Page:Tacitus; (IA tacituswilliam00donnrich).pdf/63

Rh chargers fit for cavalry, and supplied the legions with excellent steeds and skilful and bold riders.

His admiration of the virtues, as he esteemed them, did not blind Tacitus to the vices of the Germans. Of these the most glaring were drunkenness and gambling. "Like all races in a state of barbarism, the German, so long as food was not at hand, endured hunger with stoical patience; but when he had it he made up for abstinence by excess. But drunkenness was his capital failing. Like the gods in Walhalla, these mortals gloried in passing whole days and nights at table; and the hospitable board was often stained with the blood of some of the company. Still, in their cups there seems to have been some discretion; for, says Tacitus,—

"It is at their feasts that they generally consult on the reconciliation of enemies, on the forming of matrimonial alliances, on the choice of chiefs, finally even on peace and war; for they think that at no time is the mind more open to simplicity of purpose or more warmed to noble aspirations. A race without either natural or acquired cunning, they disclose their hidden thoughts in the freedom of festivity. Thus, the sentiments of all having been discovered and laid bare, the discussion is renewed on the following day; and from each occasion its own peculiar advantage is derived. They deliberate when they have no power to dissemble; they resolve when error is impossible."

As to their gambling, the Germans appear to have surpassed the most civilised of mankind. It was a serious occupation even when they were sober; and so venturesome were they about gaining or losing, that 'when every other resource has failed, on the last and