The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 06 : $b the early Roman Empire
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 06 : $b the early Roman Empire
World history
In this manner arose the Alamanni, Franks, Hessians, Thuringians,
Bavarians, and others. One of the three races, the Goths, disappeared
entirely in these national movements; towards the end of the period
of antiquity they went for the most part to Spain and upper Italy,
intermingled with the non-Germanic races there, and in consequence
assumed Roman characteristics.
Only a very few Germanic people such as the Frisians have remained
in their original seats. Therefore it will be more to the purpose to
describe the locality of the peoples named when they are mentioned
individually in the course of the narrative. In the olden times the
frontiers of the German land were the Vistula, the Danube, the North
Sea, and the Baltic. Of the external conditions, the character and
morals of the Germanic peoples, detailed accounts are given in the works
of the Roman historians, of which the following are the most worthy
of attention. With regard to their physique the Germans especially
astonished the Romans, in that they were very tall and had blue eyes
and reddish golden hair. They were also famed for their great physical
strength and the endurance with which they were able to bear all
exertions and privations, hunger and great cold, although they stood heat
badly.
The land was only cultivated in places, the greater part being covered
by forests and marshes. The dwellings were isolated so that there were
no villages or towns, but each person lived in the centre of his fields.
The occupations of the Germans were agriculture, cattle raising, hunting,
and war. The two former were carried on by slaves or serfs, who either
did the work as menials or were apportioned certain fields which they
managed and for which they paid their masters a fixed yearly tribute of
corn, cattle, and linen. When he was not at war or hunting, the warrior
passed the time in lounging, eating, drinking, and playing; for like all
fighting and at the same time uncivilised nations they loved the change
from the exertion of strife and hunting to complete inactivity. Banquets
and orgies were their favourite entertainments, but nevertheless their
food and drink was very simple. As a rule the former consisted of wild
fruit, meat, and milk, the latter of a kind of barley beer; only some of
the nations living on the frontier had wine which they bought from their
neighbours.
The Germans loved drinking to excess. The Roman historian Tacitus says:
“To drink night and day continuously is no shame for them, and if
one would accede to their desires in this, they would be more easily
conquered by this vice than by arms.” It is said that they were so
passionately devoted to dice playing that often when all was lost the
German staked his own personal liberty. Their clothing was very simple
and coarse--a kind of mantle which simply consisted of the fur of some
animal killed in hunting was for the most part the only bodily covering.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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