Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/255

 996 GEBMAKIA. rather active, the more inportant artadea for exporta- tion being amber, gooee-qnills, fare, hidee, hams, red liair, soap for dyeing the hair, and slaves. In retnm for these thej received wine, trinkets, and probably also arms. The Germans had no coinage of their own ; but a vast quantity of Roman silver coins was in drculatian among them. Navigati(m was carried on by sea as well as on the bkes and rivers, and their vessels consisted of simple canoes, or boats covered with leather, or regular ships. But of all the occupations none was in greater favour with the Germans than war, in which all men capable of bearing arms took part A regular system of tac- tics was unknown; but their battle order was gene- rally formed by the men arranging themselves according to their tribes, £unilies, or clans. Their cavaliy was not numerous. The first attack upon an enemy was generally very ferocious ; but when a war was protracted, the men generally lacked perse- veranoe, and became desponding. The booty made in war, and sometimes the prisoners also, were sacri- ficed to the gods. No kind of death was considered more desirable than that on the field of battle; to die on a sick bed was so much dreaded, that, among some tribes, sick persons and old men caused them- selves to be killed rather than wait for their natural dissoluti<m. VII. JUUgion, — On this subject the Greeks and Bomans have left us no connected infbrmatiaD, and what they do state is not always trustworthy: for sometimes they only give the name of a German di- vinity, and endeavour to identify the same with some one of their own gods; or they call the German di- Tinities at once by names of their own gods, with- out mentioning the names they bore among the Germans. The ancients, however, are agreed in stating that the Germans worshipped several divini- ties, among whom they moition the sun, the moon, the stars, Tuisco the ancestor of their whole nee, and his son Mannus. Besides these, we hear of Mercury (probably Wodan or Odin), who is said to have been the most revered among all their divini- ties; of Isis (probably Freia, the wife of Wodan); Man (no doubt the German Tyr or Zio); Nerthus, the mother of the gods; and the two Aloes (com- pared with Castor and Pollux). Jupiter (f. e. Tbu- nar, Thor, the god of thunder) is not mentioned by any earlier writer than Gregory of Tours (ii. 29). Beddes these principal divinities, which, however, do not appear to have been equally worshipped among all the tribes of Germany, they believed in a va- riety qS secondary and inferior deities, partly of a kind and partly of a malignant nature, and ahnost every tribe had its own peculiar divinities of this sort. The form of worship was veiy simple; and both Caesar and Tacitus assert that the Germans bad neither statues nor temples. But this statement is opposed to facts which come out at the converBi<»i of the Germans to Christianity, when the destruction of pagan idols is frequently spoken of. In regard to temples also, the statement must not be taken in too strict a sense; for Tacitus himself {Ann. i. 51) expressly mentions a temple of a goddess Taniana among Uie Mansians, and the Christian missionaries of a later period called upon the Germans to change their heathen temples into Christian churches. But it is nevertheless true that many of their gods were worshipped in the open air, in groves and forests, on DMmntains and rocks. Priests are indeed mentioned among the Germans ; but a father was always entitled in the circle of his fiimily toassmne the functions of a GEBMANtA. priest. The priestawere at the same time the bij^besl civil functionaries next to the king: they ascertiiBed the pleasure of the deity in all public undertaki]^ and executed the sentence of doitii upon all person guilty of high treason; they moteover pieaided it tiie popular assemblies, and kept the national stad- ards. There also existed proiiietic priestesses, vio foretold the future from the intestines of rictimi, from the blood of the slain prisonen of war, from the murmurmg of the waves, and the like. The taoi. fices ofiered to the gods were dben extientely spknSid, but we likewise hear of human sacrifices. Bespeetin}; their religious festivals little is known, and the Itttie that is Imown belongs to a period beyond the limits of this work. VIII. PoUHeal TtutitiUums. — The variou triks inhabiting Germany were free and independat cf (me another, and the territory inhabited by each w divided, apparently for military purposes, into ^ tricts or pagi. Each separate tribe was gowMd by a king, who was elected from among the lubks in an assembly of all the free people : this kin^r, hoir. ever, was in the earliest period only the higliest magistrate in times of peace ; fin*, in case of w, special commanders were chosen, to whom the n- preme civil power was likewise entrusted. Tlie kingly power was altogether very much limited faf the nobles and the popular assembly, the latter having the power even of deposing the king. Kick pagug had its own magistrate {prmeept), vbo at the same time administned justice, in wfaidi he w assisted by a collie of 100 men. There were ab tribes which had no kings or central goveinmeoi it all, but in which the pagi were govened fay tk prtfictpet al<me. The whole body of the German nations was gea»- rally divided into four classes or ranks. 1 . The asNei (iM)6ifes, proeeretf optimaiei), probably ooosistii^ of families whose ancestors had porticnlariy distii- guished themselves by their valour, or had aoqniied great influence from their posseasion of exteosfe estates. The kings, and probably also the friaapa of the pagif were chosen firom these nobles etcln- sively. Clients of the nobles are also meotidBed. 2. The/t^semefi (ingenm) formed the real stnqglh «f the nation; freemen and nobles alone had the ripbt to possess hereditary landed prc^erty, and to chinge thdr place of residence according to their own pka* sure; they were obliged to att«id the p^kr as- sembly, imd serve iii the national armies. S. The freeehnen (^Uberti or liberHni) formed a kind of middle class between the frozen and the dans: they might, however, purchase their freedom, ind were obliged to perform military senrioe, bat wen not allowed to take part in the popular aasemUiei; they had no landed property, but tilled the lands cf others as fanners. 4. The sJanea (tern) had no rights at all, but were mere tools in the iMndi of their masters, without whose coosmt they ooold nrf even marry, and who might even put than to death without fear of punishment. It would appear, ho*- ever, that the slaves were, on the iriiole, treated v»7 mildly, and lived under hi more advantageous a^ cumstances than the slaves of the Bomans. (Tie. Germ. 25.) They had their hair cut short, ven not allowed to bear arms or to serve in the ansitfi but were employed as domestio servants, iidd-la* bonrers, or hentoen. All slaves were either bon in the house of their master, or were priMiw* « war, or they had been degraded to their positioB hf 'judicial verdict, or, lastly, they had been porehaied.