ТОМ I
Поглавје IX
THE STATE OF GERMANY
II.
The strength of ancient Germany appears
formidable, which we consider the effects that might have been produced by its
united effort. The wide extent of country might very possible contain a million
warriors, as all who were of age to bear arms were a temper to use them. But
this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or executing any plan of
national greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile intentions. Germany was
divided into more than forty independent states; and, even in each state, the
union of several tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians were
easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive injury, much less an insult;
their resentments were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so
frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking, were
sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feuds of any
considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To
chastise an insolent, or to plunder defenceless, were alike causes of war. The
most formidable states of Germany
affected to encompass their territories with a wide frontier of solitude and
devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbors attested the
terror of arms and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected
incursions.
“The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who
now speaks) were totally exterminated by the neighboring tribes, provoked by
their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the
tutelary deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed;
not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the
nations, enemies of Rome ,
ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge
of prosperity, and having nothing left to demand of fortune, except the discord
of the barbarians.”-
These sentiments, less worthy of
humanity than of patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the
policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than
to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honor nor
advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome insinuated themselves into the
heart of Germany; and every art of seduction was used with dignity, to
conciliate these nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might
render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs
of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they
received either as marks of distinction, or as instruments of luxury. In civil
dissensions the weaker faction endeavored to strengthen its interests by
entering into secret connections with the governors of the frontier provinces. Every
quarrel among Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome ; and every plan of union and public good
was defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and interest.
The general conspiracy which
terrified the Romans under the reign of Marcus Antonius, comprehended almost
all the nations of Germany ,
and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the
Rhine to that of the Danube . It is impossible
for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity,
by reason, or by passion; but we may rest assured, that the barbarians were
neither allured by the indolence, nor provoked by the ambition, of the Roman
monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of
Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack, and
assumed in person the conduct of the most important province of Upper Danube Germany .
In the course of this
introductory chapter, we have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the
manners of Germany ,
without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which
filled that great country in the time of Cesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As
the ancient or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of
this history, we shall concisely mention their origin, their situation, and
their particular character. Modern nations are fixed by permanent societies,
connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil
by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations
of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its
inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting
in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new
confederacy. The dissolution of ancient confederacy restored to the independent
tribes their peculiar but long forgotten appellation. A victorious state often
communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of
volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favorite leader; his
camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a
common denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious
invaders were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the
astonished subjects of the Roman Empire .
Wars, and the administration of
public affairs, are the principal subjects of history; but the number of
persons interested in these busy scenes is very different, according to the
different conditions in peace and obscurity. The attention of the writer, as
well of the reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular army,
and the districts which happen to be the occasional scene of military
operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of civil
commotions, or the situation of petty republics, raises almost every member of
the community into action, and consequently into notice. The irregular divisions,
and the restless motions of the people of Germany , dazzle our imagination,
and seem to multiply their numbers. The profuse enumeration of kings and
warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget that the same objects
are continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most
splendid appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable
objects.
Chapter X
THE EMPERORS DECIUS, GALLUS, EMILIANUS, VALERIAN, AND GALENUS. – THE
GENERAL IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS. – THE THIRTY TYRANTS.
…Here we land on firm and
historic ground. At least as early as the Christian era, and as late as the age
of Antonines, the Goths were established toward the mouth of the Vistula and in
that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Konigsberg , and Dantzick, were long afterwards founded.
Westward of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the
Oder, and the sea-coast of Pomerania and
Mecklenburgh. A striking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion, and
language, seemed to indicate that the Vandals and the Goths were originally on
great people. The latter appear to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths,
Visigoths, and Gepides. The distinction among the Vandals was more strongly
marked by the independent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards ,
and variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded
themselves into powerful monarchies.
In the age of Antonines, the
Goths were still seated in Prusia. About the reign of Alexander Severus, the
Roman province of
Dacia
The fame of a great enterprise
excited the bravest warriors from the Vandalic states of Germany , many
of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common standard of
the Goths. The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of
Prypec, a river universally conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch
of the Borysthenes. The windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their
line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and pasturage to their
numerous herds of cattle. They followed the unknown course of the river,
confident in their valor, and careless of whatever power might oppose their
progress. The Bastarnes and the Venedi were the first who presented themselves;
and the flower of their youth, either from the choice or compulsion, increased
Gothic army. The Bastarnes dwelt on the northern side of Carpathian Mountains:
the immense tract of land that separated Bastarnes from the savages of Finland
was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi; we have some reason to believe
that the first of that nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian
war, and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the
Borani, the Carpi, etc., derived its origin to from the Germans. With better
authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered
themselves so famous in the middle ages. But the confusion of blood and manners
on that doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers. As the
Goths advanced near the Euxine
Sea
…
(изв. EDWARD GIBBON: “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ”,
Volume I, стр. 217-227; THE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – USA )
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