The Agricola and Germany of Tacitus, and The dialogue on oratory

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO

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THE

AGRICOLA AND GERMANY
OF TACITUS,

AND

THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

Oir>rui'«^^t<?' /^

THE

AGRICOLA AND GERMANY
OF TACITUS,

AND

THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

WITH NOTES AND MAPS

BY

ALFRED JOHN CHURCH, M.A.,

OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD ; HEAD-MASTER OF KING EDWARD's SCHOOL, RETFORD J

AND

WILLIAM JACKSON BRODRIBB, M.A.,

LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHn's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

{REVISED 1877.)

MA CM ILL AN AND CO.

1885.

LOKDON :

E. CLAY, SUNS, AND TAYLOR,

EUEAD STREET HILL, K.C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA . XI

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE ROMAN EXPEDITIONS INTO
BRITAIN FROM CAIUS JULIUS C.tSAR TO CN^US JULIUS

AGRICOLA xviii

TRANSLATION OF THE LIFE OF CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA . . I

NOTES ON THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA 47

INTRODUCTION TO THE GERMANY 73

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY 78

TRANSLATION OF THE GERMANY 87

NOTES ON THE GERMANY 1 24

INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I4I

TRANSLATION OF THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I47

NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I98

PREFACE.

The favourable reception which was given to our
translation of the " History " of Tacitus encouraged us
to undertake the work which we now present to our
readers. We have sought, as before, to make our
version such as may satisfy scholars who demand a
faithful rendering of the original, and English readers
who are offended by the baldness and frigidity which
commonly disfigure translations. Our task has been
made unusually difficult by the style of our author,
which is even beyond his wont harsh and obscure,
and by the frequently corrupt state of the text,
offering as it does sometimes a variety of meanings
equally unacceptable, and sometimes none at all.

To critics who accuse us of wanting original
genius we have no defence to offer. We will only
say that they must exercise considerable patience if
they are to wait till great writers undertake a work
which brings neither fame nor profit. The practical
hints and suggestions which have been given us from
various quarters we have endeavoured to turn to
good account. The classical student will, we trust.

viii PREFACE.

appreciate our efiforts to express the meaning of
our author, though he may often dissent from our
opinions. And we hope that the general reader will
find an attraction in our subject. Englishmen may-
well feel an interest in an important passage of the
history of our island and in the description of the
primitive life of a kindred people, even Vv'hen these
are presented in the uninviting form of a translation.

The present edition, which we have revised with
considerable care and, we hope, with a satisfactory
result, contains a translation of the " Dialogus de
Oratoribus," a brief essay on oratory in general, and
more particularly on the supposed decline of Roman
oratory in the Flavian age. Although it is, we
believe, rarely read, it has a certain amount of in-
terest, as it touches on the Roman education of the
period and its special faults and weaknesses. The
Roman youth, it seems, was in many respects strik-
ingly like our own, and parts of the work might have
been appropriately written in our own day. It is
thoroughly worth reading, and the tradition which
has attributed it to Tacitus, though called. in question
by some scholars and critics, appears to be on the
whole a reasonable one.

A. J. c.
w. J. n.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The " Dialogue about Famous Orators " concludes a
task which has occupied much of our time for nearly
twenty years past, — the translation of the Works of
Tacitus. To give with sufficient faithfulness an
author's meaning is now, with all the aids that a
translator can command, comparatively easy. To
furnish the English reader with anything like an
adequate representation of the style and genius of the
original must ever be in the highest degree difficult.
It requires, besides a special aptitude for the work,
such an expenditure of time and labour as only the
amplest leisure could supply. If the work of transla-
tion could have a share in the proposed " endownment
of research," it might be possible to reach an ideal to
which those who have to live by their work can but
distantly aspire. Meanwhile we have to acknowledge
much kind and generous approbation of our work,
and much valuable and instructive criticism. Of
this, when it has dealt with details, we have often

X ADVERTISEMENT.

availed ourselves. When we have been told in more

general terms that we ought to be more forcible.

more faithful, or more free, we have been obliged to

be content with acknowledging the excellence of

the advice, and regretting that we were not able

to follow it.

A.J. C.
W. J. B.
RETFORD,
July a,, 1S77.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF
CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA.

The life of Agricola was probably published some
time between the October of the year 97 A.D. and
the 23rd of January, A.D. 98. This seems fairly inferred
from the opening words of ch. 3, in which Tacitus
implies, by the omission of the title " Divus," that
Nerva Caesar was still living, and speaks of Trajan as
"now daily augmenting the prosperity of the time."
Nerva adopted Trajan in October, A.D. 97, and died
the 23rd of January in the following year. Orelli
indeed refers the publication to the beginning of
Trajan's reign, on the ground that the brief period of
three months, during which he was associated with
Nerva in the empire, would hardly justify Tacitus in
praising him more highly than Nerva during the
lifetime of the latter. Again, he says, Trajan was in
Germany, and did not come to Rome till Nerva's
death. These arguments fail to convince us. Tacitus
says of Nerva that, " at the very beginning of a most
happy age, he blended things once irreconcilable,
sovereignty and freedom," This surely is very high
praise, — quite as high, we think, as that bestowed on

xii INTRODUCTION TO THE

Trajan. " But Trajan was not at Rome at that time."
He was, in fact, giving proofs of his ability as a
commander on the Rhine, in the province of Lower
Germany, perhaps the most trying and responsible
position in which a Roman could be placed. He was
elected to share the empire not only by the voice of
Nerva, but by that of the Senate and people. His
absence from Rome, under such circumstances, seems
no reason for supposing that what is said of him is
not perfectly applicable to this particular time.

The purpose of his work, Tacitus tells us, was to
do honour to Agricola. He exhibits him as the great
general of the age, as the Roman who first thoroughly
explored and conquered Britain. To have achieved
this difficult work was, no doubt, in the judgment of
Tacitus, Agricola's chief claim to distinction. His
glory culminated in his great victory over the
Caledonian tribes at the foot of the " Mons Gram-
pius." Comparatively little is told us about his
boyhood and youth, and very little about the last
eight years of his life. It is plainly hinted that
he fell a victim to the jealousy of Domitian. This
was the popular impression at the time, and Dion
Cassius, the only writer besides Tacitus who speaks
of Agricola, accepts it as a certainty.

As a specimen of ancient biography, executed by
a man of remarkable genius, the Life of Agricola has
always been much read and admired. Both father-
in-law and son-in-law appear equally to advantage. Of

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xiii

himself, Tacitus speaks with graceful modesty ; of his
illustrious father-in-law in affectionate, and at the
same time judicious, terms of admiration. There is
no fulsome or overstrained panegyric. The author
praises indeed highly and warmly, but in calm and
dignified language. In the touching and beautiful
conclusion to which the work is brought in the last
three chapters, he combines the noblest eloquence
with the most perfect good taste. His narrative
throughout is striking and vivid, and tells much in
a brief compass. Nothing could be more impressive
than the description of the defeat and overthrow of
the confederated Caledonian tribes, and of the terrible
scenes presented by the battle-field. The speeches,
too, of Galgacus and Agricola seem to be in the very
best style of Tacitus. They are not merely eloquent
and stirring ; they also skilfully reflect, on the one
hand, the passionate and impulsive fury of the
barbarian, and, on the other, the calm confidence of
the Roman general in the firmness and sense of
honour of his well-trained and hitherto victorious
legionaries.

The Life of Agricola, though frequently read from
the interest of its subject-matter, and its completeness
in itself, is by no means easy, and is ill-suited to
young scholars. It has, we think, an almost dispro-
portionate share of the peculiar difficulties of Tacitus.
Our notes show that it contains several crabbed and
obscure passages. Unfortunately, too, the text is

xiv INTRODUCTION TO THE

in an unsatisfactory state. There are three or four
passages, at least, in which no ingenuity on the part
of critics has much chance of restoring the original.
Wex, in his elaborate edition, published in 1852, has
fully discussed every difficulty of reading and in-
terpretation, and has suggested many emendations.
We have always consulted, and sometimes followed,
him. We have also made use of Kritz's edition,
published in 1859. This is, in fact, a recension of
Wex, whose text, with some variations, he adopts.
His notes are much shorter, and are well adapted
to the ordinary student. They are sensible and useful.
This, we believe, is the most recent edition of the
Agricola.

The geography of Ancient Britain is not so intri-
cate as that of Germany ; but the Agricola raises
questions which are by no means free from difficulty.
It is easy to follow the campaigns of the first two
summers, A.D. 78 and A.D. 79. In A.D. '/8 Agricola
crushed the Ordovices, who occupied North Wales,
and pursued them into Anglesey. In A.D. 79 he
invaded the territory of the Brigantes, and conquered
the country north of the Humber. The following
year brought him into contact with hitherto unknown
tribes, and saw him advance as far as the Taus or
Tanaus. This cannot have been the Frith of Tay, as
it seems clear, from ch. 23, that he had not as yet
penetrated so far north. Dr. Merivale ^ thinks it is

^ Hist, of Romans, ch. Ixi.

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xv

the Frith of Forth,— nearly the same, in fact, as
Bodotria, the one being the estuary, the other the
river. It has been suggested that it may have been
the mouth of the Tweed, or that of the North Tyne
at Dunbar. This last hypothesis we think to be the
most probable. In this case Agricola would have
overrun that portion of Scotland which is to the
south of the Friths of Clyde and Forth. These are,
respectively, Clota and Bodotria. The fourth summer
was passed in the consolidation of his conquests ; in
the fifth, he advanced northwards into Dumbarton
and Argyle, as it would appear from ch. 24, in which
Ireland is mentioned ; in the sixth, he invaded the
regions to the north of the Frith of Forth, so that
Fife, Stirling, and perhaps Perth and Forfar, must
have been the scene of the campaign. His army
was accompanied by a fleet. In the following year,
A.D. 84, was fought the great battle with the Cale-
donian tribes under Galgacus, the site of which has
been the subject of endless conjectures. We think
with Dr. Merivale that it may be presumed to have
been at no very great distance from the coast, since
it is implied that the army and fleet were acting
together. He is inclined to place it in the neighbour-
hood of Forfar or Brechin. It may have been as far
north as Aberdeen or Banff

Summer being now over, Agricola retired with his
army into the territory of the Boresti, or Horesti, as

xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE

the name is written in the best MSS. Where this
was is wholly uncertain ; no author but Tacitus
mentions them. Probably their settlements were to
the north of the Frith of Forth, as we are not told
that Agricola recrossed Bodotria. Meanwhile the
fleet was ordered to sail round Britain. We are told
that it eventually entered " the harbour of Trutu-
lium," from which it appears to have started for its
voyage. Tacitus, however, is here obscure from his
conciseness. The name Trutulium occurs nowhere
else. One would suppose from the context that it
could not have been at any great distance from
Bodotria. Very possibly it was somewhere on the
coast of Fife.

Tacitus no doubt refers to this voyage when he
says, in ch. 10, " Round these coasts of remotest ocean
the Roman fleet then, for the first time, sailed, and
ascertained that Britain is an island." It does not
follow that he meant to say that the Romans actually
circumnavigated Britain on this occasion. It is
enough to suppose that they sailed from the Frith of
P'orth along the eastern coast as far as Cape Wrath,
the north-western extremity. They would thus pass
through the Pentland Frith, and see the Orkney,
possibly the Shetland, Islands. When they found
that the coast made a sharp bend southwards, they
would be convinced that Britain was an island.
This seems the simplest and most probable view

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xvii

of the matter, and it is adopted by Mannert and
Dr. Merivale/ both of whom reject the notion of a
complete circumnavigation of Britain, though Dion
Cassius ^ impHes that it was accomplished. There
is no real difficulty about the word " circumvehi,"
which Tacitus uses, and which, at first sight, might
seem to demand such a meaning. " Circumvehi," as
Dr. Merivale remarks, may signify simply " to make
a sweep," or "to be wafted from point to point."

If this view is correct, the somewhat obscure
words at the end of ch. 38, " proximo Britanniae latere
lecto om.ni," will mean "after having skirted all the
nearest/' i.e. the east coast of Caledonia.

^ Hist, of Romans, ch. Ixi. See ne'e.
* Dion Cass, apud XipliU. Ixvi. 20.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE ROMAN EX-
REDITIONS INTO BRITAIN FROM CAIUS JULIUS
C^SAR TO CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA.

Caius Julius Caesar twice invaded Britain, in B.C.
55 and BC. 54.

The next expedition was not till the reign of the
Emperor Claudius, who, A.D. 43, sent Aulus Plautius,
under whom served Vespasian. Claudius, soon after,
followed in person, defeated the Trinobantes, under
their chief Caractacus, and conquered the southern
portion of Britain. He received from the Senate the
cognomen of IBritannicus, A.D. 44. Aulus Plautius
and Vespasian remained in Britain. Plautius was
recalled to Rome A.D. 47, and was succeeded by
Ostorius Scapula. Scapula completely crushed the
Silurcs, overthrew Caractacus in a great battle
(probably on the Clun in Shropshire), and founded
the colony of Camulodunum (Colchester), A.D. 50.
Aulus Didius succeeded Scapula as proprsetor of
]Jritain A.D. 52. He did little to advance the Roman
dominion. Veranius was governor for one unevent-
ful year, A.D. 58. He was succeeded by Suetonius
I'aulinus, A.D. 59, who crushed the great insurrection

of the Iceni under Boudicea, A.D. 6i. Petronius
Turpilianus was the next governor, A.D. 62. There
were now two years of peace, and Roman civilization
began to find its way into Britain.

Trebellius Maximus was governor from A.D. 65 to
69 ; Vettius Bolanus from A.D. 69 to 70 ; Petilius
Cerialis from A.D. 70 to 75 ; and Julius Frontinus
from A.D. 75 to yS. Agricola then succeeded as
" leeatus consularis."

3

THE LIFE OF

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA.

Biography of great men ; its dangers in a bad age.

To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and chap, i
characters of distinguished men is an ancient practice
which even the present age, careless as it is of its
own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great
and conspicuous excellence has conquered and risen
superior to that failing, common to petty and to great
states, blindness and hostility to goodness. But in
days gone by, as there was a greater inclination and
a more open path to the achievement of memor-
able actions, so the man of highest genius was led by
the simple reward of a good conscience to hand on
without partiality or self-seeking the remembrance of
greatness. Many too thought that to write their own
lives showed the confidence of integrity rather than
presumption. Of Rutilius and Scaurus no one doubted
the honesty or questioned the motives. So true is
it that merit is best appreciated by the age in which
it thrives most easily. But in these days, I, who have
to record the life of one who has passed away, must
crave an indulgence, which I should not have had
S B

2 THE LIFE OF

CHAP. I. to ask had I only to inveigh against an age so cruel,
so hostile to all virtue.

CH.'VP. II. We have read that the panegyrics pronounced by
Arulenus Rusticus on Psetus Thrasea, and by Heren-
nius Senecio on Priscus Helvidius, were made capital
crimes, that not only their persons but their very
books v/ere 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 patience ; as a former age had witnessed the ex-
treme of liberty, so we witnessed the extreme of
servitude, when the informer robbed us of the inter-
change of speech and hearing. We should have lost
memory as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget
as to keep silence.

Biography difficiilt even in a happier time.
CHA.P III. Now at last our spirit is returning. And yet, though
at the dawn of a most happy age Nerva Cffisar
blended things once irreconcilable, sovereignty and
freedom, though Nerva Trajan is now daily aug-
menting 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 fulfilment,
still, from the necessary condition of human frailty,
the remedy works less quickly tlian the disease. As

CNiEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 3

our bodies grow but slowly, perish in a moment, so it chap ii;
is easier to crush than to revive genius and its pur-
suits. Besides, the charm of indolence steals over us,
and the idleness which at first we loathed we after-
wards 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
sa)^, not only others but our ownselves, 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 unskilful and
unadorned, the story of past servitude, and borne our
testimony to present happiness. Meanwhile this book,
intended to do honour to Agricola, my father-in-law,
will, as an expression of filial regard, be commended,
or at least excused.

A.D. 40. Birth, parentage, and education of Agricola.
Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born at the ancient and chap. iv.
famous colony of Forum Julii.^ Each of his grand-
fathers was an Imperial procurator, that is, of the
highest equestrian rank. His father, Julius Grsecinus,
a member of the Senatorian order, and distinguished
for his pursuit of eloquence and philosophy, earned
for himself by these very merits the displeasure of
Caius Caesar. He was ordered to impeach Marcus
Silanus, and because he refused was put to death.
His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of singular

^ Frejus.

E 2

4 THE LIFE OF

cuw. IV virtue. Brought up by her side with fond afifection,
he passed his boyhood and youth in the cultivation
of every worthy attainment. He was guarded from
the enticements of the profligate not only by his own
good and straightforward character, but also by
having, when quite a child, for the scene and guide
of his studies, Massilia,* a place where refinement and
provincial frugality were blended and happily com-
bined. I remember that he used to tell us how in
his early youth he would have imbibed a keener
love of philosophy than became a Roman and a
senator, had not his mother's good sense checked
his excited and ardent spirit. It was the case of a
lofty and aspiring soul craving with more eagerness
than caution the beauty and splendour of great and
glorious renown. But it was soon mellowed by reason
and experience, and he retained from his learning
that most difficult of lessons — moderation.

A.D. 59 — 62. y^T. 20 — 23. He serves in Britain.

CHAP. V. He served his military apprenticeship in Britain to
the satisfaction of Suetonius Paullinus, a painstaking
and judicious officer, who, to test his merits, selected
him to share his tent. Without the recklessness with
which young men often make the profession of arms
a mere pastime, and without indolence, he never
availed himself of his tribune's rank or his inex-
perience to procure enjoyment or to escape from
duty. He sought to make himself acquainted with
the province and known to the army ; he would learn
from the skilful, and keep pace with the bravest, would
^ Marseilles.

CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 5

attempt nothing for display, would avoid nothing from chap. v.
fear, and would be at once careful and vigilant.

Never indeed had Britain been more excited, or
in a more critical condition. Veteran soldiers had
been massacred, colonies burnt, armies cut off. The
struggle was then for safety ; it was soon to be for
victory. And though all this was conducted under
the leadership and direction of another, though the
final issue and the glory of having won back the
province belonged to the general, yet skill, experience,
and ambition were acquired by the young officer.
His soul too was penetrated with the desire of warlike
renown, a sentiment unwelcome to an age which put
a sinister construction on eminent merit, and made
glory as perilous as infamy.

A.D. 62—68. /ET. 23 — 29. His Marriage. He
becomes Qiicestor and Praetor.

From Britain he went to Rome, to go through the chap, vi
regular course of office, and there allied himself with
Domitia Decidiana, a lady of illustrious birth. The
marriage was one which gave a man ambitious of
advancement distinction and support. They lived
in singular harmony, through their mutual affection
and preference of each other to self. However, the
good wife deserves the greater praise, just as the
bad incurs a heavier censure.

Appointed Quaestor, the ballot gave him Asia for
his province, Salvius Titianus for his proconsul.
Neither the one nor the other corrupted him, though
the province was rich and an easy prey to the wrong-
doer, while the proconsul, a man inclined to every

6 THE LIFE OF

CHAP. VI. species of greed, was ready by all manner of indul-
gence to purchase a mutual concealment of guilt.

A daughter was there added to his family to be
his stay and comfort, for shortly after he lost the
son that had before been born to him. The year
between his qusestorship and tribunate, as well as the
year of the tribunate itself, he passed in retirement
and inaction, for he knew those times of Nero when
indolence stood for wisdom. His praetorship was
passed in the same consistent quietude, for the usual
judicial functions did not fall to his lot. The games
and the pageantry of his office he ordered according
to the mean between strictness and profusion, avoiding
extravagance, but not missing distinction. He was
afterwards appointed by Galba to draw up an account
of the temple offerings, and his searching scrutiny
relieved the conscience of the state from the burden
of all sacrileges but those committed by Nero.

A.D. 69 — 70. ^T. 30 — 31. Death of his Mother.
He espouses the cause of Vespasian and is appointed
to the command of the 20th Legion.

CHAP. VII. The following year inflicted a terrible blow on his
affections and his fortunes. Otho's fleet, while cruising
idly about, cruelly ravaged Intemelii,^ a district of
Liguria ; his mother, who was living here on her own
estate, was murdered. The estate itself and a large
part of her patrimony were plundered. This was
indeed the occasion of the crime. Agricola, who
instantly set out to discharge the duties of affection,

' VintimiL'lia.

CNyEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 7

was overtaken by the tidings that Vespasian was chap.
aiming at the throne. He at once joined his party-.
Vespasian's early policy, and the government of Rome
were directed by Mucianus, for Domitian was a mere
youth, and from his father's elevation sought only
the opportunities of indulgence.

Agricola, having been sent by Mucianus to conduct
a levy of troops, and having done his work with in-
tegrity and energy, was appointed to command the
20th Legion, which had been slow to take the new oath
of allegiance, and the retiring officer of which was
reported to be acting disloyally. It was a trying
and formidable charge for even officers of consular
rank, and the late praetorian officer, perhaps from his
own disposition, perhaps from that of the soldiers,
was powerless to restrain them. Chosen thus at once
to supersede and to punish, Agricola, with a singular
moderation, wished it to be thought that he had found
rather than made an obedient soldiery.

A.D. 72. ^T. 33. He conttJiues to serve in Britain
with increasing distinction.

Britain was then under Vettius Bolanus, who governed chap.

VIII.

more mildly than suited so turbulent a province.
Agricola moderated his energy and restrained his
ardour, that he might not grow too important, for
he had learnt to obey, and understood well how to
combine expediency with honour. Soon afterwards
Britain received for its governor a man of consular
rank, Petilius Cerialis. Agricola's merits had now
room for display. Cerialis let him share at fir.st
indeed only the toils and dangers, but before* long

VIII.

THE LIFE OF

CHAP. the glory of war, often by way of trial putting him
in command of part of the army, and sometimes, on
the strength of the result, of larger forces. Never
to enhance his own renown did Agricola boast of his
exploits ; he always referred his success, as though he
were but an instrument, to his general and director.
Thus by his valour in obeying orders and by his
modesty of speech he escaped jealousy without losing
distinction.

A.D. 73 — 78. ALT. 34 — 39. He is ennobled, becomes
Governor' of Aquitania, is recalled to Rome to be
made Consid.

As he was returning from the command of the legion,
Vespasian admitted him into the patrician order, and
then gave him the province of Aquitania, a pre-
eminently splendid appointment both from the
importance of its duties and the prospect of the
consulate to which the Emperor destined him. Many
think the genius of the soldier wants subtlety, because
military law, which is summary and blunt, and apt to
appeal to the sword, finds no exercise for the refine-
ments of the forum. Yet Agricola, from his natural
good sense, though called to act among civilians, did
his work with ease and correctness. And, besides,
the times of business and relaxation were kept dis-
tinct. When his public and judicial duties required
it, he was dignified, thoughtful, austere, and yet often
merciful ; when business was done with, he wore no
longer the official character. He was altogether with-
out harshness, pride, or the greed of gain. With a
most rare felicity, his good nature did not weaken his

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 9

authority, nor his strictness the attachment of his chap. ix.
friends. To speak of uprightness and purity in such
a man would be an insult to his virtues. Fame itself,
of which even good men are often weakly fond, he
did not seek by an ostentation of virtue or by
artifice. He avoided rivalry with his colleagues,
contention with his procurator, thinking such victories
no honour and defeat disgrace. For somewhat less
than three years he was kept in his governorship, and
was then recalled with an immediate prospect of the
consulate. A general belief went with him that the
province of Britain was to be his, not because he had
himself hinted it, but because he seemed worthy of
it. Public opinion is not always mistaken ; some-
times even it chooses the right man. He was consul,
and I but a youth, when he betrothed to me his
daughter, a maiden even then of noble promise.
After his consulate he gave her to me in marriage,
and was then at once appointed to the government of
Britain, with the addition of the sacred office of the
pontificate.

Britain ; its boundaries, shape, and surronnding seas.

The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already chap. x.
described by many writers, I will speak of, not that
my research and ability may be compared with theirs,
but because the country was then for the first time
thoroughly subdued. And so matters, which as
being still not accurately known my predecessors
embellished with their eloquence, shall now be
related on the evidence of facts.

10 THE LIFE OF

CHAP. X. Britain, the largest of the islands which Roman
geography includes, is so situated that it faces Germany
on the east, Spain on the west ; on the south it is even
within sight of Gaul ; its northern extremities, which
have no shores opposite to them, are beaten by the
waves of a vast open sea. The form of the entire
country has been compared by Livy and Fabius
Rusticus, the most graphic among ancient and modern
historians, to an oblong shield or battle-axe. And
this no doubt is its shape without Caledonia, so that
it has become the popular description of the whole
island. There is, however, a large and irregular tract
of land which juts out from its furthest shores, taper-
ing off in a wedge-like form. Round these coasts of
remotest ocean the Roman fleet then for the first time
sailed, ascertained that Britain is an island, and
simultaneously discovered and conquered what are
called the Orcades, islands hitherto unknown. Thule
too was descried in the distance, which as yet had
been hidden by the snows of winter. Those waters,
they say, are sluggish, and yield with difficulty to
the oar, and are not even raised by the wind as other
seas. The reason, I suppose, is that lands and moun-
tains, which are the cause and origin of storms, are
here comparatively rare, and also that the vast depths
of that unbroken expanse are more slowly set in
motion. But to investigate the nature of the ocean
and the tides is no part of the present work, and
many writers have discussed the subject. I would
simply add, that nowhere has the sea a wider do-
minion, that it has many currents running in every
direction, that it does not merely flow and ebb within

CNi^IUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 11

the limits of the shore, but penetrates and winds far chap. x.
inland, and finds a home among hills and mountains
as though in its own domain.

Origin of the inhahitmits {of Britain).

"Who were the original inhabitants of Britain, whether chap, xi
they were indigenous or foreign, is, as usual among
barbarians, little known. Their physical characteris-
tics are various, and from these conclusions may be
drawn. The red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants
of Caledonia point clearly to a German origin. The
dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly
hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore
to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former
date crossed over and occupied these parts. Those
who are nearest to the Gauls are also like them, either
from the permanent influence of original descent, or,
because in countries which run out so far to meet
each other, climate has produced similar physical
qualities. But a general survey inclines me to believe
that the Gauls established themselves in an island
so near to them. Their religious belief may be
traced in the strongly-marked British superstition.
The language differs but little ; there is the same
boldness in challenging danger, and, when it is near,
the same timidity in shrinking from it. The Britons,
however, exhibit more spirit, as being a people whom
a long peace has not yet enervated. Indeed w^e have
understood that even the Gauls were once renowned
in war ; but, after a while, sloth following on ease
crept over them, and they lost their courage along with

12 THE LIFE OF

CHAP. XI. their freedom. This too has happened to the long-
conquered tribes of Britain ; the rest are still what the
Gauls once were.

Militajy customs ; climate ; products of the soil.

CHAP Their strength is in infantry. Some tribes fight also
with the chariot. The higher in rank is the charioteer ;
the dependants fight. They were once ruled by
kings, but are now divided under chieftains into
factions and parties. Our greatest advantage in
coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act
in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet
together to ward off a common danger. Thus, while
they fight singly, all are conquered.

Their sky is obscured by continual rain and cloud.
Severity of cold is unknown. The days exceed in
length those of our part of the world ; the nights are
bright, and in the extreme north so short that between
sunlight and dawn you can perceive but a slight
distinction. It is said that, if there are no clouds in the
way, the splendour of the sun can be seen through-
out the night, and that he does not rise and set, but
only crosses the heavens. The truth is, that the low
shadow thrown from the flat extremities of the earth's
surface does not raise the darkness to any height,
and the night thus fails to reach the sky and stars.

With the exception of the olive and vine, and plants
which usually grow in warmer climates, the soil will
yield, and even abundantly, all ordinary produce. It
ripens indeed slowly, but is of rapid growth, the cause
in each case being the same, namely, the excessive
moisture of the soil and of the atmosphere. Britain

XIII.

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 13

contains gold and silver and other metals, as the prize chap.
of conquest. The ocean, too, produces pearls, but of
a dusky and bluish hue. Some think that those who
collect them have not the requisite skill, as in the Red
Sea the living and breathing pearl is torn from the
rocks, while in Britain they are gathered just as they
are thrown up. I could myself more readily believe
that the natural properties of the pearls are in fault
than our keenness for gain.

Rotnan Governors of Britain.

The Britons themselves bear cheerfully the con- ^H^f'
scription, the taxes, and the other burdens imposed
on^them by the Empire, if there be no oppression.
Of this they are impatient; they are reduced to
subjection, not as yet to slavery. The deified
Julius, the very first Roman who entered Britain
with an army, though by a successful engagement
he struck terror into the inhabitants- and gained posses-
sion of the coast, must be regarded as having indicated
rather than transmitted the acquisition to future
generations. Then came the civil wars, and the arms
of our leaders were turned against their country, and
even when there was peace, there was a long neg-
lect of Britain. This Augustus spoke of as policy,
Tiberius as an inherited maxim. That Caius Caesar
meditated an invasion of Britain is perfectly clear, but
his purposes, rapidly formed, were easily changed, and
his vast attempts on Germany had failed. Claudius
was the first to renew the attempt, and conveyed over
into the island some legions and auxiliaries, choosing
Vespasian to share with him the campaign, whose

THE LIFE OF

XIII

CHAP approaching elevation had this beginning. Several
tribes were subdued and kings made prisoners, and
destiny learnt to knoAV its favourite.

Roman Governor's cf Bj-itain.
CHAP. Aulus Plautius was the first governor of consular

XIV.

rank, and Ostorius Scapula the next. Both were
famous soldiers, and by degrees the nearest portions
of Britain were brought into the condition of a pro-
vince, and a colony of veterans was also introduced.
Some of the states were given to king Cogidumnus,
who lived down to our day a most faithful ally. So
was maintained the ancient and long-recognised
practice of the Roman people, which seeks to secure
among the instruments of dominion even kings them-
selves. Soon after, Didius Gallus consolidated the
conquests of his predecessors, and advanced a very
few positions into parts m.ore remote, to gain the credit
of having enlarged the sphere of government. Didius
was succeeded by Veranius, who died within the year.
Then Suetonius Paullinus enjoyed success for two
years ; he subdued several tribes and strengthened
our military posts. Thus encouraged, he made an
attempt on the island of Mona, as a place from which
the rebels drew reinforcements ; but in doing this he
left his rear open to attack.

Preparations of the Britains for revolt.

CHAP. XV. Relieved from apprehension by the legate's absence,
the Britons dwelt much among themselves on the

CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 15

miseries of subjection, compared their wrongs, and chap
exaggerated them in the discussion. " All we get by
patience," they said, " is that heavier demands are
exacted from us, as from men who will readily submit.
A single king once ruled us; now two are set over us;
a legate to tyrannise over our lives, a procurator to
tyrannise over our property. Their quarrels and their
harmony are alike ruinous to thei|' subjects. The centu-
rions of the one, the slaves of the other, combine
violence with insult. Nothing is now safe from their •
avarice, nothing from their lust. In war it is the strong
who plunders ; now, it is for the most part by cowards
and poltroons that our homes are rifled, our children
torn from us, the conscription enforced, as though it
were for our country alone that we could not die. For,
after all, what a mere handful of soldiers has crossed
over, if we Britons look at our own numbers. Germany
did thus actually shake off the yoke, and yet its de-
fence was a river, not the ocean. With us, fatherland,
wives, parents, are the motives to war ; with them,
only greed and profligacy. They will surely fly,
as did the now deified Julius, if once we emulate the
valour of our sires. Let us not be panicstricken at
the result of one or tvv^o engagements. The miserable
have more fury and greater resolution. Now even
the gods are beginning to pity us, for they are keeping
away the Roman general, and detaining his army
far from us in another island. We have already taken
the hardest step; we are deliberating. And indeed,
in all such designs, to dare is less perilous than to be
detected."

IS THE LIFE OF

Insurrection J leaded by Boiidicea and crushed by
Suetonins Paullinns.

CHAP. Rousino; each other by this and Hke lan^ua^'e, under
the leadership of Boudicea, a woman of kingly descent
(for they admit no distinction of sex in their royal
successions), they all rose in arms. They fell upon
our troops, Avhich were scattered on garrison duty,
stormed the forts, and burst into the colony itself, the
head-quarters, as they thought, of tyranny. In their
rage and their triumph, they spared no variety of a
barbarian's cruelty. Had not Paullinus on hearing of
the outbreak in the province rendered prompt succour,
Britain would have been lost. By one successful
engagement, he brought it back to its former obedi-
ence, though many, troubled by the conscious guilt of
rebellion and by particular dread of the legate, still
clung to their arms. Excellent as he was in other
respects, his policy to the conquered was arrogant,
and exhibited the cruelty of one who was avenging
private wrongs. Accordingly Petronius Turpilianus
was sent out to initiate a milder rule. A stranger to
the enemy's misdeeds and so more accessible to their
penitence, he put an end to old troubles, and, at-
tempting nothing more, handed the province over to
Trebellius Maximus. Trebellius, who was somewhat
indolent, and never ventured on a campaign, controlled
the province by a certain courtesy in his administra-
tion. Even the barbarians now learnt to excuse many
attractive vices, and the occurrence of the civil war
gave a good pretext for inaction. But we were sorely
troubled with mutiny, as troops habituated to service

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 17

crrew demoralised by idleness. Trebellius, who had chap.

XVI.

escaped the soldiers' fury by flying and hiding himself,
governed henceforth on sufferance, a disgraced and
humbled man. It was a kind of bargain ; the soldiers
had their licence, the general had his life ; and so
the mutiny cost no bloodshed. Nor did Vettius
Bolanus, during the continuance of the civil wars,
trouble Britain with discipline. There was the same
inaction with respect to the enemy, and similar unruli-
ness in the camp, only Bolanus, an upright man,
whom no misdeeds made odious, had secured affection
in default of the power of control.

Vigorous policy of Vespasian.
When however Vespasian had restored to unity chap.

XVII.

Britain as well as the rest of the world, in the pre-
sence of great generals and renowned armies the
enemy's hopes were crushed. They were at once
panic-stricken by the attack of Petilius Cerialis on
the state of the Brigantes, said to be the most pros-
perous in the entire province. There were many
battles, some by no means bloodless, and his con-
quests, or at least his wars, embraced a large part of
the territory of the Brigantes. Indeed he would have
altogether thrown into the shade the activity and
renown of any other successor ; but Julius Frontinus
was equal to the burden, a great man as far as great-
ness was then possible, who subdued by his arms the
powerful and warlike tribe of the Silures, surmounting
the difficulties of the country as well as the valour of
the enemy.

C

18 THE LIFE OF

A.D. 78. ALT. 39. Splendid successes of Agricola
in Britain ; his Modesty,

CHAP Such was the state of Britain, and such were the
vicissitudes of the war, which Agricola found on his
crossing over about midsummer. Our soldiers made
it a pretext for carelessness, as if all fighting
was over, and the enemy were biding their time.
The Ordovices, shortly before Agricola's arrival, had
destroyed nearly the whole of a squadron of allied
cavalry quartered in their territory. Such a beginning
raised the hopes of the country, and all who wished
for war approved the precedent, and anxiously watched
the temper of the new governor. Meanwhile Agricola,
though summer was past and the detachments were
scattered throughout the province, though the soldiers'
confident anticipation of inaction for that year would
be a source of delay and difficulty in beginning a
campaign, and most advisers thought it best simply
to watch all weak points, resolved to face the peril.
He collected a force of veterans and a small body
of auxiliaries ; then as the Ordovices would not
venture to descend into the plain, he put himself
in front of the ranks to inspire all with the same
courage against a common danger, and led his troops
up a hill. The tribe was all but exterminated.

Well aware that he must follow up the prestige of
his arms, and that in proportion to his first success
would be the terror of the other tribes, he formed the
design of subjugating the i.sland of Mona, from the
occupation of which Paullinus had been recalled, as I
have already related, by the rebellion ol tlie entire

CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 19

province. But, as his plans were not matured, he had chap
no fleet. The skill and resolution of the general
accomplished the passage. With some picked men
of the auxiliaries, disencumbered of all baggage, who
knew the shallows and had that national experience
in swimming which enables the Britons to take care
not only of themselves but of their arms and horses,
he delivered so unexpected an attack that the as-
tonished enemy who were looking for a fleet, a naval
armament, and an assault by sea, thought that to
such assailants nothing could be formidable or in-
vincible. And so, peace having been sued for and
the island given up, Agricola became great and famous
as one who, when entering on his province, a time
which others spend in vain display and a round of
ceremonies, chose rather toil arid danger. Nor did he
use his success for self-glorification, or apply the name
of campaigns and victories to the repression of a
conquered people. He did not even describe his
achievements in a laurelled letter. Yet by thus dis-
guising his renown he really increased it, for men
inferred the grandeur of his aspirations from his
silence about services so great.

Moderation and equity of Ids government.

Next, with thorough insight into the feelings of his chap.
province, and taught also, by the experience of others,
that little is gained by conquest if followed by
oppression, he determined to root out the causes of
war. Beginning first with himself and his dependants^
he kept his household under restraint, a thing as hard
to many as ruling a province. He transacted no

C 2

20 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, public business throucrh freedmen or slaves ; no

XIX

private leanings, no recommendations or entreaties of
friends, moved him in the selection of centurions
and soldiers, but it was ever the best man whom
he thought most trustworthy. He knew everything,
but did not always act on his knowledge. Trifling
errors he treated with leniency, serious offences with
severity. Nor was it always punishment, but far
oftener penitence, which satisfied him. He preferred
to give office and power to men who would not
transgress, rather than have to condemn a trans-
grc'.-ssor. He lightened the exaction of corn and
tribute by an equal distribution of the burden, while
he got rid of those contrivances for gain which were
Cyy more-nitolerable than the tribute itself Hitherto the
people had been compelled to endure the farce of
waiting by the closed granary and of purchasing corn
unnecessarily and raising it to a fictitious price.
Difficult by-roads and distant places were fixed for
them, so that states with a winter-camp close to them
had to carry corn to remote and inaccessible parts of
the country, until what was within the reach of all
became a source of profit to the few.

A.D. 79. ^T. 40. His energy.

CHAP. Agricola, by the repression of these abuses in his very
first year of office, restored to peace its good name,
when, from either the indifference or the harshness of
his predecessors, it had come to be as much dreaded
as war. When, howev^er, summer came, assembling
his forces, he continually showed himself in the ranks,
prai.isd good discipline, and kept the stragglers in order.

CNiEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 21

He would himself choose the position of the camp^ ^xx^
himself explore the estuaries and forests. Meanwhile
he would allow the enemy no rest, laying waste his
territory with sudden incursions, and, having suffi-
ciently alarmed him, would then by forbearance
display the allurements of peace. In consequence,
many states, which up to that time had been in-
dependent, gave hostages, and laid aside their animo-
sities; garrisons and forts were established among
them with a skill and diligence with which no newly-
acquired part of Britain had before been treated.

He encourages the arts of peace.

The following winter passed without disturbance, and chap.
was employed in salutary measures. For, to ac-
custom to rest and repose through the charms of
luxury a population scattered and barbarous and
therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private
encouragement and public aid to the building of
temples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, prais-
ing the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus
an honourable rivalry took the place of compulsion.
He likewise provided a liberal education for the sons
of the chiefs, and showed such a preference for the
natural powers of the Britons over the industry of the
Gauls that they who lately disdained the tongue of
Rome now coveted its eloquence. Hence, too, a
liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the
" toga " became fashionable. Step by step they were
led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the
bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance,

22 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, they called civilization, when it was but a part of their
servitude.

A.D. 80. ^T. 41. Conquests in the north of Britain.

CHAP. The third year of his campaigns opened up new tribes,
our ravages on the native population being carried as
far as the Taus, an estuary so called. This struck
such terror into the enemy that he did not dare to
attack our army, harassed though it was by violent
storms ; and there was even time for the erection of
forts. It was noted by experienced officers that no
general had ever shown more judgment in choosing
suitable positions, and that not a single fort establish-
ed by Agricola was either stormed by the enemy or
abandoned by capitulation or flight. Sorties were
continually made ; for these positions were secured
from protracted siege by a year's supply. So winter
brought with it no alarms, and each garrison could
hold its own, as the baffled and despairing enemy,
who had been accustomed often to repair his summer
losses by winter successes, found himself repelled
alike both in summer and winter.

Never did Agricola in a greedy spirit appropriate
the achievements of others ; the centurion and the
prefect both found in him an impartial witness of their
every action. Some persons used to say that he was
too harsh in his reproofs, and that he was as severe
to the bad as he was gentle to the good. But his
displeasure left nothing behind it ; reserve and silence
in him were not to be dreaded. He thought it better
to show anger than to cherish hatred.

CNvEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 23

A.D. 8 1. ALT. 42. He consolidates his conquests.

The fourth summer he employed in securing' what he chap.

XXIII

had overrun. Had the valour of our armies and the
renown of the Roman name permitted it, a limit to
our conquests might have been found in Britain itself.
Clota and Bodotria, estuaries which the tides of
two opposite seas carry far back into the country,
are separated by but a narrow strip of land. This
Agricola then began to defend with a line of forts,
and, as all the country to the south was now occupied,
the enemy were pushed into what might be called
another island.

A.D. 82. A.T. 43. Description of Ireland.

In the fifth year of the war Agricola, himself in the chap.

XXIV.
leading ship, crossed the Clota, and subdued in a

series of victories tribes hitherto unknown. In that
part of Britain v/hich looks towards Ireland, he posted
some troops, hoping for fresh conquests rather than
fearing attack, inasmuch as Ireland, being between
Britain and Spain and conveniently situated for the
seas round Gaul, might have been tlie means of con-
necting with great mutual benefit the most powerful
parts of the empire. Its extent is sm^all vvlien com-
pared with Britain, but exceeds the islands of our
seas. In soil and climate, in the disposition, temper,
and habits of its population, it differs but little from
Britain. We know most of its harbours and ap-
proaches, and that through the intercourse of com-
merce. One of the petty kings of the nation, driven

24 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, out by internal faction, had been received by Agricola,
xxiv

who detained him under the semblance of friendship

till he could make use of him. I have often heard him

say that a single legion with a few auxiliaries could

conquer and occupy Ireland, and that it would have

a salutary effect on Britain for the Roman arms to be

seen everywhere, and for freedom, so to speak, to be

banished from its sight.

A.D. 83. y^T. 44. He advances north, and is con-
fronted by a general tmion of the Caledonian tribes.

CHAP. In the summer in which he entered on the sixth year

XXV.

of his office, his operations embraced the states beyond
Bodotria, and, as he dreaded a general movement
among the remoter tribes, as well as the perils which
would beset an invading army, he explored the
harbours with a fleet, which, at first employed by him
as an integral part of his force, continued to accom-
pany him. The spectacle of war thus pushed on at once
by sea and land was imposing ; while often infantry,
cavalry, and marines, mingled in the same encampment
and joyously sharing the same meals, would dwell on
their own achievements and adventures, comparing,
with a soldier's boastfulness, at one time the deep re-
cesses of the forest and the mountain with the dangers
of waves and storms, or, at another, battles by land
with victories over the ocean. The Britons too, as we
learnt from the prisoners, were confounded by the
sight of a fleet, as if, now that their inmost seas were
penetrated, the conquered had their last refuge closed
against them. The tribes inhabiting Caledonia flew

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 25

to arms, and with great preparations, made greater chap.
by the rumours which always exaggerate the un-
known, themselves advanced to attack our fortresses,
and thus, challenging a conflict, inspired us with
alarm. To retreat south of- the Bodotria, and to
retii'e rather than to be driven out, was the advice of
timid pretenders to prudence, when Agricola learnt
that the enemy's attack would be made with more
than one army. Fearing that their superior numbers
and their knowledge of the country might enable
them to hem him in, he too distributed his forces into
three divisions, and so advanced.

This becoming known to the enemy, they suddenly chap.

XXVI

changed their plan, and with their whole force at-
tacked by night the ninth Legion, as being the
weakest, and cutting down the sentries, who were
asleep or panic-stricken, they broke into the camp.
And now the battle was raging within the camp
itself, when Agricola, who had learnt from his scouts
the enemy's line of march and had kept close on his
track, ordered the most active soldiers of his cavalry
and infantry to attack the rear of the assailants, while
the entire army were shortly to raise a shout. Soon
his standards glittered in the light of daybreak. A
double peril thus alarmed the Britons, while the
courage of the Romans revived ; and feeling sure
of safety, they now fought for glory. In their turn
they rushed to the attack, and there was a furious
conflict within the narrow passages of the gates
till the enemy were routed. Both armies did their
utmost, the one for the honour of having given aid,

26 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, the other for that of not havino: needed support.

XXVI. .

Had not the flying enemy been sheltered by morasses
and forests, this victory would have ended the war.

Preparations on botli sides for furtJier conflict.

CHAP. Knowing this, and elated by their glory, our army
exclaimed that nothing could resist their valour — that
they must penetrate the recesses of Caledonia, and at
length after an unbroken succession of battles, dis-
cover the furthest limits of Britain. Those who but
now were cautious and prudent, became after the
event eager and boastful. It is the singularly unfair
peculiarity of war that the credit of success is claimed
by all, while a disaster is attributed to one alone. But
the Britons thinking themselves baffled, not so much
by our valour as by our general's skilful use of an
opportunity, abated nothing of their arrogant de-
meanour, arming their youth, removing their wives
and children to a place of safety, and assembling
together to ratify, with sacred rites, a confederacy of
all their states. Thus, with angry feelings on both
sides, the combatants parted.

Singular adventures of a Usipian coJiort.

CHAP. The same summer a Usipian cohort, which had been
levied in Germany and transported into Britain, ven-
tured on a great and memorable exploit. Having
killed a centurion and some soldiers, who, to impart
military discipline, had been incorporated with their
ranks and were employed at once to instruct and
command them, they embarked on board three swift
galleys with pilots pressed into their service. Under

XXVllI.

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 27

the direction of one of them — for two of the three chap.
they suspected and consequently put to death — they
sailed past the coast in the strangest way before any
rumour about them was in circulation. After a while,
dispersing in search of water and provisions, they
encountered many of the Britons, who sought to
defend their property. Often victorious, though now
and then beaten, they were at last reduced to such
an extremity of want as to be compelled to eat, at
first, the feeblest of their number, and then victims
selected by lot. Having sailed round Britain and
lost their vessels from not knowing how to manage
them, they were looked upon as pirates and were
intercepted, first by the Suevi and then by the
Frisii. Some who were sold as slaves in the way
of trade, and were brought through the process
of barter as far as our side of the Rhine, gained
notoriety by the disclosure of this extraordinary
adventure.

A.D. 84. jET. 45. Further advance into Caledonia.
Union of the Caledonian tribes.

Early in the summer Agricola sustained a domestic chap.

r , r XXIX.

affliction in the loss of a son born a year before,
a calamity which he endured, neither with the osten-
tatious fortitude displayed by many brave men, nor,
on the other hand, with womanish tears and grief
In his sorrow he found one source of relief in war.
Having sent on a fleet, which by its ravages at
various points might cause a vague and wide-spread
alarm, he advanced with a lightly equipped force,
including' in its ranks some Britons of remarkable

28 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, bravery, whose fidelity had been tried through years
of peace, as far as the Grampian mountains, which the
enemy had ah*eady occupied. For tlie Britons, indeed,
in no way cowed by the result of the late engage-
ment, had made up their minds to be either avenged
or enslaved, and convinced at length that a common
danger must be averted by union, had, by embassies
and treaties, summoned forth the whole strength of
all their states. More than 30,000 armed men were
now to be seen, and still there were pressing in all
the youth of the country, with all whose old age
was yet hale and vigorous, men renowned in war and
bearing each decorations of his own. Meanwhile,
among the many leaders, one superior to the rest in
valour and in birth, Galgacus by name, is said to have
thus harangued the multitude gathered around him
and clamourins: for battle : —

Speech of the Caledonian chief, Galgacus.
CHAP. " Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the

XXX.

necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence
that this day, and this union of yours, will be the
beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all
of us slavery is a thing unknown ; there arc no lands
beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as
we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and
battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward
will find safety. Former contests, in which, with
varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in
us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most
renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart

CN.'EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 29

of the country, and out of si^ht of the shores of the chap.
conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted
by the contagion of slavery. To us who dwell on the
uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this
remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this
time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest
limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown
always passes for the marvellous. But there are
no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and
rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose
oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and
submission. Robbers of the world, having by their
universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the
deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious ; if
he be poor, they lust for dominion ; neither the east
nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone
among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty
and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they
give the lying name of empire ; they make a soli-
tude and call it peace.

" Nature has willed that every man's children and chap.

XXXI.

kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet these are
torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere.
Our wives and our sisters, even though they may
escape violation from the enemy, are dishonoured
under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our
goods and fortunes they collect for their tribute, our
harvests for their granaries. Our very hands and
bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are
worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses.
Creatures born to slavery are sold once for all, and

30 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, are, moreover, fed by their masters ; but Britain is

XXXI.

daily purchasing, is daily feeding, her own enslaved
people. And as in a household the last comer among
the slaves is always the butt of his companions, so we
in a world long used to slavery, as the newest and the
most contemptible, are marked out for destruction.
We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours,
for the working of which we may be spared. Valour,
too, and high spirit in subjects, are offensive to rulers ;
besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give
safety, provoke suspicion. Since then you cannot hope
for quarter, take courage, I beseech you, whether it
be safety or renown that you hold most precious.
Under a woman's leadership the Brigantes were able
to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not
success ended in supineness, might have thrown off
the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered
people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forth-
with at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has
in reserve.

CHy\p. " Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave
xxxii. . ..... ^ ^

m war as they are licentious m peace .-" 1 o our strifes

and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the

errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army,

an army which, composed as it is of every variety of

nations, is held together by success and will be broken

up by disaster. These Gauls and Germans, and, I

blush to say, these numerous Britons, who, though

they lend their lives to support a stranger's rule, have

been its enemies longer than its subjects, }'ou cannot

imagine to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 31

and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds of attach- chap.

XXXI I

ment ; remove them, and those who have ceased to
fear will begin to hate. All the incentives to victory
are on our side. The Romans have no wives to
kindle their courage ; no parents to taunt them with
flight ; many have either no country or one far away.
Few in number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking
around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which are all un-
familiar to them ; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed,
the Gods have delivered them into our hands. Be not
frightened by idle display, by the glitter of gold and
of silver, which can neither protect nor wound. In
the very ranks of the enemy we shall find our own
forces. Britons will acknowledge their own cause ;
Gauls will remember past freedom ; the other Germans
will abandon them, as but lately did the Usipii.
Behind them there is nothing to dread. The forts are
ungarrisoned ; the colonies in the hands of aged men ;
what with disloyal subjects and oppressive rulers, the
towns are ill-affected and rife with discord. On the
one side you have a general and an army ; on the
other, tribute, the mines, and all the other penalties of
an enslaved people. Whether you endure these for
ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide.
Think, therefore, as you advance to battle, at once of
your ancestors and of your posterity."

Preparations for battle. Agricolds addj-ess to his army.

They received his speech with enthusiasm, and as is chap.

XXXIII.

usual among barbarians, with songs, shouts and dis-
cordant cries. And now was seen the assembling of
troops and the gleam of arms, as the boldest warriors

32 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, stepped to the front. As the Hne was formin"',

XXXIII.

ACTricola, who, though his troops were in high spirits
and could scarcely be kept within the entrenchments,
still thought it right to encourage them, spoke as
follows —

" Comrades, this is the eighth year since, thanks to
the greatness and good fortune of Rome and to your
own loyalty and energy, you conquered Britain. In
our many campaigns and battles, whether courage in
meeting the foe, or toil and endurance in struggling, I
may say, against nature herself, have been needed, I
have ever been well satisfied with my soldiers, and
you with your commander. And so you and I have
passed beyond the limits reached by former armies or
by former governors, and we now occupy the last
confines of Britain, not merely in rumour and report,
but with an actual encampment and armed force.
Britain has been both discovered and subdued. Often
on the march, when morasses, mountains, and rivers
were wearing out your strength, did I hear our bravest
ir^en exclaim, ' When shall we have the enemy before
us ? — when shall we fight .'' ' He is now here, driven
from his lair, and your wishes and your valour have
free scope, and everything favours the conqueror,
everything is adverse to the vanquished. For as it is
a great and glorious achievement, if we press on, to
have accomplished so great a march, to have traversed
forests and to have crossed estuaries, so, if we retire,
our present most complete success will prove our
greatest danger. We have not the same knowledge
of the country or the same abundance of supplies,
but we have arms in our hands, and in them we have

CN.EUS JULIUS AGRfCOLA. 33

everything^. For myself I have loner been convinced chap.

XXXIIi

that neither for an army nor for a general is retreat
safe. Better, too, is an honourable death than a
life of shame, and safety and renown are for us to
be found together. And it would be no inglorious
end to perish on the extreme confines of earth and of
nature.

"If unknown nations and an untried enemy con- chap.

' XXXIV

fronted you, I should urge you on by the example of
other armies. As it is, look back upon your former
honours, question your own eyes. These are the men
who last year under cover of darkness attacked a
single legion, whom you routed by a shout. Of all
the Britons these are the most confirmed runaways,
and this is why they have survived so long. Just
as when the huntsman penetrates the forest and the
thicket, all the most courageous animals rush out
upon him, while the timid and feeble are scared
away by the very sound of his approach, so the bravest
of the Britons have long since fallen ; and the rest
are a mere crowd of spiritless cowards. You have
at last found them, not because they have stood their
ground, but because they have been overtaken. Their
desperate plight, and the extreme terror that para-
lyses them, have rivetted their line to this spot, that
you might achieve in it a splendid and memorable
victory. Put an end to campaigns ; crown your fifty
years' service with a glorious day ; prove to your
country that her armies could never have been fairly
charged with protracting a war or with causing a
rebellion."

D

34 THE LIFE OF

CHAP. Order of the Roman Army.

XXXV. -^ -^

While Agricola was yet speaking, the ardour of the
soldiers was rising to its height, and the close of his
speech was followed by a great outburst of enthu-
siasm. In a moment they flew to arms. He arrayed
his eager and impetuous troops in such a manner
that the auxiliary infantry, 8,000 in number, strength-
ened his centre, while 3,000 cavalry were posted on his
wings. The legions were drawn up in front of the
intrenched camp ; his victory would be vastly more
glorious if won without the loss of Roman blood,
and he would have a reserv^e in case of repulse. The
enemy, to make a formidable display, had posted him-
self on high ground ; his van was on the plain, while
the rest of his army rose in an arch-like form up
the slope of a hill. The plain between resounded
with the noise and with the rapid movements of
chariots and cavalry. Agricola, fearing that from the
enemy's superiority of force he would be simul-
taneously attacked in front and on the flanks, widened
his ranks, and though his line was likely to be too
extended, and several officers advised him to bring
up the legions, yet, so sanguine was he, so resolute
in meeting danger, he sent away his horse and took
his stand on foot before the colours.

The battle.
CHAP. The action began with distant fighting. The Britons
with equal steadiness and skill used their huge swords
and small shields to avoid or to parry the missiles
of our soldiers, while they themselves poured on
us a dense shower of darts, till Agricola encouraged

xxxvi.

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 35

three Batavian and two Tunprian cohorts to chap.
bring matters to the decision of close fighting with
swords. Such tactics were famiHar to these veteran
soldiers, but were embarrassing to an enemy armed
with small bucklers and unwieldy weapons. The
swords of the Britons are not pointed, and do not
allow them to close with the foe, or to fight in the
open field. No sooner did the Batavians begin to
close with the enemy, to strike them with their
shields, to disfigure their faces, and overthrowing
the force on the plain to advance their line up
the hill, than the other auxiliary cohorts joined
with eager rivalry in cutting down all the near-
est of the foe. Many were left behind half dead,
some even unwounded, in the hurry of victory.
Meantime the enemy's cavalry had fled, and the
charioteers had mingled in the engagement of the
infantry. But although these at first spread panic,
they were soon impeded by the close array of our
ranks and by the inequalities of the ground. The
battle had anything but the appearance of a cavalry
action, for men and horses were carried along in
confusion together, while chariots, destitute of guid-
ance, and terrified horses without drivers, dashed
as panic urged them, sideways, or in direct collision
against the ranks.

Defeat of the Britons. Loss on both sides.

Those of the Britons who, having as yet taken no chap.
part m the engagement, occupied the hill-tops, and
who without fear for themselves sat idly disdaining
the smallness of our numbers, had begun gradually

D 2

36 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, to descend and to hem in the rear of the victorious

XXXVII. A • 1 1 r

army, when Agncola, who feared this very movement,
opposed their advance with four squadrons of cavalry
held in reserve by him for any sudden emergencies
of battle. Their repulse and rout was as severe as
their onset had been furious. Thus the enemy's
design recoiled on himself, and the cavalry which by
the general's order had wheeled round from the van
of the contending armies, attacked his rear. Then,
indeed, the open plain presented an awful and
hideous spectacle. Our men pursued, wounded,
made prisoners of the fugitives only to slaughter
them when others fell in their way. And now the
enemy, as prompted by their various dispositions,
fled in whole battalions with arms in their hands
before a few pursuers, while some, who were unarmed,
actually rushed to the front and gave themselves up
to death. Everywhere there lay scattered arms,
corpses, and mangled limbs, and the earth reeked
with blood. Even the conquered now and then
felt a touch of fury and of courage. On approach-
ing the woods, they rallied, and as they knew the
ground, they were able to pounce on the foremost
and least cautious of the pursuers. Had not Agricola,
who was present everywhere, ordered a force of
strong and lightly-equipped cohorts, with some dis-
mounted troopers for the denser parts of the forest,
and a detachment of cavalry where it was not so
thick, to scour the woods like a party of huntsmen,
serious loss would have been sustained through the
excessive confidence of our troop.s. When, however,
the enemy saw that we again pursued them in firm

CX^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 37

and compact array, they fled no longer in masses chap.
as before, each looking for his comrade ; but dis-
persing and avoiding one another, they sought the
shelter of distant and pathless wilds. Night and
weariness of bloodshed put an end to the pursuit.
About 10,000 of the enemy were slain ; on our side
there fell 360 men, and among them Aulus Atticus,
the commander of the cohort, whose youthful im-
petuosity and mettlesome steed had borne him into
the midst of the enemy.

Scenes after the battle. Agrieolds return southwards.

Elated by their victory and their booty, the con- chap.
querors passed a night of merriment, Meanwhile the
Britons, wandering amidst the mingled wailings of
men and women, were dragging off their wounded,
calling to the unhurt, deserting their homes, and in
their rage actually firing them, choosing places of
concealment only instantly to abandon them. One
moment they would take counsel together, the next,
part company, while the sight of those who were
dearest to them sometimes melted their hearts, but
oftener roused their fury. It was an undoubted fact
that some of them vented their rage on their wives
and children, as if in pity for their lot. The following
day showed more fully the extent of the calamity,
for the silence of desolation reigned everywhere : the
hills were forsaken, houses were sm.oking in the
distance, and no one was seen by the scouts. These
were despatched in all directions ; and it having been
ascertained that the track of the flying enemy was
uncertain, and that there was no attempt at rallying,

38

THE LIFE OF

CHAP.
XXXVI II.

it being also impossible, as summer was now over, to
extend the war, Agricola led back his army into the
territory of the Boresti. He received hostages from
them, and then ordered the commander of the fleet
to sail round Britain. A force for this purpose was
given him, which great panic everywhere preceded.
Agricola himself, leading his infantry and cavalry by
slow marches, so as to overawe the newly-conquered
tribes by the very tardiness of his progress, brought
them into winter-quarters, while the fleet with pro-
pitious breezes and great renown entered the harbour
of Trutulium, to Avhich it had returned after having
coasted aloncr the entire southern shore of the island.

CHAP.
KXXIX.

Doiiiitiaiis vexation at the nczvs of Agricola s success.

Of this series of events, though not exaggerated in
the despatches of Agricola by any boastfulness of
language, Domitian heard, as w'as his wont, with joy
in his face but anxiety in his heart. He felt conscious
that all men laughed at his late mock triumph over
Germany, for which there had been purchased from
traders people whose dress and hair might be made to
resemble those of captives, whereas now a real and
splendid victory, with the destruction of thousands of
the enemy, was being celebrated with just applause.
It was, he thought, a very alarming thing for him that
the name of a subject should be raised above that of
the Emperor ; it was to no purpose that he had
driven into obscurity the pursuit of forensic eloquence
and the graceful accomplishments of civil life, if
another were to forestall the distinctions of war. To
other glories he could more easily shut his eyes, but

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 39

the greatness of a "-ood ercneral was a truly imperial chap.

• • 1 1 T_ J xxxi>;

quality. Harassed by these anxieties, and absorbed

in an incommunicable trouble, a sure prognostic of

some cruel purpose, he decided that it was best for

the present to suspend his hatred until the freshness

of Agricola's renown and his popularity with the

army should begin to pass away.

Honours paid to Agricola. His behaviour.
For Asfricola was still the governor of Britain, chap,

XL.

Accordingly the Emperor ordered that the usual
triumphal decorations, the honour of a laurelled
statue, and all that is commonly given in place of the
triumphal procession, with the addition of many
laudatory expressions, should be decreed in the senate,
together with a hint to the effect that Agricola was to
have the province of Syria, then vacant by the death
of Atilius Rufus, a man of consular rank, and
generally reserved for men of distinction. It was
believed by many persons that one of the freedmen
employed on confidential services was sent to Agricola,
bearing a despatch in which Syria was offered him,
and with instructions to deliver it should he be in
Britain ; that this freedman in crossing the straits
met Agricola, and without even saluting him made
his way back to Domitian ; though I cannot say
whether the story is true, or is only a fiction invented
to suit the Emperor's character.

Meanwhile Agricola had handed over his province
in peace and safety to his successor. And not to
make his entrance into Rome conspicuous by the
concourse of welcoming throngs, he avoided the

40 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, attentions of his friends by entering the city at night,
and at night too, according to orders, proceeded to
the palace, where, having been received with a hurried
embrace and without a word being spoken, he mingled
in the crowd of courtiers. Anxious henceforth to tem-
per the military renown, which annoys men of peace,
with other merits, he studiously cultivated retirement
and leisure, simple in dress, courteous in conversation,
and never accompanied but by one or two friends, so
that the many who commonly judge of great men by
their external grandeur, after having seen and at-
tentively surveyed him, asked the secret of a great-
ness which but-few could explain.

Agricolds danger.
jHAP. During this time he was frequently accused before

Y I I

Domitian in his absence, and in his absence acquitted.
The cause of his danger lay not in any crime, nor in
any complaint of injury, but in a ruler who was the
foe of virtue, in his own renown, and in that worst
class of enemies — the men who praise. And then
followed such days for the commonwealth as would
not suffer Agricola to be forgotten ; days when so
many of our armies were lost in Mccsia, Dacia,
Germany, and Pannonia, through the rashness or
cowardice of our generals, when so many of our
officers were besieged and captured with so many of
our auxiliaries, when it was no longer the boundaries
of empire and the banks of rivers which were im-
perilled, but the winter-quarters of our legions and
the posses.sion of our territories. And so when
disaster followed upon disaster, and the entire year was

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 41

marked by destruction and slauc^hter, the voice of the chap.
people called Agricola to the command ; for they all
contrasted his vigour, firmness, and experience in war,
with the inertness and timidity of other generals.
This talk, it is quite certain, assailed the ears of the
Emperor himself, while affection and loyalty in the
best of his freedmen, malice and envy in the worst,
kindled the anger of a prince ever inclined to evil.
And so at once, by his own excellences and by the
faults of others, Agricola was hurried headlong to a
perilous elevation.

A.D. go. ^T. 52. Agricola declines a pro-consulate.

The year had now arrived in which the pro-consulate chap.
of Asia or Africa was to fall to him by lot, and, as
Civica had been lately murdered, Agricola did not
want a warning, or Domitian a precedent. Persons
well acquainted with the Emperor's feelings came to
ask Agricola, as if on their own account, whether he
would go. First they hinted their purpose by praises
of tranquillity and leisure ; then offered their services
in procuring acceptance for his excuses ; and at last,
throwing off all disguise, brought him by entreaties
and threats to Domitian. The Emperor, armed
beforehand with hypocrisy, and assuming a haughty
demeanour, listened to his prayer that he might be
excused, and having granted his request allowed
himself to be formally thanked, nor blushed to grant
so sinister a favour. But the salary usually granted
to a pro-consul, and which he had himself given to
some governors, he did not bestow on Agricola, either
because he was offended at its not havin;7 been

42 • THE LIFE OF

CHAP, asked, or was warned by his conscience that he mis^ht

XLII. .

be thought to have purchased the refusal which he had
commanded. It is, indeed, human nature to hate the
man whom you have injured; yet the Emperor, not-
withstanding his irascible temper and an implacability
proportioned to his reserve, was softened by the
moderation and prudence of Agricola, who neither by
a perverse obstinacy nor an idle parade of freedom
challenged fame or provoked his fate. Let it be
known to those whose habit it is to admire the dis-
regard of authority, that there may be great men
even under bad emperors, and that obedience and
submission, when joined to activity and vigour, may
attain a glory which most men reach only by a
perilous career, utterly useless to the state, and closed
by an ostentatious death.

A.D. 93. yET. SS- His death.
CHAP. The end of his life, a deplorable calamity to us and
a grief to his friends, was regarded with concern even
by strangers and those who knew him not. The
common people and this busy population continually
inquired at his house, and talked of him in public
places and in private gatherings. No man when he
heard of Agricola's death could either be glad or at
once forget it. Men's sympathy was increased by a
prevalent rumour that he was destroyed by poison.
For myself, I have nothing which I should venture to
state for fact. Certainly during the whole of his
illness the Emperor's chief freedmen and confidential
physicians came more frequently than is usual with a
court which pays its visits by means of messengers.

CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 43

This was, perhaps, soHcitude, perhaps espionage, chap.
Certain it is, that on the last day the very agonies of
his dying moments were reported by a succession of
couriers, and no one believed that there would be such
haste about tidings which would be heard with regret.
Yet in his manner and countenance the Emperor
displayed some signs of sorrow, for he could now
forget his enmity, and it was easier to conceal his joy
than his fear. It was well known that on reading the
will, in which he was named co-heir with Agricola's
excellent wife and most dutiful daughter, he expressed
delight, as if it had been a complimentary choice.
So blinded and perverted was his mind by incessant
flattery, that he did not know that it was only a bad
Emperor whom a good father would make his heir.

His age. Remarks on hhii and on the circinnstances of
his death.

Agricola was born on the 1 3th of Tune, in the third chat
consulate of Caius Caesar; he died on the 23rd
of August, during the consulate of Collega and
Priscus, being in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
Should posterity wish to know something of his
appearance, it was graceful rather than commanding.
There was nothing formidable in his appearance ; a
gracious look predominated. One would easily be-
lieve him a good man, and willingly believe him to be
great. As for himself, though taken from us in the
prime of a vigorous manhood, yet, as far as glory is
concerned, his life was of the longest. Those true
blessings, indeed, which consist in virtue, he had fully
attained ; and on one who had reached the honours of

XLIV

44 THE LIFE OF

CHAP, a consulate and a triumph, what more had fortune to

X.L1V.

bestow ? Immense wealth had no attractions for him,
and wealth he had, even to splendour. As his
daughter and his wife survived him, it may be thought
that he was even fortunate — fortunate, in that while
his honours had suffered no eclipse, while his fame
was at its height, while his kindred and his friends
still prospered, he escaped from the evil to come.
For, though to survive until the dawn of this most
happy age and to see a Trajan on the throne was
what he would speculate upon in previsions and
wishes confided to my ears, yet he had this mighty
compensation for his premature death, that he was
spared those later years during which Domitian,
leaving now no interval or breathing space of time,
but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the
life-blood of the Commonwealth.

^HAP. Agricola did not see the senate-house besieged, or

XLV.

the senate hemmed in by armed men, or so many of
our consulars falling at one single massacre, or so
many of Rome's noblest ladies exiles and fugitives.
Carus Metius had as yet the distinction of but one
victory, and the noisy counsels of Messalinus were
not heard beyond the walls of Alba, and Massa
]^a;bius was then answering for his life. It was not
long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison,
before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and
Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent
blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not
gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered ; with
Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see

CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 45

and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being chap

XLV

recorded, to have, ever ready to note the pallid looks
of so many faces, that savage countenance reddened
with the hue with which he defied shame.

Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in
the splendour 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 bitterness 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. Assuredly we
should have received some precepts, some utterances
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
that 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 chap
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 honour thee

XLVI.

46 THE LIFE OF AGRTCOLA.

CHAP, not so much with transitory praises as with our
XLVI. , .^

reverence, and, ii 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 honour 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 character rather

than those of his person, It is not that I would

forbid 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, whatever w^e 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.

NOTES ON THE

LIFE OF AGRICOLA.

(i) Many too thought that to write their oivn lives
showed the confidence of integrity rather than presump-
tion. {Ac pleriqne, suain ipsi vitani narrare, fiduciam
potius mornm, qitain arrogantiam arbitrati suiit.)

" Fiducia morum " seems naturally to mean " the chap. i.
confidence inspired by a good character." The word
" fiducia " usually denotes " a well-grounded, and there-
fore praiseworthy, trust " in anything. Possibly by
" morum " may be meant the manners of the age in
which Rutilius and Scaurus lived. To write their
own lives was, in fact, to bear a testimony to the
virtues of a less corrupt time ; and they would feel
that to praise themselves was, in fact, to praise the
State. But the difference between these two meanings
is very slight.

0/ Rntilins and Scanriis no one doid'ted the Jionesty
or questioned the motives.

Rutilius, who was consul 105 B.C., is spoken of by
Cicero (De Orat. i. 53) as a man of learning, devoted
to philosophy, and of singular virtue and Integrity.

43 NOTES ON THE

CHAP. 1 In the Brutus (ch. 29), he is named with Scaurus ;
both are said to have been experienced, though not
first-rate orators, men of great industry and some
talent, but not possessed of true oratorical genius.
Rutilius was a Stoic, and a pupil of Panaetius. He
wrote a history of Rome in Greek, which is referred
to by Livy (xxxix. 52). His memoir of himself and of
his times is mentioned only by Tacitus. Rutilius Rufus
and Aurelius Scaurus were contemporaries and rivals.
Each impeached the other for bribery, in seeking
to obtain the consulate. Scaurus was " princeps
Senatus," and twice consul, in 115 B.C. and 107 B.C.

Tacitus here refers to Scaurus's autobiography in
three books, of which Cicero says (Brutus, 29) that it
was good enough {sane utiles), but that it was read by
no one. He began life as a poor man, though by
birth a patrician, and succeeded in raising his family
to the highest distinction.

Btit in these days I who have to record the life of one
who has passed away mnst crave an indnlgence, which I
shonld fiot have had to ask had I only to inveigh against
ajt age so cruel, so hostile to all virtne. (A t nnnc narraturo
niihi vitani dcfuncti hominis, venia opns fnit; qnani
non. pctisseni, incnsaturns tart scuva et infesta virtutibns
tcnipora)

We take Tacitus's meaning to be this : — " I should
not have thought it necessary to offer any apology for
my work, were that work to be merely a satire on a
bad age, and not also the prai.se of a good man." A
very similar sentiment occurs Hist. ii. i : — " From a

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 49

writer's adulation we should instinctively shrink, while chap. i.
we lend a ready ear to detraction and spite." So here
Tacitus implies that invective and satire would be sure
to be popular, and would, therefore, need no apology.
There is another meaning which the passage may
bear; it is this : — " Under any other circumstances I
should not have apologized for this biography, since
in writing it I am necessarily about to censure a bad
age." Ritter reads " incursaturus " for " incusaturus,"
because he thinks that the meaning of " incusaturus "
is obscure, and the idea conveyed not suited to the
better time of Trajan in which Tacitus was writing.
Accordingly, he explains the passage thus : — " I
should not have thought of offering an apology had
I been writing in Domitian's reign, and thereby likely
to offend one who hated virtue ; such an apology
would have been an insult to the Emperor." But is
not this explanation of the passage as far-fetched as
that to which he objects.'' "Incusaturus," it should
be observed, is the reading of the MSS. Orelli and
Wex retain it.

We liavc read tJiat the panegyrics pro7ionnced hy
Arulentts Rnsticus on PcEtns TJirasea and by Herennius
Seiiecio on Prisons H civ id ins were made capital crimes.
{Legimns, cnm Aruleno Rnstico Pestns Thrasea,
Hercnnio Senecioni Prisons Helvidiics laudati essent,
capiiale fnisse^

Tacitus had probably read an account of these cjj.^p ,i
horrors during his absence from Rome, in letters from
his own personal friends, and possibly in memoirs and

E

50 JJOTES ON THE

CHAP. II. panegyrics composed by some of the senators in
honour of the men here mentioned. He can hardly
be referring to the " Acta Diurna," for Domitian, so
we learn from Dion Cassius, would not allow the
memory of his victims to be recorded.

Arulenus Rusticus, or, as his full name seems to
have been, L. x\rulenus Junius Rusticus, was a Stoic,
and an intimate friend of Paetus Thrasea, whom, as a
tribune of the plebs, A.D. 66, in Nero's reign, he would
have interposed to save by means of his tribunitial
"veto" had Thrasea permitted him. Suetonius
(Domit. X.) says he was put to death by Domitian
for having written panegyrics on Thrasea and Helvi-
dius Priscus, in which he spoke of them as "sanctis-
simi viri." Tacitus, however, is probably right in
attributing the latter panegyric to Herennius Senecio,
and his testimony is confirmed by Pliny (i. 5, 14 ;
iii. 11). Senecio was put to death on the accusation
of Caius Metius, and his chief crime seems to have
been this laudatory memoir of Helvidius Priscus.

Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio are again
mentioned, ch. 45 ; and Mauricus, a brother of the
former is also named in the same passage. Pie was
one of Pliny's intimate friends, who says of him
(iv. 22), "Quo viro nihil firmius, nihil verius." This
character of him is well illustrated in the Hist. iv. 40,
where we arc told that on the first day on which
Domitian took his seat in the Senate, Mauricus asked
him to give the Senators access to the Imperial
•registers with the view of ascertaining what impeach-
ments the several informers had proposed, and thereby
callincr them to account.

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 51

TJlc conscience of mankind {conscicntiavi huinani chap. ii.
generis).

We have ventured to render "conscientia" by
" conscience," although of course the precise meaning
is, " the knowledge which all men had of the virtues
of those who have been above named." In this, the
idea of approval is implied, so that " conscientia " may
be fairly taken to express, " the faculty which ap-
proves." The word has acquired almost the exact
meaning of our " conscience " in Tacitus and the
writers of the Silver Age. It occurs three times in
the Agricola, in ch. i. ii. and xlii., in all which passages
it seems to be adequately represented by its English
derivative.

New a Trajanns.

Trajan was so called after his adoption by Nerva. chap, hi

The pnblie safety [secnritas p?ibliea).

The force of the original (which can hardly be repro-
duced in a translation) turns on the fact that " public
safety " {secnritas pnblicd) was personified as a kind
of goddess, and represented on coins of the Antonine
periods under the figure of a woman, in a sitting pos-
ture, with her right hand on her head.

Those fifteen years.
Domitian reigned from 8i A.D. to 96 A.D.

The beauty and splendonr {pnlchritudinem ac speciem').

Perhaps the word "species" is used in its philo- chap, iv
sophical sense, and denotes the tSea of Plato. The

E 2

52 NOTES ON THE

CHAP. IV. context rather favours this view. The expression
would thus mean " the highest imaginable glory."
Tacitus, it should be observed, likes occasionally to
use philosophical language.

He retained from his learning that most difficnlt of
lessons, moderation. {Retimiitqne, quod est difjicillimiini,
ex sapientia modum.)

" Modum " must mean " moderation," " self-control,"
what the Greeks expressed by aw(^po(jvuri, or perhaps
" the due mean in all things," the to fiecrov of Aristotle.
The lesson which Agricola retained from his philo-
sophical studies was to avoid excess in any direction,
and Tacitus no doubt implies a favourable contrast
between him and some of the more extreme Stoics
with whom he was acquainted.

Sah'ius Titiajins.
CHAP. VI. He was the elder brother of the Emperor Otho.

Hozvever, the good wife deserves the girater praise,
just as the bad inenrs a heavier censnre. {Nisi quod in
bona uxore tanto major laiis, qiianto in mala plus cnlpce
est.)

This sentence is not quite clearly expressed, but
the idea is, that the virtues of a good wife arc
esteemed more highly by the world than those of a
good husband, just as the faults of a bad wife are
more severely censured than those of a bad husband.
We often hear it said that a bad woman is worse than
a bad man.

LIFE OF aGRICOI.A, 53

The son that had before been born to him. {Filiiim ante chap, vi
sublatnm)

The original would be more nearly represented by
the term "acknowled<^ed." A Roman father took up
{sHstnlit) the new-born child, thus acknowledging him
as his own, and declaring that he was to be reared.
Children born in excess of a certain number, post
constitntaui faniiliaiii or agjiati, to use Roman phrases,
were not reared. Compare Hist. v. 5, Gerraania, 19.

The usual judicial functions did not fall to his lot.
{Nee enini jurisdictio obvencrat.)

Agricola was neither "praetor urbanus" nor "praetor
peregrinus," and Tacitus tells us (Ann. iv. 6) that all
cases in which the State was involved, and even all
the more important private cases, were disposed of by
the Senate, so that his praetorship must have been a
sinecure.

The games and the pageantry of his office he ordered
according to the mean bctiveen strictness and profusion,
avoiding extravagance biit 7iot missing distinction.
{Ludos et inania honoris medio rationis atque abun-
dantice duxit, uti longe a luxuria, ita fama propior)

The general meaning of this passage is sufficiently
obvious, but we cannot believe that we have exactly
what Tacitus wrote. Whatever reading be adopted,
there is extreme difficulty about the word " duxit," to
which it seems hardly possible to give any tolerable
sense. It can scarcely be equivalent to " edidit," for,
as Ernesti pointed out, there is no authority for such
an expression as " ducere ludos." It is possible that

54 NOTES ON THE

CHAP. VI. " duxit ludos " may mean " he nianaged, or regulated
the games," and that the idea of the whole sentence
is something of this kind : " He guided, or made
them pass through the mean between strictness and
profusion." Ritter adopts the conjecture of Lipsius,
and for "medio rationis" reads " moderationis," and
he thinks the sense is : " He considered that the
games required for their due celebration a moderate
yet, at the same time, a sufficiently ample expenditure."
It seems very doubtful whether this meaning can
be fairly extracted from the words. For the present,
we think we may as well read with Orelli, " medio
rationis," which, at all events, has MSS. authority,
though we admit we are not satisfied with it.

The late prcetorian officer {nee legatus preetorius).
^^^i^' This was Roscius Caelius, of whom we are told,
Hist. i. 60, that he was on bad terms with the Governor
of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, whom he insulted,
and actually drove from the province. His audacity,
it is here said, gave him the chief influence with the
soldiery; here it seems to be implied that he was,
perhaps, too weak to control them. The meaning,
however, is that either his own seditious temper or
that of the soldiers was in fault. As an officer, too,
of merely priEtorian rank he would carry less weight
than a consular commander.

He was altogctlier wWtout harshness, pride, or the

greed of gain. ( Tristitiani cl arrogantiam et avaritiani

exuerat.)

ciiAi\ IX. It has been said that " avaritia " cannot have its

usual meaning in this passage, because it could not be

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 55

well joined with " tristitia " and " arroj^antia," which chap, ix
denote qualities so widely different, and because, too,
we are told immediately afterwards that to speak of
purity and integrity in such a man would be an
insult to his virtues. Orelli therefore thinks that by
" avaritia " is meant extreme sternness and severity in
the collection of the revenues.^ It has been explained
by some to be excessive parsimony and shabbiness in
all money matters. But " avaritia " always seems to
have a much stronger meaning than this, and to
express an "eager grasping after more." So in this
passage we have rendered it the "greed of gain."
There might be the anxiety to amass a fortune
without anything like actual dishonesty, or, indeed,
anything incompatible with the virtues expressed by
" integritas " and " abstinentia.'' And a man, in
this sense " avarus," might be also "tristis" and
" arrogans."

Many zvriters {jmdtis scriptoribus).

The reference is to Caesar, Pliny, Ptolemy, Dio- chap, x
dorus Siculus, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus, Mela.

So that it lias become the popular description of the
ivJiole island. ( Unde et in universuni fania est trans-
grcssa)

Kritz reads " transgressis " for " transgressa," and
explains the passage to mean that those who had
crossed over from the continent gave the description
of Britain just mentioned to the whole island, i.e. to

' Galba is said to have beca " publice avarus."

r.6 NOTES ON THE

CHAP. X. Britain with Caledonia. " Transgressis " certain!}'
has the authority of one MS,, but " transgressa " has
the merit of being a clear and intelligible reading,
which can hardly be said for the other. Indeed it
seems barely possible to get from it the meaning
given by Kritz.

Which as yet had been Jiidden by the snows of winter.
[Quani Jiactoius nix et Jiienis abdcbat?)

We have translated the conjectural reading " quam
hactenus nix et hiems abdebat," as perhaps, on the
whole, the best, where none are by any means
satisfactory. The passage seems too corrupt to
admit of certain emendation.

TJiule can hardly be Iceland. It is more probably
Mainland, the largest of the Shetland Isles.

The dependants fight {propugtiant).

CHA?. The w^ord may mean "fight from the chariot," or

merely "fight for him," z>. "do the fighting." The
Germans thus reversed, in this case, the practice with
which the readers of the Iliad arc familiar.

Tins Augustus spoke of as poliey, Tiberius as an
inJierited maxim. {Consilium id divus A ugustus vocabat,
Tiberius prceceptum})

CHAP, A passage in Ann. i. 1 1 explains this. Augustus

added to the Imperial register, written by his own
hand, and containing a summary of the resources of
the empire, a recommendation that certain fixed
limits and boundaries should be observed. Tiberius
always professed the greatest respect for everything

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 57

said or clone by the father who had adopted him. In cfiAi-

. XHI.

Ann. iv. ''^J he is represented as saying that he looked
on all the deeds and words of Augustus as law.

But his purposes, rapidly formed, ivere easily changed.
{Ni velox iugeuio, mobilis pamitentice^

Here we have translated from Orelli. Kritz reads
" mobili " for " mobilis," and construes "velox" with
" poenitentije," which he takes as a genitive, and
would render the words thus : " swift to repent,
because of his fickle temper." But the passage to
which he refers us (Ann. vi. 45), "commotus ingenio"
(which expression is also used of Caligula), does not
convince us that he is right. His reading perhaps
makes the construction a little neater ; still we do not
see why " mobilis poenitentiae " is not a legitimate
expression.

TJie first to renczv the attciupt. (A uetor iterati operis.)

Nothing can be made out of the reading of the
MSS., " auctoritate operis," which Orelli leaves as he
finds. We have adopted what we look on as the
almost certain emendation of Wex and Doderlin
(" auctor iterati operis "), Avhich Kritz approves. By
" opus " is to be understood the laborious and difficult
operation of invading and conquering Britain, which
Julius CiJesar was the first, and Claudius the second,
to attempt. " Auctor," though usually applied to
one who begins a work, means also one who com-
pletes it.

58 NOTES ON THE

CHAP. Destiny learnt to know its favourite (inonstratns fatis

XIII. -^ .,. . , ^ -^

/-- espasianns).

" Fatis " must, we think, be the dative. If it were
the ablative, the preposition " a " seems wanted. The
meaning would then be, " Vespasian was marked out
by destiny." Ernesti, and after him Orelli, explain
the passage to mean that he was " pointed out to,"
and, so to speak, commended to destiny and fortune
as one worthy of empire. We think they are right.

A colony of veterans mas also introduced. [Addita
insnpcr vcteranornm colonial)

n^AP. Tacitus means Camalodunum (Colchester). " Cam.a-

lus " answered to Mars ; hence " Camalodunum," the
city of Mars.

Of having enlarged the sphere of government {fania
aiicti officii^)

The "officium " of a governor would be to maintain
the boundaries of his province ; if he enlarged them,
he might be said "augcrc ofhcium." This appears to
be the meaning of the expression.

The centurions of the one, the slaves of the other,
combine violence with insult. {A Iter ins man us centuri-
ones alterius servos vim ct contumeliani miscet'e.)

CHAP. There is here some confusion in the MSS., and one

is obliged to have recourse to conjecture. Orelli,
following Od. Miiller, reads "alterius manus centu-
riones, alterius servos;" and explains it thus, "the
instruments of the one, i.e. the legate, are his centu-
rions." lie illustrates this use of " manus" from Cic.

XV.

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 59

VciT. ii. i8, 27 : " Comites illi tui dclecti 7uauus erant '"xv'"'
tuae." But the construction is awkward, and the
word " esse " seems to be absolutely required, to
answer to " miscere." We have here followed Ritter.
who omits " manus," which he thinks found its way
into the text by way of an attempted correction.
The MSS. generally have " centurionis," and it was
this genitive which he supposes caused perplexity.
Ritter's conjecture is perhaps as good as any, where
all are very doubtful.

Excellent as lie zuas in other respects. {Ni, qnani-
qnam egrcgius cetera, &c.)

We have followed Orelli and Wex, who read "ni" chap.

XVI.

Kritz reads "ne," as being closer to the MSS., which
have " nequaquam." This, of course, entirely alters
the meaning of the passage, and makes it point to the
apprehensions of the Britons, instead of being the
historian's assertion as a matter of fact. But the
words "quamquam egregius cetera," which must, we
think, be meant to express Tacitus's own view of
Paullinus, seem to be in this case very awkwardly
interposed. We therefore prefer "ni" to " ne."

Trcbellins, wJio never ventured 07i a campaign {nullis
castrornm expcrimentis. )

The meaning is that Trebellius was only a carpet
soldier. The ablative "nullis expcrimentis" de-
scribes his character ; he had had no actual experience
of war.

60 NOTES ON THE

When hozvever Vespasian had restored to tuiity
Britain as well as the rest of the luorld. {Sed iibi cum
cetero orbe ct Britanniani recuperavit.)

CHAP. As Vespasian cannot well be said to have "recovered "

XVI !

or "reconquered" the world, we have rendered the
word " recuperavit," " restored to unity." The Empire
had been distracted by civil war ; Vespasian's ac-
cession to power restored peace and unity. What
was lost was in this sense recovered. Possibly too
there may be latent in the word "recuperavit" the
idea that Vespasian was eminently worthy of empire.

Any other successor. {A iter ins s/iccessoris.)

Kritz understands by "alterius" not Frontinns the
immediate successor of Cerialis, but Agricola, the
successor of Montinus. Is not this over subtle .-* We
suppose he will not allow "alter" to have the sense
of "different." But has it not this sense, Hist. ii. 90,
" tamquam apud alterius civitatis senatum" .-* Besides
it is extremely improbable that Tacitus would even
suggest a comparison between Cerialis and the great
man whose life he was writing.

Moved him in the selection of centurions ami soldiers.
{Milites ascir'c.)

CHAT'. The i\TSS. (which OrcUi follows) have " nescire,"

^^^' from which it seems impossible to extract any

tolerable meaning. We think "ascire" (which Wex

and Kritz read) an almost certain emendation. The

allusion is to what was called the " cohors pr^etoris,"

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. Ql

which is continually mentioned by Cicero in his chap
speeches, and which was made up of lictors, secre-
taries, criers, and various attendants on the governor
of a province. They were commonly selected from
the soldiers, and, as they were exempted from all
purely military duties, they were called "beneficiarii."

HitJicrto the people had been compelled to endure the
farce of waiting by the closed granary and of pur-
chasing corn nnjicccssarily and raising it to a fictitious
price. {Nanique per ludibrium assidere clausis horreis
ct emere ultra frumenta ac ludcre pretio cogebantur^

There is some difficulty about " ludere pretio," to
which, as appearing in the MSS., Orelli adheres.
Ritter substitutes for "ludere" the rare word "col-
ludere," which is found in the sense of " to be in
collusion with," and is so used by Cicero (Verr. ii. 2, 24).
It would no doubt suit this passage very well. But
it is quite conceivable that Tacitus might use " ludere"
in the same sense. He often prefers simple words
to compound. The force of the word turns on the
fact that the whole affair was a kind of jest and
mockery ; they were bidding one against another
without any real necessity, and thus absurdly raising
the price. It was not a bona, fide transaction ; it was
a species of mock auction. "Ludere pretio" must be
a similar phrase to " ludere alea." By the " closed
granaries" we understand the public granaries, which
would be under the control of the governer. The
"publicani" would buy up all the corn of the
country and store it in these granaries, so that the

G2 NOTES ON THE

CHAP, farmers would be obliged to buy it back on whatever
terms they could, and the price would be greatly
enhanced by their competition. Cicero charges Verres
with having oppressed his province in this among
many other ways. Wex's emendation of "lucre,"
which he explains by " luere imperata" (to discharge
was required of them), is ingenious, but seems
unnecessary. Kritz conjectures "recludere" in the
sense of "to close again." We doubt whether the
word will bear this meaning.

But the Britons, tJiinkiiig tJicniselves baffled, &c.
{At Britanni i-ati.)

CHAP. Here we have adopted the conjecture of Kritz, who

^^''^'' supplies "elusos" before "rati" a word which Tacitus
elsewhere uses absolutely. Wex and Orelli think
there is a more considerable lacuna in the passage.

The same summer a Usipian coJiort, zvhich had
been levied in Germany and transported into Britain,
ventured on a great and memorable exploit. {Eddcm
(Estate cohors Usipiormn, per Germajiias eonscripta et in
Britanniajn transmissa, magmim et memorabile f acinus
ausa est)

CHAP. The Usipii are mentioned (Germ. 32) with the

x.Kviii. Yenctcj-i, as dwellers on the Rhine. (See Sketch of
the Geography of the Germania.) This Usipian
cohort, levied in Germany {per Germanias, that is,
the Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Germany),
belonged probably to the troops which Agricola, in

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 63

his fifth campaign, had posted in that part of Britain ^^^^-^
which looks towards Ireland (ch. 24), and which con-
sequently, would be in the neighbourhood of the
Frith of Clyde. The " memorable exploit on which
they ventured" is mentioned also by Dion, who tells
us (Ixvi. 20) that, having mutinied, they put out to
sea, sailed round the western parts of Britain, as the
wind and waves carried them, and eventually reached
Agricola's camp on the other side of the island.
This account is certainly less vague than that of
Tacitus, and it would seem to imply that they sailed
from the Frith of Clyde round the north of Scotland
and then down the eastern coast to the Frith of Forth.
Once in the German Ocean, it is perfectly conceivable
that they might have been carried to some point on
the German coast, near the mouth of the Weser or
the Elbe. Had they sailed southwards round
Cornwall, and entered the British Channel, as some
have supposed, it is difficult to see how this could
have happened. Tacitus and Dion cannot well be
reconciled except on the supposition that they sailed
round Scotland. Dr. Merivale thinks that all they
did was to run down the east coast from the Forth
till they came opposite Friesland. In fact, he rejects
Dion's account. (See " Hist, of Romans under the
Empire," ch. Ixi.)

Dispersing in search of zvater. (Mox ad aquaju, &c.)

This is one of those passages from which no
meaning can be extracted, except by very hazardous
conjecture. Orelli leaves it.

64 NOTES ON THE

ciTAP. TJiis remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up

to this time been a defence. (Recessus ipse ac sinus
fames in Jtunc diem defendit.)

We think it far better to take " famae " as the
genitive depending on "sinus" than, with Orelli, as a
dative governed by " defendit." He compares such
passages as Virg. Ec. vii. 47, " Solstitium pecori de-
fendite," and Hor. Car. i. 17, 3, "Defendit asstatem
capelHs ; " and he renders the passage thus : " the
very remoteness of our situation protects us from
fame," i.e. as yet we are all but unknown. This seems
obscure and far-fetched, and though no doubt "sinus
fama; " is a bold expression, still we tliink Tacitus
may have used it to denote "the last and most remote
retreat of glory ; " or he may possibly have wished
to convey the notion that fame, like a tutelary god-
dess, was folding the Caledonians to her bosom.
Ritter takes this last view.

Never likely to abuse our freedom {libcrtatem non in
pQ:nitentiam laturi).

CHAP. It is not easy to give the force of these words, or

indeed to construe them. The meaning seems to be,
"We are not likely to bear our freedom so as after-
wards to have cause for sorrow that we have been
free." The Brigantes had been spoilt by success, or
they would have recovered their freedom. Galgacus
implies that success will not have the same bad effect
on his people, but that they will use their freedom
better, and hold it fast.

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 65

The toivns are ilL-affected. {^gra iniaiicipia)
Wex and Kritz read " mancipia " for " municipia." chap.

XXXII

Wex says that there are two objections to "muni-
cipia ; " (i) We know only of one " municipium " in
Britain, Verulamium ; (2) "aegra" would not mean
"wavering" or "disloyal," but disturbed by internal
faction. But is not the passage clearly rhetorical, and
may it not be compared with the " incensae coloniae "
in ch. V. ? Strictly speaking, we know only of one
" colonia," Camalodunum. It is quite possible that
Camalodunum, Verulamium, and Londinium may be
loosely described under the term " municipia." As
to the word " aeger," it seems rash to pronounce that
its original meaning "feeble," "unsound," may not be
transferred to the idea of "doubtful loyalty," as much
as to that of "internal discord." We see no great
force in Wex's remark that, if Galgacus had meant
to speak of the doubtful attitude of the " municipia "
towards the Romans, he would have rather chosen
a word which expressed the recovery of health.
Relatively to the Romans, the municipia were in an
unhealthy state (czgra). In our translation we have,
for the above reasons, adhered to Orelli's reading,
municipia.

Ah that is commonly given in place of the triumphal pro-
cession {quidquid pro triumpho datur).
By this seems to be meant what was called the ^5^^"
" supplicatio," a formal thanksgiving to the gods when
a great victory had been gained. It took place
before the triumphal procession {triumpJius), but
was not always followed by it.

F

XL.

66 NOTES ON THE

He studiously cultivated rctiremoit and leisure. ( Tran-
qiiillitateni atque otiiim penitus auxit.
CHAP. •\^e doubt whether " auxit " (the established reading)

will bear the meaning which we have given to it, or,
indeed, any meaning. Wex conjectures "hausit"
(drank deep of).

During this time he zuas frequently accused before
Domitian in his absence. {Crebro per eos dies apud
Domitianuni absens accusatus})

CHAP. Agricola had for enemies such men as M. Regulus,

XLI . .

Veiento, Publius Certus, all notorious "delatores."

An ostentatious deatJi (auibitiosd morte).

CHAP. " Ambitiosa mors " is a death by which a man seeks

glory. The word " ambitiosus " comes very near to
our " ostentatious."

For he could now forget his enmity {securus jam
odii).

xLm' ^^ observe that Dr. Merivale, in a paraphrase of

this passage in chap. Ixii. of his " History of the
Romans under the Empire," takes these words in the
sense of "though reckless by this time of popular
hatred." But we think it more probable that by
"odium" is meant Domitian's hatred of Agricola,
and that it is better and simpler to take "securus
odii " as an explanation of the reason why he now
showed his sorrow. This was the view of Lipsius,
and it is approved by Orelli. So too Louandre :
"Tranquillc desormais sur I'objet de sa haine."

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 67

The walls of Alba {Albanam ajxein).

^ , „ _ . . . CHAP

By "arx Albana Tacitus means a favourite country- xlv.
house of Domitian's at the foot of the " Mons Alba-
nus," and seventeen miles from Rome. Here he would
receive information, and occasionally even summon a
meeting of the Senate. Juvenal designates it by the
same term (Sat. iv. 145) : —

" Misso proceres exire jubentur,
Consilio quos Albanam dux niagnus in arcem
Traxerat. "

Suetonius (Domitian, iv.) says that here too the Em-
peror celebrated every year the festival of Minerva.

Carus Metius was one of the most notorious of the
" delatores " in the time of Domitian. He is named
by Juvenal (i. 36), by Martial (xii. 25), and by Pliny,
who (Epist. vii. 19) says that there was found in the
Emperor's desk after his death an information against
himself

Messalinus. This was the infamous Catullus Mes-
salinus, whom Juvenal (iv. 115) thus describes : —

"Grande et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum."

He was blind, and Pliny (Epist. iv. 22) tells us that
"to a savage temper he added all the evil qualities
which sometimes accompany blindness; he knew
neither fear, or shame, or pity, and the Emperor would
make use of him, as one might throw a weapon at
random, for the destruction of all the best citizens."
He is probably the man who, according to Josephus
(Bell. Jud. vii. il), was governor of the Libyan Pen-
tapolis in the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, and

F2

68 NOTES ON THE

CHAP, there contrived to involve a number of Jev/ish pro-
vincials, and Josephus among them, in a false charge
of treason.

Massa Bccbius. Massa Baebius is mentioned in the
Hist. (iv. 50) as one of the procurators of Africa, "a
name even then fatal to the good, and destined often
to reappear among the causes of the sufferings which
we had ere long to endure." The reference in the
i)resent passage is to his impeachment by the pro-
vince of Baitica, which, as governor, he had plundered
and oppressed. The j'ounger Pliny and Herennius
Senecio defended the provincials. Baebius was con-
demned.

Helvidms. Helvidius was an intimate friend of
the younger Pliny. He was one of Domitian's many
victims. Pliny tells us (Epist. ix. 13) that after the
Emperor's death he made up his mind to avenge the
murder of his friend by impeaching the man who
had been his bitterest accuser, one Publicius Certus, a
senator of praetorian rank. Helvidius was the son
of the Helvidius Priscus whom Tacitus praises so
warmly (Hist. iv. 5), who was the son-in-law of Paetus
Thrasea, and who owed his death under Vespasian to
liis courageous freedom of speech. The charge against
him, as we learn from Suetonius (Uomit. x.), was that
in a comic piece which he had composed under the
title of " Paris and CEnone," he had really ridiculed
the Emperor's divorce from one of his wives. With
an obsequious Senate such a charge proved fatal to
him. Tacitus says ^^ our hands," because he was him-
self a senator, though it is doubtful whether he v/as
at Rome at the time.

LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 69

Mmiriais, Rusticus, Scnecio. See notes on ch. Ii. chap.

That savage countenance, reddened with the hue with
which he defied shame [scBvns illc vnltus ct rubor quo
se contra pudorem viipiiebat).

A passage in the Hist, (iv, 40) illustrates the word
"rubor." We are told that on the occasion of Do-
mitian's taking his seat in the Senate and making his
first speech, "the frequent blush on his countenance
passed for modesty." Suetonius (Domit. xviii.), in
describing his appearance, mentions " a redness of
face" as one of his natural peculiarities.

With transitory praises {temporalibns laudibus).

Ritter, following Lipsius, reads " immortalibus" for chap.
the rare word " temporalibus " which is found in the
MSS. We cannot see that anything is thus gained ;
indeed we think that the context is rather in favour of
"temporalibus" in the sense of "feeble, transitory."
The meaning appears to be : " Feeble though we are,
let us do our best to honour Agricola with such
praises and such imitation as our powers permit." The
epithet "immortalis" would not suit this meaning.
Tacitus is not speaking of this particular memoir,
but of the every-day praises which Agricola's family
would bestow on him.

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

INTRODUCTION TO THE
GERMANY.

The following passage of the Germany^ enables us
to fix the date of its composition. " Rome was in
her 640th year when we first heard of the Cimbrian
invader in the consulship of Csecilius Metellus and
Papirius Carbo, from which time to the second consul-
ship of the Emperor Trajan we find to be an interval
of about 210 years." It must, therefore, have been
written A.U.C. 851, A.D. 98.

Various, some of them extravagantly wild, conjec-
tures have been hazarded as to the purpose of the
work. It would tax our ingenuity to imagine a more
improbable supposition than that Tacitus deliberately
intended to furnish Trajan with information about the
character and situation of the dififerent Germanic
tribes, with a view to the invasion and possible con-
quest of the country. The Emperor, we have little
doubt, knew quite as much about Germany as the
historian, and, had he known less, it is difficult to see
how the vague and imperfect descriptions of the work
in question could have helped him in planning a cam-

^ Germany, chap. 37.

74 INTRODUCTION TO

paign. Of this Tacitus must have been well aware.
A much more plausible notion, and one which has
found favour with several editors and translators, is,
that in the rude and simple virtues of the Germans
Tacitus saw a conspicuous contrast to Roman degen-
eracy, as well as the germs of future greatness. We
think there is probably some truth in this view, though
we cannot give it our unqualified assent. There are
certainly passages in the Germany which suggest a
comparison between the merits of barbarian simplicity
and the complicated evils of a highly artificial and
luxurious civilization. But while Tacitus dwells on
the virtues of the Germans, he shows that he was
by no means insensible to their weaknesses and vices.
He particularly mentions their extreme addiction to
drunkenness and gambling. While he recognises in
them a formidable foe to the Empire, and is prompted
in one place ^ to speak of them with an almost savage
hatred, he still seems to have thought meanly of their
capacity for united action. We see no reason for believ-
ing that he anticipated fatal disasters to Rome from
the side of Germany, or that he dimly perceived the
signs of a new world in the many noble qualities of
its free and brave peoples. Tacitus was a thorough
and genuine Roman ; though he feared and hated the
corruptions of his age, and perhaps felt with satis-
faction that his work was an indirect satire on them,
yet he appears to have had great confidence in the
destinies of Rome — a confidence which was, no doubt,
strengthened by the outward splendour and prosperity
of Trajan's reign.

1 Germany, chap. 33.

THE GERMANY. 75

If we are to indulge in conjecture, we should say
that the passage^ in which he enumerates the Roman
losses in Germany explains the historian's motive.
His imagination was evidently impressed by the com-
bined phenomena of a multitude of fierce independent
tribes, and of an indefinite tract of country, "brist-
ling," as he describes it, " with forests, or reeking with
swamps." The apparent impossibility of ever bring-
ing it within the limits of the Empire, and the vaguely
terrible stories which were certain to be current at
Rome about the horrors of the climate and the strange
aspect and ferocious barbarism of the inhabitants,
would be certain to invest the subject with interest
for Roman readers.

Ritter^ has somewhat ingeniously, and not un-
reasonably, suggested that Tacitus intended the Ger-
many to be a kind of explanatory appendix to the
History, in which he has frequently occasion to de-
scribe campaigns of which that country was the scene.
There is nothing in this notion which necessarily
clashes with the hints which we have just thrown out.
It derives, perhaps, some support from the fact that
the Germany is the only work of Tacitus which has
no kind of preface. We attach little importance to
Ritter's remark that it may be compared to the
sketch-^ of the origin and manners of the Jews, only
that, from its greater length, it could not have con-
veniently found a place in the History, We are by
no means convinced that it was not designed to be a

1 Germany, chap. 37. = Ritter, Tacit. Proemium, 9.

^ See Hist. v. 2 -ix.

76 INTRODUCTION TO

distinct and complete work in itself, and we think it
at least probable that some intimation would have
been given of the character and purpose which Ritter
assigns to it.

Another question which can be answered only by-
conjecture is, " What were Tacitus's sources of infor-
mation respecting Germany ? Was he personally
acquainted with the country, or did he rely solely on
the accounts of others ? " On this point we have no
evidence whatever; we are dependent wholly on what
can be inferred from his works. Kritz, in the preface
to his edition of the Germany, published in i860,
argues very confidently, from certain passages, that
Tacitus had visited the country. He notices the use
of German words, such as fravica (spear), glesuvi
(amber), as implying some knowledge of the language.
He thinks that some of the descriptions — those, for
instance, of the houses and of the cattle — seem to
come from an eye-witness ; and that here and there
an expression indicates that the writer's information
was drawn from the natives. But we cannot see why
all this may not be accounted for by supposing that
Tacitus had often conversed with Roman officers who
had served in Germany. He must have had many
opportunities of learning all that he has told us about
the country and its people. The elder Pliny, who
knew it personally from military service, had described
in twenty books, now lost, the Germanic wars, a work
which, from its length, may be supposed to have
treated the subject exhaustively. Whether Tacitus,
as has been thought, passed those last four years of
Agricola's life (a.d. 89 to 93), of which he speaks

THE GERMANY, 77

with such sadness/ ia Germany, must be matter of
pure conjecture.

The Germany presents a number of difficult geo-
graphical and ethnological questions. The latter we
have not attempted to discuss. For the geography,
which Tacitus very imperfectly defines, we have con-
sulted, among others. Dr. Latham's edition, which
is full of curious and interesting matter. The map
exhibits only those tribes which are mentioned in the
work. In the Annals and History there occur several
names'- which are not found iii the Germany. The
omission was not, as far as we can see, intentional.
It was due, probably, to the incompleteness of the
historian's knowledge.

It is to be observed that, by Germany, Tacitus
means what the Romans spoke of as " Germany
beyond the Rhine," as distinguished from the pro-
vinces of Upper and Lower Germany on the west
bank of the river,

^ Life of Agricola, chap. 45.

* The Sugambri, Gugerni, Ampsivarii, Tubantes, Canninefates.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO
THE GERMANY.

The Germany of Tacitus is, as we should expect, an
ill-defined geographical area. The Rhine and Danube
are its western and southern boundaries. The Rhine
divided it from Gaul, the Danube from Vindelicia,
Noricum, and Pannonia. Its eastern boundary, which
parted it from Dacia and Sarmatia, is vaguely de-
scribed as " mutuus metus aut montes" (ch. i). Ap-
proximately, however, we may say that a point in
the Danube a little above Pesth, where the river
makes a sharp bend, is its south-eastern corner. If
from this point we draw a straight line to Cracow,
and then follow the course of the Vistula, we shall
get what nearly represents the eastern boundary.
Tacitus certainly mentions tribes which must have
been to the east of the Vistula, but he intimates that
it is doubtful whether they were, for the most part,
properly German. Northwards lay the imperfectly
known regions of the Baltic, which he speaks of as
"broad promontories and vast islands" (ch. i). All
this he includes in Germany, which he therefore con-
ceived as comprehending Scandinavia, and as having

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 79

no known boundary on the north. For the assistance
of our readers, we have given in the following table
the modern localities of the various tribes which he
mentions. This of course cannot be done with abso-
lute precision.

We have thought it unnecessary that all these tribes
should appear in the map.

yEstii (chap 45). — The yEstii occupied that part
of Prussia which is to the north-east of the Vistula.
Their northern boundary was the Baltic (" Suevi-
cum Mare "). The name still survives in the form
" Estonia."

Angli (chap. 40). — The Angll were a Suevic clan.
They occupied, probably, the larger part of Sleswick-
Holstein, and, possibly, the northern districts of
Hanover.

Angrivarii (chap. 33). — The settlements of the
Angrivarii were to the v/est of the Weser (Visurgis),
in the neighbourhood of Minden and Herford, and
thus coincide, to some extent, with Westphalia. Their
territory Avas the scene of Varus' defeat. It has been
thought that the name of this tribe is preserved in
that of the town Engern.

Aravisci (chap. 28). — The locality of the Aravisci
was the extreme north-eastern part of the province of
Pannonia, and would thus stretch from Vienna (Vin-
dobona) eastwards to Raab (Arrabo), taking in a por-
tion of the south-west of Hungary.
- Aviones (chap. 40). — The Aviones were a Suevic
clan. They are mentioned by Tacitus in connexion
with the Reudigni, Angli, Varini, Eudoses, Suardones,
and Nuithones, all Suevic clans. These tribes must

80 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

have occupied Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-
Strelitz, and Sleswick-Holstein, the Elbe being their
eastern boundary. It is, however, impossible to de-
fine their precise localities.

BastarncB (chap. 46). — The same as the Peucini.

Batavi (chap. 29). — The Batavi, originally a tribe
of the Chatti, occupied what Tacitus here calls " the
island of the Rhine," which (Hist. iv. 12) he explains
to be the island formed by the ocean on the north,
and by the Rhine on the east and west. Caesar (Bell.
Gall. iv. 10) speaks of it as the "insula Batavorum "
(by which name it was generally known), and defines
it rather more exactly as formed by the Rhine, the
Waal, and the Meuse. It would thus be the strip
of Holland on the Avest bank of the Rhine, from about
Arnheim to Rotterdam, But the name Batavi seems to
have extended beyond Caesar's limits, and to have
reached as far as Leyden (" Lugdunum Batavorum ").

Boil (chap. 28). — The Boii, a Gallic tribe, occupied
the eastern portion of Bavaria, and, probably, a con-
siderable part of Bohemia, which derives its name
from them.

^r«r/m (chap. 33). — The original settlements of the
Bructeri, from which they were driven by the Cha-
mavi and Angrivarii, seem to have been between the
Rhine and the Ems, on either side of the Lippe.
Their destruction could hardly have been so complete
as Tacitus represents, as they are subsequently men-
tioned by Claudian, " Paneg}Tis de Quarto Consulatu
Ilonorii," 450 : —

" Venit accola silvse
Bructeitis Ilercyniie."

TO THE GERMANY. 81

Biu'i (chap. 43).- — The Buri were a Suevic clan.
Their settlements were in the neighbourhood of
Cracow.

Chamavi (chap. 33). — The Chamavi (named with
the Angrivarii) seem to have been originally settled
on the banks of the Ems, about Osnabruck, and pro-
bably extended westwards as far as the Weser.

Chasiiarii (chap. 34). — The Chasuarii are coupled
with the Dulgubini. Both tribes probably dwelt on
the eastern side of the Weser, round Buckeburg.

Chatti (chap. 30). — The settlements of the Chatti,
one of the chief German tribes, apparently coincide
with portions of Westphalia, Nas.sau, Hesse-Darm-
stadt, and Hesse-Cassel. Dr. Latham assumes the
Chatti of Tacitus to be the Suevi of Ca;sar. The
fact that the name Chatti does not occur in Caesar
renders this hypothesis by no means improbable.

CJiauci (chap. 35). — The settlements of the Chauci
were, according to Tacitus, very extensive, and
stretched from the North Sea, southwards, as far as
the territories of the Chatti. They must, conse-
quently, have included almost the entire country
between the Ems and the Weser — that is, Oldenburg
and part of Hanover — and have taken in portions of
Westphalia about Munster and Paderborn.

Cherusci (chap. yS). — The Cherusci were neighbours
of the Chauci and Chatti. They appear to have
occupied Brunswick and the south part of Hanover.
Arminius, who destroyed the Roman array under
Varus, was a Cheruscan chief.

Cirnbri (chap. 2^1)- — The Cimbri, in the time of
Tacitus, occupied Jutland.

G

82 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Dulgiibini (chap. 34). — See Chasuarii.

Elisii (chap. 43). — The Ehsii were a clan of the
Ligii. See Ligii.

Eudoses (chap. 40). — The Eudoses were a Suevic
clan. See Aviones.

Fcnni (chap. 46). — The Fenni were the inhabitants
of Finland.

Fosi (chap. 36). — The Fosi were neighbours of the
Cherusci, probably to the north, and must have occu-
pied part of Hanover.

Frisii (chap. 34). — The Frisii occupied the north-
eastern corner of Holland.

GotJiini (chap. 43). — The Gothini are probably to
be placed in Silesia, about Breslau.

Gothones (chap. 43). — The Gothones probably dwelt
on either side of the Vistula, the Baltic being their
northern boundary. Consequently, their settlements
would coincide with portions of Pomerania and
Prussia. Dr. Latham thinks they were identical with
the yEstii.

Harii (chap. 43). — The Harii were a clan of the
Ligii. See Ligii.

Hcllusii (chap. 46). — The Hcllusii (with the Oxi-
ones) are mentioned as a fabulous tribe. Tacitus
must have heard vaguely of the Finns and Lap-
landers.

Helvccones (chap. 43). — See IJgii.

Hclvetii (chap. 28). — The Hclvetii, originally a
Gallic tribe, crossed the Rhine, and occupied parts of
what is now Baden and Wurtemburg.

Hej'juujiduri (chap. 41). — The settlements of the
Hermunduri must have been in Bavaria, and seem to

TO THE GERMANY. 83

have stretched from Ratisbon, northwards, as far as
Bohemia and Saxony. The Saal (which Tacitus mis-
takes for the Elbe) has its sources in the country
occupied by this tribe.

Lemovii (chap. 43). — The Lemovii dwelt on the
coast, probably in the neighbourhood of Danzig.
They bordered on the Gothones, to the west, as we
think most probable.

Ligii (chap. 43). — The Ligii were a widely-spread
tribe, comprehending several clans. Tacitus names the
Harii, Helvecones, Manimi, Elisii, and Nahanarvali.
Their territory was between the Oder and Vistula,
and would include the greater part of Poland, and
probably a portion of Silesia.

Langobaj'di (chap. 40). — The settlements of the
Langobardi w^ere on the west bank of the Elbe, about
Luneburg.

Manimi (chap. 43). — See Ligii.

Marcomanni (chap. 43). — The Marcomanni pro-
bably occupied the southern portions of Bohemia.
Marcomanni = men of the " marches."

Marsigni (chap. 43). — The Marsigni were a Suevic
clan, and probably dwelt on the borders of Silesia and
Bohemia, in the neighbourhood of Glatz.

Mattiaci (chap. 29). — The Mattiaci are to be placed
in Nassau, about Wiesbaden. So Zeuss infers from
Pliny (xxxi. 2), who says that there are warm baths
at Mattiacum, in Germany.

Nahanarvali (chap. 43). — See Ligii.

Naristi, Narisci (chap. 42). — The Naristi seem to
have been settled about Ratisbon, between the
Danube and the Bohemian frontier.

G 2

84 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Nemetes (chap. 28). — The Nemetes are named with
the Triboci and Vangiones. These tribes dwelt on
the west bank of the Rhine, in what is now Rhenish
Bavaria.

Nervii (chap. 28). — The Nervii dwelt on the banks
of the Meuse. Caesar speaks of them as one of the
most warlike peoples of Gaul, Tacitus doubts whether
they, as well as the Trcveri whom he names with
them, were of German origin. The settlements of the
Treveri were on the banks of the Moselle.

Niiitliones (chap. 40). — The Nuithones were a Sue-
vie clan. See Aviones.

Osi (chaps. 28, 43). — The Osi seem to have dwelt
near the sources of the Oder and the Vistula, under
the Carpathian Mountains. They would thus have
occupied a part of Gallicia.

Oxioncs (chap. 46). — See Hellusii.

Pcucini (chap. 46). — The Peucini derived their name
from the little island Peuce (Piczino), at the mouth
of the Danube. Pliny (iv. 14) speaks of them as a
German people bordering on the Daci. They would
thus stretch through Moldavia from the Carpathian
Mountains to the Black Sea. Under the name Bas-
tarnae they are mentioned by Livy (xl. 57, 58) as
a powerful people, who helped Philip, king of Mace-
donia, in his wars with the Romans. Plutarch
(" Life of PauUus .^milius," ch. ix.) says they were
the same as the Galatai, who dwelt round the Istei
(Danube). If so, they were Gauls, which Livy also
implies.

Quadi (chap. 42). — The Quadi probably occupied
Moravia.

TO THE GERMANY. 85

Reudigni (chap. 40). — The Reudigni were a Suevic
clan. See Aviones.

Rugii (chap. 43). — The Rugii were a coast-tribe,
and seem to have occupied the extreme north of
Pomerania, about the mouth of the Oder. The Isle
of Rugen is thought to have derived its name from
them.

Sarmatce (chap. 46). — Tacitus distinguishes the Sar-
matae from the Germans. By Sarmatia he seems to
have understood what is now Moldavia and Wallachia,
and perhaps part of the south of Russia. He would
probably have considered the Daci a branch of the
Sarmatee.

Semnones (chap. 39). — The Semnones were the chief
Suevic clan. Their settlements seem to have been
between the Elbe and Oder, coinciding as nearly as
possible with Brandenburg, and reaching possibly into
Prussian Poland. Tacitus does not define their local-
ity, but speaks of them as an important and widely-
spread tribe. Velleius Paterculus (ii. 106) says that
the Elbe bounded them on one side.

Sitones (chap. 45). — Where the Sitones are to be
^)laced is a matter of pure conjecture. There is
nothing to indicate whether we should give the pre-
ference to Norway, Sweden, or to the eastern shores
of the Baltic.

Snardones (chap. 40). — The Suardones were a
Suevic clan. See Aviones.

Sucvi (chaps. 2, I'i, 39). — The Suevi, according to
Tacitus, occupied the larger part of Germany. In
fact Suevia would seem to have been a comprehensive
name for the country between the Elbe and the

86 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY.

Vistula as far north as the Baltic. Tacitus and
Cajsar differ about the Suevi (see Chatti). Siiabia is
the same word as Suevia.

Siiiones (chap. 44). — The Suiones were the inhabit-
ants of Sweden and Norway, which Tacitus supposed
to be islands.

Tencteri (chap. 32). — The Tencten are coupled with
the Usipii. Both tribes were settled on the east bank
of the Rhine, and seem to have occupied the neigh-
bourhood of Coblenz, and to have extended as far as
Wiesbaden, where they would touch the Mattiaci. See
Mattiaci.

Trevcri (chap. 28). — See Nervii.

Triboci (chap. 28). — See Nemetes.

Ubii (chap. 28). — The Ubii, originally a German
people, and inhabitants of the eastern side of the
Rhine (probably of Westphalia and Holland), were
formed into a colonia by Agrippina, the wife of
Claudius and mother of Nero. It was known as
Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne).

Usipii (chap. 32). — See Tencteri.

Vangioncs (chap. 28). — See Nemetes.

Veneti (chap. 46). — Tacitus doubts whether the
Veneti were a German or Sarmatian people. Their
locality is very vaguely described, Russian-Poland
to the east of the Vistula probably would be included
in their settlements.

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

Boundaries of Germany.

Germany is separated from the Galli, the Rhceti, and chap. i.
Pannonii, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; mountain
ranges, or the fear which each feels for the other,
divide it from the Sarmatre and Daci. Elsewhere
ocean girds it, embracing broad peninsulas and
islands of unexplored extent, where certain tribes and
kingdoms are newly known to us, revealed by war.
The Rhine springs from a precipitous and inaccessible
height of the Rhaitian Alps, bends slightly westward,
and mingles with the Northern Ocean. The Danube
pours down from the gradual and gently rising slope
of Mount Abnoba, and visits many nations, to force
its way at last through six channels into the Pontus ;
a seventh mouth is lost in marshes.

TJie inhabitants. Origin of the name " Germany'.'

The Germans themselves I should regard as abori- ckap, n
ginal, and not mixed at all with other races through
immigration or intercourse. For, in former times, it

83 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP. II. was not by land but on shipboard that those who
sought to emigrate would arrive ; and the boundless
and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us, is seldom
entered by a sail from our world. And, beside the
perils of rough and unknown seas, who would leave
Asia, or Africa, or Italy for Germany, with its wild
country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and
aspect, unless indeed it were his home .'' In their
ancient songs, their only way of remembering or
recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god,
Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their
race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three
sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are
called Ingaevones ; those of the interior, Herminones ;
all the rest, Istaevones. Some, with the freedom of
conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god
had several descendants, and the nation several appel-
lations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii, and that
these are genuine old names. The name Germany, on
the other hand, they say, is modern and newly intro-
duced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed
the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called
Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what
was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually
prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-
invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had
first emj)loyed to inspire terror.

The national war-songs. Legend of Ulysses.
CHAP. m. They say that Hercules, too, once visited them ; and
when going into battle, they sing of him first of all
heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, b}' the

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 69

recital of which (" baritus," they call it), they rouse chap. hi.
their courage, while from the note they augur the
result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line
shouts, they inspire or feel alarm. It is not so much
an articulate sound, as a general cry of valour. They
aim chiefly at a harsh note and a confused roar,
putting their shields to their mouth, so that, by rever-
beration, it may swell into a fuller and deeper sound.
Ulysses, too, is believed by some, in his long legendary
wanderings, to have found his way into this ocean,
and, having visited German soil, to have founded and
named the town of Asciburgium, which stands on the
bank of the Rhine, and is to this day inhabited.
They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, ^y /
with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, ^
was formerly discovered on this same spot, and that
certain monuments and tombs, with Greek inscriptions,
still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia.
These statements I have no intention of sustaining by
proofs, or of refuting ; every one may believe or
disbelieve them as he feels inclined.

Physical characteristics.

For my own part, I agree with those who think that chap. iv.
the tribes of Germany are free from all taint of inter-
marriages with foreign nations, and that they ai)pear
as a distinct, unmixed race, like none but themselves.
Hence, too, the same physical peculiarities through-
out so vast a population. All have fierce blue eyes,
red hair, huge frames, lit only for a sudden exeriion.
They are less able to bear laborious work. Heat and

90 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP. IV. thirst they cannot in the least endure ; to cold and
hunger their climate and their soil inure them.

Climate and soil. Precious metals.
CH.'vp. V. Their country, though somewhat various in appear-
ance, yet generally either bristles with forests or reeks
with swamps ; it is more rainy on the side of Gaul,
bleaker on that of Noricum and Pannonia. It is
productive of grain, but unfavourable to fruit-bearing
trees ; it is rich in flocks and herds, but these are for
the most part undersized, and even the cattle have not
their usual beauty or noble head. It is number that
is chiefly valued ; they are in fact the most highly
prized, indeed the only riches of the people. Silver
and gold the gods have refused to them, whether in
kindness or in anger I cannot say. I would not,
however, affirm that no vein of German soil produces
gold or silver, for who has ever made a search .''
They care but little to possess or use them. You
may see among them vessels of silver, which have
been presented to their envoys and chieftains, held
as cheap as those of clay. The border population,
however, value gold and silver for their commercial
utility, and arc familiar with, and show preference for,
some of our coins. The tribes of the interior use
the simpler and more ancient practice of the barter of
commodities. They like the old and well-known
money, coins milled, or showing a two-horse chariot.
They likewise prefer silver to gold, not from any
special liking, but because a large number of silver
pieces is more convenient for use among dealers in
cheap and common articles.

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 91

Arms, uiilitary ina7iocuvres, and discipline.

Even iron is not plentiful with them, as we infer from chap, vi
the character of their weapons. But few use swords
or long lances. They carry a spear {Jramea is their
name for it), with a narrow and short head, but so
sharp and easy to wield that the same weapon serves,
according to circumstances, for close or distant
conflict. As for the horse-soldier, he is satisfied
with a shield and spear ; the foot-soldiers also
scatter showers of missiles, each man having several
and hurling them to an immense distance, and being
naked or lightly clad with a little cloak. There is
no display about their equipment : their shields alone
are marked with very choice colours. A few only
have corslets, and just one or two here and there
a metal or leathern helmet. Their horses are re-
markable neither for beauty nor for fleetness. Nor
are they taught various evolutions after our fashion,
but are driven straight forward, or so as to make one
wheel to the right in such a compact body that none
is left behind another. On the whole, one would say
that their chief strength is in their infantry, which
fights along with the cavalry ; admirably adapted to
the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot-
soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their
country, and stationed in front of the line. Their
number is fixed, — a hundred from each canton ; and
from this they take their name among their country-
men, so that what was originally a mere number
has now become a title of distinction. Their line of
battle is drawn up in a wedge-like formation. To

92 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP. VI. give ground, provided you return to the attack, is
considered prudence rather than cowardice. The
bodies of their slain they carry off even in indecisive
engagements. To abandon your shield is the basest
of crimes ; nor may a man thus disgraced be present
at the sacied rites, or enter their council ; many,
indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their
infamy with the halter.

Govcrmnoit. Influence of zvomen.

CHAP. They 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 con-
spicuous, if they fight in the front, they lead because
j^f~U tLca^Cl^ 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

[aa^^ux^*^ tUo.^ them into battle certain figures and _ilSg^|[gg taken
/^-i"fi^KV'*'t'/t<J;M<from their sacred groves. And what most stimulates
^^^^,^,^,.1^ '^'-■t'T-^*--their courage is, that their squadrons or battalions,
l^^^u^ JjiJi.^^ instead of being formed by chance or by a fortuitous
4f> -Inrv 5^**-- gathering, are composed of families and clans. Close

. JU I v^y t^'^"^"*' toO' ^^^ those dearest to them, so that they

3- hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants. They

are to every man the most sacred witnesses of his
bravery — they are his most generous applauders.
The soldier brings his wounds to mother and wife, who
shrink nut from counting or even dcmandigg theai

'f(^\

. f ^fN

^■^^-)>- ".<^|

GERMANY AXD ITS TRIBES. 93

and who administer both food and encouragement to chap

VII

the combatants.

Tradition says that armies already wavering and chap

' . VIII.

giving way have been raUied by women who, with

earnest entreaties and bosoms laid bare, have vividK'

represented the horrors of captivity, which '&vQ(Zrf'h*^ h*^^*^*^

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 Vespasian's days

we saw Veleda, long regarded by many as a divinity.

In former times, too, they venerated Aurinia, and

many other Avomen, but not with servile flatteries, or

with sham deification.

Deities.

Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and chap, ix
on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him
even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they
appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the
Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Ot the occasion and
origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing,
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

94 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP. IX. countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and
they apply the names of deities to the abstraction
which they see only in spiritual worship.

Auguries and method of divination.

CHAP. X. Augury and divination by lot no people practise more
diligently. 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 par-
ticular 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 thein
a meaning according to the mark previously impres-
sed on them. If they prove unfavourable, 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 prac-
tice of consulting the notes and the flight of birds.
It is peculiar to this people to seek omens and moni-
tions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in
these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure
from the taint of earthly labour ; 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

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 95

important war. Having taken, by whatever means, a chap. x.
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
incHcation of the issue.

Councils.

About minor matters the chiefs dehberate, about the chap, xi
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 trans-
action of business. 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 free-
dom has this disadvantage, that they do not meet
simultaneously 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, dis-
tinction in war, or eloquence, is heard, more because
he has influence to persuade than because he has
power to command. If his sentiments displease them.,
they reject them with murmurs ; if they are satisfied,
they brandish their spears. The most complimentary
form of assent is to express approbation with their
weapons.

96 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

runi-shincuts. Adviinistration of Justice.

CHAP. In their councils an accusation may be preferred or a
capital crime prosecuted. Penalties are distinguished
according to the offence. 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
offences, 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 in-
fluence.

Training- of the youth.

CHAP. They transact no public or private business without
being armed. It is not, however, usual for anyone
to wear arms till the state has recognised 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
honour with which youth is invested. Up to this
time he is regarded as a member of a household
afterwards as a member of the commonwealth. Very

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 97

noble birth or great services rendered by the father ^^m'
secure for lads the rank of a chief ; such lads attach
themselves to men of mature strength and of long
approved valour. 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 followers
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
honour 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 defence in war. And
not only in his own tribe but also in the neighbouring
states it is the renown and glory of a chief to be dis-
tinguished for the number and valour of his followers,
for such a man is courted by embassies, is honoured
with presents, and the very prestige of his name often
settles a war.

Warlike ardour of the people.
When they go into battle, it is a disgrace for the chap.

. XIV

chief to be surpassed in valour, a disgrace for his fol-
lowers not to equal the valour 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

H

98 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP, inaction is odious to their race, and because they

XIV

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 enter-
tainments, which, though inelegant, are plentifully
furnished, are their only pay. The means of this
bounty come from war and rapine. Nor are they as
easily persuaded to plough the earth and to wait for
the year's produce as to challenge an enemy and earn
the honour of wounds. Nay, they actually think it
tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what
they might win by their blood.

Habits ill time of peace.
CHAP. 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 sur-
rendering the management of the household, 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, sup-
plies their wants. They are particularly delighted by
gifts from neighbouring tribes, which are sent not
only by individuals but also by the state, such as

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 99

CHAP.

XV.

choice steeds, heavy armour, trappings, and neck-
chains. We have now taught them to accept money
also.

A rrangement of their tozvns. Subterranean dwellings.

It is well known that the nations of Germany have ^^yi'
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 to-
gether, 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 buildings they stain more carefully with a clay
so clear and bright that it resembles painting, or a
coloured design. They are wont also to dig out sub-
terranean 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 miti-
gate the rigour 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.

Di'ess.
Thev all wrap themselves in a cloak which is fastened chap

. ' ^ XVII.

with a clasp, or, if this is not forthcoming, with a

li 2

100 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP, thorn, leaving the rest of their persons bare. They
pass whole days on the hearth by the fire. The
wealthiest are distinguished by a dress which is not
flowing, like that of the Sarmatse and Partlii, but is
tight, and exhibits each limb. They also wear the
skins of wild beasts; the tribes on the Rhine and
Danube in a careless fashion, those of the interior
with more elegance, as not obtaining other clothing
by commerce. These select certain animals, the hides
of which they strip off and vary them with the
spotted skins of beast.s, the produce of the outer
ocean, and of seas unknown to us. The women have
the same dress as the men^ except that they gene-
rally wrap themselves in linen garments, which they
embroider with purple, and do not lengthen out the
upper part of their clothing into sleeves. The upper
and lower arm is thus bare, and the nearest part of
the bosom is also exposed.

Marriage lazvs.

^\J{ Their marriage code, however, 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 marriage-gifts, gifts
not meant to suit a woman's taste, nor such as a
bride w^ould deck herself with, but oxen, a capari-
soned steed, a shitld, a lance, and a sword. With

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 101

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 inaugu-
rates 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 harnessed 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 chil-
dren neither tarnished nor depreciated, Vv'hat future
daughters-in-law may receive, and may be so passed
on to her grand-children.

Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrup- chap,
ted by the allurements of public shows or the stimu-
lant of feastings. Clandestine correspondence is equally
unknown to men and women. Very rare for so
numerous a population is adultery, the punishment
for which is prompt, and in the husband's power.
Having cut off the hair of the adulteress and stripped
her naked, he expels her from the house in the pre-
sence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her through
the whole village. 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 fashion to cor-
rupt and to be corrupted. Still better is the condition
of those states in which only maidens are given in

102 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

^j-^P- marriage, and where the hopes and expectations of
a bride are then finally terminated. 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 infamous, and good
habits are here more effectual than good laws else-
where.

Their children. Laius of succession.
CHAF. In every household the children, naked and filthy,
grow up with those stout frames and limbs which we
so much admire. Every mother suckles her own off-
spring, and never entrusts it to servants and nurses.
The master is not distinguished from the slave by
being brought up with greater delicacy. Both live
amid the same flocks and lie on the same ground till
the freeborn are distinguished by age and recognised
by merit. The young men marry late, and their
vigour is thus unimpaired. Nor are the maidens
hurried into marriage ; the same age and a similar
stature is required ; well-matched and vigorous they
wed, and the offspring reproduce the strength of the
parents. Sister's sons are held in as much esteem
by their uncles as by their fathers ; indeed, some re-
gard the relation as even more sacred and binding,
and prefer it in receiving hostages, thinking thus to
secure a stronger hold on the affections and a wider
bond for the family. But every man's own children
are his heirs and successors, and there are no wills.

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 103

Should there be no issue, the next in succession to ^xx^'
the property are his brothers and his uncles on
either side. The more relatives he has, the more
numerous his connections, the more honoured is his
old age; nor are there any advantages in child-
lessness.

Hereditary fends. Fines for hojnicide. Hospitality.

It is a duty among them to adopt the feuds as Avell as chap
the friendships of a father or a kinsman. These feuds
are not implacable ; even homicide is expiated by the
payment of a certain number of cattle and of sheep,
and the satisfaction is accepted by the entire family,
greatly to the advantage of the state, since feuds are
dangerous in proportion to a people's freedom.

No nation indulges more profusely in entertainments
and hospitality. To exclude any human being from
their roof is thought impious ; every German, according
to his means, receives his guest with a well-furnished
table. When his supplies are exhausted, he who was
but now the host becomes the guide and companion to
further hospitality, and without invitation they go to
the next house. It matters not ; tliey are entertained
with like cordiality. No one distinguishes between
an acquaintance and a stranger, as regards the rights
of hospitality. It is usual to give the departing guest
whatever he may ask for, and a present in return is
asked with as little hesitation. They are greatly
charmed with gifts, but they expect no return for
what they give, nor feel any obligation for what they
receive.

104 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

Habits of life.

xxiF' ^" waking from sleep, which they generally prolong
to a late hour of the day, they take a bath, oftenest
of warm water, which suits a country where winter
is the longest of the seasons. After their bath they
take their meal, each having a separate seat and
table of his own. Then they go armed to business,
or no less often to their festal meetings. To pass an
entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one.
Their quarrels, as might be expected with intoxicated
people, are seldom fought out with mere abuse, but
commonly with wounds and bloodshed. Yet it is attheir
feasts that they generally consult on the reconciliation
of enemies, on the forming of matrimonial alliances,
on the choice of chiefs, finally even on peace and war,
for they think that at no time is the mind more open to
simplicity of purpose or more warmed to noble aspira-
tions. A race without either natural or acquired
cunning, they disclose their hidden thoughts in the
freedom of the festivity. Thus the sentiments of all
having been discovered and laid bare, the discussion is
renewed on the following day, and from each occasion
its own peculiar advantage is derived. They deliberate
when they have no power to dissemble ; they resolve
when error is impossible.

Food.

CHAP. A liquor for drinking is made out of barley or other

^^"'' grain, and fermented into a certain resemblance to

wine. The dwellers on the river-bank also buy wine.

Their food is of a simple kind, consisting of wild-fruit,

fresh game, and curdled milk. They satisfy their

XXIV.

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 105

hunger without elaborate preparation and without xxm
delicacies. In quenching their thirst they are not
equally moderate. If you indulge their love of
drinking by supplying them with as much as they
desire, they will be overcome by their own vices as
easily as by the arms of an enemy.

Sports. Passion for gambling.

One and the same kind of spectacle is always exhi- chap.
bited at every gathering. Naked youths who practise
the sport bound in the dance amid swords and lances
that threaten their lives. Experience gives them skill,
and skill again gives grace ; profit or pay are out of
the question ; however reckless their pastime, its
reward is the pleasure of the spectators. Strangely
enough they make games of hazard a serious occupa-
tion even when sober, and so venturesome are they
about gaining or losing, that, when every other re-
source has failed, on the last and final throw they
stake the freedom of their own persons. The loser
goes into voluntary slavery ; though the younger and
stronger, he suffers himself to be bound and sold.
Such is their stubborn persistency in a bad practice ;
they themselves call it honour. Slaves of this kind
the owners part with in the way of commerce, and also
to relieve themselves from the scandal of such a
victory.

Slavery.

The other slaves are not employed after our chap.
manner with distinct domestic duties assigned to
them, but each one has the management of a house

XXV.

106 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP- and home of his own. The master requires from the
slave a certain quantity of grain, of cattle, and of
clothing, as he would from a tenant, and this is the
limit of subjection. All other household functions
are discharged by the wife and children. To strike a
slave or to punish him with bonds or with hard labour
is a rare occurrence. They often kill them, not in
enforcing strict discipline, but on the impulse of
passion, as they would an enemy, only it is done with
impunity. The freedmen do not rank much above
slaves, and are seldom of any weight in the family,
never in the state, with the exception of those tribes
which are ruled by kings. There indeed they rise
above the freedborn and the noble ; elsewhere the
inferiority of the freedman marks the freedom of
the state.

Occupation of land. Tillage.

CHAP. Of lending money on interest and increasing it by
compound interest they know nothing, — a more effec-
tual safeguard than if it were prohibited.

Land proportioned to the number of inhabitants is
occupied by the whole community in turn, and after-
wards divided among them according to rank. A
wide expanse of plains makes the partition easy.
They till fresh fields every year, and they have still
more land than enough ; with the richness and extent
of their soil, they do not laboriously exert themselves
in planting orchards, inclosing meadows, and watering
gardens. Corn is the only produce required from the
earth ; hence even the year itself is not divided by
them into as many seasons as with us. Winter, spring,

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 107

and summer have both a meaninfr and a name ; the chap.

XXVI.

name and blessings of autumn are alike unknown,

Funcj'al rites.
In their funerals there is no pomp ; they simply observe chap.

XXVII

the custom of burning the bodies of illustrious men
with certain kinds of wood. They do not heap gar-
ments or spices on the funeral pile. The arms of the
dead man and in some cases his horse are consigned
to the fire. A turf mound forms the tomb. Monu-
ments with their lofty elaborate splendour they reject
as oppressive to the dead. Tears and lamentations
they soon dismiss ; grief and sorrow but slowly. It
is thought becoming for women to bewail, for men to
remember, the dead.

Such on the whole is the account which I have
received of the origin and manners of the entire Ger-
man people. I will now touch on the institutions and
religious rites of the separate tribes, pointing out how
far they differ, and also what nations have migrated
from Germany into Gaul.

Tribes of Western Germany.
That highest authority, the great Julius, informs us chap.

XXVIII

that Gaul was once more powerful than Germany.
Consequently we may believe that Gauls even crossed
over into Germany. For what a trifling obstacle
would a river be to the various tribes, as they grew in
strength and wished to possess in exchange settle-
ments which were still open to all, and not partitioned
among powerful monarchies ! Accordingly the coun-
try between the Hercynian forest and the rivers

108

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAP.
XXVIII

CHAP.
XXIX.

Rhine and Mcenus,^ and that which lies beyond, was
occupied respectively by the Helvetii and Boii, both
tribes of Gaul. The name Boiemum still survives,
marking the old tradition of the place, though the
population has been changed. Whether however the
Aravisci migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, a
German race, or whether the Osi came from the
Aravisci into Germany, as both nations still retain the
same language, institutions, and customs, is a doubt-
ful matter; for as they were once equally poor and
equally free, either bank had the same attractions, the
same drawback.s. The Treveri and Nervii are even
eager in their claims of a German origin, thinking
that the glory of this descent distinguishes them from
the uniform level of Gallic effeminacy. The Rhine
banlv itself is occupied by tribes unquestionably
German, — the Vangiones, the Triboci, and the Ne-
metes. Nor do even the Ubii, though they have
earned the distinction of being a Roman colony, and
prefer to be called Agrippinenses, from the name of
their founder, blush to own their origin. Having
crossed the sea in former days, and given proof of
their allegiance, they were settled on the Rhine-bank
itself, as those who might guard it but need not be
watched.

Foremost among all these nations in valour, the :
Batavi occupy an island within the Rhine and but a j
small portion of the bank. Formerly a tribe of the
Chatti, they were forced by internal dissension to
migrate to their present settlements and there become
a part of the Roman Empire. They yet retain the
^ The Main.

I

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 109

honourable badsre of an ancient alliance ; for they are chap.

XXIX

not insulted by tribute, nor ground down by the
tax-gatherer. Free from the usual burdens and
contributions, and set apart for fighting purposes, like
a magazine of arms, we reserve them for our wars.
The subjection of the Mattiaci is of the same charac-
ter. For the greatness of the Roman people has
spread reverence for our empire beyond the Rhine
and the old boundaries. Thus this nation, whose
settlements and territories are on their own side of the
river, are yet in sentiment and purpose one with us ;
in all other respects they resemble the Batavi, except
that they still gain from the soil and climate of their
native land a keener vigour. I should not reckon
among the German tribes the cultivators of the tithe-
lands, although they are settled on the further side of
the Rhine and Danube. Reckless adventurers from
Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of
questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier
having been advanced, and our military positions
pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of
our empire and a part of a Roman province.

Beyond them are the Chatti, whose settlements begin chap.
at the Hercynian forest, where the country is not so
open and marshy as in the other cantons into which
Germany stretches. They are found where there are
hills, and with them grow less frequent, for the Her-
cynian forest keeps close till it has seen the last of
its native Chatti. Hardy frames, close-knit limbs,
fierce countenances, and a peculiarly vigorous courage,
mark the tribe. For Germans, they have much

XXX.

110 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

xxjf' intelligence and sagacity; they promote their picked
men to power, and obey those whom they promote ;
they keep their ranks, note their opportunities, check
their impulses, portion out the day, intrench them-
selves by night, regard fortune as a do-ubtful, valour
. as an unfailing, resource ; and what is most unusual,
and only given to systematic discipline, they rely more
on the general than on the army. Their whole
strength is in their infantry, which, in addition to its
arms, is laden with iron tools and provisions. Other
tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti to a cam-
paign. Seldom do they engage in mere raids and
casual encounters. It is indeed the peculiarity of a
cavalry force quickly to win and as quickly to yield
a victory. Fleetness and timidity go together;
deliberateness is more akin to steady courage.

xxxi' ^ practice, rare among the other German tribes, and
simply characteristic of individual prowess, has be-
come general among the Chatti, of letting the hair
and beard grow as soon as they have attained
manhood, and not till they have slain a foe laying
aside that peculiar aspect which devotes and pledges
them to valour. Over the spoiled and bleeding enemy
they show their faces once more ; then, and not till
then, proclaiming that they have discharged the
obligations of their birth, and proved themselves
worthy of their country and of their parents. The
coward and the unwarlike rem.ain unshorn. The
bravest of them also wear an iron ring (which other-
wise is a mark of disgrace among the people) until
they have released themselves by the slaughter of a

!

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 11]

foe. Most of the Chatti delight in these fashions. xx.>u'
Even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them,
and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and to
fellow-countrymen. To begin the battle always rests
with them ; they form the first line, an unusual spectacle.
Nor even in peace do they assume a more civilised
aspect. They have no home or land or occupation ;
they are supported by whomsoever they visit, as
lavish of the property of others as they are regardless
of their own, till at length the feebleness of age makes
them unequal to so stern a valour.

Next to the Chatti on the Rhine, which has now a chap,
well-defined channel, and serves as a boundary, dwell
the Usipii and Tencteri. The latter, besides the more
usual military distinctions, particularly excel in the
organisation of cavalry, and the Chatti are not more
famous for their foot-soldiers than are the Tencteri
for their horsemen. What their forefathers originated,
posterity maintain. This supplies sport to their
children, rivalry to their youths : even the aged keep
it up. Horses are bequeathed along with the slaves,
the dwelling-house, and the usual rights of inheritance ;
they go to the son, not to the eldest, as does the
other property, but to the most warlike and coura-
geous.

After the Tencteri came, in former days, the Bructeri ; J^H^?-,
but the general account now is, that the Chamavi and
Angrivarii entered their settlements, drove them out
and utterly exterminated them with the common help
of the neighbouring tribes, either from hatred of their

n?, GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

xiPxni tyranny, or from the attractions of plunder, or from
heaven's favourable regard for us. It did not even
grudge us the spectacle of the conflict. More than
sixty thousand fell, not beneath the Roman arms and
weapons, but, grander far, before our delighted eyes.
May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for
us, at least hatred for each other; for while the
destinies of empire hurry us on, fortune can give no
greater boon than discord among our foes.

CHAR Xhe Angrivarii and Chamavi are bounded in the rear
by the Dulgubini and Chasuarii, and other tribes not
equally famous. Towards the river are the Frisii,
distinguished as the Greater and Lesser Frisii, accor-
ding to their strength. Both these tribes, as far as
the ocean, are skirted by the Rhine, and their territory
also embraces vast lakes which Roman fleets have
navigated. We have even ventured on the ocean
itself in these parts. Pillars of Hercules, so rumour
commonly says, still exist ; whether Hercules really
visited the country, or whether we have agreed to
ascribe every work of grandeur, wherever met with,
to his renown. Drusus Germanicus indeed did not
lack daring ; but the ocean barred the explorer's
access to itself and to Hercules. Subsequently no one
has made the attempt, and it has been thought
more pious and reverential to believe in the actions of
the gods than to inquire.

NortJiern tribes.

taken note of 'N
Northwards the country takes a vast sweep. First

CHAP. Thus far we have taken note of Western Germany.

XXXV. ^

I

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 113

comes the tribe of the Chauci, which, beginning at the xxxv
Frisii^n settlements, and occupying a part of the coast,
stretches along the frontier of all the tribes which I
have enumerated, till it reaches with a bend as far as
the Chatti. This vast extent of country is not merely
possessed, but densely peopled, by the Chauci, the
noblest of the German races, a nation who would
maintain their greatness by righteous dealing. With-
out ambition, without lawless violence, they live
peaceful and secluded, never provoking a war or
injuring others by rapine and robbery. Indeed, the
crowning proof of their valour and their strength is,
that they keep up their superiority without harm to
others. Yet all have their weapons in readiness, and
an army if necessary, with a multitude of men and
horses ; and even while at peace they have the same
renown of valour.

Dwelling on one side of the Chauci and Chatti, the -^^xvi
Cherusci long cherished, unassailed, an excessive and
enervating love of peace. This was more pleasant
than safe, for to be peaceful is self-deception among
lawless and powerful neighbours. Where the Strang
hand decides, moderation and justice are terms applied
only to the more powerful ; and so the Cherusci, ever
reputed good and just, are now called cowards and
fools, while in the case of the victorious Chatti success
has been identified with prudence. The downfall of
the Cherusci brought with it also that of the Fosi, a
neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their
disasters, though they had been inferior to them in
prosperous days.

I

114 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

Kxxv^i -^^ ^^^^ same remote corner of Germany, bordering on
the ocean dwell the Cimbri, a now insignificant tribe,
but of great renown. Of their ancient glory wide-
spread traces yet remain ; on both sides of the
Rhine are encampments of vast extent, and by
their circuit you may even now measure the war-
like strength of the tribe, and find evidence of that
mighty emigration. Rome was in her 640th 3'-ear
when we first heard of the Cimbrian invader in the
consulship of Caecilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo,
from which time to the second consulship of the
Emperor Trajan we have to reckon about 210 years.
So long have we been in conquering Germany. In
the space of this long epoch many losses have been
' sustained on both sides. Neither Samnite nor
Carthaginian, neither Spain nor Gaul, not even
the Parthians, have given us more frequent warnings.
German independence truly is fiercer than the des-
potism of an Arsaces. What else, indeed, can the
East taunt us with but the slaughter of Crassus,
when it has itself lost Pacorus, and been crushed
under a Ventidius ? But Germans, by routing or
making prisoners of Carbo, Cassius, Scaurus Aurelius,
Servilius Caspio, and Marcus Manlius, deprived the
Roman people of five consular armies, and they
robbed even a Caesar of Varus and his three legions.
Not without loss to us were they discomfited by
Marius in Italy, by the great Julius in Gaul, and by
Drusus, Nero, and Germanicus, on their own ground.
Soon after, the mighty menaces of Caius Caesar were
turned into a jest. Then came a lull, until on the
occasion of our discords and the civil war, they

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 115

stormed the winter camp of our legions, and even x^Vii
designed the conquest of Gaul. Again were they
driven back ; and in recent times we have celebrated
triumphs rather than won conquests over them.

TJic Sucvi and kindred tribes.
I must now speak of the Suevi, who are not one chap.

^ . ' . XXXVIII

nation as are the Chatti and Tencteri, for they occupy
the greater part of Germany, and have hitherto been
divided into separate tribes Vv'ith names of their own,
though they are called by the general designation of
" Suevi." A national peculiarity with them is to
twist their hair back, and fasten it in a knot. This
distinguishes the Suevi from the other Germans, as it
also does their own freeborn from their slaves.
With other tribes, either from some connection with
the Suevic race, or, as often happens, from imitation,
the practice is an occasional one, and restricted to
youth. The Suevi, till their heads are grey, affect the
fashion of drawing back their unkempt locks, and
often they are knotted on the very top of the head.
The chiefs have a more elaborate style ; so much do
they study appearance, but in perfect innocence, not
with any thoughts of love-making; but arranging their
hair when they go to battle, to make themselves tall
and terrible, they adorn themselves, so to speak, for
the eyes of the foe.

The Semnones give themselves out to be the most xxxix
ancient and renowned branch of the Suevi. Their
antiquity is strongly attested by their religion. At a
stated period, all the tribes of the same race assemble

I 2

116 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

CHAR \yy their representatives in a grove consecrated by the
auguries of their forefathers, and by immemorial
associations of terror. Here, having pubhcly slaugh-
tered a human victim, they celebrate the horrible
beginning of their barbarous rite. Reverence also in
other ways is paid to the grove. No one enters it
except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledg-
ing the might of the local divinity. If he chance to
fall, it is not lawful for him to be lifted up, or to rise
to his feet ; he must crawl out along the ground. All
this superstition implies the belief that from this spot
the nation took its origin, that here dwells the
supreme and all-ruling deity, to Avhom all else is
subject and obedient. The fortunate lot of the Sem-
nones strengthens this belief; a hundred cantons are
in their occupation, and the vastness of their commu-
nity makes them regard themselves as the head of the
Suevic race.

CHAP. To the Langobardi, on the contrary, their scanty
numbers are a distinction. Though surrounded by a
host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by
submitting, but by daring the perils of war. Next
come the Reudigni, the Aviones, the Anglii, the
Varini, the Eudoses, the Suardones, and Nuithones
who are fenced in by rivers or forests. None of these
tribes have any noteworthy feature, except their
common worship of Ertha, or mother-Earth, and
their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and
visits the nations in her car. In an island of the
ocean there is a .sacred grove, and within it a con-
secrated chariot, covered over with a garment. Only

XL

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. U7

CHAP
XL.

one priest is perantted to touch it. He can perceive
the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess, and
walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is
drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing,
and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to go and be
received. They do not go to battle or wear arms ;
every weapon is under lock ; peace and quiet are
known and welcomed only at these times, till the
goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at length
restored by the same priest to her tem.ple. After-
wards the car, the vestments, and, if you like to believe
it, the divinity herself, are purified in a secret lake.
Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed
up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror
and a pious ignorance concerning the nature of that
which is seen only by men doomed to die. This
branch indeed of the Suevi stretches into the re-
moter regions of Germany.

Tribes along the Danube and in the East of Germany.
Nearer to us is the state of the Hermunduri (I shall chap.

^ XLI.

follow the course of the Danube as I did before that
of the Rhine), a people loyal to Rome. Consequently
they, alone of the Germans, trade not merely on tlie
banks of the river, but far inland, and in the most
flourishing colony of the province of Ryetia. Every-
where they are allowed to pass without a guard ; and
while to the other tribes we display only our arms and
our camps, to them we have thrown open our houses
and country-seats, which they do not covet. It is in
their lands that the Elbe takes its rise, a famous river
known to us in past days ; nov/ we only hear of it.

118 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

'^^^f' The Narisci border on the Hermunduri, and then
follow the Marcomanni and Quadi. The Marcomanni
stand first in strength and renown, and their very-
territory, from which the Boii were driven in a
former age, was won by valour. Nor are the
Narisci and Quadi inferior to them. This I may
call the frontier of Germany, so far as it is completed
by the Danube. The Marcomanni and Quadi have,
up to our time, been ruled by kings of their own
nation, descended from the noble stock of Maroboduus
and Tudrus. They now submit even to foreigners ;
but the strength and power of the monarch depend
on Roman influence. He is occasionally supported
by our arms, more frequently by our money, and his
authority is none the less.

CHAP. Behind them the Marsigni, Gotini, Osi, and Buri,

XLIII. » ' ' -

close in the rear of the Marcomanni and Quadi. Of
these, the Marsigni and Buri, in their language and
manner of life, resemble the Suevi. The Gotini and
Osi are proved by their respective Gallic and Pannonian
tongues, as well as by the fact of their enduring
tribute, not to be Germans. Tribute is imposed on
them as aliens, partly by the Sarmatse, partly by the
Quadi. The Gotini, to complete their degradation,
actually work iron mines. All these nations occupy
but little of the plain country, dwelling in forests and
on mountain-tops. For Suevia is divided and cut in
half by a continuous mountain-range, beyond which
live a multitude of tribes. The name of Ligii, spread
as it is among many states, is the most widely extended.
It will be enough to mention the most powerful, which

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 119

are the Harii, the Helvecones, the Manimi, the Helisii S^Lm'
and the NahanarvaH. Among these last is shown a
grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire
has the charge of it. But the deities are described in
Roman language as Castor and Pollux. Such, indeed,
are the attributes of the divinity, the name being
Alcis, They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige
of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as
youths that the deities are worshipped. The Harii,
besides being superior in strength to the tribes just
enumerated, savage as they are, make the most of
their natural ferocity by the help of art and oppor-
tunity. Their shields are black, their bodies dyed.
They choose dark nights for battle, and, by the dread
and gloomy aspect of their death-like host, strike
terror into the foe, who can never confront their
strange and almost infernal appearance. For in all
battles it is the eye which is first vanquished.

Remaining tribes.

Beyond the Ligii are the Gothones, who are ruled by xliv
kings, a little more strictly than the other German
tribes, but not as yet inconsistently with freedom.
Immediately adjoining them, further from the coast,
are the Rugii and Lemovii, the badge of all these
tribes being the round shield, the short sword, and
servile submission to their kings.

And now begin the states of the Suiones, situated
on the Ocean itself, and these, besides men and arms,
are powerful in ships. The form of their vessels is
peculiar in this respect, that a prow at either extremity
acts as a forepart, always ready for running into shore.

120 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

xL^v ' They are not \Yorked by sails, nor have they a row of
oars attached to their sides ; but, as on some rivers,
the apparatus of rowing is unfixed, and shifted from
side to side as circumstances require. And they hke-
wise honour wealth, and so a single ruler holds sway
with no restrictions, and with no uncertain claim to
obedience. Arms are not with them, as with the other
Germans, at the general disposal, but are in the charge
of a keeper, who is actually a slave ; for the ocean
forbids the sudden inroad of enemies, and, besides, an
idle multitude of armed men is easily demoralized.
And indeed it is by no means the policy of a monarch
to place either a nobleman, a freeborn citizen, or even
a freed man, at the head of an armed force.

CHAP, Beyond the Suiones is another sea, sluggish and
almost motionless, which, we may certainly infer,
girdles and surrounds the world, from the fact that the
last radiance of the setting sun lingers on till sunrise,
with a brightness sufficient to dim the light of the
stars. Even the very sound of his rising, as popular
belief adds, may be heard, and the forms of gods and
the glory round his head may be seen. Only thus far
(and here rumour seems truth) docs the world
extend.

At this point the Sucvic sea, on its eastern shore,
washes the tribes of the ^stii, whose rites and
fashions and style of dress are those of the Suevi,
while their language is more like the British, They
worship the mother of the gods, and wear as a
religious symbol the device of a wild boar. This
serves as armour, and as a universal defence, rendering

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 121

the votary of the goddess safe even amidst enemies. x^v^
They often use chibs, iron weapons but seldom.
They are more patient in cultivating corn and
other produce than might be expected from the
general indolence of the Germans. But they also
search the deep, and are the only people who gather
amber (which they call "glesuni"), in the shallows,
and also on the shore itself. Barbarians as they are
they have not investigated or discovered what natural
cause or process produces it. Nay, it even lay amid
the sea's other refuse, till our luxury gave it a name.
To them it is utterly useless ; they gather it in its raw
state, bring it to us in shapeless lumps, and marvel at
the price which they receive. It is however a juice
from trees, as you may infer from the fact that there
are often seen shining through it, reptiles, and even
winged insects, which, having become entangled in the
fluid, are gradually enclosed in the substance as it
hardens. I am therefore inclined to think that the
islands and countries of the West, like the remote
recesses of the East, where frankincense and balsam
exude, contain fruitful woods and groves ; that these
productions, acted on by the near rays of the sun,
glide in a liquid state into the adjacent sea, and are
thrown up by the force of storms on the opposite
shores. If you test the composition of amber by
applying fire, it burns like pinewood, and sends forth
a rich and fragrant flame ;. it is soon softened into
something like pitch or resin.

Closely bordering on the Suiones are the tribes
of the Sitones, which, resembling them in all else,
differ only in being ruled by a woman. So low

122 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.

*^y^- have they fallen, not merely from freedom, but even
from slavery itself. Here Suevia ends.

XLVL ^^ ^° ^^^^ tribes of the Peucini, Veneti, and Fenni, I
am in doubt whether I should class them with the
Germans or the Sarmatse, although indeed the Peucini
called by some Bastarnje, are like Germans in their
language, mode of life, and in the permanence of their
settlements. They all live in filth and sloth, and
by the intermarriages of the chiefs they are becoming
in some degree debased into a resemblance to the
Sarmatae. The Veneti have borrowed largely from
the Sarmatian character ; in their plundering expedi-
tions they roam over the whole extent of forest and
mountain between the Peucini and Fenni. They are
however to be rather referred to the German race, for
they have fixed habitations, carry shields, and delight
in strength and fleetness of foot, thus presenting a
complete contrast to the Sarmatai, who live in
waggons and on horseback. The Fenni are strangely
beastlike and squalidly poor ; neither arms nor
homes have they ; their food is herbs, their clothing
skins, their bed the earth. They trust wholly to
their arrows, which, for want of iron, are pointed
with bone. The men and the women are alike
supplied by the chase ; for the latter are always
present, and demand a share of the prey. The little
children have no shelter from wild beasts and storms
but a covering of interlaced boughs. Such are the
homes of the young, such the resting place of the old.
Yet they count this greater happiness than groaning
over field-labour, toiling at building, and poising the

GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 123

fortunes of themselves and others between hope and xLvf
fear. Heedless of men, heedless of gods, they have
attained that hardest of results, the not needing so
much as a wish. All else is fabulous, as that the
Hellusii and Oxiones have the faces and expressions
of men, with the bodies and limbs of wild beasts. All
this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.

NOTES TO THE GERMANY.

Thus luJiat was the name of a tribe and not of a
race gradually prevailed till all called tlienisehes by the
self-invented name of Germans, zvliich the conquerors
had first employed to inspired terror. (fta nationis
nomcn 7wn gent is evaliiissc paullatim, nt omnes, primum
a victore ob inetum max ctiam a se ipsis invento nomine
Germani vocarcnt?ir.)

ciiAi', This is an obscure sentence. There is great diffi-
culty about the words "a victore ob metum," which
have been variously explained. It seems hardly
possible that the preposition a can have the two
distinct meanings of "from" and "by" in the same
sentence ; and whatever be its meaning in " a se ipsis,"
must, one would think, be its meaning in "a victore."^
If "a se ipsis" means, as it would api)ear to do, "they
were called Germans by themselves when the name
had once been found for them," "a victore" must
mean they were so called by the conqueror. But
then comes the difficulty about the words " ob metum,"
which, to suit the sense, have generally been explained
as if they were equivalent to " ut metum ceteris

NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 125

tacerent," or to " mctus injicicndi causa." This is a ^"f^^'
very strange meaning for the words to bear, and we
cannot think of any precisely similar expression.
Orelli says it is better to take them intransitively, and
he compares two passages in the Annals, i. i and i.
6S : "Res ob metum falscX," " milite quasi ob metum
defixo." In these passages the meaning of " ob
metum " is perfectly clear, but we cannot see that it
throws much light on the present passage. All we
can make of the words is that they mean, " on account
of the fear felt all round for the conquering tribe, and
for the other tribes which had not yet crossed the
Rhine." That is to say, " They were all at first called
Germans by the conquering tribe, because of the fear
inspired by the name." The conquerors took advan-
tage of the panic which they had spread among the
conquered, and said they were only a part of a great
German people beyond the Rhine.

Tacitus is here in agreement with Caesar, who says
(Bell. Gall. ii. 4) that the first of the emigrants from
Germany were the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi, and
Paemani, who were called by the common name of
Germans. A large part of the Belg£ were of German
origin.

German is said to be Wehr-mann — a warrior or
man of war, and this etymology of the word has been
used to explain " ob metum."

Or even demandiiig them (exigere plagas).
This phrase has been variously rendered. It has chap.

... VII.

been interpreted to mean examining the wounds and
comparing them together, with the view of ascertain-

126 NOTES TO THE GERMANY.

'■'vn^' ^^^S ^^'^^o returned from battle with the most honour-
able scars. This version is approved by Orelli. In
Bohn's edition of the Oxford translation the words
are rendered "to search out the gashes," in Avhich
sense Ritter takes them, who says they mean, "ex-
amining the wounds to see whether they are danger-
ous." We doubt if "exigere" will bear this meaning.
We prefer Gronovius's interpretation, " demanding
wounds as a test of valour." It seems to suit
the context best, and to give the force of the word
" exigere."

Ve/eda.

*\an^* Veleda is mentioned, Hist. iv. 6i. She is said to
have been a maiden of the Bructeri, to have possessed
extensive dominion, and to have raised her power
to a great height by having foretold the success of
the Germans and destruction of the Roman legions.
This was in the reign of Vespasian, and her prophecy
was fulfilled by Civilis.

T/^c sJiaiii of deification {tamquain faccrent deas).

According to Hist. iv. 6i, the Germans attributed
to some of their women actual divinity. So that
here Tacitus must mean that they worshipped certain
women, really believing them to be divine, not to
flatter them in the spirit of an idle adulation, Avhich
at Rome had prompted the Senate to deify Gains
Caesar's sister, Drusilla, and Poppnsa, Sabina's daughter
by Nero, who lived but four months. There can be
little doubt but that Tacitus had in his mind these
shameful instances of servility.

NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 127

TJie cantons and towns {fiagos vicosque).

CHAP

The word " pagus " denotes a district, a canton. xii. '
The territory of each tribe was divided into so many
" pagi." These again would include a number of
" vici," towns or villages. Compare Ann. i. 56, where
the two words are connected.

To earn the honour of wounds {vnlnera mereri).
This expression rather confirms us in the view which chap.

^ . XIV.

we have taken of "exigere plagas." It clearly im-
plies that wounds received in battle were looked upon
as an honourable distinction.

Miidi of their time in the chase, and still more in
idleness {imUtnni venatibns, phis per otinni).

We think with Kritz that " non multum " (which ^|1^^'-
Orelli reads) is intolerably awkward, to say nothing
of its being in direct contradiction to Caesar, who
(Bell. Gall. vi. 21) speaks of the Germans as devoting
themselves zuholly to the chase and to warfare, and
(iv. i) says that the Suevi spent much of their time
in hunting (" multum sunt in venationibus "). One
would expect a roving and warlike people to be
partial to the chase.

Nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and be
corrupted {iiec corrwnpcre et corrtnnpi scsculum voca-
tur).

" Saeculum " is here almost equivalent to "mores." chap.
It means " the way of the world," or " the conven-
tional standard of morals. Louandre renders it "la
mode du siecle." We may compare the New Testa-
ment sense of atwv.

XIX

123 NOTES TO THE GERMANY.

^xix.' '^^ limit the nmnhcr of their cJiildren, &c. {Niunc-

rmn liberorinn finirc ant qucniquani ex agnatis nccarc).

See note, Agric. 6.

Good habits are here more cjfeetiial than good latvs
elsezvhcre.

This is probably an allusion to the " Lex Julia,"
the object of which was to encourage marriage.

Nor are tJiere any advantages in childlessness {jicc
nlla orbit at is pretia).

CHAP. Tacitus implies that in the corrupt society of Rome

the advantages of childlessness were very great. The
rich and childless were notoriously a mark for polite
attentions, as Horace and Juvenal tell us. Pliny says
(Epist. iv. 15) that in his time such were the prizes
within reach of the childless (" orbitatis praemia ")
that it was thought a burden and a disadvantage to
have even a single son.

Inereasing it by coniponnd inte?'est {in nsnras ex-
iendere).

xxvL We think (with Orclli and Rittcr) this must be the

meaning of the words, though they have been taken
differently. It seems perfectly certain that they can-
not be a mere repetition of "fenus agitare," as they
arc made to be in the Oxford translation. Nor do
we like Walther's explanation of them, which is,
lending money out during a long period of time and
exacting the interest at regular stated intervals. Is
not this fairly imi)licd in the words " fcnus agitare"
by themselves ?

NOTES ON THE GERMANY 129

Land proportioned to the number of inhabitants is
occupied by the whole community in turn, and after-
wards divided among them accordijig to rank. {Agri,
pro numero ctdtorum, ab universis in vices occupanticr,
quos inox inter se, secundum dignationem partiu)itur.)

This is a passage of well-known difficulty. Ritter, SSyf-
partly on the strength of what Tacitus tells us (ch.
1 6) about the Germans living in wide straggling
villages, reads "in vicos" for "in vices," But "in
vicos occupantur " is such a harsh expression, that
we think it ought not to be admitted without some
very good reason. Ritter takes it as an equivalent
to " ut fiant vici " (" the lands are occupied so as to
form villages"), and quotes as similar phrases ''"in
hos artus, in hsec corpora excrescunt " (ch. 20) ; " par-
tem vestibus in manicas extendunt" (17); "nee
remos in ordinem lateribus adjungunt" (44); " ut in
picem lentescit " (45). Not one of these instances
seems to us a fair parallel, and we prefer Orelli's " in
vices," though difficult of explanation. We believe
Tacitus is speaking, not of the legal tenure of land
generally among the Germans, but simply of the
manner in which it was occupied for the purposes of
tillage. He has certainly told us (ch. 16) that "they
live scattered and apart, as a spring, a meadow, or a
wood has attracted them ; " and though Caesar says
expressly (Bell. Gall. iv. i) that they have no private
or separate landed possessions, something of the kind
seems to be recognised in the words just quoted. At
any rate it is difficult to see how they can be recon-
ciled with the idea of a perpetual change of occupancy.

K

130 NOTES ON THE GERMANY.

xxvi' which seems implied in the present passage. Whether
Tacitus (in ch. i6) means to assert in contradiction
to Caesar that there were fixed properties in Germany
or not, here he must be speaking of land held by the
whole community (what the Romans called " ager
publicus ") ; which land, he says, was portioned out
(possibly by lot) for cultivation among the people
according to their number, the distribution of the
allotments being changed from time to time. The
land was first simply portioned out ; the next step
(" mox ") was to assign larger portions to the chiefs
and nobles. The whole, however, as we understand
it, continued to be "ager publicus." An arrangement,
otherwise impossible, was rendered easy by the vast
extent of the country. The passage, thus under-
stood, agrees substantially with what Caesar says (Bell,
Gall. vi. 22) that none of the Germans has his own
proper and fixed amount of land, but that the magis-
trates assign every year to families and clans settled
on the same spot, as much as they think fit, and
wherever they choose, and compel them in the course
of a year to go elsewhere.

TJiey till fresh fields every year. {A rva per annos
injitant)

As nothing but corn was grown, they did not get
a second crop on the same land without letting it
lie fallow for a year. Consequently they grew their
corn on fresh land every year, which they could,
under the circumstances explained, easily do.
" Arva " means arable land, as distinguished from wood
and pasture.

NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 181

Except that they still gain from the soil and climate
of their native land a keener vigour {iiisi quod ipso
adhuc terrcz sues solo ct ccelo acrius animantur).

The expression " acrius animantur" seems to include
the ideas of " enterprise " and courage. " Adhuc "
must mean " up to the present time," and so far as
Tacitus could speak of them.

The Mattiaci lived on high ground, and in a clear,
sharp air, compared with the Batavi. The air of the
" insula Batavorum " was thick and cloudy.

The tithe-lands. [Decicmates agri)

The word " decumates " is found nowhere else ; but
we have the similar forms " infernates " and " super-
nates" in Pliny. It must mean the same as "decu-
manus," although Ritter tries to distinguish them by
restricting " decumanus ager " to land in a corn-
producing province, while these "decumates agri "
were no part of a province, but simply an addition
to Upper Germany. But there seems no good reason
for thinking that Tacitus used this particular form to
imply such a distinction. All he means is land for
the occupation of which (under Roman protection)
the cultivators paid a tenth of the produce. By the
expression " questionable ownership," is meant that
it was a debateable land between the Gauls and Ger-
mans. In the time of Tacitus it was a march or
military frontier, and the tithes probably went to the
maintenance of Roman armies and garrisons in the
adjacent provinces. It is not clear whether by the
words " pars provincise " Tacitus m.eans part of

K 2

CHAP.
XXIX.

132 NOTES ON THE GERMANY.

xxfx' R^tia (which was immediately to the south), or part
of Upper Germany which was to the west. One
would suppose that these lands might be looked on
as situated in both provinces. Speaking roughly, the
" decumates agri " would coincide with part of the
Duchy of Baden, part of Wurtemburg, and a small
portion of Bavaria.

It was in the reign of Trajan that the Roman
frontier was advanced in these parts. That emperor
began a fortified line, which was afterwards completed,
from the Rhine to the Danube. This great work was
carried from Ratisbon to Mayence. It was known as
Trajan's wall. It may still be traced to some extent
by the marks of a mound and a ditch. This explains
the words " limite acto."

TJiey are fo7ind zvhcrc there are hills, and with
than grozv less frequent, for the Hercynian forest keeps
close till it has seen the last of its native Chatti.
{Dnra7it siquidem colics, paullatiingtie rarescunt ; ct
Cattos snos saltns Hercynins prosequitur sinud atqiie
deponit.)

*5^]^- This we have no doubt is Tacitus's meaning, though

his language is harsh and embarrassing. We take
the sentence as if it stood thus : " Durant, siquidem
colles durant, paullatim rarescunt siquidem colles
rarescunt.

We think " Chatti " is the nominative to " durant,"
which word wc believe to be simply equivalent to
" vivunt," in which use it occasionally occurs in Taci-
tus. It hardly seems necessary to explain it as Orelli
does : " they continue to dwell from necessity." The

NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 133

word, we think, may be fairly applied both to the ^^xx
people and to the range of hills. The meaning of
"deponit" is clear enough, but it is an extremely
bold and rhetorical expression.

Check their ijnp?ilses (differ re impetus).

" Dififerre " means to " put off, defer ; " hence it comes
to the same thing as " to restrain, to check." It is
thus rendered in the Oxford translation, " restrain
impetuous motions."

A practice rare among the other Gennan tribes, and
simply characteristic of individual prozvess, has become
general among the Chatti, of letting their hair and
beard grow as soon as they have attaified manhood, and
iwt till tliey have slain a foe laying aside that peculiar
aspect Ivhich devotes and pledges them to valour.

There is an apt illustration of this passage in Hist, xxxj"
iv. 6i : "Then Civilis fulfilled a vow often made by
barbarians : his hair, which he had let grow long
and coloured with a red dye, from the day of taking
up arms against Rome, he now cut short, when the
destruction of the legions had been accomplished."

Even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them,
and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and fellow-
coit7itrymen. {Jamque canent insignes, et hostibus simid
suisque monstrati).

It is difficult in a translation to preserve the full
force of the original, which has a bold and almost

134

NOTES ON THE GERMANY.

CHAP.
XXXI.

poetic turn. " Insignes" is equivalent to a participle,
and stands for " hoc modo insigniti." " Monstrati "
(marked out) is used as in Agric. 13, " monstratus
fatis Vespasianus."

CHAP.
-XXXIII.

While tJie destinies of enipii'e Jrurry us o?i {urgeiitibus
imperii fatis^.

It is doubtful whether " urgere " means to hurry on
the extension of the empire or " to weigh down and
press hard." Orelli prefers the first view, and, assu-
ming that Tacitus wrote the Germania in the reign
of Trajan, it is probably correct. The empire was
then, to all appearance, powerful and prosperous ; but
Tacitus may have thought he saw danger in the
policy of aggrandizement to which it was committed.
Ritter takes "urgere" in the sense of "to weigh
dov/n," and he thinks the allusion is to the disasters
of the Vv'ar with Civilis, and to the horrors of Domi-
tian's reign. Possibly there is an intentional vagueness
about the word " urgentibus," and the two ideas of
an inevitable extension of the frontiers and of being
driven on to unknown dangers may be combined in
it. Lipsius preferred the reading " vergentibus," which
was adopted by Gronovius, in the sense, "the desti-
nies of our empire being on the wane." It has, how-
ever, hardly any authority. Nor can we see any good
reason for the reading which Kritz has adopted, " / w
urgentibus imperii fatis," and which he explains to
mean, "should dangerous times hereafter threaten the
empire." It does not seem so simple, or to yield as
apt a sense, as the reading we have followed.

NOTES ON THE GERMANY.

135

NortJnvards the country takes a vast sweep {in septen-
tj'ioncm ingentijlexn j'edit).

In ch. I he has spoken of broad promontories
("latos sinus"), and in 37, "the remote corner where
the Cimbri dwell bordering on the ocean," is the same
as what he here describes by the words " ingenti
flexu." He means Jutland and the duchies of Sles-
wick-Holstein. The peculiar force of the word "redit"
is, that the land, after running up northwards, returns,
so to speak, or bends back. It is used in a similar
manner by Virgil, Georg. iii. 351 : —

" Quaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axem."

Even designed the conquest of Gatcl {etiam Gallias
affectavere.

The reference is to the civil wars, first between
Otho and Vitellius, and then between Vitellius and
Vespasian, of which last Civilis took advantage,
thinking to rouse Gaul as well as Germany against
the Romans. In Hist. iv. 18 we are told that he
was bent on the ultimate conquest of Gaul and
Germany.

CHAP.
XXXV.

CHAP.
XXXVII.

In recent times zve have celebrated triumphs rather
than won conquests over them.

Tacitus here alludes sneeringly toDomitian's triumph
over the Chatti, which in the Agricola 39 he charac-
terises as a contemptible affair, at which everybody
laughed.

126 NOTES ON THE GERMANY.

The Sucvi till their heads are grey affect the fashion
of draiving back their wikempt locks {apjid Sitevos ad
canitiem horrenteni capillinn retro seqimntur).

xxxvFii ^^ think the word "sequuntur " must be used here
as it is in ch. 5 : " argentum magis quam aurum se-
quuntur. The interpretation of Orelli (who takes
"retro" with " sequuntur"), "they let their hair grow
long, and twist it back from their neck and shoulders
to the top of their head," can hardly be got out of
the words. We suppose " retro " must be joined with
" horrentem," though the word hardly seems in its
right place. There can, we think, be no doubt that
" horrentem " should be construed with " capillum,"
and not with " canitiem," as some take it.

The Elbe {A Ibis).

^xti' Tacitus seems to be confounding the Saale with the
Elbe, of v/hich it is a tributary. The Elbe was the
furthest limit, eastwards and northwards, to which the
Roman arms advanced in Germany. Claudius Dru-
sus (B.C. 9) reached it, but did not cross it. Domitius
Ahenobarbus, Nero's grandfather, as we learn from
Ann. iv. 44, crossed the river, and thus penetrated
further into Germany than any other Roman had
hitherto done. This was B.C. 3, and it was followed
by an expedition two years later, under the same
command, to the banks of the Lower Albis. Never
afterwards did a Roman army advance so far in this
direction.

NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 137

The Gotini, to complete their degradation, actually
work iron mines.

Aikin has a good note on this passage — " I should xLm'
imagine that the expression ' quo magis pudeat ' does
not refer merely to the slavery of working in mines,
but to the circumstance of their digging up iron, the
substance by means of which they might acquire
freedom and independence. This is quite in the
manner of Tacitus. The word * iron ' was figur-
atively used by the ancients to signify military force
in general. Thus Solon, in his well-known answer
to Croesus, observed to him that 'the nation which
possessed more iron would be master of all the
gold.' "

And so a single rider holds siuay zvitJi no restrictions
{eoqjie timts ivtperitat nidlis jam except ionibns).

There were such restrictions among the other chap
German tribes (see ch. 7} ; there were none among
the Suevi. The force of the word "jam" is that as
you go northwards, the people degenerate more and
more from the spirit of liberty which characterises
the southern tribes. We see no ground in these words
for the inference drawn from them by Spener (Notit.
Germ, Antiq.) that the crown among the Suevi was
hereditary, and not elective.

Tacitus no doubt mentions the honour which the
Suevi pay to wealth because they were, in this respect,
a contrast to all the other tribes.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY

INTRODUCTION
TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

This Dialogue is intended as a discussion of the
question whether the oratory of the imperial, and
particularly the Flavian, age was inferior to that of
the last days of the republic, and, if so, why so ?
It is, we believe, seldom read. Unfortunately the
text is rather corrupt, and there are some serious
lacunae. Its genuineness, too, has alwa}'S been a
matter of doubt and controversy. It is true, indeed,
that the old MSS. assign it to Tacitus, and there really
do not seem to be any very solid or definite grounds
for deciding against his authorship. Most scholars,
Orelli and Ritter among the number, incline to this
view. Ingenious critics have attributed it to Quin-
tilian, or to the younger Pliny, but, as far as we can
see, without the semblance of anything that can be
called evidence. It can hardly be argued that the
style is at all pointedly unlike that of the Annals and
History, and it may fairly be said that here and there
may be traced resemblances. It is noted by Orelli
that one of the letters of the younger Pliny, addressed
to Tacitus, suggests the idea that Pliny was remind-
ing his friend of an expression he had used in this

142 INTRODUCTION TO THE

very Dialogue. " Poetry," he says, " is best written,
you think, amid groves and woods " {inter iianora
et liccos), and this particular phrase is found in chapter
9 of the Dialogue. The clever French critic, Jules
Janin, pronounced the work in question 3. chef d' cBiivi-e,
" revealing the highest genius," and could not under-
stand how it could be doubted that Tacitus w^as the
author. If so, it may be presumed to have been one of
his earliest works. We gather from a passage in chapter
17, that the year in which the Dialogue or conversa-
tion was actually held was the sixth year of the reign
of the Emperor Vespasian, or A.D. 75. But it does
not necessarily follow, as has been assumed, that it
was written and published in the same year. It is
at least quite possible that Tacitus, if he really was
the author, may have taken notes of the conversation
at the time, and have subsequently given them to the
world, perhaps during the reigns of Nerva or Trajan,
when he could have done so with safety. Domitian's
age, as we know, was a very perilous one for certain
kinds of literature.

The Dialogue is meant as an answer to a ques-
tion which is put into the mouth of one Fabius
Justus, a friend of the younger Pliny, and probably a
professional rhetorician, a question which we may well
suppose often occupied the thoughts of the speakers and
men of letters of the day. " How is it," he asks, " that
our own particular age is so destitute of the glory of
eloquence, when former periods were so rich in it.-""
Tacitus replies that he should not care to give simpl)^
his own opinion on so great a subject, but that he
is able to reproduce the substance of a discussion

DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 148

which he had had the good fortune to hear between
some eminent men on this very topic. Of the person-
ages of the Dialogue we know next to nothing. Four
were present — Curiatius Maternus, Marcus Aper,
Vipstanus Messala, and JuHus Secundus. The last,
of whom Quintilian says (x. i, 120) that had he lived
longer he would have been one of the most famous
orators in the world (he was Quintilian's personal
friend), takes but a very slight part in the conversa-
tion. Maternus had given up the pursuit of oratory for
that of poetry, and had become a writer of tragedies.
He is full of the praises of his art, which is, he argues,
infinitely grander than that of the orator and the
pleader of causes. He is probably mentioned by Dion
Cassius, who speaks [^"j, 12) of a sophist, that is,
a rhetoric-professor, whom Domitian put to death for
his outspokenness against tyrants. Of Marcus Aper
we can say nothing, but that he, like Secundus, was
one of the great lights of the Roman bar. He is for
oratory as against poetry, and he maintains that the
eloquence of their own age was in its way quite as
good as that of former days. Vipstanus Messala
is not present at the beginning of the discussion ; he
comes in just as Maternus has concluded an enthu-
siastic encomium on the poet's life and pursuits. He
was a man of whom Tacitus thought highly, and it
is said of him in the History (iii. 9), that he was
"the only man who had brought into the conflict
between Vitellius and Vespasian an honest purpose."
He was one of the adherents of the latter emperor.
He is again mentioned in the History (iv. 42) as in
a great crisis pleading most eloquently on behalf of

144 INTRODUCTION TO THE

his brother, Aquilius Regulus, the notorious delator,
of whom the younger Pliny gives us a description
in Epist. I., 5, one of his most amusing letters. It
appears that he wrote memoirs of his time, which
Tacitus used for his narrative of the civil wars in
the History. In this Dialogue he is opposed to Aper,
dwelling with admiration on the oratory of the old
days of the republic, and vituperating that of his own
age as a poor artificial product, the result of a de-
praved system of education, and of the extinction of
all political ambition.

The subjects here discussed are of permanent in-
terest. Aper pleads on behalf of his profession, its
utility and substantial rewards, much as a barrister
of our own day might do. He contrasts the great
position and wealth won by a successful advocate,
with the comparatively humble and obscure lot with
which the poet must often rest content. The poet,
indeed, at best, can hardly hope for much fame and
popularity, or, if he really aspires to greatness, he
must surrender himself wholly to his work, and turn
his back on society and go into the solitude of fields
and woods. Maternus in reply contends that this is
a happier life than that of an overworked pleader,
with all its harassing anxieties. Messala then joins
in the conversation, and praises the orators of the
past at the expense of the present, about whose in-
feriority he thinks there can be no question. In this
view Secundus and Maternus concur, Aper vehe-
mently denounces it, and criticises unfavourably several
of the most famous orators of the republic, Cicero
not excepted. After all, he says, how are you to

DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 145

draw a line between what is ancient and modern ?
People always praise the past, and disparage the
present. Eloquence must change with the time, and
adapt itself to altered conditions. If the eloquence
of old days was more trenchant and vigorous, that of
the present is more refined and elegant. People now
would not tolerate the crudities and extravagances
which disfigured the speeches of antiquity. How-
ever, both styles have their merits, and the right
method is that of judicious combination. Aper fails
to convince. Maternus assumes that the superiority
of ancient oratory cannot be questioned, and he asks
Messala to explain how it is that there has been such
an evident decline of eloquence. Messala's reply, of
which much is unfortunately lost, contrasts the edu-
cation of the present with that of the past, and he
argues that the methods in vogue in the schools of
the rhetoric-professors are responsible for the inferior
oratory of his own age. We have an amusing pic-
ture of the young barrister's defective and absurd
training under these professors, from whom he learns
only a certain art of declaiming glibly on some far-
fetched and preposterous topic. The end of Messala's
speech is lost ; it would seem that he requested Mater-
nus to give his ideas on the subject, and from this
point to the conclusion of the Dialogue Maternus is the
speaker. True eloquence, he maintains, can flourish
only under a free government, and such a govern-
ment, in fact, a republic, involves a certain amount
of turbulence, which is really favourable to the orator.
In such a state of things, political success is unattain-
able without eloquence. Indeed, the orator's art, if

L

MG INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

it is to flourish to perfection, needs the stimulus of
strife and disorder, and can hardly find material for
itself in quiet times and under a settled and estab-
lished government. And so Athens was its home
rather than Sparta. Maternus suggests that, if elo-
quence had declined, it was a cause for thankfulness,
as such a fact implied that the conditions of life in
their day were at all events better and happier than
they had been amid the storms and convulsions of
the " good old times." With these reflections the
Dialogue concludes.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

You often ask me, Justus Fabius, how it is that chap, i
while the genius and the fame of so many dis-
tinguished orators have shed a lustre on the past, our
age is so forlorn and so destitute of the glory of
eloquence that it scarce retains the very name of
orator. That title indeed we apply only to the ancients,
and the clever speakers of this day we call pleaders,
advocates, counsellors, anything rather than orators.
To answer this question of yours, to undertake the
burden of so serious an inquiry, involving, as it must,
a mean opinion either of our capacities, if we cannot
reach the same standard, or of our tastes, if we have
not the wish, is a task on which I should scarcely
venture had I to give my own views instead of being
able to reproduce a conversation among men, for our
time, singularly eloquent, whom, when quite a youth,
I heard discussing this very question. And so it is
not ability, it is only memory and recollection which
I require. I have to repeat now, with the same divisions
and arguments, following closely the course of that
discussion, those subtle reflections which I heard, power-
fully expressed, from men of the highest eminence,
each of whom assigned a different but plausible reason,

L 2

148 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. 1. thereby displaying the pecuHarities of his individual
temper and genius. Nor indeed did the opposite
side lack an advocate, who, after much criticism and
ridicule of old times, maintained the superiority of
the eloquence of our own days to the great orators
of the past.

CHAP. II. It was the day after Curiatius Maternus had given
a reading of his Cato, by which it was said that he had
irritated the feelings of certain great personages, be-
cause in the subject of his tragedy he had apparently
forgotten himself and thought only of Cato. While
all Rome was discussing the subject, he received a
visit from Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus, then the
most famous men of genius at our bar. Of both I was
a studious hearer in court, and I also would follow
them to their homes and when they appeared in public,
from a singular zeal for my profession, and a youthful
enthusiasm which urged me to listen diligently to
their trivial talk, their more serious debates, and their
private and esoteric discourse. Yet many ill-naturedly
thought that Secundus had no readiness of speech, and
that Aper had won his reputation for eloquence by his
cleverness and natural powers, more than by training
and culture. As a fact, Secundus had a pure, terse,
and a sufficiently fluent style, while Aper, who was
imbued with learning of all kinds, pretended to
despise the culture which he really possessed. He
would have, so he must have thought, a greater
reputation for industry and application, if it should
appear that his genius did not depend on any supports
from pursuits alien to his profession.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 149

So we entered the study of Maternus, and found chap. hi.
him seated with the very book which he had read the
day before, in his hands. Secundus began. Has
the talk of ill-natured people no effect in deterring
you, Maternus, from clinging to your Cato with its
provocations ? Or have you taken up the book to
revise it more carefully, and, after striking out what-
ever has given a handle for a bad interpretation, will
you publish, if not a better, at least a safer, Cato .''

You shall read, was the answer, what Maternus owed
it to himself to write, and all that you heard you will
recognise again. Anything omitted in the Cato
Thyestes shall supply in my next reading. This is
a tragedy, the plan of which I have in my own mind
arranged and formed. I am therefore bent on hurry-
ing on the publication of the present book, that, as
soon as my first work is off my hands, I may devote
my whole soul to a fresh task.

It seems, said Aper, so far from these tragedies
contenting you, that you have abandoned the study
of the orator and pleader, and are giving all your
time to Medea and now to Thyestes, although your
friends, with their many causes, and your clients from
the colonies, municipalities, and towns, are calling you
to the courts. You could hardly answer their demands
even if you had not imposed new work on yourself,
the work of adding to the dramas of Greece a
Domitius and a Cato, histories and names from our
own Rome.

This severity of yours, replied Maternus, would chap. iv.
be quite a blow to us, had not our controversy from

150 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. V. its frequency and familiarity become b)^ this time
almost a regular practice. You, in fact, never cease
from abusing and inveighing against poets, and I, whom
you reproach with neglect of my professional duties,
every day undertake to plead against you in defence
of poetry. So I am all the more delighted at the
presence of a judge who will either forbid me for
the future to write verses, or who will compel me by
his additional authority to do what I have long de-
sired, to give up the petty subleties of legal causes,
at which I have toiled enough, and more than enough,
and to cultivate a more sacred and more stately
eloquence.

CHAP. V For my part, said Secundus, before Aper refuses
me as a judge, I will do as is usually done by up-
right and sensible judges, who excuse themselves in
cases in which it is evident that one side has an
undue influence with them. Who knows not that no
one is nearer my heart from long friendship and un-
interrupted intercourse than Saleius Bassus, an excel-
lent man, as well as a most accomplished poet .■"
Besides, if poetry is to be put on her defence, I know
not a more influential defendant.

He may rest secure, said Aper, both Saleius Bassus
himself, and anyone else who is devoted to the pur-
suit of poetry and the glory of song, if he has not
the gift of pleading causes. But assuredly, as I
have found an arbiter for this dispute, I will not allov/
Maternus to shelter himself behind a number of asso-
ciates. I single him out for accusation before you

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 151

on the ground that, though naturally fittest for that chap. ^
manly eloquence of the orator by which he might
create and retain friendships, acquire connections, and
attach the provinces, he is throwing away a pursuit
than which it is impossible to imagine one in our state
richer in advantages, more splendid in its prospects,
more attractive in fame at home, more illustrious in
celebrity throughout our whole empire and all the
world. If, indeed, what is useful in life should be
the aim of all our plans and actions, what can be
safer than to practise an art armed with which a man
can always bring aid to friends, succour to strangers,
deliverance to the imperilled, while to malignant foes
he is an actual fear and terror, himself the while
secure and intrenched, so to say, within a power and
a position of lasting strength ? When we have a
flow of prosperity, the efficacy and use of this art are
seen in the help and protection of others ; if, how-
ever, we hear the sound of danger to ourselves, the
breast-plate and the sword are not, I am well assured,
a stronger defence on the battle-field than eloquence
is to a man amid the perils of a prosecution. It is
both a shield and a weapon ; you can use it alike for
defence and attack, either before a judge, before the
senate, or before the emperor. What but his elo-
quence did Eprius Marcellus oppose the other day to
the senators in their fury .'' Armed with this, and
consequently terrible, he baflied the sagacious but
untrained wisdom of Helvidius Prisons, which knew
nothing of such encounters. Of its usefulness I say
no more. It is a point which I think my friend
Maternus will be the last to dispute.

152 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. vr. I pass now to the pleasure derived from the orator's
eloquence. Its delights are enjoyed not for a single
moment, but almost on every day and at every hour.
To the mind of an educated gentleman, naturally
fitted for worthy enjoyments, what can be more de-
lightful than to see his house always thronged and
crowded by gatherings of the most eminent men,
and to know that the honour is paid not to his wealth,
his childlessness, or his possession of some office, but
to himself.'' Nay, more; the childless, the rich, and
the powerful often go to one who is both young and
poor, in order to intrust him with difficulties affect-
ing themselves or their friends. Can there be any
pleasure from boundless wealth and vast power equal
to that of seeing men in years, and even in old age,
men backed by the influence of the whole world,
readily confessing, amid the utmost affluence of every
kind, that they do not possess that which is the best
of all .-• Again, look at the respectable citizens who
escort the pleader to and from the court. Look at
his appearance in public, and the respect shown him
before the judges. What a delight it must be to rise
and stand amid the hushed crowd, with every eye on
him alone, the people assembling and gathering round
hini in a circle, and taking from the orator any emo-
tion he has himself assumed. I am now reckoning
the notorious joys of an orator, those which are open
to the sight even of the uneducated ; the more secret,
known only to the advocate himself, are yet greater.
If he produces a careful and well-prepared speech,
there is a solidity and stcdfastness in his satisfaction^
just as there is in his style ; if, again, he offers his

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 153

audience, not without some tremblings at heart, the chap, v;
result of a fresh and sudden effort, his very anxiety
enhances the joy of success, and ministers to his
pleasure. In fact, audacity at the moment, and rash-
ness itself, have quite a peculiar sweetness. As with
the earth, so with genius. Though time must be
bestowed on the sowing and cultivation of some
plants, yet those which grow spontaneously are the
more pleasing.

To speak my own mind, I did not experience chap.
more joy on the day on which I was presented with
the robe of a senator, or when, as a new man, born in
a far from influential state, I was elected quaestor, or
tribune, or praetor, than on those on which it was my
privilege, considering the insignificance of my ability
as a speaker, to defend a prisoner with success, to win
a verdict in a cause before the Court of the Hundred,
or to give the support of my advocacy in the
emperor's presence to the great freedmen themselves,
or to ministers of the crown. On such occasions I
seem to rise above tribunates, prsetorships, and
consulships, and to possess that which, if it be not of
natural growth, is not bestowed by mandate, nor
comes through interest. Again, is there an accom-
plishment, the fame and glory of which are to
be compared with the distinction of the orator, who
is an illustrious man at Rome, not only with the busy
class, intent on public affairs, but even with people of
leisure, and with the young, those at least who have
a right disposition and a worthy confidence in them-
selves .-* Whose name does the father din into his

154 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORV.

CH\p. children's ears before that of the orator ? Whom, as he
passes by, do the ignorant mob and the men with the
tunic oftener speak of by name and point out with the
finger? Strangers too and foreigners, having heard
of him in their towns and colonies, as soon as they
have arrived at Rome, ask for him and are eager, as it
were, to recognise him.

CHAP. As for Marcellus Eprius, whom I have just

mentioned, and Crispus Vibius (it is pleasanter to me
to cite recent and modern examples than those of a
distant and forgotten past), I would venture to argue
that they are quite as great men in the remotest corners
of the world as at Capua or Vercellae, where they are
said to have been born. Nor do they owe this to the
three hundred million sesterces of the one, although it
may seem that they must thank their eloquence for hav-
ing attained such wealth. Eloquence itself is the cause.
Its inspiration and superhuman power have through-
out all times shown by many an example what a
height of fortune men have reached by the might of
genius. Bui; there are, as I said but now, instances
close at hand, ana we may know them, not by hear-
say, but may see them with our eyes. The lower and
meaner their birth, the more notorious the poverty
and the straitened means amid which their life began,
the more famous and brilliant are they as examples to
show the efficacy of an orator's eloquence. Without
the recommendation of birth, without the support of
riches, neither of the two distinguished for virtue, one
even despised for the appearance of his person, they
have now for many years been the most powerful

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 15£

men in the state, and, as lonc^ as it suited them, they chap

. VIII

were the leaders of the bar. At this moment, as
leading men in the emperor's friendship they carry all
before them, and even the leading man himself of the
State esteems and almost reverences them. Vespasian
indeed, venerable in his old age and most tolerant of
truth, knows well that while his other friends are
dependent on what he has given them, and on what it
is easy for him to heap and pile on others, Marcellus
and Crispus, in becoming his friends, brought with
them something which they had not received and
which could not be received from a prince. Amid so
much that is great, busts, inscriptions, and statues
hold but a very poor place. Yet even these they do
not disregard, and certainly not riches and affluence,
which it is easier to find men denouncing than
despising. It is these honours and splendours, aye
and substantial wealth, that we see filling the homes
of those who from early youth have given themselves
to practice at the bar and to the study of oratory.

As for song and verse to which Maternus wishes to chap, ix
devote his whole life (for this was the starting-point
of his entire argument), they bring no dignity to the
author, nor do they improve his circumstances.
Although your ears, Maternus, may loathe what I
am about to say, I ask what good it is if Aga-
memnon or Jason speaks eloquently in your com-
position. Who the more goes back to his home
saved from danger and bound to you ? Our friend
Saleius is an admirable poet, or, if the phrase be more

156 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. IX. complimentary, a most illustrious bard ; but who walks
by his side or attends his receptions or follows in his
train ? Why, if his friend or relative or even he
himselt stumbles into some troublesome affair, he
will run to Secundus here, or to you, Maternus, not
because you are a poet or that you may make verses
for him ; for verses come naturally to Bassus in his
own home, and pretty and charming they are, though
the result of them is that when, with the labour of a
whole year, through entire days and the best part of
the nights, he has hammered out, with the midnight
oil, a single book, he is forced actually to beg and
canvass for people who will condescend to be his
hearers, and not even this without cost to himself. He
gets the loan of a house, fits up a room, hires benches,
and scatters programmes. Even if his reading is
followed by a complete success, all the glory is, so to
say, cut short in the bloom and the flower, and does not
come to any leal and substantial fruit. He carries
away with him not a single friendship, not a single
client, not an obligation that will abide in anyone's
mind, only idle applause, meaningless acclamations
and a fleeting delight. We lately praised Vespasian's
bounty, in giving Bassus four thousand pounds,
as something marvellous and splendid. It is no
doubt a fine thing to win an emperor's favour by
talent ; but how much finer, if domestic circumstances
so require, to cultivate oneself, to make one's own
genius propitious, to fall back on one's own bounty.
Consider too that a poet, if he wishes to work out
and accomplish a worthy result, must leave the society
of his friends, and the attractions of the capital ; he

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 157

must relinquish every other duty, and must, as poets chap, ix
themselves say, retire to woods and groves, in fact,
into solitude.

Nor again do even reputation and fame, the only chap, x
object of their devotion, the sole reward of their
labours, by their own confession, cling to the poet as
much as to the orator; for indifferent poets are known
to none, and the good but to a few. When does the
rumour of the very choicest readings penetrate every
part of Rome, much less is talked of throughout
our numerous provinces ? How (q\v, when they visit
the capital from Spain or Asia, to say nothing of our
Gallic neighbours, ask after Saleius Bassus ! And
indeed, if any one does ask after him, having once
seen him, he passes on, and is satisfied, as if he had
seen a picture or a statue. I do not wish my remarks
to be taken as implying that I would deter from
poetry those to whom nature has denied the orator's
talent, if only they can amuse their leisure and push
themselves into fame by this branch of culture. For my
part I hold all eloquence in its every variety some-
thing sacred and venerable, and I regard as preferable
to all studies of other arts not merely your tragedian's
buskin or the measures of heroic verse, but even the
sweetness of the lyric ode, the playfulness of the
elegy, the satire of the iambic, the wit of the
epigram, and indeed any other form of eloquence.
But it is with you, Maternus, that I am dealing ; for,
when your genius might carry you to the summit
of eloquence, you prefer to wander from the path,

158 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. X. and though sure to win the highest prize you stop
short at meaner things. Just as, if you had been born
in Greece, where it is an honour to practise even the
arts of the arena, and if the gods had given you the
vigour and strength of Nicostratus, I should not suffer
those giant arms meant by nature for combat to waste
themselves on the light javelin or the throwing of the
quoit, so nov/ 1 summon you from the lecture-room and
the theatre to the law court with its pleadings and its
real battles. I do this the more because you cannot
even fall back on the refuge which shelters many,
the plea that the poet's pursuit is less liable to give
offence than that of the orator. In truth, with you the
ardour of a peculiarly noble nature bursts forth, and
the offence you give is not for the sake of a friend,
but, what is more dangerous, for the sake of Cato.
Nor is this offending excused by the obligation of duty,
or by the fidelity of an advocate, or by the impulse of
a casual and sudden speech. You have, it seems,
prepared your part in having chosen a character of
note who would speak with authority. I foresee your
possible answer. Hence, you will say, came the
decisive approval ; this is the style which the lecture-
room chiefly praises, and which next becomes the
world's talk. Away then with the excuse of quiet and
safety, when you are deliberately choosing a more
doughty adversary. For myself, let it be enough
to take a side in the private disputes of our own time.
In these, if at any time necessity has compelled us
on behalf of an imperilled friend to offend the ears
of the powerful, our loyalty must be approved, our
liberty of speech condoned.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 159

Aper having said this with his usual spirit and chap, xi
with vehemence of utterance, Maternus repHed
good-humouredly with something of a smile. I was
preparing to attack the orators at as great length as
Aper had praised them, for I thought that he would
leave his praises of them and go on to demolish poets
and the pursuit of poetry, but he appeased me by a
sort of stratagem, granting permission to those who
cannot plead causes, to make verses. For myself,
though I am perhaps able to accomplish and effect
something in pleading causes, yet it was by the public
reading of tragedies that I first began to enter the
path of fame, when in Nero's time I broke the wicked
power of Vatinius by which even the sanctities of
culture were profaned, and if at this moment I possess
any celebrity and distinction I maintain that it has
been acquired more by the renown of my poems than
of my speeches. And so now I have resolved to throw
off the yoke of my labours at the bar, and for trains
of followers on my way to and from the court and
for crowded receptions I crave no more than for the
bronzes and busts which have invaded my house even
against my will. For hitherto I have upheld my
position and my safety better by integrity than by
eloquence, and I am not afraid of having ever to
say a word in the senate except to avert peril from
another.

As to the woods and groves and that retirement chap.

XII

which Aper denounced, they bring such delight to
me that I count among the chief enjoyments of
poetry the fact that it is composed not in the midst

160 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, of bustle, or with a suitor sittincj before one's door,

XII.

or amid the wretchedness and tears of prisoners, but
that the soul withdraws herself to abodes of purity
and innocence, and enjoys her holy resting-place.
Here eloquence had her earliest beginnings ; here is
her inmost shrine. In such guise and beauty did she
first charm mortals, and steal into those virgin hearts
which no vice had contaminated. Oracles spoke
under these conditions. As for the present money-
getting and blood-stained eloquence, its use is modern,
its origin in corrupt manners, and, as you said, Aper,
it is a device to serve as a w^eapon. But the happy
golden age, to speak in our own poetic fashion, knew
neither orators nor accusations, while it abounded in
poets and bards, men who could sing of good deeds,
but not defend evil actions. None enjoyed greater
glory, or honours more august, first with the gods,
whose answers they published, and at whose feasts
they were present, as was commonly said, and then
with the offspring of the gods and with sacred kings,
among whom, so we have understood, was not a single
pleader of causes, but an Orpheus, a Linus, and, if
you care to dive into a remoter age, an Apollo him-
self. Or, if you think all this too fabulous and
imaginary, at least you grant me that Homer has
as much honour with posterity as Demosthenes, and
that the fame of Euripides or Sophocles is bounded
by a limit not narrower than that of Lysias or
Hyperidcs. You will find in our own day more
who disparage Cicero's than Virgil's glory. Nor is
any production of Asinius or Messala so famous as
Ovid's Medea or the Thyestes of Varius.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 161

Look acrain at the poet's lot, with its delightful chap.

° r ' o ^ XIII.

companionships. I should not be afraid of comparing
it with the harassing and anxious life of the orator.
Orators, it is true, have been raised to consulships
by their contests and perils, but I prefer Virgil's
serene, calm, and peaceful retirement, in which after
all he was not without the favour of the divine
Augustus, and fame among the people of Rome. We
have the testimony of the letters of Augustus, the
testimony too of the people themselves, who, on
hearing in the theatre some of Virgil's verses, rose in
a body and did homage to the poet, who happened to
be present as a spectator, just as to Augustus him-
self Even in our own day, Pomponius Secundus
need not yield to Domitius Aper on the score of a
dignified life or an enduring reputation. As for your
Crispus and Marcellus, whom you hold up to me as
examples, what is there in their lot to be coveted .''
Is it that they are in fear themselves, or are a fear
to others .'' Is it that, while every day something is
asked from them, those to whom they grant it feel
indignant .-• Is it that, bound as they are by the chain
of flattery, they are never thought servile enough by
those who rule, or free enough by us .'' What is their
power at its highest ? Why, the freedmen usually
have as much. For myself, as Virgil says, let " the
sweet muses " lead me to their sacred retreats, and
to their fountains far away from anxieties and cares,
and the necessity of doing every day something re-
pugnant to my heart. Let me no longer tremblingly
experience the madness and perils of the forum, and
the pallors of fame. Let me not be aroused by a

M

162 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY,

CHAP, tumult of morning' visitors, or a frcedman's pantinc:

XIII. . 1 t>

haste, or, anxious about the future, have to make a
will to secure my wealth. Let me not possess more
than what I can leave to whom I please, whenever
tlie day appointed by my own fates shall come ; and
let the statue over my tomb be not gloomy and
scowling, but bright and laurel-crowned. As for my
memory, let there be no resolutions in the senate, or
petitions to the emperor.

CHAP. Excited and, I may say, full of enthusiasm, Mater-

XIV. J J ^

nus had hardly finished when Vipstanus Messala
entered his room, and, from the earnest expression
on each face, he conjectured that their conversation
was unusually serious. Have I, he asked, come among
you unseasonably, while you are engaged in private
deliberation, or the preparation of some case .'*

By no means, by no means, said Secundus. In-
deed I could wish you had come sooner, for you
would have been delighted with the very elaborate
arguments of our friend Aper, in which he urged
Maternus to apply all his ability and industry to the
pleading of causes, and then too with Matcrnus's
apology for his poems in a lively speech, which, as
suited a poet's defence, was uncommonly spirited, and
more like poetry than oratory.

For my part, he replied, I should liave been in-
finitely charmed by the discourse, and I am delighted
to find that you excellent men, the orators of our
age, instead of exercising your talents simply on
law-business and rhetorical studies, also engage in
discussions which not only strengthen the intellect

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 1C3

but also draw from learnincf and from letters a pleasure chap.

. . XIV.

most exquisite both to you who discuss such subjects
and to those too whose ears your words may reach.
Hence the world, I see, is as much pleased with you,
Secundus, for having by your life of Julius Asiaticus
given it the promise of more such books, as it is with
Aper for having not yet retired from the disputes
of the schools, and for choosing to employ his leisure
after the fashion of modern rhetoricians rather than
of the old orators.

Upon this Aper replied. You still persist, Messala, in chap.
admiring only what is old and antique and in sneering
at and disparaging the culture of our own day. I have
often heard this sort of talk from you, when, forget-
ting the eloquence of yourself and your brother, you
argued that nobody in this age is an orator. And
you did this, I believe, with the more audacity
because you were not afraid of a reputation for
ill-nature, seeing that the glory which others concede
to you, you deny to yourself. I feel no penitence,
said Messala, for such talk, nor do I believe that
Secundus or Maternus or you yourself, Aper, think
differently, though now and then you argue for the
opposite view. I could wish that one of you were
prevailed on to investigate and describe to us the
reasons of this vast difference. I often inquire into
them by myself. That which consoles some minds, to
me increases the difficulty. For I perceive that even
with the Greeks it has happened that there is a greater
distance between Aeschines and Demosthenes on the
one hand, and your friend Nicetes or any other orator

M 2

XVI.

164 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, who shakes Ephesus or Mitylene with a chorus of

XV. .

rhetoricians and their noisy applause, on the other,
than that which separates Afer, Africanus, or your-
selves from Cicero or Asinius.

CHAP. The question you have raised, said Secundus, is a
f^reat one and quite worthy of discussion. But who
has a better claim to unravel it than yourself, you
who to profound learning and transcendent ability have
added reflection and study .-'

I will open my mind to you, replied Mess«la, if first
I can prevail on you to give me your assistance in our
discussion. I can answer for two of us, said Maternus ;
Secundus and myself will take the part which we
understand you have not so much omitted as left to
us. Aper usually dissents, as you have just said, and
he has clearly for some time been girding himself
for the attack, and cannot bear with patience our
union on behalf of the merits of the ancients.

Assuredly, said Aper, I will not allow our age to be
condemned, unheard and undefended, by this con-
spiracy of yours. First, however, I will ask you whom
}'ou call ancients, or what period of orators you limit
by your definition ? When I hear of ancients, I under-
stand men of the past, born ages ago ; I have in my
eye Ulysses and Nestor, whose time is about thirteen
hundred years before our day. But you bring forward
Demosthenes and Hypcrides who flourished, as we
know, in the period of Philip and Alexander, a period,
however, which they both outlived. Hence we see
that not much more than four hundred years has inter-
vened between our own era and that of Demosthenes.

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 165

If you measure this space of time by the frailty of chap.
human life, it perhaps seems long ; if by the course of
ages and by the thought of this boundless universe, it
is extremely short and is very near us. For indeed,
if, as Cicero says in his Hortensius, the great and the
true year is that in which the position of the heavens
and of the stars at any particular moment recurs, and if
that year embraces twelve thousand nine hundred and
ninety four of what we call years, then your Demos-
thenes, whom you represent as so old and ancient,
began his existence not only in the same year, but
almost in the same month as ourselves.

But I pass to the Latin orators. Among them, ^/^f-
it is not, I imagine, Menenius Agrippa, who may
seem ancient, whom you usually prefer to the speakers
of our day, but Cicero, Caelius, Calvus, Brutus,
Asinius, Messala. Why you assign them to antiquity
rather than to our own times, I do not see. With
respect to Cicero himself, it was in the consulship of
Hirtius and Pansa, as his freedman Tiro has stated,
on the 5th of December, that he was slain. In that
same year the Divine Augustus elected himself and
Quintus Pedius consuls in the room of Pansa and
Hirtius. Fix at fifty-six years the subsequent rule of
the Divine Augustus over the state ; add Tiberius's
three-and-twenty years, the four years or less of Caius,
the twenty-eight years of Claudius and Nero, the one
memorable long year of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius,
and the now six years of the present happy reign,
during which Vespasian has been fostering the public
weal, and the result is that from Cicero's death to our

U6 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, day is a hundred and twenty years, one man's
XVII. -^ -^ -^ . .

life-time. P^or I saw myself an old man in Britain

who declared that he was present at the battle in which

they strove to drive and beat back from their shores

the arms of Caesar when he attacked their island. So,

had this man who encountered Caesar in the field,

been brought to Rome either as a prisoner, or by

his own choice or by some destiny, he might have

heard Ca;sar himself and Cicero, and also have been

present at our own speeches. At the last largess

of the Emperor you saw yourselves several old men

who told you that they had actually shared once and

again in the gifts of the divine Augustus. Hence

we infer that they might have heard both Corvinus

and Asinius. Corvinus indeed lived on to the middle

of the reign of Augustus, Asinius almost to its close.

You must not then divide the age, and habitually

describe as old and anciient orators those with whom

the ears of the self-same men might have made

acquaintance, and whom they might, so to say, have

linked and coupled together.

CHAP. I have made these preliminary remarks to show that

any credit reflected on the age by the fame and renown
of these orators is common property, and is in fact
more closely connected with us than with Servius
Galba or Caius Carbo, and others whom we may rightly
call "ancients." These indeed are rough, unpolished,
awkward, and ungainly, and I wish that your favourite
Calvus or Caelius or even Cicero had in no respect
imitated them. I really mean now to deal with the
subject more boldly and confidently, but I must first

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 167

observe that the types and varieties of eloquence chap.
change with the age. Thus Caius Gracchus compared
with the elder Cato is full and copious ; Crassus com-
pared with Gracchus is polished and ornate ; Cicero
compared with either is lucid, graceful, and lofty ; Cor-
vinus again is softer and sweeter and more finished
in his phrases than Cicero. I do not ask who is the
best speaker. Meantime I am content to have proved
that eloquence has more than one face, and even in
those whom you call ancients several varieties are to be
discovered. Nor does it at once follow that difference
implies inferiority. It is the fault of envious human
nature that the old is always the object of praise,
the present of contempt. Can we doubt that there
were found critics who admired Appius Caecus more
than Cato ? We know that even Cicero was not
without his disparagers, who thought him inflated,
turgid, not concise enough, but unduly diffuse and
luxuriant, in short anything but Attic. You have
read of course the letters of Calvus and Brutus to
Cicero, and from these it is easy to perceive that in
Cicero's opinion Calvus was bloodless and attenuated,
Brutus slovenly and lax. Cicero again was slightingly
spoken of by Calvus as loose and nerveless, and by
Brutus, to use his own words, as " languid and effemi-
nate." If you ask me, I think they all said what was
true. But I shall come to them separately after a
while ; now I have to deal with them collectively.

While indeed the admirers of the ancients fix as chap

XIX

the boundary, so to say, of antiquity, the period up
to Cassius Severus who was the first, they assert, to

168 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, deviate from the old and plain path of the speaker,
I maintain that it was not from poveity of genius or
ignorance of letters that he adopted his well known
style, but from preference and intellectual conviction.
He saw, in fact, that, as I was just now saying, the
character and type of oratory must change with the
circumstances of the age and an altered taste in the
popular ear. The people of the past, ignorant and
uncultured as they were, patiently endured the length
of a very confused speech, and it was actually to the
speaker's credit, if he took up one of their days by
his speech-making. Then too they highly esteemed
long preparatory introductions, narratives told from
a remote beginning, a multitude of divisions ostenta-
tiously paraded, proofs in a thousand links, and all the
other directions prescribed in those driest of treatises
by Hermagoras and Apollodorus. Any one who was
supposed to have caught a scent of philosophy, and
who introduced some philosophical commonplace into
his speech, was praised up to the skies. And no
wonder ; for this was new and unfamiliar, and even of
the orators but very few had studied the rules of
rhetoricians or the dogmas of philosophers. But now
that all these are common property and that there is
scarce a bystander in the throng who, if not fully
instructed, has not at least been initiated into the
rudiments of culture, eloquence must resort to new
and skilfully chosen paths, in order that the orator
may avoid offence to the fastidious ear, at any rate
before judges who decide by power and authority,
not by law and precedent, who fix the speaker's time,
instead of leaving it to himself, and, so far from

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 169

thinking that they ought to wait till he chooses to speak chap.
on the matter in question, continually remind him of
it and recall him to it when he wanders, protesting
that they are in a hurry.

Who will now tolerate an advocate who begins by chap.

XX

speaking of the feebleness of his constitution, as is
usual in the openings of Corvinus .'' Who will sit out
the five books against Verres ? Who will endure
those huge volumes, on a legal plea or form, which
we have read in the speeches for Marcus Tullius and
Aulus Caccina ? In our day the judge anticipates
the speaker, and unless he is charmed and imposed
on by the train of arguments, or the brilliancy of the
thoughts, or the grace and elegance of the descrip-
tive sketches, he is deaf to his eloquence. Even the
mob of bystanders, and the chance listeners who
flock in, now usually require brightness and beauty
in a speech, and they no more endure in the law-
court the harshness and roughness of antiquity, than
they would an actor on the stage who chose to re-
produce the gestures of Roscius or Ambivius. So
again the young, those whose studies are on the
anvil, who go after the orators with a view to their
own progress, are anxious not merely to hear but
also to carry back home some brilliant passage worthy
of remembrance. They tell it one to another, and
often mention it in letters to their colonies and pro-
vince.s, whether it is a reflection lighted up by a neat
and pithy phrase, or a passage bright with choice
and poetic ornament. For we now expect from a
speaker even poetic beauty, not indeed soiled with

170 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAi'. the old rust of Accius or Pacuvius, but such as is
x\.

produced from the sacred treasures of Horace, Virgil,

and Lucan. Thus the age of our orators, in con-
forming itself to the ear and the taste of such a class,
has advanced in beauty and ornateness. Nor does it
follow that our speeches are less successful because
they bring pleasure to the ears of those who have to
decide. What if you were to assume that the temples
of the present day are weaker, because, instead of
being built of rough blocks and ill-shaped tiles, they
shine with marble and glitter with gold ?

CHAP. I will frankly admit to you that I can hardly keep

XXI

from laughing at some of the ancients, and from
falling asleep at others. I do not single out any of
the common herd, as Canutius, or Arrius, and others
in the same sick-room, so to say, who are content
with mere skin and bones. Even Calvus, although
he has left, I think, one-and-twcnty volumes, scarcely
satisfies me in one or two short speeches. The rest
of the world, I see, does not differ from my opinion
about him; for how few read his speeches against
Asitius or Drusus ! Certainly his impeachment of
Vatinius, as it is entitled, is in the hands of students,
especially the second of the orations. This, indeed,
has a finish about the phrases and the periods, and
suits the ear of the critic, whence you may infer that
even Calvus understood what a better style is, but
that he lacked genius and power rather than the will
to speak with more dignity and grace. What again
from the speeches of Caelius do we admire .'' Why,
we like of these the whole, or at least parts, in

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 171

which we reco";nise the pohsh and elevation of our chap

° ^ . XXI.

own day ; but, as for those mean expressions, those
gaps in the structure of the sentences, and uncouth
sentiments, they savour of antiquity. No one, I sup-
pose, is so thoroughly antique as to praise Caelius
simply on the side of his antiqueness. We may,
indeed, make allowance for Caius Julius Caesar, on
account of his vast schemes and many occupations,
for having achieved less in eloquence than his divine
genius demanded from him, and leave him indeed,
just as we leave Brutus to his philosophy. Un-
doubtedly in his speeches he fell short of his reputa-
tion, even by the admission of his admirers. I hardly
suppose that any one reads Csesar's speech for Decius
the Samnite, or that of Brutus for King Deiotarus,
or other works equally dull and cold, unless it is
some one who also admires their poems. For they
did write poems, and sent them to libraries, with no
better success than Cicero, but with better luck,
because fewer people know that they wrote them.

Asinius too, though born in a time nearer our
own, seems to have studied with the Menenii and
Appii. At any rate he imitated Pacuvius and Accius,
not only in his tragedies but also in his speeches ;
he is so harsh and dry. Style, like the human body,
is then specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins
are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted,
but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs,
and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews
become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful
outline. I will not attack Corvinus, for it was not
indeed his own fault that he did not exhibit the

172 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. luxuriance and brightness of our own day. Rather
let us note liow far the vigour of his intellect or of
liis imagination satisfied his critical faculty.

CHAP. I come now to Cicero. He had the same battle

XXII

with his contemporaries which I have with you. They
admired the ancients ; he preferred the eloquence of
his own time. It was in taste more than anything
else that he was superior to the orators of that age.
In fact, he was the first who gave a finish to oratory,
the first who applied a principle of selection to words,
and art to composition. He tried his skill at beautiful
passages, and invented certain arrangements of the
sentence, at least in those speeches which he composed
when old and near the close of life, that is when he
had made more progress, and had learnt by practice
and by many a trial, what was the best style of speak-
ing. As for his early speeches, they are not free from
the faults of antiquity. He is tedious in his introduc-
tions, lengthy in his narrations, careless about digres-
sions ; he is slow to rouse himself, and seldom warms
to his subject, and only an idea here and there is
brought to a fitting and a brilliant clo^e. There is
nothing which you can pick out or quote, and the
style is like a rough building, the wall of which indeed
is strong and lasting, but not particularly polished and
bright. Now I would have an orator, like a rich and
grand householder, not merely be sheltered by a roof
sufficient to keep off rain and wind, but by one to
delight the sight and the eye ; not merely be provided
with such furniture as is enough for necessary pur-
poses, but also possess among his treasures gold

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 173

and jewels, so that he may find a frequent pleasure in ^\f-
handling them and gazing on them. On the other
hand, some things should be kept at a distance as
being now obsolete and ill-savoured. There should
be no phrase stained, so to speak, with rust ; no ideas
should be expressed in halting and languid periods
after the fashion of chronicles. The orator must shun
an offensive and tasteless scurrility ; he must vary the
structure of his sentences and not end all his clauses
in one and the same way.

Phrases like "Fortune's wheel" and "Verrine soup," xxtn
I do not care to ridicule, or that stock ending of every
third clause in all Cicero's speeches, " it would seem
to be," brought in as the close of a period. I have
mentioned them with reluctance, omitting several, al-
though they are the sole peculiarities admired and
imitated by those who call themselves orators of the
old school. I will not name any one, as I think it
enough to have pointed at a class. Still, you have before
your eyes men who read Lucilius rather than Horace,
and Lucretius rather than Virgil, who have a mean
opinion of the eloquence of Aufidius Bassus, and Ser-
vilius Nonianus compared with that of Sisenna or
Varro, and who despise and loathe the treatises of our
modern rhetoricians, while those of Calvus are their
admiration. When these men prose in the old style
before the judges, they have neither select listeners
nor a popular audience ; in short the client himself
hardly endures them. They are dismal and uncouth,
and the very soundness of which they boast, is the
result not so much of real vig-our as of fasting;. Even

174 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, as to health of body, physicians are not satisfied
with that which is attained at the cost of mental worry.
It is a small matter not to be ill ; I like a man to be
robust and hearty and full of life. If soundness is all
that you can praise him for, he is not very far from
being an invalid. Be it yours, my eloquent friends, to
grace our age to the best of your ability, as in fact
you are doing, with the noblest style of oratory. You,
Messala, imitate, I observe, the choicest beauties of the
ancients. And you, Maternus and Secundus, combine
charm and finish of expression with weight of thought.
There is discrimination in the phrases you invent,
order in the treatment of your subject, fullness, when
the case demands it, conciseness, when it is possible,
elegance in your style, and perspicuity in every
sentence. You can express passion, and yet control
an orator's licence. And so, although ill-nature and
envy may have stood in the way of our good opinions,
posterity will speak the truth concerning you.

CHAP. Aper having finished speaking, Maternus said,

You recognise, do you not, our friend Aper's force
and passion ? With what a torrent, what a rush
of eloquence has he been defending our age ? How
full and varied was his tirade against the ancients !
What ability and spirit, what learning and skill too did
he show in borrowing from the very men themselves
the weapons with which he forthwith proceeded to
attack them ! Still, as to your promise, Messala, there
must for all this be no change. We neither want a
defence of the ancients, nor do we compare any of
ourselves, though we have just heard our own praise.s,

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 175

with those whom Aper has denounced. Aper himself chap.

^ '- . XXIV.

thinks otherwise ; he merely followed an old practice
much in vogue with your philosophical school of
assuming the part of an opponent. Give us then
not a panegyric on the ancients (their own fame is a
sufficient panegyric) but tell us plainly the reasons
why with us there has been such a falling off from
their eloquence, the more marked as dates have
proved that from the death of Cicero to this present
day is but a hundred and twenty years.

Messala replied, I will take the line you have chap.

XXV

prescribed for ine. Certainly I need not argue long
against Aper, who began by raising what I think a
controversy about a name, implying that it is not
correct to call ancients those whom we all know to
have lived a hundred years ago. I am not fighting
about a word. Let him call them ancients or elders or
any other name he prefers, provided only we have the
admission that the eloquence of that age exceeded
ours. If again he freely admits that even in the same,
much more in different periods, there were many
varieties of oratory, against this part too of his
argument I say nothing. I maintain, however, that
just as among Attic orators we give the first place to
Demosthenes and assign the next to Aeschines,
Hyperides, Lysias and Lycurgus, while all agree in
regarding this as pre-eminently the age of speakers, so
among ourselves Cicero indeed was superior to all
the eloquent men of his day, though Calvus, Asinius,
Caesar, Caelius, and Brutus may claim the right
of being preferred to those who preceded and who

176 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, followed them. It matters nothinc? that they dififer

XXV.

in special points, seeing that they are generically
alike. Calvus is the more terse, Asinius has the finer
rhythm, Caesar greater brilliancy, Caelius is the more
caustic, Brutus the more earnest, Cicero the m.ore
impassioned, the richer and more forcible. Still about
them all there is the same healthy tone of eloquence.
Take into your hand the works of all alike and you
see that amid wide differences of genius, there is a
resemblance and affinity of intellect and moral purpose.
Grant that they disparaged each other (and certainly
there are some passages in their letters which show
mutual ill-will), still this is the failing, not of the
orator, but of the man. Calvus, Asinius, Cicero
himself, I presume, were apt to be envious and ill-
natured, and to have the other faults of human
infirmity. Brutus alone of the number in my opinion
laid open the convictions of his heart frankly and
ingenuousl}', without ill-will or envy. Is it possible
that he envied Cicero, when he seems not to have
envied even Caesar .-* As to Servius Galba, and Caius
Laclius, and others of the ancients whom Aper has
persistently assailed, he must not expect me to defend
them, for I admit that their eloquence, being yet in
its infancy and imperfectly developed, had certain
defects.

CHAP. After all, if I must put on one side the highest and

XXVI.

most perfect type of eloquence and select a style,
I should certainly prefer the vehemence of Caius
Gracchus or the sobriety of Lucius Crassus to the
curls of Maecenas or the jingles of Gallic: so much

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 177

better is it for an orator to wear a roujjh dress than chap.

. . . XXVI.

to glitter in many-coloured and meretricious attire.
Indeed, neither for an orator or even a man is that
style becoming which is adopted by many of the
speakers of our age, and which, with its idle redun-
dancy of words, its meaningless periods and licence
of expression, imitates the art of the actor. Shocking
as it ought to be to our ears, it is a fact that fame,
glory, and genius are sacrificed by many to the boast
that their compositions are given with the tones of the
singer, the gestures of the dancer. Hence the ex-
clamation, which, though often heard, is a shame and an
absurdity, that our orators speak prettily and our actors
dance eloquently. For myself I would not deny that
Cassius Severus, the only speaker whom Aper
ventured to name, may, if compared with his
successors, be called an orator, although in many
of his works he shows more violence than vigour.
The first to despise arrangement, to cast off propriety
and delicacy of expression, confused by the very
w^eapons he employs, and often stumbling in his
eagerness to strike, he wrangles rather than fights.
Still, as I have said, compared with his successors,
he is far superior to all in the variety of his learning,
the charm of his wit, and the solidity of his very
strength. Not one of them has Aper had the courage
to mention, and, so to say, to bring into the field.
When he had censured Asinius, Caelius, and Calvus,
I expected that he would show us a host of others,
and name more, or at least as many who might be
pitted man by man against Cicero, Caesar, and the
rest. As it is, he has contented himself with singling

N

178 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, out for disparap;ement some ancient orators, and has

XXVI. r t>

not dared to praise any of their successors, except
generally and in terms common to all, fearing, I
suppose, that he would offend many, if he selected a
few. For there is scarce one of our rhetoricians who
does not rejoice in his conviction that he is to be ranked
before Cicero, but unquestionably second to Gabinianus.

CHAP. For my own part I shall not scruple to mention

XXVII.

men by name, that, with examples before us, we
may the more easily perceive the successive steps of
the ruin and decay of eloquence.

Maternus here interrupted him. Rather prepare
yourself to fulfil your promise. We do not want proof
of the superior eloquence of the ancients ; as far as I
am concerned, it is admitted. We are inquiring into
the causes, and these you told us but now you had
been in the habit of discussing, when you were less
excited and were not raving against the eloquence
of our age, just before Apcr offended you by attacking
your ancestors.

I was not offended, replied Messala, by our friend
Aper's argument, nor again will you have a right to
be offended, if any remark of mine happens to grate
on your ears, for you know that it is a rule in these
discussions that we may speak out our convictions
wi'thout impairing mutual good-will.

Proceed, said Maturnus. As you are speaking of
the ancients, avail yourself of ancient freedom, from
which we have fallen away even yet more than from
eloquence.

x'xvii'i. Messala continued. Far from obscure are the

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 179

causes wViich you seek. Neither to yourself or to our chap

^ ^ XXVIII.

friends, Secundus and Aper, are they unknown, though
you assign me the part of speaking out before you
what we all think. Who does not know that elo-
quence and all other arts have declined from their
ancient glory, not from dearth of men, but from the
indolence of the young, the carelessness 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 provinces. 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 pur-
chased nurse, but in that mother's bosom and embrace,
and it was her special glory to study her home
and devote herself to her children. It was usual to
select an elderly kinswoman of approved and esteemed
character to have the entire charge of all the children
of the household. In her presence it was the last
offence to utter an unseemly word or to do a dis-
graceful act. With scrupulous piety and modesty she
regulated not only the boy's studies and occupations,
but even his recreations and games. Thus it was,
as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi,
of Caesar, of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia,
directed their children's education and reared the

N 2

180 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, qreatest of sons. The strictness of the discipline

XXVI II. ^ . ^

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.

CHAP. But in our day we entrust the infant to a little

XXIX. . ^

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 familiarise 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
gladiators 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 attain-
ments ! 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 strictness of discipline or by
giving proof of ability, but by assiduous court and
cunning tricks of flattcr)\

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 181

I say nothing about the learners' first rudiments, chap.
Even with these httle pains are taken, and on the
reading of authors, on the study of antiquity and a
knowledge of facts, of men and of periods, by no means
enough labour is bestowed. It is rhetoricians, as they
are called, who are in request. When this profession
was first introduced into our city, and how little
esteem it had among our ancestors, I am now about
to explain ; but I will first recall your attention to the
training which we have been told was practised by
those orators whose infinite industry, daily study and
incessant application to every branch of learning are
seen in the contents of their own books. You are
doubtless familiar with Cicero's book, called Brutus.
In the latter part of it (the first gives an account of
the ancient orators) he relates his own beginnings, his
progress, and the growth, so to say, of his eloquence.
He tells us that he learnt the civil law under Quintus
Mucins, and that he thoroughly imbibed every branch
of philosophy under Philo of the Academy and under
Diodotus the Stoic ; that not content with the teachers
under whom he had had the opportunity of studying
at Rome, he travelled through Achaia and Asia Minor
so as to embrace every variety of every learned
pursuit. Hence we really find in Cicero's works that
he was noi deficient in the knowledge of geometry,
music, grammar, or, in short, any liberal accomplish-
ment. The subtleties of logic, the useful lessons of
ethical science, the movements and causes of the
universe, were alike known to him. The truth indeed
is this, my excellent friends, that Cicero's wonderful
eloquence wells up and overflows out of a store of

182 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP erudition, a multitude of accomplishments, and a
knowledge that was universal. The strength and power
of oratory, unlike all other arts, is not confined within
narrow and straitened limits, but the orator is he
who can speak on every question with grace, elegance,
and persuasiveness, suitably to the dignity of his
subject, the requirements of the occasion, and the taste
of his audience.

CHAP. Such was the conviction of the ancients, and to

XXXI

produce this result they were aware that it was
necessary not only to declaim in the schools of rhe-
toricians, or to exercise the tongue and the voice in
fictitious controversies quite remote from reality, but
also to imbue the mind with those studies which
treat of good and evil, of honour and dishonour, of
right and wrong. All this, indeed, is the subject-
matter of the orator's speeches. Equity in the law-
court, honour in the council-chamber, are our usual
topics of discussion. Still, these often pass into
each other, and no one can speak on them with ful-
ness, variety, and elegance but he who has studied
human nature, the power of virtue, the depravity of
vice, and the conception of those things which can be
classed neither among virtues nor vices. These are
the sources whence flows the greater ease with which
he who knows what anger is, rouses or soothes the
anger of a judge, the readier power with which he
moves to pity who knows what pity is, and what
emotions of the soul excite it. An orator practised
in such arts and exercises, whether he has to address
the angry, the biassed, the envious, the sorrowful,

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 183

or the tremblinc^, will understand different mental chap.

. . . XXXI.

conditions, apply his skill, adapt his style, and have
every instrument of his craft in readiness, or in re-
serve for every occasion. Some there are whose
assent is more secured by an incisive and terse style,
in which each inference is rapidly drawn. With
such, it will be an advantage to have studied logic.
Others are more attracted by a diffuse and smoothly
flowing speech, appealing to the common sentiments
of humanity. To impress such we must borrow from
the Peripatetics commonplaces suited and ready
prepared for every discussion. The Academy will
give us combativeness, Plato, sublimity, Xenophon,
sweetness. Nor will it be unseemly in an orator to
adopt even certain exclamations of honest emotion,
from Epicurus and Metrodorus, and to use them as
occasion requires. It is not a philosopher after the
Stoic school whom we are forming, but one who ought
to imbibe thoroughly some studies, and to have a
taste of all. Accordingly, knowledge of the civil law
was included in the training of the ancient orators,
and they also imbued their minds with grammar,
music, and geometry. In truth, in very many, I may
say in all cases, acquaintance with law is desirable,
and in several this last-mentioned knowledge is a
necessity.

Let no one reply that it is enough for us to learn, chap.
as occasion requires, some single and detached sub-
ject. In the first place we use our own property in
one way, a loan in another, and there is evidently a
wide difference between possessing what one exhibits

xxxii

184 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, and borrowinfT it. Next, the very knowledfje of
XXXII. . -^ . ' ^ ^

many subjects sits gracefully on us, even when we

are otherwise engaged, and makes, itself visible and
conspicuous where you would least expect it. Even
the average citizen, and not only the learned and
critical hearer, perceives it, and forthwith showers his
praises in the acknowledgment that the man has
been a genuine student, has gone through every
branch of eloquence, and is, in short, an orator. And
I maintain that the only orator is, and ever has been,
one who, like a soldier equipped at all points going
to the battle-field, enters the forum armed with every
learned accomplishment.

All this is so neglected by the speakers of our
time that we detect in their pleadings the style of
every-day conversation, and unseemly and shameful
deficiencies. They are ignorant of the laws, they do
not understand the senate's decrees, they actually
scoff at the civil law, while they quite dread the
study of philosophy, and the opinions of the learned ;
and eloquence, banished, so to say, from her proper
realm, is dragged down by them into utter poverty of
thought and constrained periods. Thus she who,
once mistress of all the arts, held sway with a glo-
rious retinue over our souls, now clipped and shorn,
without state, without honour, I had almost said
without her freedom, is studied as one of the meanest
handicrafts. This then I believe to be the first and
chief cause of so marked a falling off among us
from the eloquence of the old orators. If witnesses
are wanted, whom shall I name in preference to
Demosthenes among the Greeks, who is said by tra-

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 185

dition to have been a most attentive hearer of Plato ? chap.
Cicero too tells us, I think, in these very words,
that whatever he had achieved in eloquence he had
gained, not from rhetoricians, but in the walks of the
Academy. There are other causes, some of them
great and important, which it is for you in fairness
to explain, as I have now done my part, and, after
my usual way, have offended pretty many persons
who, if they happen to hear all this, will, I am sure,
say that, in praising an acquaintance with law and
philosophy as a necessity for an orator, I have been
applauding my own follies.

For myself, replied Maternus, I do not think that chap.

XXXIII

you have completed the task which you undertook.
Far from it. You have, I think, only made a begin-
ning, and indicated, so to say, its traces and outlines.
You have indeed described to us the usual equipment
of the ancient orators, and pointed out the contrast
presented by our idleness and ignorance to their very
diligent and fruitful studies. I want to hear the rest.
Having learnt from you what they knew, with which
we are unacquainted, I wish also to be told the pro-
cess of training by which, when mere lads, and when
about to enter the forum, they used to strengthen
and nourish their intellects. For you will not, I
imagine, deny that eloquence depends much less on
art and theory than on capacity and practice, and
our friends here seem by their looks to think the
same.

Aper and Secundus having assented, Messala, so
to say, began afresh. As I have, it seems, explained

186

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP.
XXXIII.

to your satisfaction the first elements and the germs
of ancient eloquence in showing you the studies in
which the orator of antiquity was formed and edu-
cated, I will now discuss the process of his training.
However, even the studies themselves involve a train-
ing, and no one can acquire such profound and varied
knowledge without adding practice to theory, fluency
to practice, and eloquence itself to fluency. Hence
we infer that the method of acquiring what you
mean to produce publicly, and of so producing what
you have acquired, is one and the same. Still,
if any one thinks this somewhat obscure, and dis-
tinguishes broadly between theory and practice, he
will at least allow that a mind thoroughly furnished
and imbued with such studies will enter with a far
better preparation on the kinds of practice which seem
specially appropriate to the orator.

CHAP.
XXXIV.

It was accordingly usual with our ancestors, when a
lad was being prepared for public speaking, as soon
as he was fully trained by home discipline, and his
mind was stored with culture, to have him taken by
his father, or his relatives to the orator who held the
highest rank in the state. The boy used to accom-
pany and attend him, and be present at all his
speeches, alike in the law-court and the assembly,
and thus he picked up the art of repartee, and be-
came habituated to the strife of words, and indeed,
I may almost say, learnt how to fight in battle.
Thereby young men acquired from the first great
experience and confidence, and a very large stock of
discrimination, for they were stud}'ing in broad day-

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 187

liffht, in the very thick of the conflict, where no one chap.
^ ' -^ ' xxxiv

can say anything foohsh or self-contradictory without

its being refuted by the judge, or ridiculed by the
opponent, or, last of all, repudiated by the very
counsel with him. Thus from the beginning they
were imbued with true and genuine eloquence, and,
although they attached themselves to one pleader,
still they became acquainted with all advocates of
their own standing in a multitude of cases before the
courts. They had too abundant experience of the
popular ear in all its greatest varieties, and with this
they could easily ascertain what was liked or dis-
approved in each speaker. Thus they were not in
want of a teacher of the very best and choicest kind,
who could show them eloquence in her true features,
not in a mere resemblance ; nor did they lack oppo-
nents and rivals, who fought with actual steel, not
with a wooden sword, and the audience too was
always crowded, always changing, made up of un-
friendly as well as of admiring critics, so that neither
success nor failure could be disguised. You know, of
course, that eloquence wins its great and enduring
fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents
as from those of our friends ; nay, more, its rise from
that quarter is steadier, and its growth surer. Un-
doubtedly it was under such teachers that the youth
of whom I am speaking, the disciple of orators, the
listener in the forum, the student in the law-courts,
was trained and practised by the experiences of others.
The laws he learnt by daily hearing ; the faces of
the judges were familiar to him ; the ways of popu-
lar assemblies were continually before his eyes ; he

XXXV.

188 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, had frequent experience of the ear of the people, and
whether he undertook a prosecution or a defence,
he was at once singly and alone equal to any case.
We still read with admiration the speeches in which
Lucius Crassus in his nineteenth, Csesar and Asinius
Pollio in their twenty-first year, Calvus, when very
little older, denounced, respectively, Carbo, Dolabella,
Cato, and Vatinius.

CHAP. But in these days we have our youths taken to

the professors' theatre, the rhetoricians, as we call
them. The class made its appearance a little before
Cicero's time, and was not liked by our ancestors,
as is evident from the fact that, when Crassus and
Domitius were censors, they were ordered, as Cicero
says, to close "the school of impudence." However,
as I was just saying, the boys are taken to schools
in which it is hard to tell whether the place itself,
or their fellow-scholars, or the character of their
studies, do their minds most harm. As for the place,
there is no such thing as reverence, for no one enters
it who is not as ignorant as the rest. As for the
scholars, there can be no improvement, when boys
and striplings with equal assurance address, and are
addressed by, other boys and striplings. As for the
mental exercises themselves, they are the reverse of
beneficial. Two kinds of subject-matter are dealt
with before the rhetoricians, the persuasive and the
controversial. The persuasive, as being comparatively
easy and requiring less skill, is given to boys. The
controversial is assigned to riper scholars, and, good
heavens! what strange and astonishing productions

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 189

are the result ! It comes to pass that subjects re- 9^-^^
mote from all reality are actually used for declama-
tion. Thus the reward of a tyrannicide, or the choice
of an outraged maiden, or a remedy for a pestilence,
or a mother's incest, anything, in short, daily dis-
cussed in our schools, never, or but very rarely in the
courts, is dwelt on in grand language.

[The rest of Messala's speech is lost. Maternus is
now again the speaker.]

Great eloquence, like fire, grows with its material ; chap.

XXXVI

it becomes fiercer with movement, and brighter as
it burns. On this same principle was developed in
our state too the eloquence of antiquity. Although
even the modern orator has attained all that the
circumstances of a settled, quiet, and prosperous com-
munity allow, still in the disorder and licence of the
past more seemed to be within the reach of the
speaker, when, amid a universal confusion that needed
one guiding hand, he exactly adapted his wisdom to
the bewildered people's capacity of conviction. Hence,
laws without end and consequent popularity ; hence,
speeches of magistrates who, I may say, passed
nights on the Rostra; hence, prosecutions of influ-
ential citizens brought to trial, and feuds transmitted
to whole families ; hence, factions among the nobles,
and incessant strife between the senate and the people.
In each case the state was torn asunder, but the
eloquence of the age was exercised and, as it seemed,
was loaded with great rewards. For the more power-
ful a man was as a speaker, the more easily did he

190 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP, obtain office, the more decisively superior was he to
XXXVI. , . „ ' ^ ^

his coheagues in office, the more influence did he

acquire with the leaders of the state, the more weight
in the senate, the more notoriety and fame with the
people. Such men had a host of clients, even among"
foreign nations ; the magistrates, when leaving Rome
for the provinces, showed them respect, and courted
their favour as soon as they returned. The praetor-
ship and the consulship seemed to offer themselves
to them, and even when they were out of office, they
were not out of power, for they swayed both people
and senate with their counsels and influence. Indeed,
they had quite convinced themselves that without
eloquence no one could win or retain a distinguished
and eminent position in the state. And no wonder.
Even against their own wish they had to show them-
selves before the people. It was little good for them
to give a brief vote in the senate without supporting
their opinion with ability and eloquence. If brought
into popular odium, or under some charge, they had
to reply in their own words. Again, they were under
the necessity of giving evidence in the public courts,
not in their absence by affidavit, but of being present
and of speaking it openly. There was thus a strong
stimulus to win the great prizes of eloquence, and
as the reputation of a good speaker was considered
an honour and a glory, so it was thought a disgrace
to seem mute and speechless. Shame therefore quite
as much as hope of reward prompted men not to
take the place of a pitiful client rather than that of a
patron, or to see hereditary connections transferred to
others, or to seem spiritless and incapable of office

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

191

from either failing to obtain it or from holding it
weakly when obtained.

Perhaps you have had in your hands the old re-
cords, still to be found in the libraries of antiquaries,
which Mucianus is just now collecting, and which
have already been brought together and published
in, I think, eleven books of Transactions, and three
of Letters. From these we may gather that Cneius
Pompeius and Marcus Crassus rose to power as much
by force of intellect and by speaking as by their
might in arms ; that the Lentuli, Metelli, Luculli,
and Curios, and the rest of our nobles, bestowed
great labour and pains on these studies, and that, in
fact, no one in those days acquired much influence
without some eloquence. We must consider too the
eminence of the men accused, and the vast issues
involved. These of themselves do very much for
eloquence. There is, indeed, a wide difference be-
tween having to speak on a theft, a technical point,
a judicial decision, and on bribery at elections, the
plundering of the allies, and the massacre of citizens.
Though it is better that these evils should not befall
us, and the best condition of the state is that in which
we are spared such sufferings, still, when they did
occur, they supplied a grand material for the orator.
His mental powers rise with the dignity of his sub-
ject, and no one can produce a noble and brilliant
speech unless he has got an adequate case. Demos-
thenes, I take it, does not owe his fame to his speeches
against his guardians, and it is not his defence of
Publius Quintius, or of Licinius Archias, which make
Cicero a great orator ; it is his Catiline, his Milo,

CHAP.
XXXVI.

CHAP.
XXXVII

102

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY,

CHAP.
XXXVII.

his Verres, and Antonius, which have shed over him
this lustre. Not indeed that it was worth the state's
while to endure bad citizens that orators might have
plenty of matter for their speeches, but, as I now
and then remind you, we must remember the point,
and understand that we are speaking of an art which
arose more easily in stormy and unquiet tirties. Who
knows not that it is better and more profitable to
enjoy peace than to be harassed by war? Yet war
produces more good soldiers than peace. Eloquence
is on the same footing. The oftener she has stood,
so to say, in the battle-field, the more wounds she
has inflicted and received, the mightier her antago-
nist, the sharper the conflicts she has freely chosen,
the higher and more splendid has been her rise, and
ennobled by these contests she lives in the praises of
mankind.

CHAP.
XXXVIII.

I pass now to the forms and character of procedure
in the old courts. As they exist now, they are indeed
more favourable to truth, but the forum in those days
was a better training for eloquence. There no speaker
•was under the necessity of concluding within a very
few hours ; there was freedom of adjournment, and
every one fixed for himself the limits of his speech,
and there was no prescribed number of days or of
counsel. It was Cneius Pompcius who, in his third con-
sulship, first restricted all this, and put a bridle, so to
say, on eloquence, intending, however, that all business
should be transacted in the forum according to law,
and before the prjetors. Here is a stronger proof of
the greater importance of the cases tried before these

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 193

judges than in the fact that causes in the Court of the chap.

XXXVIII.

Hundred, causes which now hold the first place, were
then so eclipsed by the fame of other trials that not
a speech of Cicero, or Caesar, or Brutus, or Caelius,
or Calvus, or, in short, any great orator is now
read, that was delivered in that Court, except only
the orations of Asinius Pollio for the heirs of Urbinia,
as they are entitled, and even Pollio delivered these in
the middle of the reign of Augustus, a period of
long rest, of unbroken repose for the people and
tranquillity for the senate, when the emperor's perfect
discipline had put its restraints on eloquence as well
as on all else.

Perhaps what I am going to say will be thought chap
trifling and ridiculous ; but I will say it even to be '
laughed at. What contempt (so I think at least) has
been brought on eloquence by those little overcoats
into which we squeeze, and, so to say, box ourselves
up, when we chat with the judges ! How much
force may we suppose has been taken from our
speeches by the little rooms and offices in which
nearly all cases have to be set forth. Just as a spacious
course tests a fine horse, so the orator has his field,
and unless he can move in it freely and at ease, his
eloquence grows feeble and breaks down. Nay more ;
we find the pains and labour of careful composition
out of place, for the judge keeps asking when you
are going to open the case, and you must begin from
his question. Frequently he imposes silence on the
advocate to hear proofs and witnesses. Meanwhile
only one or two persons stand by you as you are

o

194 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAR speaking and the whole business is transacted almost
in solitude. But the orator wants shouts and applause,
and something hke a theatre, all which and the like
were the every day lot of the orators of antiquity,
when both numbers and nobility pressed into the
forum,when gatherings of clients and the people in their
tribes and deputations from the towns and indeed a
great part of Italy stood by the accused in his peril,
and Rome's citizens felt in a multitude of trials
that they themselves had an interest in the decision.
We know that there was a universal rush of the
people to hear the accusation and the defence of
Cornelius, Scaurus, Milo, Bestia, and Vatinius, so that
even the coldest speaker might have been stirred and
kindled by the mere enthusiasm of the citizens in
their strife. And therefore indeed such pleadings are
still extant, and thus the men too who pleaded, owe
their fame to no other speeches more than these.

CHAP. XL. Again, what stimulus to genius and what fire to the
orator was furnished by incessant popular assemblies,
by the privilege of attacking the most influential men,
and by the very glory of such feuds when most of the
good speakers did not spare even a Publius Scipio, or
a Sulla, or a Cneius Pompeius, and following the
common impulse of envy availed themselves of the
popular ear for invective against eminent citizens.
I am not speaking of a quiet and peaceful accom-
plishment, which delights in what is virtuous and well
regulated. No ; the great and famous eloquence of
old is the nursling of the licence which fools called
freedom ; it is the companion of sedition, the

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 195

stimulant of an unruly people, a stranger to obedience chap, xl
and subjection, a defiant, reckless, presumptuous thing
which does not show itself in a well-governed state.
What orator have we ever heard of at Sparta or at
Crete ? A very strict discipline and very strict laws
prevailed, tradition says, in both those states. Nor do
we know of the existence of eloquence among the
Macedonians or Persians, or in any people content
with a settled government. There were some orators
at Rhodes and a host of them at Athens, but there
the people, there any ignorant follow, anybody, in short,
could do anything. So too our own state, while it
went astray and wore out its strength in factious
strife and discord, with neither peace in the forum,
unity in the senate, order in the courts, respect
for merit, or seemly behaviour in the magistrates,
produced beyond all question a more vigorous elo-
quence, just as an untilled field yields certain herbage
in special plenty. Still the eloquence of the Gracchi
was not an equivalent to Rome for having to endure
their legislation, and Cicero's fame as an orator was
a poor compensation for the death he died.

And so now the forum, which is all that our speakers ^-J^Y'
have left them of antiquity, is an evidence of a
state not thoroughly reformed or as orderly as we
could wish. Who but the guilty or unfortunate apply
to us .-• What town puts itself under our protection
but one harassed by its neighbours or by strife at
home .'' When we plead for a province, is it not one
that has been plundered and ill-treated .'' Surely it
would be better not to complain than to have to seek

O 2

196 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP redress. Could a community be found in which no
one did wrong, an orator would be as superfluous
among its innocent people as a physician among the
healthy. As the healing art is of very little use and
makes very little progress in nations which enjoy par-
ticularly robust constitutions and vigorous frames, so
the orator gets an inferior and less splendid renown
where a sound morality and willing obedience to
authority prevail. What need there of long speeches in
the senate, when the best men are soon of one mind,
or of endless harangues to the people, when political
questions are decided not by an ignorant multitude,
but by one man of pre-eminent wisdom ? What need
of voluntary prosecutions, when crimes are so rare

m. and slight, or of defences full of spiteful insinuation

"^ and exceeding proper bounds, when the clemency of

the judge offers itself to the accused in his peril ?

Be assured, my most excellent, and, as far as the
age requires, most eloquent friends, that had you been
born in the past, and the men we admire in our own
day, had some god in fact suddenly changed your
lives and your age, the highest fame and glory of
eloquence would have been yours, and they too would
not have lacked moderation and self-control. As it
is, seeing that no one can at the same time enjoy
great renown and great tranquillity, let everybody
make the best of the blessings of his own age without
disparaging other periods.

Maternus had now finished. There were, replied
Messala, some points I should controvert, some on
which I should like to hear more, if the day were
not almost spent. It shall be, said Maternus, as you

A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 197

wish, on a future occasion, and anything you have chap
thought obscure in my argument, we will again discuss.
Then he rose and embraced Aper, I mean, he
said, to accuse you before the poets, and so will
Messala before the antiquarians. And I, rejoined Aper,
will accuse you before the rhetoricians and professors.
They laughed good-humouredly, and we parted.

NOTES TO THE
DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. V. Saleius Bassus. — Mentioned again in 9 and 10.
He was a poet of the Flavian age, of whom
Ouintilian (x. i. 90) speaks favourably, as pos-
sessed of a vehemens et poeticimi ingenmm. Juvenal
(vii. 80) gives him the epithet tenuis, in allusion, it would
seem, to his poverty. There is extant a panegyrical
poem of 261 lines on a Calpurnius Piso, and this has
been attributed to Bassus, it being also supposed that
this Piso was one of the chief authors of the famous
conspiracy against Nero, described in the Annals
XV. 48 to end. The conjecture is a plausible one, but
that is all that can be said of it. There were many
other poets who may have written it, as, for example
Statius or Lucan.

CHAP. VII. Ministers of the crown {procuratores principntn).
— The procurator CcBsaris, as he was styled was
commonly the emperor's confidential adviser as well
as his steward. He could have a province if he
wished it, as a matter of course. When impeached,
it would usually be for extortion or maladministra-
tion, lie was often a frcedman, and his class with

NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 199

its peculiar influence was one of the most marked chap. vii.
features of the imperial age.

Mandate [codicillis). — Compare Agricola 40, where
the same word codicilli is used of a dispatch or
missive from the emperor to Agricola. This indeed
seems to have become one of the special meanings of
the word, which properly, of course, is simply a dimi-
nutive form of codex.

J\Ien with the tunic (tunicatus populus). — Compare
Horace Epist. i. 7, 65, tnnicato popcllo. A respectable
Roman citizen always wore the toga in public ; to be
without this and have only the tunica implied that
a man belonged to the poorest and lowest class. The
tunica was worn under the toga.

Eprius Marcellus. — First mentioned in Annals chap,

. vm

xii. 4. He rose from obscurity by the abuse of con-
siderable natural eloquence to be one of the fore-
most dtiatores of Nero's time, during which he was
particularly formidable. He lost influence after Nero's
death, but reappears in Hist. ii. 53 ; iv. 6. and was an
important personage under Vitellius and Vespasian.

Vibius Ci'ispus. — He is again mentioned in 13. He
had successfully defended his brother in Nero's reign on
a charge of provincial maladministration. See Annals
xiv. 28. Quintilian (x. i, 1 19) speaks of him z.sjucundus
el delcctationi natus. See also Hist. ii. 10; iv. 41, 43.

Programmes (Jibellos). — Perhaps, cards of invitation chap, ix
with a programme. Juvenal (vii. 35 — 97), describes
at length the process of getting up a reading and
drawing an audience.

Vatinius. — See Annals xv. 34, from which it

200 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. IX. appears that from having been a shoemaker's appren-
tice he had pushed himself into Nero's favour by-
vulgar wit and buffoonery. How Maternus " broke
his power" and drove him from the court we cannot
say, as Tacitus tells us nothing about it. It hardly
seems likely that he won a victory over him in a
tragedy contest, as Gronovius conjectured. Such
solemn contests would not have been very congenial
to Nero's taste or to that of the people, nor was
Vatinius the sort of man to write a tragedy. Ritter
discusses this passage in a long excursus, in which he
throws out the conjecture that Maternus's tragedy of
Domitius, mentioned in 3, was identical with that
referred to in the present passage. It was, he thinks,
a tragedy based on an incident said to have occurred
to Nero in his infancy, which Tacitus glances at in
Annals xi. 11. ("It was commonly reported that
snakes had been seen by his cradle which they seemed
zo guard.") Nero's name indeed was Domitius, but
it is not easy to see why Maternus should have so
called him, as after his adoption in early years by the
Emperor Claudius he was known as Claudius Nero.
He would too have been much too young to have been
the leading character of a tragedy. There remains
something in this passage which cannot be cleared up.
We know nothing of the circumstances under which
Vatinius lost the Emperor's favour ; we may infer per-
haps from Hist. i. 37 that in Otho's time he was dead,

CHAP. T/ie pallors of fame {faniavt pallcnteni). — A pale

face goes with fame, as it docs with study. The
man who has it, fears for himself as much as he is
feared by others.

NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 201

Julius Asiaticns. — Probably the same man as the chap.
Asiaticus mentioned Hist. ii. 94 ; if so, he had taken
a leading part in the insurrection of V^index. He was
a Gaul, or born in Gaul, and this explains the fact
that Julius Secundus, himself of Gallic origin, had
written his life.

Nicetes. — A rhetoric-professor in the time of chap, xv
Claudius and Nero. He taught both at Rome and
at Smyrna, his native city. The younger Pliny (vi. 6)
had attended his lectures, and speaks of him as a
particularly earnest student {stitdioruin ainantisshmts).

Africanus. — A son probably of the Julius Africanus
mentioned in the Annals vi. 7. He lived in Nero's
time. Quintilian couples him with Afer as a distin-
guished orator.

Meneiiiiis Aprippa. — He led the famous secession chap.

, . . XVII.

of theplebs to Mons Sacer in 492 B.C. See Livy ii. '^2.

Caeliiis. — Marcus Caelius Rufus, a friend of Cicero
and defended him in the famous speech Pro Caelio.

Calviis. — Caius Licinius Calvus, alsoa contemporary
of Cicero, both a poet and orator. As the first he
ranked with Catullus ; as the latter with Cicero. He
had also the name of Macer, and it is not unlikely
that he was the Licinius Macer so often referred
to by Livy. Of his works only the merest scraps
remain.

Hirtius and Pansa. — They were consuls in 43 B.C.,
and both fell in that year, which came to be henceforth
regarded as marking the end of the common-
wealth.

202 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY,

xvm Appins Cacc2is. — His speech on the subject of

a treaty with Pyrrhus in 280 B.C. was, it appears,
extant in Cicero's time (see the Brutus, 16), and may
have been known to Tacitus.

CHAP. Cassius Scverus. — His career is briefly sketched in

XIX.

Annals iv. 21.

:hap. XX. Roscuis or Ambiviiis. — The first was a highly
accomplished tragic actor, and was a particular
favourite with Sulla and with Cicero. One of Cicero's
speeches is in his defence. Ambivius was a comic
actor in the time of Terence, and had a great
reputation.

cf^'^P- Caniitiiis. — Mentioned by Cicero in his speech for
Cluentius (10) and in the Brutus (56) as a very good
speaker.

Vatiniiis. — One of Caesar's most active adherents
and, as such, a conspicuous figure in the strife between
Caesar and Pompeius.

CHAP. Aufidiiis Bassus. — A writer in the time of Augustus

XXIll .

and Tiberius. He wrote a history of the German war.

Serviliiis Nonianus. — See Annals xiv. 19, from
which it appears that he was eminent as a counsel and
as a historian.

Sisenna. — Mentioned by Cicero (Brutus 64), as a
clever but not sufficiently careful writer. He wrote a
history of Sulla's times.

Varro. — The learned writer and student of antiquity
whose great work was known as De vita populi Romani
et de antiquitatibiis rerum Jiunianarum et divinarum

NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 203

Maecenas. — Horace and Virfjil's patron. Tacitus chai-

XXVI

here describes his style of eloquence by a phrase
borrowed from Cicero's Brutus (75), calaniistri (curling-
irons).

Gallio. — Lucius Junius Gallio, Seneca's adopted
father, who lived in the time of Augustus.

Qidntus Jllnciiis. — Surnamed Scaevola pontifex chap.
maximus, and a famous jurist, a man whom Cicero
greatly and deservedly admired. His merit was that
he first treated Roman law scientifically. He was
nmrdered B.C. 82, by the order of the younger Marius.

Philo. — He was at the head of the academy in
Cicero's time. Cicero says (Tusc. ii. 3) that he had
often heard him.

Diodotus. — He was a personal friend of Cicero, by
whom he was very much esteemed. In fact, he had
taught Cicero as a boy. See Tusc, v. 39 ; Epist. ad
Fam. xiii. 16.

Asia. — We must understand Asia Minor, not merely
the Roman province so called.

Good and evil, &c. {donis ac malis, honesto et tiirpi^. chap,
— These are here pJiilosopJiicUl terms, as in Cicero's De
Finibiis Bonormn et Alalorum. The same applies to
several expressions in this chapter.

Human nature. — This has quite a modern tone,
which deserves to be noted. It would be difficult to
find a passage in which hnmana natura answered so
closely to its English equivalent.

TJie biassed {cupidos). — This is probably the meaning,
aipidits being specially used to denote undue favour
or partiality in a hearer or a judge.

204 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.

CHAP. Success or failure. — There is probably something-
wrong here in the text, which is simply ut nee bene
dicta dissimularentur. Orelli thinks that the words
nee male must have dropped out, and we have so
translated. Ritter is satisfied with the text as it
stands, and takes the meaning to be " that good
speaking is not denied to be such even by unfriendly
critics," because, as has been above explained, the
speaker is notoriously subjected to very hard conditions.
He wants to make nee bene equivalent to ne bene quideni
but this seems questionable, and if admitted, the
sense remains obscure.

In his nineteenth year. — This is an error; Lucius
Crassus was in his twenty-first year when he im-
peached Carbo for having undertaken to defend
Opimius, the murderer of Caius Gracchus.

In Ins tzuenty-first year. — Another error; Caesar was
in his twenty-third year at the time. The Dolabella
whom Caesar prosecuted was the father of Publius
Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law. The charge against
him was for extortion [repetundac) in his province of
Macedonia. He was defended by liortcnsius and
acquitted.

CHAP. School of Impudence. — The expression occurs in
Cicero, dc Oratorc iii. 24.

Hereditary connexions {traditae a majoribus necessi-
tudincs). — A lawyer's business, as we know, is
frequently hereditary, and we gather from this passage
that it was so at Rome.

Mucianus. — The Licinius Crassus Mucianus, who
materially helped Vespasian to empire. We may con-

XXXV.

CHAP.
XXXVII

NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 205

jecture that the literary collection which he is here
said to have made under the title of Actoruin libri
comprised selections from the speeches of eminent
men with summaries of the cases in which they were
engaged.

Urbinia. — In this case one Clusinius Figulus after chap.
Urbinia's decease represented himself to be her son,
and claimed her property. He had long been in
foreign parts, and at last returned to make his
claim, which, however, he was unable to make
good. Asinius Pollio was counsel for the heirs, and
he proved to the satisfaction of the judges that the
claimant was really a slave, by name Sosipater.

Cornelhis. — Defended by Cicero B.C. 65 on a charge chap.

. . •' JO XXXIX.

of majestas.

Scauriis, Milo, Bestia, Vatinuis. — All these too were
defended by Cicero in the years B.C. 54, 52, 56 and 54.
The speech for Milo is still extant ; the other speeches
are lost, with the exception of some fragments of
the speech for Scaurus.

Rhodes. — Apollonius Molo was the most famous of chap. xl.
the orators of Rhodes, Cicero studied under him,
and highly valued his teaching. See his Brutus (91).

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