Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/304

 280 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, and useful as soldiers 'i. On the frequent rebellions of ' the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated emperor re- solved to reduce their country into the form of a pro- vince. His designs vi^ere disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the imperial history, was entirely dissipated, without leaving any traces behind in Germany. Distinction In the course of this introductory chapter, we have man tribes! Confined ourselves to the general outlines of the man- ners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of Caesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of this history, we shall con- cisely mention their origin, their situation, and their particular character. Modern nations are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of sa- vages. The same territory often changed its inhabit- ants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the in- dependent tribes their peculiar but long forgotten ap- pellation. A victorious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favourite leader ; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a com- mon denomination to the mixed multitude. The dis- tinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the aston- ished subjects of the Roman empire ^ 1 Dion, 1. Ixxi. and Ixxii. ' See an excellent dissertation on the origin and migrations of nations, in the M^moires de TAcad^mie des Inscriptions, torn, xviii. p. 48 — 71. It is seldom that the antiquarian and the philosopher are so happily blended.