country, and even when there was peace, there was a long neglect of Britain. This Augustus spoke of as policy, Tiberius

as an inherited rule. That Caius Cæsar 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 approaching elevation had this beginning. Several tribes were subdued and kings made prisoners, and destiny learnt to know its favourite.1

3. THE SPEECH OF GALGACUS (84).

The practice of putting highly polished speeches into the mouths of persons who never delivered them, was begun by Thucydides, and became popular with Greek and Roman historians. This literary trick is illustrated by the finest bit of prose which can in any way be connected with Britain before the Elizabethan period. Galgacus expresses sentiments suited to the occasion, but his style of utterance reveals the man of genius and training, not the half naked barbarian. In this passage Tacitus, according to his frequent custom, seizes a chance to condemn Roman vices. His artistic motive should also be kept in view. What a general must Agricola have been to defeat a race familiar with the country, fighting for its dearest possessions, and inflamed by such a speech!

SOURCE.-Vita Agricole. Cornelius Tacitus (52?-117?). Chaps. xxx.xxxii. Trans. Church and Brodribb. London, 1886.

Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the 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 are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced

1 Monstratus fatis. "We prefer with Orelli to take fatis as a dative than with Kritz as an ablative. The half paradox of the future ruler being pointed out to the destinies which decreed his fortune is very characteristic of Tacitus. Vespasian's successful career in Britain commended him, so to speak, to destiny, as one worthy of high distinction."-Church and Brodribb.

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 of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the 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 something peculiarly grand. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Roman, 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, and where they make a solitude they call it peace.

Nature has willed that every man's children and kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet these are torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. Our wives and 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 of forests and morasses. Creatures born to slavery are sold once for all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters; but Britain is 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 leadership1 the Brigantes were able to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not success issued in supineness, might have thrown off the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forthwith at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has in reserve.

Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave in war as they are licentious in peace? To 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, you cannot imagine to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear and terror there cer

tainly are, feeble bonds of attachment; 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 unfamiliar 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.2 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.

1 Boadicea. 2 Probably living between Coblenz and Wiesbaden.

4. THE PRIMITIVE GERMANS (98).

How Tacitus collected the material for his Germany cannot be determined. The theory that he intended to satirise Roman society by holding up barbarian virtues has been generally abandoned. Whether or not he visited the Rhineland, his work represents real investigation, and should be mastered by the student of Teutonic history in any of its branches. The settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain is a single episode in the migration of the German tribes; a movement which began with the battle of Adrianople in 378, and extended to the Lombard invasion of Italy in 568. Tacitus living 300 years before the Visigoths turned against the Emperor Valens, saw that the Germans were worth attention, and took the trouble to describe their national qualities. His text, in spite of the minor difficulties by which it is beset, shows that they were not savages. Native races if weak are destroyed by the vices of civilisation; if strong, they gain more from education than they lose by contact with bad and destructive habits. One fine trait of German character was ability to learn. Even in the time of Tacitus our ancestors had fixed political and social institutions. He does not cloak their failings; their drunkenness and their gambling. But their self-control in government, their respect for women and their high conception of the gods, mark them off from the mass of primitive populations.

SOURCE.-Germania. Cornelius Tacitus (52?-117?). Chaps. iv., ix., xi., xiii., xxiii., xxiv. Trans. Church and Brodribb. London, 1886.

For my own part, I agree with those who think that the tribes of Germany are free from all taint of intermarriages with foreign nations, and that they appear as a distinct, unmixed race, like none but themselves. Hence, too, the same physical peculiarities throughout so vast a population. All have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames, fit only for a sudden exertion. They are less able to bear laborious work. Heat and thirst they cannot in the least endure; to cold and hunger their climate and their soil inure them.

Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules 2 and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis.4 Of 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 countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship..

About minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more important the whole tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests with the people, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of 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 freedom 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, distinction 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.

They transact no public or private business without being armed. It is not, however, usual for any one to wear arms till the state has 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

1 Woden.

2 Probably Thor.

3 Perhaps Tiw or Er.

4 Perhaps a goddess named Ziza, of whom there was a local cult near Augsburg.