Agricola, Gnaeus Julius, 40-93; Germanic peoples -- Early works to 1800; Statesmen -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
distinguished are the Arii, Helvecones, Manimi, Elysii and Naharvali, 43.
Still farther north dwell the Gothones, and, at the Ocean, the Rugii and
Lemovii. Upon islands in the ocean live the Suiones, 44. Upon the
mainland, on the coast, are the tribes of the Aestyi, and near them,
perhaps on islands, the Sitones, 45. Perhaps he assigned to them the
immense islands to which he refers in his first chapter. Here ends
Suevia. Whether the Peucini, Venedi and Fenni are to be reckoned as
Germans or Sarmatians, is uncertain, 46. The Hellusii and Oxonae are
fabulous."
The following paragraph from Prichard's Researches embodies some of the
more general conclusions of _ethnographers_, especially of Zeuss, on whom
Prichard, in common with Orelli and many other scholars, places great
reliance. "Along the coast of the German Ocean and across the isthmus of
the Cimbric peninsula to the shore of the Baltic, were spread the tribes
of the Chauci and Frisii, the Anglii, Saxones and the Teutones or Jutes,
who spoke the _Low-German_ languages, and formed one of the four
divisions of the German race, corresponding as it seems with the
_Ingaevones_ of Tacitus and Pliny. In the higher and more central parts,
the second great division of the race, that of the _Hermiones_, was
spread, the tribes of which spoke _Upper_ or _High-German_ dialects.
Beginning in the West with the country of the Sigambri on the Rhine,
and from that of the Cherusci and Angrivarii near the Weser and the
Hartz, this division comprehended, besides those tribes, the Chatti, the
Langobardi, the Hermunduri, the Marcomanni and Quadi, the Lugii, and
beyond the Vistula the Bastarnae, in the neighborhood of the Carpathian
hills. To the eastward and northward of the last mentioned, near the
lower course of the Vistula and thence at least as far as the Pregel,
were the primitive abodes of the Goths and their cognate tribes, who are
perhaps the _Istaevones_." The fourth division of Prichard embraced the
Scandinavians, who spoke a language kindred to the Germans and were
usually classed with them. Those who would examine this subject more
thoroughly, will consult Adelung, Zeuss, Grimm, Ritter, Ukert, Prichard,
Latham, &c., who have written expressly on the geography or the
ethnography of Germany.
XXVIII. _Summus auctorum_, i.e. omnium scriptorum is, qui plurimum
_auctoritatis fideique_ habet. K. Cf. Sueton. Caes. 56. Though T.
commends so highly the _authority_ of Caesar as a writer, yet he differs
from him in not a few matters of fact, as well as opinion; owing chiefly,
doubtless, to the increased means of information which he possessed in
the age of Trajan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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