar to each.
The purpose of the 'Germania' has been differently conceived by
different critics. Some have thought that Tacitus's object was, by
holding before his countrymen a picture of the Germans, to mark the
contrast between the two civilizations, German and Roman, and to
commend the rugged simplicity of the one as opposed to the degen-
eracy of the other. Others have regarded the treatise as a political
pamphlet, written in support of Trajan, and intended to justify the
attention which that prince was then bestowing upon the problems
presented by the tribes of the North. Yet others have thought that
the work was prepared as an introduction to the extensive historical
writings which Tacitus had already projected.
But there are serious objections to each of these views; more-
over, it seems improbable that the Germania) was written with any
« tendency” or purpose beyond the natural and obvious one of ac-
quainting its readers with accurate details of German geography and
institutions. The German people had long been known to the Romans,
and for a century and a half had furnished a more or less constant
opposition to the Roman arms. Nor was the subject new: Cæsar,
Livy, Pliny, and others, had given detailed accounts of this interesting
and important race. That Tacitus, therefore, should have undertaken
a fresh presentation of their situation and customs, seems perfectly
natural, without resort to the theory of a special extraneous motive.
Whatever its original purpose, the “Germania) must be recognized as
a mine of authentic information concerning the ancient Germans, and
as a source of the first importance for all modern study of Germanic
institutions.
4. The Histories. ' In the preface to the Agricola,' Tacitus had
already announced his purpose of writing the history of the reigns
of Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. Later, this plan was modified. The
new project embraced the history of the imperial period from the
death of Augustus to the death of Domitian,- a space of eighty-two
## p. 14372 (#566) ##########################################
14372
TACITUS
us.
years. This period naturally fell into two eras: the former that of
the Julian-Claudian dynasties (from the accession of Tiberius to the
death of Nero), the latter that of the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian to
Domitian), including the transition period of turmoil during the brief
reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. It was the latter of these two
eras that Tacitus treated first, giving to the work the title His-
toriæ. ) The events he describes had all occurred within his own
memory, and many within the range of his own observation and
experience. The entire work consisted probably of twelve books,
published at intervals between 104 and 109 A. D. Of these twelve
books only the first four, and half of the fifth, have come down to
The preserved portions begin with the accession of Galba, and
carry the history only to the beginning of the reign of Vespasian.
A vivid picture is given in this narrative of the stormy events of the
years 68 and 69; including the murder of Galba, the defeat and sui-
cide of Otho, the overthrow of Vitellius, the accession of Vespasian,
along with the formidable insurrection of the Batavians under Civilis.
But the descriptions are almost exclusively military. There is less
of the fine psychological analysis which appears later as a striking
characteristic of the Annals. ' Doubtless this feature inay have been
more prominent in the lost books of the Histories) (6-12), which
covered the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. One of the
most interesting portions of the extant books is the account of the
Jews, given at the beginning of Book v. The description of the siege
and capture of Jerusalem by Titus is unfortunately lost.
5. The Annals. ' The second part of Tacitus's programme em-
braced a history of the earlier period, from the accession of Tiberius
to the death of Nero (14-68 A. D. ). The exact title of this work was
(Ab Excessu Divi Augusti’ (From the Decease of the Divine Augus-
tus); but owing to the treatment of events year by year, Tacitus him-
self alludes to his work as (Annals,' and this designation has become
the current one. The Annals, like the Histories,' was probably
published in installments, about 115-117 A. D. The entire work in all
likelihood consisted of eighteen books. These eighteen seem to have
been devoted, in groups of six, to three epochs: the first six to the
reign of Tiberius; the next six to the reigns of Caligula and Claudius;
the concluding six to the reign of Nero. Large portions of the work
have been lost. Books 7-10, along with 17 and 18, have disappeared
completely; while extensive gaps occur in several of the others. The
portions which we still have, deal with the reign of Tiberius, the con-
cluding years of the reign of Claudius, and the reign of Nero down
to 66 A. D. The account of Caligula is entirely lost.
The (Annals' is universally regarded as Tacitus's ripest and great-
est work. While nominally a history of the times, it is in reality a
## p. 14373 (#567) ##########################################
TACITUS
14373
series of masterly character sketches of figures of commanding inter-
est and importance: the emperors, their advisers, their opponents, the
members of the imperial family.
In his psychological analyses, Tacitus can hardly be regarded as
free from prejudice and partisanship; in the case of most of the
emperors and their consorts, he sees no good trait, recognizes no
worthy motive. On the other hand, he is at times guilty of undue
idealization; as in the case of Germanicus, who, though popular with
the soldiers and the people, seems to have been deficient both in
force of character and in military genius.
Tacitus's pictures, however, while overdrawn, give us in the main
an accurate view of the imperial court: they exhibit the tyranny,
cruelty, and wantonness of successive sovereigns, the servility of the
courtiers, the degradation of the Senate, and the general demoraliza-
tion of the aristocracy, in colors as powerful as they are sombre. It
is greatly to be regretted that none of the ameliorating influences
and tendencies of the imperial régime receive recognition at Tacitus's
hands. The contemporary social, industrial, and commercial prosper-
ity are completely ignored: it is the dark side only that is revealed
in his pages.
Tacitus's STYLE. — The artistic form in which Tacitus clothed the
products of his genius is not only unique in itself, but also exhibits
a striking development from his earliest work to his latest. In the
Dialogus) he is manifestly under the influence of Cicero. The
'Agricola' and 'Germania,' published seventeen years later, show an
almost complete emancipation from this early model. The strong
individuality of the writer now reveals itself in greater condensation,
in frequent boldness of word and phrase, and in sombre earnestness
of thought; Sallust's influence is particularly noticeable at this stage.
In the Histories and in the ‘Annals) we note the fullest culmina-
tion of Tacitus's stylistic development. What in the Agricola' and
(Germania' was a tendency, has become in the Histories,' and espe-
cially in the Annals,' a pervading characteristic. Short incisive
sentences follow each other in quick succession: a single phrase or
a single word is often as pregnant with meaning as a paragraph in
another writer; poetic expressions abound (Virgil's influence being
particularly noticeable); while a lofty moral earnestness dominates
the whole.
This striking contrast of style between Tacitus's earliest and lat-
est work is unparalleled in Roman literature; and for a long time
tended to cast doubt on the authenticity of the Dialogus. It is not,
however, without a parallel in other literatures; and the difference
between Carlyle's Life of Schiller) and his Frederick the Great'
)
.
>
## p. 14374 (#568) ##########################################
14374
TACITUS
has been aptly compared with that between the Dialogus' and the
Annals. '
BIBLIOGRAPHY. - The best editions of the works of Tacitus are,-
for the Dialogus,' Gudeman (Boston, 1894): for the Agricola' and
(Germania, Furneaux (Oxford, 1891, 1896); for the Annals,' the same
editor (Oxford, 1884, 1891); for the Histories,' Spooner (Oxford, 1890).
The best English translation is by Church and Brodribb (London,
1885, 1888).
CAE Berett
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN
From (A Dialogue on Oratory)
W
Ho does not know that eloquence and all other arts have
declined from their ancient glory, not from dearth of
men, but from the indolence of the young, the care-
lessness of parents, the ignorance of teachers, and neglect of the
old discipline? The evils which first began in Rome soon spread
through Italy, and are now diffusing themselves into the prov-
inces. But your provincial affairs are best known to yourselves.
I shall speak of Rome, and of those native and home-bred vices
which take hold of us as soon as we are born, and multiply with
every stage of life, when I have first said a few words on the
strict discipline of our ancestors in the education and training
of children. Every citizen's son, the child of a chaste mother, was
from the beginning reared, not in the chamber of a purchased
nurse, but in that mother's bosom and embrace; and it was her
special glory to study her home and devote herself to her child-
ren. It was usual to select an elderly kinswoman of approved
and esteemed character to have the entire charge of all the child-
ren of the household. In her presence it was the last offense to
utter an unseemly word or to do a disgraceful act. With scru-
pulous piety and modesty she regulated not only the boy's stud-
ies and occupations, but even his recreations and games. Thus it
was, as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, of Cæsar,
of Augustus, - Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia,-directed their children's
education and reared the greatest of sons. The strictness of
## p. 14375 (#569) ##########################################
TACITUS
14375
the discipline tended to form in each case a pure and virtuous
nature, which no vices could warp, and which would at once with
the whole heart seize on every noble lesson. Whatever its bias,
- whether to the soldier's or the lawyer's art, or to the study of
eloquence,- it would make that its sole aim, and imbibe it in its
fullness.
But in our day we intrust the infant to a little Greek servant-
girl, who is attended by one or two- commonly the worst of
all the slaves — creatures utterly unfit for any important work.
Their stories and their prejudices from the very first fill the
child's tender and uninstructed mind. No one in the whole
house cares what he says or does before his infant master. Even
parents themselves familiarize their little ones, not with virtue
and modesty, but with jesting and glib talk; which lead on by
degrees to shamelessness, and to contempt for themselves as well
as for others. Really I think that the characteristic and peculiar
vices of this city-a liking for actors and a passion for gladi-
ators and horses are all-but conceived in the mother's womb.
When these occupy and possess the mind, how little room has it
left for worthy attainments! Few indeed are to be found who
talk of any other subjects in their homes; and whenever we
enter a class-room, what else is the conversation of the youths ?
Even with the teachers, these are the more frequent topics of
talk with their scholars. In fact, they draw pupils, not by strict-
ness of discipline or by giving proof of ability, but by assiduous
court and cunning tricks of flattery.
DOMITIAN'S REIGN OF TERROR
From the Agricola)
W
TE HAVE read that the panegyrics pronounced by Arulenus
Rusticus on Pætus Thrasea, and by Herennius Senecio
on Priscus Helvidius, were made capital crimes; that not
only their persons but their very books were objects of rage, and
that the triumvirs were commissioned to burn in the forum those
works of splendid genius. They fancied, forsooth, that in that
fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the Senate,
and the conscience of the human race were perishing; while at
the same time they banished the teachers of philosophy, and
exiled every noble pursuit, that nothing good might anywhere
confront them. Certainly we showed a magnificent example of
## p. 14376 (#570) ##########################################
14376
TACITUS
SO
patience; as a former age had witnessed the extreme of liberty,
we witnessed the extreme of servitude, when the informer
robbed us of the interchange of speech and hearing. We should
have lost memory as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget
as to keep silence.
Now at last our spirit is returning, And yet, though at the
dawn of a most happy age Nerva Cæsar blended things once
irreconcilable,- sovereignty and freedom; though Nerva Trajan
is now daily augmenting the prosperity of the time, and though
the public safety has not only our hopes and good wishes, but
has also the certain pledge of their fulfillment, — still, from the
necessary condition of human frailty, the remedy works less
quickly than the disease. As our bodies grow but slowly, perish
in a moment, so it is easier to crush than to revive genius and
its pursuits. Besides, the charm of indolence steals over us, and
the idleness which at first we loathed we afterwards love. What
if during those fifteen years,— a large portion of human life, -
many were cut off by ordinary casualties, and the ablest fell
victims to the Emperor's rage, if a few of us survive, - I may
almost say, not only others but our own selves survive, though
there have been taken from the midst of life those many years
which brought the young in dumb silence to old age, and the
old almost to the very verge and end of existence! Yet we
shall not regret that we have told, though in language unskillful
and unadorned, the story of past servitude, and borne our testi-
mony to present happiness. Meanwhile this book, intended to
do honor to Agricola my father-in-law, will, as an expression of
filial regard, be commended, or at least excused.
APOSTROPHE TO AGRICOLA
From the Agricola)
T"
HOU wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splen-
dor of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.
Thou submittedst to thy fate, so they tell us who were
present to hear thy last words, with courage and cheerfulness,
seeming to be doing all thou couldst to give thine Emperor full
acquittal. As for me and thy daughter, besides all the bitter-
ness of a father's loss, it increases our sorrow that it was not
permitted us to watch over thy failing health, to comfort thy
weakness, to satisfy ourselves with those looks, those embraces.
## p. 14377 (#571) ##########################################
TACITUS
14377
Assuredly we should have received some precepts, some utter-
ances, to fix in our inmost hearts. This is the bitterness of our
sorrow, this the smart of our wound: that from the circumstance
of so long an absence thou wast lost to us four years before.
Doubtless, best of fathers, with the most loving wife at thy side,
all the dues of affection were abundantly paid thee; yet with too
few tears thou wast laid to thy rest, and in the light of thy last
day there was something for which thine eyes longed in vain.
If there is any dwelling-place for the spirits of the just; if, as
the wise believe, noble souls do not perish with the body, - rest
thou in peace; and call us, thy family, from weak regrets and
womanish laments to the contemplation of thy virtues, for which
we must not weep nor beat the breast. Let us honor thee not
so much with transitory praises as with our reverence; and if our
powers permit us, with our emulation. That will be true respect,
that the true affection of thy nearest kin. This too is what I
would enjoin on daughter and wife: to honor the memory of that
father, that husband, by pondering in their hearts all his words
and acts, by cherishing the features and lineaments of his charac-
ter rather than those of his person. It is not that I would for-
bid the likenesses which are wrought in marble or in bronze; but
as the faces of men, so all similitudes of the face are weak and
perishable things, while the fashion of the soul is everlasting,
such as may be expressed not in some foreign substance, or by
the help of art, but in our own lives. Whatever we loved, what-
ever we admired in Agricola, survives, and will survive in the
hearts of men, in the succession of the ages, in the fame that
waits on noble deeds. Over many, indeed, of those who have
gone before, as over the inglorious and ignoble, the waves of
oblivion will roll: Agricola, made known to posterity by history
and tradition, will live for ever.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GERMANS
From the (Germania)
GOVERNMENT.
INFLUENCE OF WOMEN
TH
HEY choose their kings by birth, their generals for merit.
These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the
generals do more by example than by authority. If they are
energetic, if they are conspicuous, if they fight in the front, they
## p. 14378 (#572) ##########################################
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TACITUS
lead because they are admired. But to reprimand, to imprison,
even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone; and that not as
a punishment, or at the general's bidding, but as it were, by the
mandate of the god whom they believe to inspire the warrior.
They also carry with them into battle certain figures and images
taken from their sacred groves. And what most stimulates their
courage is that their squadrons or battalions, instead of being
formed by chance or by a fortuitous gathering, are composed of
families and clans. Close by them too are those dearest to them,
so that they hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants.
They are to every man the most sacred witnesses of his brav-
ery -- they are his most generous applauders. The soldier brings
his wounds to mother and wife, who shrink not from counting
or even demanding them, and who administer both food and
encouragement to the combatant.
Tradition says that armies already wavering and giving way
have been rallied by women, who, with earnest entreaties and
bosoms laid bare, have vividly represented the horrors of cap-
tivity; which the Germans fear with such extreme dread on
behalf of their women, that the strongest tie by which a State
can be bound is the being required to give, among the number
of hostages, maidens of noble birth. They even believe that the
sex has a certain sanctity and prescience; and they do not
despise their counsels, or make light of their answers. In Vespa-
sian's days we saw Veleda, long regarded by many as a divin-
ity. In former times too they venerated Aurinia, and many other
women; but not with servile flatteries or with sham deification.
DEITIES
Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship; and on
certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with
human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more law-
ful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the
occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered noth-
ing but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley,
indicates an imported worship. The Germans, however, do not
consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to
confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of
any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves;
and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which
they see only in spiritual worship.
## p. 14379 (#573) ##########################################
TACITUS
14379
AUGURIES AND METHOD OF DIVINATION
Augury and divination by lot no people practice more dili-
gently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is lopped
off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are
distinguished by certain marks, and thrown carelessly and at
random over a white garment. In public questions the priest of
the particular State, in private the father of the family, invokes
the gods; and with his eyes towards heaven, takes up each piece
three times, and finds in them a meaning according to the mark
previously impressed on them. If they prove unfavorable, there
is no further consultation that day about the matter; if they
sanction it, the confirmation of augury is still required. For they
are also familiar with the practice of consulting the notes and
the flight of birds. It is peculiar to this people to seek omens
and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these
same woods and groves are white horses, pure from the taint of
earthly labor; these are yoked to a sacred car, and accompanied
by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their
neighings and snortings. No species of augury is more trusted,
not only by the people and by the nobility, but also by the
priests; who regard themselves as the ministers of the gods, and
the horses as acquainted with their will. They have also another
method of observing auspices, by which they seek to learn the
result of an important war. Having taken, by whatever means,
a prisoner from the tribe with whom they are at war, they pit
him against a picked man of their own tribe, each combatant
using the weapons of their country. The victory of the one
or the other is accepted as an indication of the issue.
COUNCILS
A BOUT minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more
important the whole tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests
with the people, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the
chiefs. They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency,
on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they
consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of busi-
ness. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by
nights; and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal
appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day. Their
## p. 14380 (#574) ##########################################
14380
TACITUS
freedom has this disadvantage,- that they do not meet simulta-
neously or as they are bidden, but two or three days are wasted
in the delays of assembling. When the multitude think proper,
they sit down armed. Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who
have on these occasions the right of keeping order. Then the
king or the chief — according to age, birth, distinction in war, or
eloquence - is heard, more because he has influence to persuade
than because he has power to command. If his sentiments dis-
please them, they reject them with murmurs; if they are satis-
fied, they brandish their spears. The most complimentary form
of assent is to express approbation with their weapons.
PUNISHMENTS.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
IN THEIR councils an accusation may be preferred, or a capital
crime prosecuted. Penalties are distinguished according to the
offense. Traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; the coward,
the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices, is plunged
into the mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him. This
distinction in punishment means that crime, they think, ought in
being punished to be exposed, while infamy ought to be buried
out of sight. Lighter offenses, too, have penalties proportioned to
them: he who is convicted is fined in a certain number of horses
or of cattle. Half of the fine is paid to the king or to the State,
half to the person whose wrongs are avenged and to his relatives.
In these same councils they also elect the chief magistrates, who
administer law in the cantons and the towns. Each of these has
a hundred associates chosen from the people, who support him
with their advice and influence.
TRAINING OF THE YOUTH
They transact no public or private business without being
armed. It is not, however, usual for any one to wear arms till
the State has recognized his power to use them. Then in the
presence of the council one of the chiefs, or the young man's
father, or some kinsman, equips him with a shield and a spear.
These arms are what the “toga > is with us, – the first honor
with which youth is invested. Up to this time he is regarded
a member of a household, afterwards as a member of the
commonwealth. Very noble birth or great services rendered by
as
## p. 14381 (#575) ##########################################
TACITUS
14381
the father secure for lads the rank of a chief; such lads attach
themselves to men of mature strength and of long-approved
valor. It is no shame to be seen among a chief's followers.
Even in his escort there are gradations of rank, dependent on
the choice of the man to whom they are attached. These fol-
lowers vie keenly with each other as to who shall rank first with
his chief; the chiefs as to who shall have the most numerous
and the bravest followers. It is an honor as well as a source of
strength to be thus always surrounded by a large body of picked
youths: it is an ornament in peace and a defense in war. And
not only in his own tribe but also in the neighboring States it
is the renown and glory of a chief to be distinguished for the
number and valor of his followers; for such a man is courted by
embassies, is honored with presents, and the very prestige of his
name often settles a war.
WARLIKE ARDOR OF THE PEOPLE
WHEN they go into battle, it is a disgrace for the chief to
be surpassed in valor, a disgrace for his followers not to equal
the valor of the chief. And it is an infamy and a reproach for
life to have survived the chief, and returned from the field. To
defend, to protect him, to ascribe one's own brave deeds to his
renown, is the height of loyalty. The chief fights for victory;
his vassals fight for their chief. If their native State sinks into
the sloth of prolonged peace and repose, many of its noble youths
voluntarily seek those tribes which are waging some war: both
because inaction is odious to their race, and because they win
renown more readily in the midst of peril, and cannot maintain
a numerous following except by violence and war. Indeed, men
look to the liberality of their chief for their war-horse and their
blood-stained and victorious lance. Feasts and entertainments -
which, though inelegant, are plentifully furnished — are their only
pay. The means of this bounty come rom war and rapine.
Nor are they as easily persuaded to plow the earth and to wait
for the year's produce, as to challenge an enemy and earn the
honor of wounds. Nay, they actually think it tame and stupid
to acquire by the sweat of toil what they might win by their
blood.
## p. 14382 (#576) ##########################################
14382
TACITUS
HABITS IN TIME OF PEACE
WHENEVER they are not fighting, they pass much of their
time in the chase, and still more in idleness, giving themselves
up to sleep and to feasting; the bravest and the most warlike
doing nothing, and surrendering the management of the house-
hold, of the home, and of the land, to the women, the old men,
and all the weakest members of the family. They themselves lie
buried in sloth: a strange combination in their nature, that the
same men should be so fond of idleness, so averse to peace. It
is the custom of the States to bestow by voluntary and individual
contribution on the chiefs a present of cattle or of grain, which,
while accepted as a compliment, supplies their wants. They are
particularly delighted by gifts from neighboring tribes; which
are sent not only by individuals but also by the State, such as
choice steeds, heavy armor, trappings, and neck-chains. We have
now taught them to accept money also.
ARRANGEMENT OF THEIR TOWNS.
SUBTERRANEAN DWELLINGS
It is well known that the nations of Germany have no cities,
and that they do not even tolerate closely contiguous dwellings.
They live scattered and apart, just as a spring, a meadow, or a
wood has attracted them. Their villages they do not arrange in
our fashion, - with the buildings connected and joined together,
— but every person surrounds his dwelling with an open space,
either as a precaution against the disasters of fire, or because
they do not know how to build. No use is made by them of
stone or tile: they employ timber for all purposes, rude masses
without ornament or attractiveness. Some parts of their build-
ings they stain more carefully, with a clay so clear and bright
that it resembles painting, or a colored design. They are wont
also to dig out subterranean caves, and pile on them great heaps
of dung, as a shelter from winter, and as a receptacle for the
year's produce; for by such places they mitigate the rigor of the
cold. And should an enemy approach, he lays waste the open
country, while what is hidden and buried is either not known
to exist, or else escapes him from the very fact that it has to be
searched for.
## p. 14383 (#577) ##########################################
TACITUS
14383
MARRIAGE LAWS
Their marriage code is strict, and indeed no part of their
manners is more praiseworthy. Almost alone among barbarians
they are content with one wife; except a very few among them,
and these not from sensuality, but because their noble birth pro-
cures for them many offers of alliance. The wife does not bring
a dower to the husband, but the husband to the wife. The
parents and relatives are present, and pass judgment on the mar-
riage gifts, gifts not meant to suit a woman's taste, nor such as
a bride would deck herself with, but oxen, a caparisoned steed,
a shield, a lance, and a sword. With these presents the wife is
espoused, and she herself in her turn brings her husband a gift
of arms.
This they count their strongest bond of union, these
their sacred mysteries, these their gods of marriage. Lest the
woman should think herself to stand apart from aspirations after
noble deeds and from the perils of war, she is reminded by the
ceremony which inaugurates marriage that she is her husband's
partner in toil and danger, destined to suffer and to dare with
him alike both in peace and in war. The yoked oxen, the har-
nessed steed, the gift of arms, proclaim this fact. She must live
,
and die with the feeling that she is receiving what she must
hand down to her children neither tarnished nor depreciated,
what future daughters-in-law may receive, and may be so passed
on to her grandchildren.
Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrupted by the
allurements of public shows or the stimulant of feastings. Clan-
destine correspondence is equally unknown to men and women.
The loss of chastity meets with no indulgence: neither
beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the culprit a husband.
No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fash-
ion to corrupt or to be corrupted. Still better is the condition
of those States in which only maidens are given in marriage, and
where the hopes and expectations of a bride are then finally ter-
minated. They receive one husband, as having one body and
one life, that they may have no thoughts beyond, no further.
reaching desires, that they may love not so much the husband
as the married state. To limit the number of their children or
to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infa-
mous; and good habits are here more effectual than good laws
elsewhere.
## p. 14384 (#578) ##########################################
14384
TACITUS
SCENE OF THE DEFEAT OF VARUS
From the (Annals. ) Translation of Church and Brodribb
N°
ot far hence lay the forest of Teutoburgium; and in it the
bones of Varus and the legions, by report still unburied.
Germanicus upon this was seized with an eager longing
to pay the last honor to those soldiers and their general; while
the whole army present was moved to compassion by the thought
of their kinsfolk and friends, and indeed, of the calamities of wars
and the lot of mankind. Having sent on Cacina in advance to
reconnoitre the obscure forest passes, and to raise bridges and
causeways over watery swamps and treacherous plains, they visited
the mournful scenes, with their horrible sights and associations.
Varus's first camp, with its wide circumference and the measure-
ments of its central space, clearly indicated the handiwork of
three legions. Further on, the partially fallen rampart and the
shallow fosse suggested the inference that it was a shattered
remnant of the army which had there taken up a position. In
the centre of the field were the whitening bones of men, as they
had fled or stood their ground, strewn everywhere or piled in
heaps. Near, lay fragments of weapons and limbs of horses, and
also human heads, prominently nailed to trunks of trees. In
the adjacent groves were the barbarous altars on which they had
immolated tribunes and first-rank centurions. Some survivors of
the disaster who had escaped from the battle or from captivity,
described how this was the spot where the officers fell, how yon-
der the eagles were captured, where Varus was pierced by his
first wound, where too by the stroke of his own ill-starred hand
he found for himself death. They pointed out too the raised
ground from which Arminius had harangued his army, the num-
ber of gibbets for the captives, the pits for the living, and how
in his exultation he had insulted the standards and eagles.
SERVILITY OF THE SENATE
From the (Annals)
S
, part of
A dishonor fell on the extreme Frontiers of the empire. Fear
at home had filled their hearts; and for this they sought
relief in sveophancy. And so, although their advice was asked
## p. 14385 (#579) ##########################################
TACITUS
14385
on totally different subjects, they decreed an altar to Clemency;
an altar to Friendship; and statues round them to Cæsar and
Sejanus, both of whom they earnestly begged with repeated en-
treaties to allow themselves to be seen in public. Still, neither
of them would visit Rome or even the neighborhood of Rome:
they thought it enough to quit the island and show themselves
on the opposite shores of Campania. Senators, knights, a number
of the city populace, flocked thither, anxiously looking to Seja-
nus; approach to whom was particularly difficult, and was con-
sequently sought by intrigue and by complicity in his counsels.
It was sufficiently clear that his arrogance was increased by
gazing on this foul and openly displayed servility. At Rome
indeed hurrying crowds are a familiar sight, and from the extent
of the city no one knows on what business each citizen is bent:
but there, as they lounged in promiscuous crowds in the fields
or on the shore, they had to bear day and night alike the pat-
ronizing smiles and the supercilious insolence of hall-porters, till
even this was forbidden them; and those whom Sejanus had not
deigned to accost or to look on, returned to the capital in alarm,
while some felt an evil joy, though there hung over them the
dreadful doom of that ill-starred friendship.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF TIBERIUS
Fr
the (Annals )
O
N THE 15th of March, his breath failing, he was believed to
have expired; and Caius Cæsar was going forth with a
numerous throng of congratulating followers to take the
first possession of the empire, when suddenly news came that
Tiberius was recovering his voice and sight, and calling for per-
sons to bring him food to revive him from his faintness. Then
ensued a universal panic; and while the rest fled hither and
thither, every one feigning grief or ignorance, Caius Cæsar, in
silent stupor, passed from the highest hopes to the extremity of
apprehension. Marco, nothing daunted, ordered the old emperor
to be smothered under a huge heap of clothes; and all to quit
the entrance-hall.
And so died Tiberius in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
Nero was his father, and he was on both sides descended from
the Claudian house; though his mother passed by adoption, first
XXIV-900
## p. 14386 (#580) ##########################################
14386
TACITUS
into the Livian, then into the Julian family. From earliest
infancy, perilous vicissitudes were his lot. Himself an exile, he
was the companion of a proscribed father; and on being admitted
as a stepson into the house of Augustus, he had to struggle
with many rivals, so long as Marcellus and Agrippa, and subse-
quently Caius and Lucius Cæsar, were in their glory. Again, his
brother Drusus enjoyed in a greater degree the affection of the
citizens. But he was more than ever on dangerous ground after
his marriage with Julia, whether he tolerated or escaped from
his wife's profligacy. On his return from Rhodes he ruled the
emperor's now heirless house for twelve years; and the Roman
world, with absolute sway, for about twenty-three. His charac-
ter too had its distinct periods. It was a bright time in his life
and reputation while under Augustus he was a private citizen
or held high offices; a time of reserve and crafty assumption of
virtue, as long as Germanicus and Drusus were alive. Again,
while his mother lived, he was a compound of good and evil; he
was infamous for his cruelty, though he veiled his debaucheries,
while he loved or feared Sejanus. Finally he plunged into every
wickedness and disgrace, when, fear and shame being cast off, he
simply indulged his own inclinations.
THE GREAT FIRE AT ROME, AND NERO'S ACCUSATION OF
THE CHRISTIANS
From the (Annals)
A
DISASTER followed — whether accidental or treacherously con-
trived by the emperor is uncertain, as authors have given
both accounts; worse, however, and more dreadful than
any which have ever happened to this city by the violence of
fire. It had its beginning in that part of the Circus which ad-
joins the Palatine and Cælian hills, where amid the shops con-
taining inflammable wares, the conflagration both broke out, and
instantly became so fierce and so rapid from the wind that it
seized in its grasp the entire length of the Circus. For here
there were no houses fenced in by solid masonry, or temples sur-
rounded by walls, or any other obstacle to interpose delay. The
blaze in its fury ran first through the level portions of the city,
then rising to the hills, while it again devastated every place
below them; it outstripped all preventive measures, so rapid was
## p. 14387 (#581) ##########################################
TACITUS
14387
And no
the mischief and so completely at its mercy the city, with those
narrow winding passages and irregular streets which character-
ized old Rome. Added to this were the wailings of terror-
stricken women, the feebleness of age, the helpless inexperience
of childhood; the crowds who sought to save themselves or
others, dragging out the infirm or waiting for them, and by their
hurry in the one case, by their delay in the other, aggravating
the confusion. Often while they looked behind them, they were
.
intercepted by flames on their side or in their face. Or if they
reached a refuge close at hand, when this too was seized by the
fire they found that even places which they had imagined to be
remote were involved in the same calamity. At last, doubting
what they should avoid or whither to betake themselves, they
crowded the streets or flung themselves down in the fields; while
some who had lost their all, even their very daily bread, and
others out of love for the kinsfolk whom they had been unable
to rescue, perished, though escape was open to them.
one dared to stop the mischief, because of incessant menaces
from a number of persons who forbade the extinguishing of the
flames; or because again others openly hurled brands, and kept
shouting that there was one who gave them authority,-- either
seeking to plunder more freely, or obeying orders.
Nero at this time was at Antium, and did not return to Rome
until the fire approached his house, which he had built to con-
nect the palace with the gardens of Mæcenas, It could not
however be stopped from devouring the palace, the house, and
everything around it. However, to relieve the people, driven out
homeless as they were, he threw open to them the Campus
Martius and the public buildings of Agrippa, and even his own
gardens; and raised temporary structures to receive the destitute
multitude. Supplies of food were brought up from Ostia and
the neighboring towns, and the price of corn was reduced to
three sesterces a peck. These acts, though popular, produced
no effect; since a rumor had gone forth everywhere that, at the
very time when the city was in flames, the Emperor appeared on
a private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy, comparing
present misfortunes with the calamities of antiquity.
Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The
next thing was to seek a means of propitiating the gods; and
recourse was had to the Sibylline Books, by the direction of
which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina.
## p. 14388 (#582) ##########################################
14388
TACITUS
Juno too was entreated by the matrons; first in the Capitol, then
on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to
sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were
sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women.
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the Emperor, and
the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief
that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently,
to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the
most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations,
called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the
name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the
reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius
Pilatus; and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for
the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source
of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and
shameful from every part of the world find their centre and
become popular. Accordingly an arrest was first made of all
who pleaded guilty; then upon their information, an immense
multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing
the city as of hatred against mankind.
women, and boys — sorting them by millions, drying and sifting
them upon the open spaces of the wood, and packing them in
sacks to send abroad through Italy. The pinocchi, or kernels, of
the stone-pine are largely used in cookery, and those of Ravenna
are prized for their good quality and aromatic flavor. When
roasted or pounded, they taste like a softer and more mealy kind
:
## p. 14364 (#558) ##########################################
14364
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
of almonds. The task of gathering this harvest is not a little
dangerous. They have to cut notches in the straight shafts, and
having climbed often to the height of eighty feet, to lean upon
the branches and detach the fir cones with a pole — and this for
every tree. Some lives, they say, are yearly lost in the business.
As may be imagined, the spaces of this great forest form
the haunt of innumerable living creatures. Lizards run about by
myriads in the grass. Doves coo among the branches of the
pines, and nightingales pour their full-throated music all day and
night from thickets of white-thorn and acacia. The air is sweet
with aromatic scents: the resin of the pine and juniper, the may-
flowers and acacia blossoms, the violets that spring by thousands
in the moss, the wild roses and faint honeysuckles which throw
fragrant arms from bough to bough of ash or maple, join to
make one most delicious perfume. And though the air upon the
neighboring marsh is poisonous, here it is dry, and spreads a
genial health. The sea wind murmuring through these thickets
at nightfall or misty sunrise conveys no fever to the peasants
stretched among their flowers. They watch the red rays of
sunset flaming through the columns of the leafy hall, and flaring
on its fretted rafters of entangled boughs; they see the stars
come out, and Hesper gleam, an eye of brightness, among dewy
branches; the moon walks silver-footed on the velvet tree-tops,
while they sleep beside the camp fires; fresh morning wakes them
to the sound of birds and scent of thyme and twinkling of dew-
drops on the grass around. Meanwhile ague, fever, and death
have been stalking all night long about the plain, within a few
yards of their couch, and not one pestilential breath has reached
the charmed precincts of the forest.
You may ride or drive for miles along green aisles between
the pines in perfect solitude; and yet the creatures of the wood,
the sunlight and the birds, the flowers and tall majestic columns
at your side, prevent all sense of loneliness or fear.
Huge oxen
haunt the wilderness - gray creatures, with mild eyes and spread-
ing horns and stealthy tread. Some are patriarchs of the forest,
.
the fathers and the mothers of many generations who have
been carried from their sides to serve in plows or wagons on
the Lombard plain. Others are yearling calves, intractable and
ignorant of labor. In order to subdue them to the yoke, it is
requisite to take them very early from their native glades, or else
they chafe and pine away with weariness. Then there is a sullen
## p. 14365 (#559) ##########################################
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
14365
canal, which flows through the forest from the marshes to the
sea; it is alive with frogs and newts and snakes.
You may see
these serpents basking on the surface among thickets of the
flowering rush, or coiled about the lily leaves and flowers, - lithe
monsters, slippery and speckled, the tyrants of the fen.
It is said that when Dante was living at Ravenna he would
spend whole days alone among the forest glades, thinking of
Florence and her civil wars, and meditating cantos of his poem.
Nor have the influences of the pine wood failed to leave their
trace upon his verse.
VENICE
V ,
"
TENICE, thou Siren of sea cities, wrought
By mirage, built on water, stair o'er stair,
Of sunbeams and cloud shadows, phantom-fair,
With naught of earth to mar thy sea-born thought!
Thou floating film upon the wonder-fraught
Ocean of dreams! Thou hast no dream so rare
As are thy sons and daughters,— they who wear
Foam flakes of charm from thine enchantment caught.
O dark-brown eyes! O tangles of dark hair!
O heaven-blue eyes, blonde tresses where the breeze
Plays over sunburned cheeks in sea-blown air!
Firm limbs of molded bronze! frank debonair
Smiles of deep-bosomed women! Loves that seize
Man's soul, and waft her on storm melodies !
THE NIGHTINGALE
1
WENT a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Hard task it were to tell how dewy-still
Were flowers and ferns and foliage in the rays
Of Hesper, white amid the daffodil
Of twilight flecked with faintest chrysoprase;
And all the while, embowered in leafy bays,
The bird prolonged her sharp soul-thrilling tone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
## p. 14366 (#560) ##########################################
14366
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
But as I stood and listened, on the air
Arose another voice, more clear and keen,
That startled silence with a sweet despair,
And stilled the bird beneath her leafy screen:
The star of Love, those lattice boughs between,
Grew large and leaned to listen from his zone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
The voice, methought, was neither man's nor boy's,
Nor bird's nor woman's, but all these in one:
In Paradise perchance such perfect noise
Resounds from angel choirs in unison,
Chanting with cherubim their antiphon
To Christ and Mary on the sapphire throne.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Then down the forest aisles there came a boy,
Unearthly pale, with passion in his eyes;
Who sang a song whereof the sound was joy,
But all the burden was of love that dies
And death that lives,- a song of sobs and sighs,
A wild swan's note of Death and Love in one.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
Love burned within his luminous eyes, and Death
Had made his fluting voice so keen and high,
The wild wood trembled as he passed beneath,
With throbbing throat singing, Love-led, to die;
Then all was hushed, till in the thicket nigh
The bird resumed her sharp soul-thrilling tone.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
But in my heart and in my brain the cry,
The wail, the dirge, the dirge of Death and Love,
Still throbs and throbs, flute-like, and will not die,
Piercing and clear the night-bird's tune above,-
The aching, anguished wild swan's note, whereof
The sweet sad flower of song was overblown.
I went a-roaming through the woods alone,
And heard the nightingale that made her moan.
## p. 14367 (#561) ##########################################
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
14367
FAREWELL
I
Tis buried and done with,
The love that we knew :
Those cobwebs we spun with
Are beaded with dew.
I loved thee; I leave thee:
To love thee was pain;
I dare not believe thee,
To love thee again.
Like spectres unshriven
Are the years that I lost;
To thee they were given
Without count of cost.
I cannot revive them
By penance or prayer:
Hell's tempest must drive them
Through turbulent air.
Farewell, and forget me;
For I too am free
From the shame that beset me,
The sorrow of thee.
THE FEET OF THE BELOVED
F
EAR not to tread,- it is not much
To bless the meadow with your touch:
Nay, walk unshod; for as you pass,
The dust will take your feet like grass.
Oh dearest melodies, oh beat
Of musically moving feet!
Stars that have fallen from the sky
To sparkle where you let them lie;
Blossoms, a new and heavenly birth,
Rocked on the nourishing breast of earth;
Dews that on leaf and petal Aling
Multitudinous quivering;
Winged loves with light and laughter crowned;
Kind kisses pressed upon the ground!
## p. 14368 (#562) ##########################################
14368
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
EYEBRIGHT
A®
SA star from the sea new risen,
As the waft of an angel's wing,
As a lark's song heard in prison,
As the promise of summer in spring,
She came to me through the stillness,
The shadows that ring me round,
The dungeon of years and illness
Wherein my spirit is bound.
She came with her eyes love-laden,
Her laughter of lily and rose,
A fragile and flower-like maiden,
In the season of frosts and snows.
She smiled, and the shades departed;
She shone, and the snows were rain:
And he who was frozen-hearted
Bloomed up into love again.
## p. 14369 (#563) ##########################################
14369
TACITUS
(55 ? -? )
BY CHARLES E. BENNETT
UBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS (the prænomen Publius, long a mat.
ter of dispute, is now definitely assured) was born about 55
Suur A. D. The place of his birth is quite uncertain: by some
scholars this honor has been assigned to the Umbrian town Inter-
amna, by others to Rome; but neither of these views rests upon any
adequate foundation. Of the details of his
life we are but scantily informed. In his
Dialogus de Oratoribus' he tells us that
when a youth he attached himself to Mar-
cus Aper and Julius Secundus, the foren-
sic leaders of his day. Whether he also
enjoyed the instruction of Quintilian, the
famous rhetorician, is a matter of doubt.
In the year 78 he married the daughter of
Agricola, governor of Britain. Subsequently
he filled the offices of quæstor under Titus,
of prætor under Domitian, and of consul
(year 97) under Nerva. From the year 100
on, he appears to have held no public trust,
Tacitus
but to have devoted himself exclusively to
his literary labors. His death probably occurred shortly after the
publication of the Annals(115-117 A. D. ).
WORKS
1. The Dialogus de Oratoribus. Tacitus's earliest work was prob-
ably published about 81 A. D. , and gives an account of a discussion
at which the writer represents himself as having been present some
seven years previously. The chief disputants are Aper and Messalla;
the theme is the quality of contemporary eloquence. Aper maintains
that the new oratory really marks a great advance upon that of pre-
ceding epochs: it is brilliant and attractive, where the earlier oratory
was dull and tedious. An audience of to-day, Aper declares, would
not tolerate such speakers. Even Cicero, with all his fame, was not
free from the faults of his day; and was worthy of admiration only
in his later speeches.
XXIV–899
## p. 14370 (#564) ##########################################
TACITUS
14370
In reply to Aper, Messalla vigorously defends the oratory of the
Ciceronian era, and arraigns contemporary eloquence as disfigured by
meretricious embellishment. To Messalla's mind the prime cause of
this decadence is neglect in the training of the young. Formerly the
mother personally superintended the education of her children; now
these are given over to irresponsible slaves and nurses. Again, in
the earlier days, a young man preparing himself for the profession
of oratory was wont to attach himself to some eminent advocate or
jurist; and so to acquire the mastery of his art by practical experi-
ence. To-day, Messalla complains, it is the fashion merely to declaim
artificial show-pieces in the schools.
Secundus and Maternus, who share in the discussion, urge also
changed political conditions as another important reason for the
decline of eloquence. Under the republic there had been an active
political life and keen strife of parties; under the empire the for-
tunes of the State were directed by a single head. What wonder
then that eloquence had declined, when the causes that created it
were no longer in existence!
In its fine dramatic setting, its profound grasp of the moving
causes in Roman civilization, and in its elevated diction, the Dia-
logus) is a consummate literary masterpiece; Wolf well recognized
its merits and its charm when he characterized it as an aureus libellus
(golden little book).
2. The Agricola, Between the publication of the Dialogus) and
of the Agricola' seventeen years intervened. Of this period fifteen
years were occupied by the reign of Domitian, under whom freedom
of speech had been rigorously suppressed. The accession of Nerva,
however, in 96 A. D. , followed by that of Trajan at the beginning of
98, was the augury of a new era; and encouraged Tacitus to publish
his Life of Agricola' in the latter year. Agricola, Tacitus's father-
in-law, had died in 93; and it is quite possible that Tacitus's account
of his life was written in the months immediately following that
event, and then withheld from publication until the dawn of a more
auspicious period. How keenly Tacitus had felt the intellectual and
moral servitude enforced upon his countrymen by Domitian's rule
is made clear by a passage of remarkable power contained in the
preface to this work (here quoted).
The best years of Agricola's life had been spent in the service of
his country, and for the most part in the field. His most conspicu-
were achieved in Britain. He had been appointed
governor of that province in 78, and remained there seven years. In
the course of his administration he had not only reduced the entire
island to subjection, as far north as the highlands of Scotland, but
had also established the Roman civilization among the Britons. All
these achievements are pictured in glowing colors and with signal
ous
successes
## p. 14371 (#565) ##########################################
TACITUS
14371
-
affection by the writer. Tacitus's apostrophe to his departed father-
in-law (here quoted), is a lofty and impressive illustration of the
writer's genius.
3. The (Germania. ' This was published in 98 A. D. , the same
year as the Agricola. ' It is a brief treatise on the geography, peo-
ples, and institutions of the Germans. The larger portion of the
work — and by far the most interesting — is devoted to a considera-
tion of those customs and institutions which are common to the Ger-
mans as a whole; such as their political organization, their military
system, the courts, religion, dwellings, clothing, marriage, amuse-
ments, slavery, and industrial occupations. The remainder of the
work treats of the location of the separate tribes, and of the institu-
tions peculiar to each.
The purpose of the 'Germania' has been differently conceived by
different critics. Some have thought that Tacitus's object was, by
holding before his countrymen a picture of the Germans, to mark the
contrast between the two civilizations, German and Roman, and to
commend the rugged simplicity of the one as opposed to the degen-
eracy of the other. Others have regarded the treatise as a political
pamphlet, written in support of Trajan, and intended to justify the
attention which that prince was then bestowing upon the problems
presented by the tribes of the North. Yet others have thought that
the work was prepared as an introduction to the extensive historical
writings which Tacitus had already projected.
But there are serious objections to each of these views; more-
over, it seems improbable that the Germania) was written with any
« tendency” or purpose beyond the natural and obvious one of ac-
quainting its readers with accurate details of German geography and
institutions. The German people had long been known to the Romans,
and for a century and a half had furnished a more or less constant
opposition to the Roman arms. Nor was the subject new: Cæsar,
Livy, Pliny, and others, had given detailed accounts of this interesting
and important race. That Tacitus, therefore, should have undertaken
a fresh presentation of their situation and customs, seems perfectly
natural, without resort to the theory of a special extraneous motive.
Whatever its original purpose, the “Germania) must be recognized as
a mine of authentic information concerning the ancient Germans, and
as a source of the first importance for all modern study of Germanic
institutions.
4. The Histories. ' In the preface to the Agricola,' Tacitus had
already announced his purpose of writing the history of the reigns
of Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. Later, this plan was modified. The
new project embraced the history of the imperial period from the
death of Augustus to the death of Domitian,- a space of eighty-two
## p. 14372 (#566) ##########################################
14372
TACITUS
us.
years. This period naturally fell into two eras: the former that of
the Julian-Claudian dynasties (from the accession of Tiberius to the
death of Nero), the latter that of the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian to
Domitian), including the transition period of turmoil during the brief
reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. It was the latter of these two
eras that Tacitus treated first, giving to the work the title His-
toriæ. ) The events he describes had all occurred within his own
memory, and many within the range of his own observation and
experience. The entire work consisted probably of twelve books,
published at intervals between 104 and 109 A. D. Of these twelve
books only the first four, and half of the fifth, have come down to
The preserved portions begin with the accession of Galba, and
carry the history only to the beginning of the reign of Vespasian.
A vivid picture is given in this narrative of the stormy events of the
years 68 and 69; including the murder of Galba, the defeat and sui-
cide of Otho, the overthrow of Vitellius, the accession of Vespasian,
along with the formidable insurrection of the Batavians under Civilis.
But the descriptions are almost exclusively military. There is less
of the fine psychological analysis which appears later as a striking
characteristic of the Annals. ' Doubtless this feature inay have been
more prominent in the lost books of the Histories) (6-12), which
covered the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. One of the
most interesting portions of the extant books is the account of the
Jews, given at the beginning of Book v. The description of the siege
and capture of Jerusalem by Titus is unfortunately lost.
5. The Annals. ' The second part of Tacitus's programme em-
braced a history of the earlier period, from the accession of Tiberius
to the death of Nero (14-68 A. D. ). The exact title of this work was
(Ab Excessu Divi Augusti’ (From the Decease of the Divine Augus-
tus); but owing to the treatment of events year by year, Tacitus him-
self alludes to his work as (Annals,' and this designation has become
the current one. The Annals, like the Histories,' was probably
published in installments, about 115-117 A. D. The entire work in all
likelihood consisted of eighteen books. These eighteen seem to have
been devoted, in groups of six, to three epochs: the first six to the
reign of Tiberius; the next six to the reigns of Caligula and Claudius;
the concluding six to the reign of Nero. Large portions of the work
have been lost. Books 7-10, along with 17 and 18, have disappeared
completely; while extensive gaps occur in several of the others. The
portions which we still have, deal with the reign of Tiberius, the con-
cluding years of the reign of Claudius, and the reign of Nero down
to 66 A. D. The account of Caligula is entirely lost.
The (Annals' is universally regarded as Tacitus's ripest and great-
est work. While nominally a history of the times, it is in reality a
## p. 14373 (#567) ##########################################
TACITUS
14373
series of masterly character sketches of figures of commanding inter-
est and importance: the emperors, their advisers, their opponents, the
members of the imperial family.
In his psychological analyses, Tacitus can hardly be regarded as
free from prejudice and partisanship; in the case of most of the
emperors and their consorts, he sees no good trait, recognizes no
worthy motive. On the other hand, he is at times guilty of undue
idealization; as in the case of Germanicus, who, though popular with
the soldiers and the people, seems to have been deficient both in
force of character and in military genius.
Tacitus's pictures, however, while overdrawn, give us in the main
an accurate view of the imperial court: they exhibit the tyranny,
cruelty, and wantonness of successive sovereigns, the servility of the
courtiers, the degradation of the Senate, and the general demoraliza-
tion of the aristocracy, in colors as powerful as they are sombre. It
is greatly to be regretted that none of the ameliorating influences
and tendencies of the imperial régime receive recognition at Tacitus's
hands. The contemporary social, industrial, and commercial prosper-
ity are completely ignored: it is the dark side only that is revealed
in his pages.
Tacitus's STYLE. — The artistic form in which Tacitus clothed the
products of his genius is not only unique in itself, but also exhibits
a striking development from his earliest work to his latest. In the
Dialogus) he is manifestly under the influence of Cicero. The
'Agricola' and 'Germania,' published seventeen years later, show an
almost complete emancipation from this early model. The strong
individuality of the writer now reveals itself in greater condensation,
in frequent boldness of word and phrase, and in sombre earnestness
of thought; Sallust's influence is particularly noticeable at this stage.
In the Histories and in the ‘Annals) we note the fullest culmina-
tion of Tacitus's stylistic development. What in the Agricola' and
(Germania' was a tendency, has become in the Histories,' and espe-
cially in the Annals,' a pervading characteristic. Short incisive
sentences follow each other in quick succession: a single phrase or
a single word is often as pregnant with meaning as a paragraph in
another writer; poetic expressions abound (Virgil's influence being
particularly noticeable); while a lofty moral earnestness dominates
the whole.
This striking contrast of style between Tacitus's earliest and lat-
est work is unparalleled in Roman literature; and for a long time
tended to cast doubt on the authenticity of the Dialogus. It is not,
however, without a parallel in other literatures; and the difference
between Carlyle's Life of Schiller) and his Frederick the Great'
)
.
>
## p. 14374 (#568) ##########################################
14374
TACITUS
has been aptly compared with that between the Dialogus' and the
Annals. '
BIBLIOGRAPHY. - The best editions of the works of Tacitus are,-
for the Dialogus,' Gudeman (Boston, 1894): for the Agricola' and
(Germania, Furneaux (Oxford, 1891, 1896); for the Annals,' the same
editor (Oxford, 1884, 1891); for the Histories,' Spooner (Oxford, 1890).
The best English translation is by Church and Brodribb (London,
1885, 1888).
CAE Berett
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN
From (A Dialogue on Oratory)
W
Ho does not know that eloquence and all other arts have
declined from their ancient glory, not from dearth of
men, but from the indolence of the young, the care-
lessness of parents, the ignorance of teachers, and neglect of the
old discipline? The evils which first began in Rome soon spread
through Italy, and are now diffusing themselves into the prov-
inces. But your provincial affairs are best known to yourselves.
I shall speak of Rome, and of those native and home-bred vices
which take hold of us as soon as we are born, and multiply with
every stage of life, when I have first said a few words on the
strict discipline of our ancestors in the education and training
of children. Every citizen's son, the child of a chaste mother, was
from the beginning reared, not in the chamber of a purchased
nurse, but in that mother's bosom and embrace; and it was her
special glory to study her home and devote herself to her child-
ren. It was usual to select an elderly kinswoman of approved
and esteemed character to have the entire charge of all the child-
ren of the household. In her presence it was the last offense to
utter an unseemly word or to do a disgraceful act. With scru-
pulous piety and modesty she regulated not only the boy's stud-
ies and occupations, but even his recreations and games. Thus it
was, as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, of Cæsar,
of Augustus, - Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia,-directed their children's
education and reared the greatest of sons. The strictness of
## p. 14375 (#569) ##########################################
TACITUS
14375
the discipline tended to form in each case a pure and virtuous
nature, which no vices could warp, and which would at once with
the whole heart seize on every noble lesson. Whatever its bias,
- whether to the soldier's or the lawyer's art, or to the study of
eloquence,- it would make that its sole aim, and imbibe it in its
fullness.
But in our day we intrust the infant to a little Greek servant-
girl, who is attended by one or two- commonly the worst of
all the slaves — creatures utterly unfit for any important work.
Their stories and their prejudices from the very first fill the
child's tender and uninstructed mind. No one in the whole
house cares what he says or does before his infant master. Even
parents themselves familiarize their little ones, not with virtue
and modesty, but with jesting and glib talk; which lead on by
degrees to shamelessness, and to contempt for themselves as well
as for others. Really I think that the characteristic and peculiar
vices of this city-a liking for actors and a passion for gladi-
ators and horses are all-but conceived in the mother's womb.
When these occupy and possess the mind, how little room has it
left for worthy attainments! Few indeed are to be found who
talk of any other subjects in their homes; and whenever we
enter a class-room, what else is the conversation of the youths ?
Even with the teachers, these are the more frequent topics of
talk with their scholars. In fact, they draw pupils, not by strict-
ness of discipline or by giving proof of ability, but by assiduous
court and cunning tricks of flattery.
DOMITIAN'S REIGN OF TERROR
From the Agricola)
W
TE HAVE read that the panegyrics pronounced by Arulenus
Rusticus on Pætus Thrasea, and by Herennius Senecio
on Priscus Helvidius, were made capital crimes; that not
only their persons but their very books were objects of rage, and
that the triumvirs were commissioned to burn in the forum those
works of splendid genius. They fancied, forsooth, that in that
fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the Senate,
and the conscience of the human race were perishing; while at
the same time they banished the teachers of philosophy, and
exiled every noble pursuit, that nothing good might anywhere
confront them. Certainly we showed a magnificent example of
## p. 14376 (#570) ##########################################
14376
TACITUS
SO
patience; as a former age had witnessed the extreme of liberty,
we witnessed the extreme of servitude, when the informer
robbed us of the interchange of speech and hearing. We should
have lost memory as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget
as to keep silence.
Now at last our spirit is returning, And yet, though at the
dawn of a most happy age Nerva Cæsar blended things once
irreconcilable,- sovereignty and freedom; though Nerva Trajan
is now daily augmenting the prosperity of the time, and though
the public safety has not only our hopes and good wishes, but
has also the certain pledge of their fulfillment, — still, from the
necessary condition of human frailty, the remedy works less
quickly than the disease. As our bodies grow but slowly, perish
in a moment, so it is easier to crush than to revive genius and
its pursuits. Besides, the charm of indolence steals over us, and
the idleness which at first we loathed we afterwards love. What
if during those fifteen years,— a large portion of human life, -
many were cut off by ordinary casualties, and the ablest fell
victims to the Emperor's rage, if a few of us survive, - I may
almost say, not only others but our own selves survive, though
there have been taken from the midst of life those many years
which brought the young in dumb silence to old age, and the
old almost to the very verge and end of existence! Yet we
shall not regret that we have told, though in language unskillful
and unadorned, the story of past servitude, and borne our testi-
mony to present happiness. Meanwhile this book, intended to
do honor to Agricola my father-in-law, will, as an expression of
filial regard, be commended, or at least excused.
APOSTROPHE TO AGRICOLA
From the Agricola)
T"
HOU wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splen-
dor of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.
Thou submittedst to thy fate, so they tell us who were
present to hear thy last words, with courage and cheerfulness,
seeming to be doing all thou couldst to give thine Emperor full
acquittal. As for me and thy daughter, besides all the bitter-
ness of a father's loss, it increases our sorrow that it was not
permitted us to watch over thy failing health, to comfort thy
weakness, to satisfy ourselves with those looks, those embraces.
## p. 14377 (#571) ##########################################
TACITUS
14377
Assuredly we should have received some precepts, some utter-
ances, to fix in our inmost hearts. This is the bitterness of our
sorrow, this the smart of our wound: that from the circumstance
of so long an absence thou wast lost to us four years before.
Doubtless, best of fathers, with the most loving wife at thy side,
all the dues of affection were abundantly paid thee; yet with too
few tears thou wast laid to thy rest, and in the light of thy last
day there was something for which thine eyes longed in vain.
If there is any dwelling-place for the spirits of the just; if, as
the wise believe, noble souls do not perish with the body, - rest
thou in peace; and call us, thy family, from weak regrets and
womanish laments to the contemplation of thy virtues, for which
we must not weep nor beat the breast. Let us honor thee not
so much with transitory praises as with our reverence; and if our
powers permit us, with our emulation. That will be true respect,
that the true affection of thy nearest kin. This too is what I
would enjoin on daughter and wife: to honor the memory of that
father, that husband, by pondering in their hearts all his words
and acts, by cherishing the features and lineaments of his charac-
ter rather than those of his person. It is not that I would for-
bid the likenesses which are wrought in marble or in bronze; but
as the faces of men, so all similitudes of the face are weak and
perishable things, while the fashion of the soul is everlasting,
such as may be expressed not in some foreign substance, or by
the help of art, but in our own lives. Whatever we loved, what-
ever we admired in Agricola, survives, and will survive in the
hearts of men, in the succession of the ages, in the fame that
waits on noble deeds. Over many, indeed, of those who have
gone before, as over the inglorious and ignoble, the waves of
oblivion will roll: Agricola, made known to posterity by history
and tradition, will live for ever.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GERMANS
From the (Germania)
GOVERNMENT.
INFLUENCE OF WOMEN
TH
HEY choose their kings by birth, their generals for merit.
These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the
generals do more by example than by authority. If they are
energetic, if they are conspicuous, if they fight in the front, they
## p. 14378 (#572) ##########################################
14378
TACITUS
lead because they are admired. But to reprimand, to imprison,
even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone; and that not as
a punishment, or at the general's bidding, but as it were, by the
mandate of the god whom they believe to inspire the warrior.
They also carry with them into battle certain figures and images
taken from their sacred groves. And what most stimulates their
courage is that their squadrons or battalions, instead of being
formed by chance or by a fortuitous gathering, are composed of
families and clans. Close by them too are those dearest to them,
so that they hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants.
They are to every man the most sacred witnesses of his brav-
ery -- they are his most generous applauders. The soldier brings
his wounds to mother and wife, who shrink not from counting
or even demanding them, and who administer both food and
encouragement to the combatant.
Tradition says that armies already wavering and giving way
have been rallied by women, who, with earnest entreaties and
bosoms laid bare, have vividly represented the horrors of cap-
tivity; which the Germans fear with such extreme dread on
behalf of their women, that the strongest tie by which a State
can be bound is the being required to give, among the number
of hostages, maidens of noble birth. They even believe that the
sex has a certain sanctity and prescience; and they do not
despise their counsels, or make light of their answers. In Vespa-
sian's days we saw Veleda, long regarded by many as a divin-
ity. In former times too they venerated Aurinia, and many other
women; but not with servile flatteries or with sham deification.
DEITIES
Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship; and on
certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with
human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more law-
ful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the
occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered noth-
ing but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley,
indicates an imported worship. The Germans, however, do not
consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to
confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of
any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves;
and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which
they see only in spiritual worship.
## p. 14379 (#573) ##########################################
TACITUS
14379
AUGURIES AND METHOD OF DIVINATION
Augury and divination by lot no people practice more dili-
gently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is lopped
off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are
distinguished by certain marks, and thrown carelessly and at
random over a white garment. In public questions the priest of
the particular State, in private the father of the family, invokes
the gods; and with his eyes towards heaven, takes up each piece
three times, and finds in them a meaning according to the mark
previously impressed on them. If they prove unfavorable, there
is no further consultation that day about the matter; if they
sanction it, the confirmation of augury is still required. For they
are also familiar with the practice of consulting the notes and
the flight of birds. It is peculiar to this people to seek omens
and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these
same woods and groves are white horses, pure from the taint of
earthly labor; these are yoked to a sacred car, and accompanied
by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their
neighings and snortings. No species of augury is more trusted,
not only by the people and by the nobility, but also by the
priests; who regard themselves as the ministers of the gods, and
the horses as acquainted with their will. They have also another
method of observing auspices, by which they seek to learn the
result of an important war. Having taken, by whatever means,
a prisoner from the tribe with whom they are at war, they pit
him against a picked man of their own tribe, each combatant
using the weapons of their country. The victory of the one
or the other is accepted as an indication of the issue.
COUNCILS
A BOUT minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more
important the whole tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests
with the people, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the
chiefs. They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency,
on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they
consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of busi-
ness. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by
nights; and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal
appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day. Their
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TACITUS
freedom has this disadvantage,- that they do not meet simulta-
neously or as they are bidden, but two or three days are wasted
in the delays of assembling. When the multitude think proper,
they sit down armed. Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who
have on these occasions the right of keeping order. Then the
king or the chief — according to age, birth, distinction in war, or
eloquence - is heard, more because he has influence to persuade
than because he has power to command. If his sentiments dis-
please them, they reject them with murmurs; if they are satis-
fied, they brandish their spears. The most complimentary form
of assent is to express approbation with their weapons.
PUNISHMENTS.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
IN THEIR councils an accusation may be preferred, or a capital
crime prosecuted. Penalties are distinguished according to the
offense. Traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; the coward,
the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices, is plunged
into the mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him. This
distinction in punishment means that crime, they think, ought in
being punished to be exposed, while infamy ought to be buried
out of sight. Lighter offenses, too, have penalties proportioned to
them: he who is convicted is fined in a certain number of horses
or of cattle. Half of the fine is paid to the king or to the State,
half to the person whose wrongs are avenged and to his relatives.
In these same councils they also elect the chief magistrates, who
administer law in the cantons and the towns. Each of these has
a hundred associates chosen from the people, who support him
with their advice and influence.
TRAINING OF THE YOUTH
They transact no public or private business without being
armed. It is not, however, usual for any one to wear arms till
the State has recognized his power to use them. Then in the
presence of the council one of the chiefs, or the young man's
father, or some kinsman, equips him with a shield and a spear.
These arms are what the “toga > is with us, – the first honor
with which youth is invested. Up to this time he is regarded
a member of a household, afterwards as a member of the
commonwealth. Very noble birth or great services rendered by
as
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14381
the father secure for lads the rank of a chief; such lads attach
themselves to men of mature strength and of long-approved
valor. It is no shame to be seen among a chief's followers.
Even in his escort there are gradations of rank, dependent on
the choice of the man to whom they are attached. These fol-
lowers vie keenly with each other as to who shall rank first with
his chief; the chiefs as to who shall have the most numerous
and the bravest followers. It is an honor as well as a source of
strength to be thus always surrounded by a large body of picked
youths: it is an ornament in peace and a defense in war. And
not only in his own tribe but also in the neighboring States it
is the renown and glory of a chief to be distinguished for the
number and valor of his followers; for such a man is courted by
embassies, is honored with presents, and the very prestige of his
name often settles a war.
WARLIKE ARDOR OF THE PEOPLE
WHEN they go into battle, it is a disgrace for the chief to
be surpassed in valor, a disgrace for his followers not to equal
the valor of the chief. And it is an infamy and a reproach for
life to have survived the chief, and returned from the field. To
defend, to protect him, to ascribe one's own brave deeds to his
renown, is the height of loyalty. The chief fights for victory;
his vassals fight for their chief. If their native State sinks into
the sloth of prolonged peace and repose, many of its noble youths
voluntarily seek those tribes which are waging some war: both
because inaction is odious to their race, and because they win
renown more readily in the midst of peril, and cannot maintain
a numerous following except by violence and war. Indeed, men
look to the liberality of their chief for their war-horse and their
blood-stained and victorious lance. Feasts and entertainments -
which, though inelegant, are plentifully furnished — are their only
pay. The means of this bounty come rom war and rapine.
Nor are they as easily persuaded to plow the earth and to wait
for the year's produce, as to challenge an enemy and earn the
honor of wounds. Nay, they actually think it tame and stupid
to acquire by the sweat of toil what they might win by their
blood.
## p. 14382 (#576) ##########################################
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HABITS IN TIME OF PEACE
WHENEVER they are not fighting, they pass much of their
time in the chase, and still more in idleness, giving themselves
up to sleep and to feasting; the bravest and the most warlike
doing nothing, and surrendering the management of the house-
hold, of the home, and of the land, to the women, the old men,
and all the weakest members of the family. They themselves lie
buried in sloth: a strange combination in their nature, that the
same men should be so fond of idleness, so averse to peace. It
is the custom of the States to bestow by voluntary and individual
contribution on the chiefs a present of cattle or of grain, which,
while accepted as a compliment, supplies their wants. They are
particularly delighted by gifts from neighboring tribes; which
are sent not only by individuals but also by the State, such as
choice steeds, heavy armor, trappings, and neck-chains. We have
now taught them to accept money also.
ARRANGEMENT OF THEIR TOWNS.
SUBTERRANEAN DWELLINGS
It is well known that the nations of Germany have no cities,
and that they do not even tolerate closely contiguous dwellings.
They live scattered and apart, just as a spring, a meadow, or a
wood has attracted them. Their villages they do not arrange in
our fashion, - with the buildings connected and joined together,
— but every person surrounds his dwelling with an open space,
either as a precaution against the disasters of fire, or because
they do not know how to build. No use is made by them of
stone or tile: they employ timber for all purposes, rude masses
without ornament or attractiveness. Some parts of their build-
ings they stain more carefully, with a clay so clear and bright
that it resembles painting, or a colored design. They are wont
also to dig out subterranean caves, and pile on them great heaps
of dung, as a shelter from winter, and as a receptacle for the
year's produce; for by such places they mitigate the rigor of the
cold. And should an enemy approach, he lays waste the open
country, while what is hidden and buried is either not known
to exist, or else escapes him from the very fact that it has to be
searched for.
## p. 14383 (#577) ##########################################
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14383
MARRIAGE LAWS
Their marriage code is strict, and indeed no part of their
manners is more praiseworthy. Almost alone among barbarians
they are content with one wife; except a very few among them,
and these not from sensuality, but because their noble birth pro-
cures for them many offers of alliance. The wife does not bring
a dower to the husband, but the husband to the wife. The
parents and relatives are present, and pass judgment on the mar-
riage gifts, gifts not meant to suit a woman's taste, nor such as
a bride would deck herself with, but oxen, a caparisoned steed,
a shield, a lance, and a sword. With these presents the wife is
espoused, and she herself in her turn brings her husband a gift
of arms.
This they count their strongest bond of union, these
their sacred mysteries, these their gods of marriage. Lest the
woman should think herself to stand apart from aspirations after
noble deeds and from the perils of war, she is reminded by the
ceremony which inaugurates marriage that she is her husband's
partner in toil and danger, destined to suffer and to dare with
him alike both in peace and in war. The yoked oxen, the har-
nessed steed, the gift of arms, proclaim this fact. She must live
,
and die with the feeling that she is receiving what she must
hand down to her children neither tarnished nor depreciated,
what future daughters-in-law may receive, and may be so passed
on to her grandchildren.
Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrupted by the
allurements of public shows or the stimulant of feastings. Clan-
destine correspondence is equally unknown to men and women.
The loss of chastity meets with no indulgence: neither
beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the culprit a husband.
No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fash-
ion to corrupt or to be corrupted. Still better is the condition
of those States in which only maidens are given in marriage, and
where the hopes and expectations of a bride are then finally ter-
minated. They receive one husband, as having one body and
one life, that they may have no thoughts beyond, no further.
reaching desires, that they may love not so much the husband
as the married state. To limit the number of their children or
to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infa-
mous; and good habits are here more effectual than good laws
elsewhere.
## p. 14384 (#578) ##########################################
14384
TACITUS
SCENE OF THE DEFEAT OF VARUS
From the (Annals. ) Translation of Church and Brodribb
N°
ot far hence lay the forest of Teutoburgium; and in it the
bones of Varus and the legions, by report still unburied.
Germanicus upon this was seized with an eager longing
to pay the last honor to those soldiers and their general; while
the whole army present was moved to compassion by the thought
of their kinsfolk and friends, and indeed, of the calamities of wars
and the lot of mankind. Having sent on Cacina in advance to
reconnoitre the obscure forest passes, and to raise bridges and
causeways over watery swamps and treacherous plains, they visited
the mournful scenes, with their horrible sights and associations.
Varus's first camp, with its wide circumference and the measure-
ments of its central space, clearly indicated the handiwork of
three legions. Further on, the partially fallen rampart and the
shallow fosse suggested the inference that it was a shattered
remnant of the army which had there taken up a position. In
the centre of the field were the whitening bones of men, as they
had fled or stood their ground, strewn everywhere or piled in
heaps. Near, lay fragments of weapons and limbs of horses, and
also human heads, prominently nailed to trunks of trees. In
the adjacent groves were the barbarous altars on which they had
immolated tribunes and first-rank centurions. Some survivors of
the disaster who had escaped from the battle or from captivity,
described how this was the spot where the officers fell, how yon-
der the eagles were captured, where Varus was pierced by his
first wound, where too by the stroke of his own ill-starred hand
he found for himself death. They pointed out too the raised
ground from which Arminius had harangued his army, the num-
ber of gibbets for the captives, the pits for the living, and how
in his exultation he had insulted the standards and eagles.
SERVILITY OF THE SENATE
From the (Annals)
S
, part of
A dishonor fell on the extreme Frontiers of the empire. Fear
at home had filled their hearts; and for this they sought
relief in sveophancy. And so, although their advice was asked
## p. 14385 (#579) ##########################################
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14385
on totally different subjects, they decreed an altar to Clemency;
an altar to Friendship; and statues round them to Cæsar and
Sejanus, both of whom they earnestly begged with repeated en-
treaties to allow themselves to be seen in public. Still, neither
of them would visit Rome or even the neighborhood of Rome:
they thought it enough to quit the island and show themselves
on the opposite shores of Campania. Senators, knights, a number
of the city populace, flocked thither, anxiously looking to Seja-
nus; approach to whom was particularly difficult, and was con-
sequently sought by intrigue and by complicity in his counsels.
It was sufficiently clear that his arrogance was increased by
gazing on this foul and openly displayed servility. At Rome
indeed hurrying crowds are a familiar sight, and from the extent
of the city no one knows on what business each citizen is bent:
but there, as they lounged in promiscuous crowds in the fields
or on the shore, they had to bear day and night alike the pat-
ronizing smiles and the supercilious insolence of hall-porters, till
even this was forbidden them; and those whom Sejanus had not
deigned to accost or to look on, returned to the capital in alarm,
while some felt an evil joy, though there hung over them the
dreadful doom of that ill-starred friendship.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF TIBERIUS
Fr
the (Annals )
O
N THE 15th of March, his breath failing, he was believed to
have expired; and Caius Cæsar was going forth with a
numerous throng of congratulating followers to take the
first possession of the empire, when suddenly news came that
Tiberius was recovering his voice and sight, and calling for per-
sons to bring him food to revive him from his faintness. Then
ensued a universal panic; and while the rest fled hither and
thither, every one feigning grief or ignorance, Caius Cæsar, in
silent stupor, passed from the highest hopes to the extremity of
apprehension. Marco, nothing daunted, ordered the old emperor
to be smothered under a huge heap of clothes; and all to quit
the entrance-hall.
And so died Tiberius in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
Nero was his father, and he was on both sides descended from
the Claudian house; though his mother passed by adoption, first
XXIV-900
## p. 14386 (#580) ##########################################
14386
TACITUS
into the Livian, then into the Julian family. From earliest
infancy, perilous vicissitudes were his lot. Himself an exile, he
was the companion of a proscribed father; and on being admitted
as a stepson into the house of Augustus, he had to struggle
with many rivals, so long as Marcellus and Agrippa, and subse-
quently Caius and Lucius Cæsar, were in their glory. Again, his
brother Drusus enjoyed in a greater degree the affection of the
citizens. But he was more than ever on dangerous ground after
his marriage with Julia, whether he tolerated or escaped from
his wife's profligacy. On his return from Rhodes he ruled the
emperor's now heirless house for twelve years; and the Roman
world, with absolute sway, for about twenty-three. His charac-
ter too had its distinct periods. It was a bright time in his life
and reputation while under Augustus he was a private citizen
or held high offices; a time of reserve and crafty assumption of
virtue, as long as Germanicus and Drusus were alive. Again,
while his mother lived, he was a compound of good and evil; he
was infamous for his cruelty, though he veiled his debaucheries,
while he loved or feared Sejanus. Finally he plunged into every
wickedness and disgrace, when, fear and shame being cast off, he
simply indulged his own inclinations.
THE GREAT FIRE AT ROME, AND NERO'S ACCUSATION OF
THE CHRISTIANS
From the (Annals)
A
DISASTER followed — whether accidental or treacherously con-
trived by the emperor is uncertain, as authors have given
both accounts; worse, however, and more dreadful than
any which have ever happened to this city by the violence of
fire. It had its beginning in that part of the Circus which ad-
joins the Palatine and Cælian hills, where amid the shops con-
taining inflammable wares, the conflagration both broke out, and
instantly became so fierce and so rapid from the wind that it
seized in its grasp the entire length of the Circus. For here
there were no houses fenced in by solid masonry, or temples sur-
rounded by walls, or any other obstacle to interpose delay. The
blaze in its fury ran first through the level portions of the city,
then rising to the hills, while it again devastated every place
below them; it outstripped all preventive measures, so rapid was
## p. 14387 (#581) ##########################################
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14387
And no
the mischief and so completely at its mercy the city, with those
narrow winding passages and irregular streets which character-
ized old Rome. Added to this were the wailings of terror-
stricken women, the feebleness of age, the helpless inexperience
of childhood; the crowds who sought to save themselves or
others, dragging out the infirm or waiting for them, and by their
hurry in the one case, by their delay in the other, aggravating
the confusion. Often while they looked behind them, they were
.
intercepted by flames on their side or in their face. Or if they
reached a refuge close at hand, when this too was seized by the
fire they found that even places which they had imagined to be
remote were involved in the same calamity. At last, doubting
what they should avoid or whither to betake themselves, they
crowded the streets or flung themselves down in the fields; while
some who had lost their all, even their very daily bread, and
others out of love for the kinsfolk whom they had been unable
to rescue, perished, though escape was open to them.
one dared to stop the mischief, because of incessant menaces
from a number of persons who forbade the extinguishing of the
flames; or because again others openly hurled brands, and kept
shouting that there was one who gave them authority,-- either
seeking to plunder more freely, or obeying orders.
Nero at this time was at Antium, and did not return to Rome
until the fire approached his house, which he had built to con-
nect the palace with the gardens of Mæcenas, It could not
however be stopped from devouring the palace, the house, and
everything around it. However, to relieve the people, driven out
homeless as they were, he threw open to them the Campus
Martius and the public buildings of Agrippa, and even his own
gardens; and raised temporary structures to receive the destitute
multitude. Supplies of food were brought up from Ostia and
the neighboring towns, and the price of corn was reduced to
three sesterces a peck. These acts, though popular, produced
no effect; since a rumor had gone forth everywhere that, at the
very time when the city was in flames, the Emperor appeared on
a private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy, comparing
present misfortunes with the calamities of antiquity.
Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The
next thing was to seek a means of propitiating the gods; and
recourse was had to the Sibylline Books, by the direction of
which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina.
## p. 14388 (#582) ##########################################
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TACITUS
Juno too was entreated by the matrons; first in the Capitol, then
on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to
sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were
sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women.
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the Emperor, and
the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief
that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently,
to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the
most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations,
called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the
name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the
reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius
Pilatus; and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for
the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source
of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and
shameful from every part of the world find their centre and
become popular. Accordingly an arrest was first made of all
who pleaded guilty; then upon their information, an immense
multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing
the city as of hatred against mankind.
