The Germany and the Agricola of TacitusTacitus, Cornelius
History
The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
Tacitus, Cornelius
Agricola, Gnaeus Julius, 40-93; Germanic peoples -- Early works to 1800; Statesmen -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
[16] The learned Leibnitz supposes this Tuisto to have been the Teut or
Teutates so famous throughout Gaul and Spain, who was a Celto-Scythian
king or hero, and subdued and civilized a great part of Europe and Asia.
Various other conjectures have been formed concerning him and his son
Mannus, but most of them extremely vague and improbable. Among the
rest, it has been thought that in Mannus and his three sons an obscure
tradition is preserved of Adam, and his sons Cain, Abel, and Seth; or of
Noah, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japhet.
[17] Conringius interprets the names of the sons of Mannus into Ingäff,
Istäf, and Hermin.
[18] Pliny, iv. 14, embraces a middle opinion between these, and
mentions five capital tribes. The Vindili, to whom belong the
Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Guttones; the Ingaevones, including
the Cimbri, Teutoni, and Chauci; the Istaevones, near the Rhine, part
of whom are the midland Cimbri; the Hermiones, containing the Suevi,
Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci; and the Peucini and Bastarnae,
bordering upon the Dacians.
[19] The Marsi appear to have occupied various portions of the northwest
part of Germany at various times. In the time of Tiberius (A.D. 14) they
sustained a great slaughter from the forces of Germanicus, who ravaged
their country for fifty miles with fire and sword, sparing neither age
nor sex, neither things profane nor sacred. (See Ann. i. 51.) At this
period they were occupying the country in the neighborhood of the
Rura (Ruhr), a tributary of the Rhine. Probably this slaughter was the
destruction of them as a separate people; and by the time that Trajan
succeeded to the imperial power they seem to have been blotted out from
amongst the Germanic tribes. Hence their name will not be found in the
following account of Germany.
[20] These people are mentioned by Strabo, vii. 1, 3. Their locality is
not very easy to determine.
[21] See note, c. 38.
[22] The Vandals are said to have derived their name from the German
word _wendeln_, "to wander." They began to be troublesome to the Romans
A.D. 160, in the reigns of Aurelius and Verus. In A.D. 410 they made
themselves masters of Spain in conjunction with the Alans and Suevi,
and received for their share what from them was termed Vandalusia
(Andalusia). In A.D. 429 they crossed into Africa under Genseric, who
not only made himself master of Byzacium, Gaetulia, and part of Numidia,
but also crossed over into Italy, A.D. 455, and plundered Rome. After
the death of Genseric the Vandal power declined.
[23] That is, those of the Marsi, Gambrivii, etc. Those of Ingaevones,
Istaevones, and Hermiones, were not so much names of the people, as
terms expressing their situation. For, according to the most learned
Germans, the Ingaevones are _die Inwohner_, those dwelling inwards,
towards the sea; the Istaevones, _die Westwohner_, the inhabitants of
the western parts: and the Hermiones, _die Herumwohner_, the midland
inhabitants.
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