Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/302

 278 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking, were suffi- ' cient to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected to en- ^ compass their territories with a wide frontier of soli- tude and devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbours, attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions'", fomented by '* The Bructeri " (it is Tacitus who now speaks) '* were orRomef totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes', pro- voked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the em- pire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed ; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other ! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity ^, and have no- thing left to demand of fortune except the discord of the barbarians ^" These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honour nor advantage. The money and negociations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany ; and every art of seduction was used with dignity, to conciliate those nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful friends, as well as the most troublesome '> Cffisar de Bell. Gall. 1. vi. 23. • They are mentioned, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries by Naza- rius, Ammianus, Claudian, etc. as a tribe of Franks. See Cluver. Germ. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 13. ^ Urgentihus is the common reading; but good sense, Lipsius, and some manuscripts declare for vergentibus. ' Tacit. Germ. c. 33. The pious abbe de la Bleterie is very angry with Tacitus, talks of the devil who was a murderer from the begin- ning, etc.