Text, translated from the 1590 Latin 4 Additamentum, 1591 German 4 Additamentum & 1592 Latin editions; first, we will deal with the 1591G4GAdd:
199.1. {1591G4Add{GERMANY.
199.2. The location and borders of this country are described in various different ways, according to the diversity and alterations that occurred over time. Plutarchus in Marius makes it extend from the exterior or outermost sea, and the Northern parts, to the East near lake Mæotis, where it touches Pontick Scythia. Pomponius Mela too, and Pseudoberosus, confine it to Sarmatia Europæa. And Martianus makes it extend from [the] Danube} to the ocean, even as high up North as the deserts of Sarmatia (but the word Sarmatia is falsely read as Armenia, if I may correct this mistake from this author, as does Pintianus).
199.3. And also Dionysius Afer, who says that the Germans extend as far as the Scythian lake Mæotis. Others have claimed the sea, the Alps, the river Weichsel which crosses Poland and reaches the sea at Danzig and the Rhine to be its borders. But Tacitus removes from that whatever there is between the Danube and the Alps. For he confines it within the following limits: namely, great ocean, the Rhine, Danube, the great Walachia in Scytia and the Sarmatias, with which also Ptolemæus, the prince of geographers, agrees. Yet, Strabo and Pomponius extend [the borders of Germany] even to the very Alps, and thus by these mountains separate it from Italy, as it were by a certain natural rampart or bulwark. And to this day this is still the true and natural [size of] Germany, which in the North is surrounded by the sea, in the South by the Alps, in the West by the Rhine and in the East by the Weichsel or Oder.
199.4. Moreover, Tacitus and Dion divide this true Germany into UPPER and LOWER [GERMANY]. They call that [part] UPPER GERMANY which is closest to the spring or head of the Rhine; and that [part] LOWER [GERMANY] which extends from there to the ocean. But beyond the Rhine also, namely in Belgia, Ptolemæus distinguishes two other Germanies, namely from the Rhine to the river Marne towards the sea, including Picardia, Trier, Gülich, Gelria and Brabant and further low countries. Marcellinus agrees with this, and calls the former the FIRST, the latter the SECOND. Yet I do not consider these truly to belong to Germany, but it was improperly called like that by the Germans who later occupied it, and established themselves there. And [this happened] first by the Tungri, who, as Tacitus writes, were the first of all to cross the Rhine.
199.5. Also, we read in Cæsar about certain Belgæ originating from the Germans. This is the reason why he claims that the Nervij in the bisdom of Tournay in Flanders, the Atrebates, Ambiani, Morini or Flemish people, the Menapij in the duchy of Gelria and Gülick, the Caletes, Verocastes, Veromandui, Catuaci, Condrusi, Eburones who live in the bisdom of Liège, the Cæresi and Segni were all Germans beyond the Rhine. Tacitus says that the inhabitants of Wormbeckgaw, the Elsassers in the bishopric of Strassburg and the Nemets, who live in the bisdom of Speyer, were called real Germans. Suetonius writes that Tiberius, the emperor, placed forty-thousand Germans in France near the bank of the Rhine. Eutropius says that there were four hundred thousand of them.
199.6. Also, the testimony of Plinius tries to make us believe that the German people dwelled even as far North as the river Schelde in Belgica, and also settled in Luxemburg where its river flows into the Maas. And today the Germans have settled beyond the Schelde, as far North as the straights of the ocean [the channel], as is manifestly proved by the language they use. So that it is true what Dion says in his 53rd book, namely that they have spread themselves as far as the British ocean, up to the city of Boulogne which by Zosimus is called a city of Lower Germany.
199.7. But let us leave these matters, and return to the description of true and ancient Germany as we have published on this map. Pomponius writes that it is surrounded by many rivers and fog from many mountains, surrounded by many forests and plants. Seneca reports that there is a continual winter here, unpleasant air and barren soil.
199.8. Tacitus says that it is everywhere filled and covered by hideous forests, and loathsome, stinking bogs, [that] the land or country is unpleasant, the air sharp, [that it] it is difficult to plough it, and not beautiful to behold. Horatius calls it hideous, cruel and savage. Manilius says it is indeed wholly covered by the Hercynian forest, which is not inferior in size or reputation to any other forest, (as Plinius reports). For this Hercynian forest (which Eratosthenes, Apollonius and Ptolemæus, being Greek, call orcynium, the black forest) is by far the largest of all, [since it takes] a journey of a period of sixty days [to cross it], as Mela reports. Since nobody has written more diligently about it than Julius Cæsar, we shall mention his words here, which are as follows: It extends for a journey of sixty days. It begins at the border of Switzerland, then covers the bishoprics of Basel and Speyer, and extend from there to the countries of the Danube up to the border of great Walachey from there it extends to the left side and because of its large size it borders on many different tribes, and because of its huge size, nor is there anyone in the whole of Germany who can say that he has heard about the end of this forest, or reached it, when he has traversed it for altogether sixty days. No one has ever heard where it starts, &c.
199.9. Plinius writes in these words about the same forest: The huge size of the oaks of the Hercynian forest, never lopped or cut since the world was created, almost exceed all other miracles in terms of their immortality. I prefer to omit other things [said about this forest] which would be hard to believe. It is clear that the small hills [found in it] have arisen by the mutual encounter and crossing of its [tree] roots. But where the earth is loose and not compressed, there they [i.e. the trees] rise up with arches all the way to their boughs, and as it were competing among themselves. [The trees] are crooked like broad gates, [so] that whole troops of horsemen may pass underneath them.
199.10. Suidas, on the authority of Julianus, describes the roughness of this forest: If anyone, he says, considers the lush woods of Thessalia, or the narrow straights of Thermopylæ in Greece, or the great, steep and high mountain range Taurus [Himalaya] in Asia, [he will conclude] that these are nothing compared to this [forest, as] they are not so difficult and hard to cross, as to pass through this Hercynian forest. So much now about this inaccessible grove or forest. We read in the same author that the soil of Germany is sandy [and] covered with a thin layer of turf, yet their pastures are very recommendable. Tacitus claims it to be reasonably well provided with cattle, but unsuitable for fruit trees. Herodianus reports that the Germans have [only] few buildings of stone of brick, and that they take pleasure in abiding in arbours and bowers made in thick woods by joining and fixing together the boughs. A passage in Strabo does not seem to differ much from this opinion, where he says [that] they dwell in cottages made [to last] for a day.
199.11. For Eusebius claims them to be both ignorant about geometry and about architecture. As a consequence, the same Tacitus most truly denies that the Germans usually live or dwell in cities, or like to join one house to another if they are close together, but instead have them separated and disjoined as it may happen because of some brook, field or wood. I will add to this that in ancient times they had but few cities, for in all ancient histories, in whatever language, I see hardly one or two mentioned before Ptolemæus' time. Nor is there after him any mention of them by any other writer. Capitolinus writes about Maximinus the emperor that he burned down three or four hundred villages, but there is no mention of cities.
199.11a. Strabo, (as diligent a writer as any of that kind), only remembers Boviasmus, the palace or court of Maroboduus. Tacitus, who knew Germany best, mentions Matium, Arenacum, Batavodurum and one or two hamlets near the mouth of the Rhine, which anyone would consider to belong to France rather than to Germany. In other writers there is not a word about any cities. So much in general about the soil, the form and nature of this country. Now some things peculiar to it will be considered, and first I will speak about the river Rhine [on the basis of] that which I have read in an epistle of Julianus the emperor to Maximus the philosopher.
199.12. His words, with the words of Morentinus, his interpreter are these: [the] Rhine violently carries off bastard infants as a revenge to the unchaste bed [that produced them], but those that are born within the wedlock of chaste parents it bears aloft on top of its waters, and returns them to the trembling hands of their mother, and by the preservation of the infant as it were provides true and uncorrupted testimony of chaste and laudable wedlock. Nazianzenus, Nonnius in his Dionysiacs and an ancient Greek epigram also claim this to be true. But there are also others, who attribute a different, and in my opinion more truthful cause to this dipping of children in the Rhine, which we will report about in a moment.
199.13. There is a spring at the Mattiaci of which the water, when drawn from it, will continue to boil for three days. And around its edges the water generates pumice stone, as Plinius testifies. The same author writes that in Friesland there is a spring of sweet water, and if anyone drinks from it, his teeth will fall out of his head within two years, and that the herb called Britannica that can be found there is an instant remedy against that danger. As is the case in the Nile, likewise in the Danube (as Suidas reports), there are large waterfalls, growing under the water like a mountain, over the whole width of the river, against which the falling stream with loud and terrible noise swells back, and first rumbling among the rocks, finally overcomes them and causes the stream by its violent fall to turn around, [causing] whirlpools, troubled motion and dangerous waves.
199.14. Germany, according to Plinius and Solinus, has the best amber, (which, as Tacitus writes, they call Glessum); [they also find] brass ore, or brassy stone which they call cadmia, crystal, callais, a precious stone they prefer above those from Arabia, and onyx, a white kind of stone commonly called ceraunia, which if you hold it in the open air, will diminish the glittering of the stars. Adamant is also found here, if Scepsius, as reported by this same author, speaks the truth, and topaz, (unless there is a mistake in the manuscript copy in the fourth and eighth chapter of the 37th book, for some copies read in this place Carmania for Germania).
199.15. Tacitus does not venture to deny that Germany has veins of both silver and gold, and he reports that Curtius Rufus explored a cave in the field of Matium to search for veins of silver. Plinius reports that mines were developed only recently in Germany. I find in the same Tacitus that the Gothini daily worked in iron mines. Lycophron describes [a kind of] hog fish with four feet [occurring] in the Danube. And in connection with the source or spring of this river, Plinius speaks about a kind of black fish which, if eaten, [leads] to a sudden death. The same author mentions the salmon, a fish from the river Rhine. Also, that sturgeons were caught in the river Main.
199.16. [Germany also has] the best goose feathers, especially those near to the body [of the goose], radishes as large as children, and Plinius says that he saw here a honey comb eight feet long. The same author, as also Solinus and Cæsar, list the following animals as belonging to this place: the buffalo, wild oxen, and the animals which are called Alcen[?] and Machlin[?]. Cæsar in the sixth book of his French Wars also mentions a kind of ox about which he says: There is an ox [there] which in shape and proportion looks like a deer. From the middle of its forehead there grows between the ears one horn higher than the rest, and more straight than any of the kind of horns we know. From the top of the head it spreads out like the boughs of a tree.
199.17. There are birds in Hercynia whose feathers in the night shine like fire, as Plinius reports, or whose quills, as Solinus says, glitter and shine in the dark, however dark and overcast the night may be. So that the people of that area often arrange their nightly outings in such a manner that they may use them [i.e. these birds] as lights to find their direction and way, and after they cast them in front of them on the dark road, they can see which way to go by the mark of their glittering feathers. About the very same [birds] speaks Priscianus, or whoever was the commentator on Dionysius' Periegesis: Et pascit volucres mirum fulgentibus alis, Quies ducibus noctu cernuntur flexa viarum. [that is:] Here lives the gold-feathered fowl, A wonder it is to tell, Whose quills being strewn in the darkest ways, Do guide men passing well.
199.18. Plinius has left on record that you can see in Germany, especially in winter, the turdus or felfare [thrush]. Plinius and his follower Solinus say that it is very well populated, full of very many big and boisterous people. Sidonius calls the Germans cruel and fierce. Cassiodorus [calls them] proud and numerous. Cæsar, Arrianus, Appianus, Herodotus, Polyænus, Vegetius and Columella all jointly confirm that they are all tall of stature, and have very big limbs. Tacitus says they have mottled eyes, Juvenalis calls them yellow-haired, others red-haired.
199.19. Martialis and Seneca describe them [as having] their hair wreathed and bound up in a knot. Tertullianus in his book on virgins highly recommends their excellent [hair] locks. Appianus says that they are very rude in their manners, and prone to cruelty. Cæsar calls them barbarous and cruel, Josephus in his second book on the Jewish war, chapter 16, stout and hardy, Dionysius Afer [calls them] very warlike and martial, Hegesippus boisterous and invincible, Arrianus and Dionysius soldier-like, his old commentator stern and surly, Arrianus proud and arrogant. There is no man more courageous than a German, no one more eager or hot to start an attack or assault, no one more desirous to make war, as Seneca writes in his Book of Anger.
199.20. Herodianus calls it a people very tight with money. Ovidius [calls them] faithless and treacherous, Cæsar false traitors and serious pretenders, most crafty in their excessive cruelty, and born to lie. (But who would expect more positive characterisations and reports from their enemy, provoked to the full, beaten back and forced to flee under great losses and slaughter, [something] which happened more than once or twice?). Tacitus who lived among them, speaks in his Histories Book 3 in a more realistic manner when he says that their soldiers are most fierce and desperate, and that these people take much delight in war, are not wily or deceitful at all, but easily reveal the secrets of their heart, and disclose their minds to one another, and to those they consider most trustworthy.
199.21. Similarly, Julianus the emperor in his Misopogonos writes that he has learned by experience that they are people who cannot flatter, but love to live freely and simply with everyone. Ptolemæus in the second book of his Quadripartite tells that they are by nature and constitution of body temperate and mild, because of the characteristics of the region where they live. So much about their nature and qualities.
199.22. Now a word or two about their rites and manners. As soon as their children are born, they carry them to the river, warm as they have come from their mothers womb, as testified by Galenus and by Aristotles in the eighth book of his Politics. And there, dipping them into the cold water like a smith does with his hot iron, they try out their natural resistance and in this way they strengthen their body. This is what Claudianus says [about the matter]: Nascentes explorat gurgite Rhenus, [that is:] The river Rhine tries out those that are just born. And this I think to be the more likely cause [as compared to testing the chastity of their parents, see above, as a reason for their being dipped into the water]. For this poet attributes the same [habit] to his Italians, where he says: Natos ad flumina Deferimus, sænoq; gelu duramis, & undis. [That is:] The babes newborn to rivers cold, In frost and snow we bring, To harden them against all storms, Into the midst we sling.
199.23. Cæsar says that they expose themselves to hardship from their childhood [onwards]. If he would have been born in Germany, (says Seneca), he would immediately know, [in spite of] being a child, how to handle a small javelin. Young men, by way of pastime, move freely about, naked, according to Tacitus, among swords and dangerous spears, considering it an exciting game. The young men abstain for a long time from sexual intercourse, and Cæsar reports that they consider it to be a most filthy thing to know a woman before they are twenty years of age. They do not apply their minds to farming, but devote their entire life to hunting, which is their chief delight. Yet Plinius writes that they usually sow oats, and commonly eat no other leguminous plants. Cæsar tells us that the main part of their food consists of milk, meat and cheese, and Appianus says that in poverty and want they are satisfied with green herbs and salads.
199.24. Mela adds that they also feed themselves with raw meat. At dinner, says Athenæus, they serve roasted meat in small pieces or morsels, and drink milk and pure wine with it. Their dishes are simple and plain, consisting of freshly killed venison, wild plants and whipped cream. Their drink, says Tacitus, is a drink made of barley or wheat. There is not any people more riotous in their inns and daily gatherings [than these Germans are]. It is considered a shameful thing, and a great discourtesy, to drive anyone outdoors, or forbid a person to enter his house, but it is no disgrace for anyone to sit imbibing and drinking for days and nights together. I wonder why Athenæus does not mention the Germans in his catalogue of inebriates and drunk peoples, or are these [Germans] sober compared to those?
199.25. The richer kind of people wear no loose garments, but [only those that are] so straight and close to their bodies that one may discern their ribs and muscles if they only stir. The others wear skins of wild animals which the ocean at their borders or an unknown sea yields. The very same [thing] is reported by Salustius, who says that they cover their bodies with garments [made out of animal] skins, as [is] also [reported] by Cæsar, but he adds that a great part of their body is just naked. Pomponius writes that the men cover themselves with felt mantles and with tree bark. And that in their childhood they go about naked, even in the greatest cold in mid winter. There is no difference between the clothes of men and women, except that the women often cover themselves with linen garments of a red colour. Bonds of marriage are strictly observed, whereas in most other barbarous tribes men have women outside their marriage, except for a few, and then not because of presence of lust, but because of their high position. The Germans seldom break marriages, being aware of the punishment that awaits them. The mothers feed their children themselves, and do not entrust them to a nurse. As we read in Eusebius' De Præparatione Bk. 6 that they do not occupy themselves with trifles such as jesting, painting or music.
199.26. Yet, they do apply themselves to making poetry, but these [poems] are rude and simple, as reported by Julianus in his Misopogonos. And this [poetry] and the rustic songs they sing serve them as a kind of history or chronicle, as Tacitus reports. For the rest they spend their entire life in warlike and military exercises. We read in Cæsar that robbery is not regarded as a shameful thing. And Seneca says that there is nothing that they take better care of than their armour and weapons. With those they are born and bred, they are their nourishment. If there is an extensive period of peace in their country, they will voluntarily go and offer their services to those peoples which wage war with each other, as Tacitus reports.
199.27. Dion and Herodotus say that they usually cross rivers by swimming, for the lightness of their armour and the tallness of their stature lift them up, and keep them above the waterline, as Tacitus reports. Plinius says that [their soldiers, like] pirates, sail in various hollowed trees, some of which can carry thirty men each. The same authors says that they still have the custom that the conquered offer herbs to the conquerors. Appianus Alexandrinus says that they scorn death, because they are convinced that they shall return to life again. This may be the reason why Tacitus speaks about them as follows: They do not want to have elaborate funerals. The only thing they observe is that the corpses of the better kind of men may be burned with some specific kind of wood.
199.28. They do not make any sacrifices, and they only take into consideration those gods (if we may believe Cæsar) whom they can see, [such] as the sun, the moon and Vulcanus [fire]. But later, as becomes clear from Tacitus, who lived during [the period of] Nerua the emperor, they adopted other gods too, [such] as Mercurius, Hercules, Mars, Isis, and the mother of the gods, next to one named Alcis. The same Tacitus adds that they also listed Velleda and Aurinia among their gods. He also mentions the temple of Tanfannæ. But they have no images of their gods. Plutarchus, and following him Clemens Alexandrinus tell that they have certain holy women, (Tacitus calls them, just as Agathias & Polyænus, fortune tellers and prophetesses) who foretold things by the roaring, whirling and circumvolutions of rivers. It is very likely that Cæsar referred to these people where he reports to Ariovistus that it was the Germans not permitted to win a victory if they fought right before the new moon.
199.29. It is clear from Suetonius' Domitianus that they also had diviners, who predicted by looking at the entrails of animals. We read in Tacitus that at a fixed moment they publicly sacrificed men. These few details about old Germany is what we have selected out of many things. [Germany] now has a new face, very different fashions, rites and manners than it had at that time.
199.30. Cæsar will provide more, but Tacitus more still, especially in his book specifically written about the Germans. Moreover, you may also find some things in a Panegyric speech addressed to Aurelius Maximus the Emperor}1591G4Add ends here}.
Since the texts of the 1590 Latin 4 Add/1592 Latin edition are among themselves identical but rather different from the text given above, it is presented separately below. This second version resembles that of the second Germaniae Veteris Typus (Ort200) fairly closely.
199.31. {1590L4Add & 1592L{GERMANY.
199.32. I think there is no one who studies ancient history who does not know that this country was by most of the ancient writers, especially the Greek ones, called that of the CELTS. There are some who think that they were called ASCHANAXI, as by Josephus, although he says that these are interpreted by the Greek to be the Rhegini, or perhaps rather, and more truly, Rheini, like they lived on the borders of the Rhine, [people] who were also by Stephanus called [in Greek lettering] Rhènoi.
199.33. Tacitus reports that the word GERMANIA had not been used in his time for long yet, and was only heard of lately. The same author adds that this name was invented by [the Germans] themselves. For which reason I agree all the more easily with him when he derives the origin of this word from the etymology of the country itself, [rather] than from the Romans. For it is much more likely that a nation should impose a name upon itself derived from that language which they understand, than from a foreign and strange tongue which they know nothing about.
199.34. I think therefore that those are mistaken who think this name derives from a germine, that is, from buds or young saplings, because of the great fertility and abundance of all kinds of things that grow here, among whom is Isidorus. Those also, who derive the name from the Latin word germanus, meaning brother, as Strabo does, as one who would say brothers of the Gauls or Frenchmen, from whom, as he says, they differ little, are equally far from the truth.
199.35. Our countrymen, as well as Rhenanus and others, think it to have been compounded from GAR and MAN, namely GARMAN, that is, all man or manlike. Our Goropius [supposes it to have been composed of] GER and MAN, (approaching more closely its writing or spelling), derived from GEREN, which means to gather, as in scraping together a booty or prey. And the same author elsewhere derives it from GER, which according to him amongst our ancestors meant war, [an explanation] which I also note to please Justus Lipsius most. I know that gerre, (or rather guerre) in modern French means war, but whether this also has the same meaning in the ancient German tongue, I do not know.
199.36. I can easily believe that these people first gave a name to themselves and coined the word WERMAN from WER with a long E, a truly German word which refers to any weapon we can cast or throw at our enemy. Hence, WEREN means to defend oneself against the enemy; and we call any man fit to carry arms WEERBAERMAN, (that is, a warrior). Thus, they all call themselves wermanos or wermannos, that is, warlike men. And Cæsar and Tacitus, as well as others, are very relevant witnesses that this name fully agrees with the nature and disposition of these people.
199.37. But why these people described themselves as wermanos or wermannos, is that they do not have the digram or W, instead of this [they] have substituted the G, which we also see them to have done in similar cases. [Thus], for Wilhelmus they write Guilielmus; for Waltherius Galtherius; for Walfridus Galfridus, &c. Therefore it is also likely that for Walli they wrote and pronounced Galli. For even the Germans on this side of the Rhine, retaining their ancient language, still call these Galli by no other name than WALEN.
199.38. The Galli themselves too, being Romanised (their liberty and ancient tongue having been lost) imitate this change of letters to this very day. The following few words, out of many [more], may serve as an example: they usually both write and pronounce vin for WIJN [NB: note that this is not a supportive example], Guesp for WESP, Gand for WANDT, Guedde for WEEDT, by which they mean wine, wasp, glove and woad. If anyone objects that Strabo, Dionysius Afer, Ptolemæus and some other Greeks knew the digram, I answer that these people were known to these authors in past times only under the name of Celtæ on the basis of which the Greek, imitating this form of writing, have translated this word into their language. But if anyone desires to read more about the etymology and ground for the word GERMANY, let him read the twenty-first chapter of Batavia by H. Junius.
199.39. There are some historians who truly believe that all the GERMANS were later called ALEMANES, as does Vopiscus in his life of Proculus. Yet it is clear from Ælius Spartianus (who reports that Antoninus Caracalla, the Roman emperor who subdued both [these] peoples, took the surname of both for himself, and was graced both by the name GERMANICVS and ALEMANICVS. Moreover, the same thing can be observed in the marble inscriptions of the titles of emperor Justinianus. Again, Ammianus writes in his 26th book that the Alemanes crossed the borders of Germany, from which it is as plain as daylight that they were different [from one another]. But one was the name of one family or tribe, the other of the whole group or nation. Yet, although this Alemannia of Stephanus, Ammianus and other writers of that time was considered to be only a part of Germany, namely that [part] which lies around the river Aleman (commonly called ALTMUL), yet all people from other countries, not knowing German, use the word Alemania for all of Germany, and with Alemanes refer to all the Germans.
199.40. But its inhabitants nowadays call themselves TEUTSCHEN, Tuiscones, either after the god Tuiscus, son of the earth, mentioned by Tacitus, or after Tuisco, son of Noah, about whom Pseudoberosus speaks. I leave [this matter] to the judgment of the learned reader, for to me it is unclear. So much about its name.
199.41. Ovidius, writing to Livia, graces it with a very heroic surname and honourable titles, when he calls it ORBEM GERMANVM, ORBEM NOVVM & ORBEM IGNOTVM, [the German world, the new world and the unknown world]. Ptolemæus surnames it the great. Plinius the second in the third book of his Epistles to his friend Macer calls it latissima [very extended]. Note its form in Priscianus, or, as some call him, Rhemnius in Perigiesi in his comments in the following verse: Hæc tergo similis taurino dicitur esse, [that is: In form, they say, it is somewhat similar to a large buffalo hide], (but wrongly, for this is truly said about Spain, as Andreas Papius before me has correctly noted).
199.42. The location and borders of this country are described in various different ways, according to the diversity and alterations that occurred over time. Plutarchus in Marius makes it extend from the exterior or outermost sea, and the Northern parts, to the East near the fen Mæotis, where it touches Pontick Scythia. Pomponius Mela too, and Pseudoberosus, confine it to Sarmatia Europæa. And Martianus makes it extend from [the] Ister to the ocean, even as high up North as the deserts of Sarmatia (but the word Sarmatia is falsely read as Armenia, if I may correct this mistake from this author, as does Pintianus).
199.43. Dionysius Apher also places the Germans at the fen Mæotis. Others have claimed the sea, the Alps, the Weichsel and the Rhine to be its borders. But Tacitus removes from that whatever there is between the Danube and the Alps. For he confines it within the following limits: namely, the ocean, the Rhine, Danube, the Dacias and the Sarmatias, with which also Ptolemæus, the prince of geographers, agrees. Yet, Strabo and Pomponius extend [the borders of Germany] even to the very Alps, and thus by these mountains separate it from Italy, as it were by a certain natural rampart or bulwark. And to this day this is still the true and natural [size of] Germany, which in the North is surrounded by the sea, in the South by the Alps, in the West by the Rhine and in the East by the Weichsel or Oder.
199.44. Moreover, Tacitus and Dion divide this true Germany into UPPER and LOWER [GERMANY]. They call that [part] UPPER GERMANY which is closest to the spring or head of the Rhine; and that [part] LOWER [GERMANY] which extends from there to the ocean. But beyond the Rhine also, namely in Belgia, Ptolemæus distinguishes two other Germanies, to wit [GERMANY] SUPERIOR and [GERMANY] INFERIOR. Marcellinus agrees with this, and calls the former the FIRST, the latter the SECOND. Yet I do not consider these truly to belong to Germany, but it was improperly called like that by the Germans who later occupied it, and established themselves there. And [this happened] first by the Tungri, who, as Tacitus writes, were the first of all to cross the Rhine.
199.45. Also, we read in Cæsar about certain Belgæ originating from the Germans. This is the reason why he claims that the Nervij, Atrebates, Ambiani, Morini, Menapij, Caletes, Verocastes, Veromandui, Catuaci, Condrusi, Eburones, Cæresi, Pæmani, and Segni were all called GERMANI CISRHENANI, Germans on this side of the Rhine. Tacitus says that the Vangiones, Triboci, and Nemetes were called Germans. Suetonius writes that Tiberius, the emperor, placed Germans in France near the bank of the Rhine. Eutropius says that there were four hundred thousand of them.
199.46. Also, the testimony of Plinius tries to make us believe that the German people dwelled even as far North as the river Schelde. And today the Germans have settled beyond the Schelde, as far as the straights of the ocean [the channel] because of their language. So that it is true what Dion says in his 53rd book, namely that they have spread themselves as far as the British ocean, up to the city of Boulogne which by Zosimus is called a city of Lower Germany.
199.47. But let us leave these matters, and return to the description of true and ancient Germany as we have published it on this map. Pomponius writes that it is afflicted with many rivers, [that it is] rough and uneven because of many mountains, and mostly difficult to travel or pass through because of large forests and marshes. Seneca says there is a perpetual winter here, a bad climate and an infertile soil. Tacitus says that it is everywhere filled and covered by hideous forests, and loathsome, stinking bogs, [that] the land or country is unpleasant, the air sharp, [that it] it is difficult to plough it, and not beautiful to behold. Horatius calls it hideous, cruel and savage, and so does Manilius. It is wholly covered by the Hercynian forest, which is not inferior in size or reputation to any other forest, (as Plinius reports). For this Hercynian forest (which Eratosthenes, Apollonius and Ptolemæus, being Greek, call orcynium) is by far the largest of all, [since it takes] a journey of a period of sixty days [to cross it in length], as Mela confirms.
199.48. Nobody has described it better than Cæsar, whose words about this subject are as follows: the width of this Hercynian forest extends for 9 days of travelling. It begins at the borders of the Helvetians and Nemeti, and the Rauraci, and then extends directly along the river Danube, [and then] approaches the confines of the Dacias. From there it winds Northwards, or towards the left, leaving the course of the river, and because of its huge size, touches the borders of many nations. Nor is there anyone in the whole of Germany who can say that he has heard about the end of this forest, or reached it, when he has traversed it for altogether sixty days. No one has ever heard where it starts, &c.
199.49. Plinius writes in these words about the same forest: The huge size of the oaks of the Hercynian forest, never lopped or cut since the world was created, almost exceed all other miracles in terms of their immortality. I prefer to omit other things [said about this forest] which would be hard to believe. It is clear that the small hills [found in it] have arisen by the mutual encounter and crossing of its [tree] roots. But where the earth is loose and not compressed, there they [i.e. the trees] rise up with arches all the way to their boughs, and as it were competing among themselves. [The trees] are crooked like broad gates, [so] that whole troops of horsemen may pass underneath them.
199.50. Suidas, on the authority of Julianus, describes the roughness of this forest: if anyone, he says, considers the impassable Tempe of Thessalia, or the narrow straights of Thermopylæ, or the great, steep and high mountain range Taurus, [he will conclude] that these are nothing compared to this [forest, as] they are not so difficult and hard to cross, as to pass through this Hercynian forest. So much now about this inaccessible grove or forest. Nay, but Plinius adds that the other part of Germany is also full of woods.
199.51. We read in Tacitus that the soil of Germany is sandy [and] covered with a thin layer of turf, yet their pastures are very recommendable. He claims it to be reasonably well provided with cattle, but unsuitable for fruit trees. Herodianus reports that the Germans have [only] few buildings of stone of brick, and that they take pleasure in abiding in arbours and bowers made in thick woods by joining and fixing together the boughs. A passage in Strabo does not seem to differ much from this opinion, where he says [that] they dwell in cottages made [to last] for a day.
199.52. For Eusebius claims them to be both ignorant about geometry and about architecture. As a consequence, the same Tacitus most truly denies that the Germans live or dwell in cities, or like to join one house to another if they are close together, but instead have them separated and disjoined as it may happen because of some brook, field or wood. I will add to this that in ancient times they had but few cities, for in all ancient histories, in whatever language, I see hardly one or two mentioned before Ptolemæus' time. Nor is there after him any mention of them by any other writer. Capitolinus writes about Maximus the emperor that he burned down three or four hundred villages, but there is no mention of cities.
199.53. Strabo, (as diligent a writer as any of that kind), only remembers Boviasmus, the palace or court of Maroboduus. Tacitus, who knew Germany best, mentions Matium, Arenatum, Batauodurum and one or two castles near the mouth of the Rhine, which anyone would consider to belong to France rather than to Germany. In other writers there is not a word about any cities. So much in general about the soil, the form and nature of this country. Now some things peculiar to it will be considered, and first I will speak about the river Rhine [on the basis of] that which I have read in an epistle of Julianus the emperor to Maximus the philosopher, as his commentator Morentinus says.
199.54. His words are these: [the] Rhine violently carries off bastard infants as a revenge to the unchaste bed [that produced them], but those that are born within the wedlock of chaste parents it bears aloft on top of its waters, and returns them to the trembling hands of their mother, and by the preservation of the infant as it were provides true and uncorrupted testimony of chaste and laudable wedlock. Nazianzenus, Nonnius in his Dionysiacs and an ancient Greek epigram also claim this to be true. But there are also others, who attribute a different, and in my opinion more truthful cause to this dipping of children in the Rhine, which we will report about in a moment.
199.55. There is a spring at the Mattiaci of which the water, when drawn from it, will continue to boil for three days. And around its edges the water generates pumice stone, as Plinius testifies. The same author writes that in Friesland there is a spring of sweet water, that if anyone drinks from it, his teeth will fall out of his head within two years, and that the herb called Britannica that can be found there is an instant remedy against that danger.
199.56. As is the case in the Nile, likewise in the Danube or Ister, (as Suidas reports), there are large waterfalls, growing under the water like a mountain, over the whole width of the river, against which the falling stream with loud and terrible noise swells back, and first rumbling among the rocks, finally overcomes them and causes the stream by its violent fall to turn around, [causing] whirlpools, troubled motion and dangerous waves. Strabo also mentions this.
199.57. Germany has the best amber, (which, as Tacitus writes, they call glessum) which they gather from between the shallow fjords and the sea shores; [they also find] brass ore, or brassy stone which they call Cadmia, crystal, callais, a precious stone they prefer above those from Arabia, onyx, and a white kind of stones commonly called Ceraunia, which if you hold it in the open air, will diminish the glittering of the stars, as claimed by Plinius and Solinus. Adamant is also found here, if Scepsius, as reported by this same author, speaks the truth, and Topazius, (unless there is a mistake in the manuscript copy in the fourth and eighth chapter of the 37th book, for some copies read in this place Carmania for Germania).
199.58. Tacitus does not venture to deny that Germany has veins of both silver and gold, and he reports that Curtius Rufus explored a cave in the field of Matium to search for veins of silver. Plinius reports that copper mines were developed only recently in Germany. I find in the same Tacitus that the Gothini daily worked in iron mines. Lycophron describes [a kind of] hog fish with four feet [occurring] in the Danube. And in connection with the source or spring of this river, Plinius speaks about a kind of black fish which, if eaten, [leads] to a sudden death. The same author mentions the Esox, a fish from the river Rhine. The river Main boasts a fish called Silurus.
199.59. [Germany also has] the best goose feathers, especially those near to the body [of the goose], radishes as large as children, the herb Corruda, a kind of asparagus, as Plinius claims, who also says that he saw here a honey comb eight feet long. The same author, as also Solinus and Cæsar, list the following animals as belonging to this place: the elk, the buffalo, the bear and the machlis [moose]. Cæsar also, in the sixth book of his French wars mentions a kind of ox about which he says: There is an ox [there] which in shape and proportion looks like a deer. From the middle of its forehead there grows between the ears one horn higher than the rest, and more straight than any of the kind of horns we know. From the top of the head it spreads out like the boughs of a palm tree.
199.60. There are birds in Hercynia whose feathers in the night shine like fire, as Plinius reports, or whose quills, as Solinus says, glitter and shine in the dark, however dark and overcast the night may be. So that the people of that area often arrange their nightly outings in such a manner that they may use them [i.e. these birds] as lights to find their direction and way, and after they cast them in front of them on the dark road, they can see which way to go by the mark of their glittering feathers. About the very same [birds] speaks Priscianus, or whoever was the commentator on Dionysius' Periegesius: Et pascit volucres mirum fulgentibus alis, Quies ducibus noctu cernuntur flexa viarum [that is: Here lives the gold-feathered fowl, A wonder it is to tell, Whose quills being strewn in the darkest ways, Do guide men passing well].
199.61. Plinius has left on record that you can see in Germany, especially in winter, the turdus [thrush].
Now let us say something about the people. Plinius and Solinus who copied or followed him say that it is very well populated, full of very many big and boisterous people. Sidonius calls the Germans cruel and fierce. Cassiodorus [calls them] proud and numerous. Cæsar, Arrianus, Appianus, Herodotus, Polyænus, Vegetius and Columella all jointly confirm that they are all tall of stature, and have very big limbs. Tacitus calls them blue-eyed, Juvenalis yellow- haired, others red-haired.
199.62. Martialis and Seneca describe them [as having] their hair wreathed and bound up in a knot. Tertullianus in his book De virginibus velandis highly recommends their excellent [hair] locks. Appianus says that they are very rude in their manners, and prone to cruelty. Cæsar calls them barbaric and ferocious. Josephus in his second book 16th chapter on Jewish wars calls them strong, Dionysius Afer [calls them] very warlike and martial, Hegesippus boisterous and invincible, Arrianus and Dionysius soldier-like, his old commentator stern and surly, Arrianus proud and arrogant. There is no man more courageous than a German, no one more eager or hot to start an attack or assault, no one more desirous to make war, as Seneca writes in his book of Anger.
199.63. Herodianus calls it a people very tight with money. Ovidius [calls them] faithless and treacherous, Cæsar false traitors and serious pretenders, Paterculus most crafty in their excessive cruelty, and born to lie. (But who would expect more positive characterisations and reports from their enemy?). Tacitus, who lived among them, in the third book of his Histories speaks in a more realistic manner when he says that their soldiers are most fierce and desperate, and that these people take much delight in war, are not wily or deceitful at all, but easily reveal the secrets of their heart, and disclose their minds to one another, and to those they consider most trustworthy.
199.64. The same author says that Julianus the emperor in his Misopogonos writes that he has learned by experience that they are people who cannot flatter, but love to live freely and simply with everyone. Ptolemæus in the second book of his Quadripartite tells that they are by nature and constitution of body temperate and mild, because of the characteristics of the region where they live. So much about their nature and qualities.
199.65. Now a word or two about their rites and manners. As soon as their children are born, they carry them to the river, warm as they have come from their mothers womb, as testified by Galenus and by Aristoteles in the eighth book of his Politics. And there, dipping them into the cold water, they try out their natural resistance and in this way they strengthen their body. This is what Claudianus says [about the matter]: Nascentes explorat gurgite Rhenus, [that is: The river Rhine tries out those that are just born. And this I think to be the more likely cause [as compared to testing the chastity of their parents, see above, as a reason for their being dipped into the water]. For this poet attributes the same [habit] to his Italians, where he says: Natos ad flumina Deferimus, sænoq; gelu duramis, & undis [that is: The babes newborn to rivers cold, In frost and snow we bring, To harden them against all storms, Into the midst we sling].
199.66. Cæsar says that they expose themselves to hardship from their childhood [onwards]. If he would have been born in Germany, (says Seneca), he would immediately know, [in spite of] being a child, how to handle a small javelin. Young men, by way of pastime, move freely about, naked, according to Tacitus, among swords and dangerous spears. The young men abstain for a long time from sexual intercourse, and Cæsar reports that they consider it to be a most filthy thing to know a woman before they are twenty years of age.
199.67. They do not apply their minds to farming, but devote their entire life to hunting, which is their chief delight. Yet Plinius writes that they usually sow oats, and commonly eat no other leguminous plants. Cæsar tells us that the main part of their food consists of milk, meat and cheese, and Appianus says that in poverty and want they are satisfied with green herbs and salads. Mela adds that they also feed themselves with raw meat. At dinner, says Athenæus, they serve roasted meat in small pieces or morsels, and drink milk or wine with it. Their dishes are simple and plain, consisting of freshly killed venison, wild plants and whipped cream. Their drink, says Tacitus, is a drink made of barley or wheat. There is not any people more riotous in their inns and daily gatherings [than these Germans are].
199.68. It is considered a shameful thing, and a great discourtesy, to drive anyone outdoors, or forbid a person to enter his house, but it is no disgrace for anyone to sit imbibing and drinking for days and nights together. I wonder why Athenæus does not mention the Germans in his catalogue of inebriates and drunk peoples, or are these [Germans] sober compared to those?
199.69. The richer kind of people wear no loose garments, but [only those that are] so straight and close to their bodies. The others wear skins of wild animals which the ocean at their borders or an unknown sea yields. The very same [thing] is reported by Sallustius, who says that they cover their bodies with garments [made out of animal] skins, as [is] also [reported] by Cæsar, but he adds that a great part of their body is just naked. Pomponius writes that the men cover themselves with clothes or tree bark. And the same author writes that they in their childhood go about naked, even in the greatest cold in mid winter. There is no difference between the clothes of men and women, except that the women often cover themselves with linen garments, and that they mingle it with purple. Each mother nurses her own child, and unlike other barbarians they are content with a single wife except for the few who not out of lechery but because of their high office wed more than once. Their mothers feed them copiously, so they need no servants or wet nurses. Eusebius' in his sixth book de Præparat. writes that they do not engage in childish things, or anything they consider unprofitable, like staging plays, painting or music.
199.70. They do apply themselves to making poetry, but these [poems] are rude and simple, as reported by the Julianus just mentioned in his Misopogonos. And this [poetry] serves them as a kind of history or chronicle, as Tacitus reports. For the rest they spend their entire life in warlike and military exercises. We read in Cæsar that robbery is not regarded as a shameful thing. And Seneca says that there is nothing that they take better care of than their armour and weapons. With those they are born and bred, they are their nourishment. If there is an extensive period of peace in their country, they will voluntarily go and offer their services to those peoples which wage war with each other, as Tacitus reports.
199.71. Dion and Herodotus say that they usually cross rivers by swimming, for the lightness of their armour and the tallness of their stature lift them up, and keep them above the waterline, as Tacitus reports. Plinius says that [their soldiers, like] pirates, sail in various hollowed trees, some of which can carry thirty men each. The same authors says that they still have the custom that the conquered offer herbs to the conquerors. Appianus Alexandrinus says that they scorn death, because they are convinced that they shall return to life again. This may be the reason why Tacitus speaks about them as follows: They do not want to have elaborate funerals. The only thing they observe is that the corpses of the better kind of men may be burned with some specific kind of wood. They heap upon the fire neither garments nor any sweet smells.
199.72. They do not make any sacrifices, and they only take into consideration those gods (if we may believe Cæsar) whom they can see, [such] as the sun, the moon and Vulcanus [fire]. But later, as becomes clear from Tacitus, who lived during [the period of] Nerva the emperor, they adopted other gods too, [such] as Mercurius, Hercules, Mars, Isis, and the mother of the gods, next to one named Alcis. The same Tacitus adds that they also listed Velleda and Aurinia among their gods. He also mentions the temple of Tanfannæ. But they have no images. They have certain holy women, (soothsayers Tacitus calls them, Agathias & Polyænus call them fortune tellers and prophetesses) Plutarchus, and based on him Clemens Alexanderinus confirm this, and say that they foretold things by the roaring, whirling and circumvolutions of rivers. It is very likely that Cæsar referred to these people where he reports to Ariovistus that it was the Germans not permitted to win a victory if they fought right before the new moon.
199.73. It is clear from Suetonius' Domitianus that they also had diviners, who at a fixed moment publicly sacrificed men as Tacitus says. These few details about old Germany is what we have selected out of many things. [Germany] now has a new face, very different fashions, rites and manners than it had at that time. Cæsar will provide the avid reader with more, but Tacitus with more still, especially in his book specifically written about the Germans. Moreover, you may also find some things in a Panegyric speech addressed to Aurelius Maximus the emperor.
199.74. From this vanquished but invincible Germany, the following men took their names or surnames, namely: Nero Claudius Drusus, (about whom Ovidius speaks like this: Et mortem & nomen Druso Germanis fecit, [that is: Great Drusus was after Germany named, and there he lies entombed], Germanicus Cæsar, this mans son, Tiberius Cæsar, C. Cæsar, Nero, Vitellius & Domitianus, as Suetonius states, as well as Dion and Tacitus, and on coins. Also Nerva, Hadrianus, Antoninus Pius, Traianus, M. Aurelius Antoninus, Commodus, Caracalla, Maximinus, Maximinus' son Gallienus, and Claudius, as their ancient coins clearly tell us. Also Aurelianus, Maximianus, Valentinianus, Valens and Gratianus, as we see on ancient stones and inscriptions. Finally, Eusebius in the ninth book of his de Histor. Eccles. and Valerius [Flaccus] confirm this.
199.75. The most learned Justus Lipsius has correctly observed and commented on the first book of Tacitus' Annals that almost all emperors after Tiberius have taken their surnames from this most belligerent people. I have a brass coin on which there is the image of M. Aurelius Antoninus with the following inscription: M. ANTONINVS AVC. TR. P. XXV. On its back there is a fir tree and standing near by Victoria, with a shield on which is written VIC GER., and around its edge or skirt IMP. VI. COSS. III. No wonder that Germany should be represented by a fir tree, for this is very common and specific for this region, and Plinius says that the best of them all are in the Alps, on that side or part, I guess, which looks towards Germany. For we have observed that few or none [at all] grow in any part of the Alps facing Italy.
199.76. And this is the Germany with which the Roman people waged war from the year six hundred and forty after the founding of Rome, when Cæcilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo were consuls, all the way to the year one thousand one hundred and sixty-four, at which time it [Rome] was conquered by the Goths, a people from Germany, during the reign of emperor Honorius. It took so long to conquer Germany that I may quote Tacitus who freely confesses that it was triumphantly, rather than basely conquered}1590L4Add & 1592L end here}.