Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/284

 260 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifi- cations, constructed in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion*. But Tacitus asserts, as a well- known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities " ; and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry, as places of confinement rather than of security ^ Their edifices were not even contiguous, or formed into regular villages ^ ; each barbarian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick, nor tiles were employed in these slight habitations ^. They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the north clothed themselves in furs ; and the women ma- nufactured for their own use a coarse kind of linen ^ The game of various sorts, with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked, supplied its inha- bitants with food and exercise ^ Their numerous herds of cattle, less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility *^, formed the principal object of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth : the use of orchards or artificial meadows was unknown to the Germans ; vol. i. " Tacit. Germ. 15. X When the Germans commanded the Ubii of Cologne to cast off the Roman yoke, and with their new freedom to resume their ancient manners, they insisted on the immediate demolition of the walls of the colony. Postu- lamus a vobis, muros coloniae, munimenta servitii, detrahatis ; etiam fera ani- malia, si clausa teneas, virtutis obliviscuntur. Tacit. Hist. iv. 64. y The straggling villages of Silesia are several miles in length. See Cluver. 1. i. c. 13. « One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more regular struc- tures were erected near the Rhine and Danube. Herodian, 1. vii. p. S34. a Tacit. Germ. 17. ^ Ibid. 5. «= Caesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 21.
 * See Caesar, and the learned Mr. Whitaker in his History of Manchester,