Identifier: grandeurthatwasr00stobrich (find matches)
Title: The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Stobart, J. C. (John Clarke), 1878-1933
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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We always term the people over the wall barbarians, butthe Germans had their various political and social systems andsome of their tribes were more civilised than others. Bycomparing the Co7nmc7itarics of Caesar with the Gcnnania ofTacitus we get a fairly comprehensive notion of Germaninstitutions, which, it must be remembered, were those of ourown ancestors. They had no cities. Like the Gauls theywere grouped in tribes and the tribes were subdivided intocantons, the cantons into villages. They lived on the produceof their flocks and herds, on the chase, and on a primitive typeof extensive agriculture, which involved fresh ploughlandsevery year and thus caused continual unrest and jostling oftribe against tribe. This was what made them such trouble-some neighbours to the Gauls,, and led to those gigantictreks which meet us from time to time in history. Theironly political system was a fighting organisation; hereditarychiefs and princes led them in battle and the general in a large214
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z < o cT w l-H Pi PiO < PiO AUGUSTUSmovement was elected from amongst the princes by the free-men of the tribe. In peace there was no general magistracy,but the elders and priests administered justice in the villages.Among the warriors there was a rough freedom and equality.The free warrior had very considerable rights, but only as awarrior. Among the Suevi, according to Caesar, there were ahundred cantons, each of which furnished a thousand men tothe army for a years service while the rest stayed at home tocarry on agriculture and hunting. But this seems, if it isaccurate, to be an exceptional degree of organisation. Thechastity, the patriotism, the honesty of these barbarians as wellas their courage and gigantic stature were favourite themes forRoman eloquence. It is likely enough that Tacitus heightenedtheir virtues with his satirical instinct in order to point a moralto his fellow-countrymen. Julius Caesar had left the Rhine as the frontier of his Gallicprovinces, though he

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