people, applied to Gelon for assistance. This crafty prince, gladly availing himself of the opportunity of extending his dominions, marched to Syracuse, into which he was admitted by the popular party (B C. 485), who had not the means of resisting so formidable an opponent. (Herodot., 7, 154, seq.) Having thus become master of Syracuse, he appointed his brother Hiero governor of Gela, and exerted all his endeav ours to promote the prosperity of his new acquisition. fortunes. Agathocles, suspecting the inhabitants of favouring the Carthaginians, suddenly made himself master of Gela, put to death 4000 of the wealthiest citizens, confiscated their property, and placed a garrison in the city. The final blow was at last received from its own colony Agrigentum. Phintias, tyrant of this latter place, wishing to perpetuate his name, built the small but commodious city of Phintias, called after himself, and transferred to it all the inhabitants of Gela. From this period, therefore, 404 years after its found-In order to increase the population of Syracuse, he deation, the city of Gela ceased to exist. On a part of stroyed Camarina, and removed all its inhabitants, tothe ancient site stands the modern Terra Nova. The gether with a great number of the citizens of Gela, to plains around Gela (Campi Geloi) were famed for his favourite city. By his various conquests and his their fertility and beauty. (Diod. Sic., 11, 25.-Id., great abilities, he became a very powerful monarch; 13, 98. Id., 19, 108.-Id., 20, 31.- Id., 22, 2.- and therefore, when the Greeks expected the invasion Strabo, 418.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 9, pt. 2, p. 345.) of Xerxes, ambassadors were sent by them to SyraGELLIUS, AULUS (or, as some manuscripts give the cuse, to secure, if possible, his assistance in the war. name, Agellius), a Latin grammarian, born at Rome Gelon promised to send to their aid two hundred triin the early part of the second century, and who died remes, twenty thousand heavy-armed troops, two thouat the beginning of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. We sand cavalry, and six thousand light-armed troops, prohave but few particulars of his life. We know that he vided the supreme command were given to him. This studied rhetoric under Cornelius Fronto at Rome, and offer being indignantly rejected by the Lacedæmonian philosophy under Phavorinus at Athens, and that, on and Athenian ambassadors, Gelon sent, according to his return to Rome, while still at an early age, he was Herodotus, an individual named Cadmus to Delphi, made one of the centumviri or judges in civil causes. with great treasures, and with orders to present them (Noct. Att., 14, 2.) Gellius has left behind him one to Xerxes if he proved victorious in the coming war. work entitled Noctes Attica, "Attic Nights." It was (Herod., 7, 157-164.) This statement, however, was written, as he informs us in the preface, during the denied by the Syracusans, who said that Gelon would winter evenings in Attica, to amuse his children in have assisted the Greeks, if he had not been prevented their hours of relaxation. It appears, from his own by an invasion of the Carthaginians, with a force account, that he had been accustomed to keep a com- amounting to three hundred thousand men, under the monplace book, in which he entered whatever he heard command of Hamilcar. This great army was entirely in conversation, or met with in his private reading, that defeated near Himera by Gelon, and Theron monarch appeared worthy of remembrance. In composing his of Agrigentum, on the same day, according to Herod"Noctes Attica" he seems merely to have copied the otus, on which the battle of Salamis was fought. (Hecontents of his commonplace book, with a little altera- rod., 7, 165, seqq.) An account of this expedition is tion in the language, but without any attempt at class- also given by Diodorus Siculus (11, 21), who states, ification or arrangement. The work contains anec- that the battle between Gelon and the Carthaginians dotes and arguments, scraps of history and pieces was fought on the same day as that at Thermopylæ. of poetry, and dissertations on various points in phi- There seems, indeed, to have been a regular underlosophy, geometry, and grammar. Amid much that standing between Xerxes and the Carthaginians, in acis trifling and puerile, we obtain information on many cordance with which the latter were to attack the subjects relating to antiquity, of which we must other- Greeks in Sicily, while the Persian monarch was to wise have been ignorant. It is divided into twenty move down upon Attica and the Peloponnesus.-Gebooks, which are still extant, excepting the eighth and lon appears to have used with moderation the power the beginning of the seventh. He mentions, in the which he had acquired by violence, and to have enconclusion of his preface, his intention of continuing deared himself to the Syracusans by the equity of his the work, which he probably, however, never carried government, and by the encouragement he gave to into effect. The style of Aulus Gellius is in general commerce and the fine arts. We are informed by negligent and incorrect. In his eagerness to imitate Plutarch, that posterity remembered with gratitude the the old writers, he is often carried too far, and intro- virtues and abilities of Gelon, and that the Syracusans duces too many forms of expression from the earlier would not allow his statues to be destroyed together comic poets, whom he seems most anxious to take for with those of the other tyrants, when Timoleon behis models in this respect. That he invented, how-came master of the city. (Plut., Vit. Timol.) He ever, any new terms himself seems hardly credible. died B.C. 478, and was succeeded by his brother The best editions of Aulus Gellius are, that of Grono- Hiero. (Aristot., Polit., 5, 12.-Encycl. Us. Knowi., vius, Lugd. Bat., 1706, 4to, and that of Lion, Göt- vol. 11, p. 108.) ting., 1824, 2 vols. 8vo. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 3, p. 310.-Bähr, Gesch. Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 718.) GELON, a native of Gela in Sicily, who rose from the station of a private citizen to be supreme ruler of Gela and Syracuse. He was descended from an ancient family, which originally came from Telos, an island off the coast of Caria, and settled at Gela, when it was first colonized by the Rhodians. During the time that Hippocrates reigned at Gela (B.C. 498-491), Gelon was appointed commander of the cavalry, and greatly distinguished himself in the various wars which Hippocrates carried on against the Grecian cities in Sicily. On the death of Hippocrates, who fell in battle against the Siculi, Gelon seized the supreme power, B.C. 491. Soon afterward a more splendid prize fell in his way. The nobles and landholders (yάuopoi) of Syracuse, who had been driven from the city by an insurrection of their slaves, supported by the rest of the GELOI, the inhabitants of Gela. (Virg., Æn., 3, 701.) GELONES and GELONI, a people of Scythia, included by Herodotus (4, 108) among the Budini. The historian speaks of their wooden city called Gelonus, and makes them to have been originally a Grecian race, who transplanted themselves from the trading ports of Greece and settled among the Budini, where they used a language partly Scythian and partly Grecian. This account, however, appears very unsatisfactory. It is better to refer the Geloni to that curious chain which connects the earlier history of Grecian civilization with the regions of the remote East, by means of sacerdotal colonies scattered throughout the wilds of Scythia. (Compare the remarks of Ritter, Vorhalle, p. 266.) GEMONIE SCALE, steps at Rome, near the prison called Tullianum, down which the bodies of those who had been executed in prison were thrown into the Fo rum, to be exposed to the gaze of the multitude. (Val. Jium. Max., 6, 9.-Liv., 38, 59.) GENABUM, a town of the Aureliani, on the Ligeris or Loire, which ran through it. It was afterward called Aureliani, from the name of the people, and is now Orleans. (Cas., B. C., 7, 3.—Lucan, 1, 440.) GENAUNI, a people of Vindelicia. (Vid. Brenni.) GENEVA, a city of the Allobroges, at the western extremity of the Lacus Lemanus or Lake of Geneva, on the south bank of the Rhodanus or Rhone. The modern name is the same as the ancient. (Cas., B. G., 1, 6.) grown on their coast.-In later times we find the name written Janua, from an idea that it was founded by Janus, which Cluver justly rejects as absurd. (Ital. Ant., vol. 1, p. 70.-Cramer's Ancient Italy, vol. 1, p. 25, seqq.) GENUCIA LEX, proposed by the tribune Genucius, A.U.C. 411, that no one should enjoy the same office twice within ten years, nor be invested with two offices in one year. (Liv., 7, 42.) A curious fact, illustrative of the ristory of Genua, was brought to light by the discovery of a brazen tablet, in 1506, near the city. This monument informs us, that a dispute having arisen between the Genuate and Veiturii, on the subject of their respective boundaries, commissioners were appointed by the Roman senate, A.U.C. 636, to settle the limits of the two territories; and the tablet gives the result of their labours. In the time of Strabo, Genua seems to have been a place of considerable trade, particularly in timber, which was brought from the mountains, where it grew to a great size. Some of it, being richly veined, GENSERIC (more correctly GEISERICH), king of the was used for making tables, which were thought Vandals, was the illegitimate brother of Gonderic, scarcely inferior to those of cedar-wood. Other comwhom he succeeded A.D. 429. In the same year he modities were cattle, skins, and honey, which the Lileft Spain, which had been partly conquered by the Van-gurians exchanged for oil and Italian wine, none being dals, and crossed over into Africa, at the solicitation of Boniface, governor of that province, who had been induced, by the arts of his rival Aetius, to rebel against Valentinian III., emperor of the West. Boniface soon repented of the step he had taken, and advanced to meet the invader. But his repentance came too late. The Moors joined the standard of Genseric, and the powerful sect of the Donatists, who had been cruelly persecuted by the Catholics, assisted him against their oppressors. Boniface was defeated, and obliged to re- GENUSUS, a river of Illyricum. Cellarius places it tire into Hippo Regius, where he remained till he ob- to the south of the Apsus and north of Apollonia; but tained a fresh supply of troops. Having ventured upon Kruse and others make it the same with the Panyasus a second battle, and being again defeated, he abandon- of Ptolemy, to the south of Dyrrhachium. The moded the province to the barbarians, and sailed away to ern name, if Cellarius be correct, is the Semno or SioItaly. A peace was concluded between Genseric and mini. Kruse, however, makes it the Iscumi. (Bisthe Emperor of the West, by which all Africa to the choff und Möller, Wörterb., p. 551.) west of Carthage was ceded to the Vandals. This, GEOPONICA (Γεωπονικά), οι a treatise on Agriculhowever, did not long continue, and the city of Car- ture" (from yea, yn," the earth," and Tovéw, "to bethage was taken by the Vandals, by surprise, A.D. 439.stow labour upon"), the title of a compilation, in Greek, The Emperors of the West and East made great prep- of precepts on rural economy, extracted from ancient arations for the recovery of the province, but an alli-writers. The compiler, in his procemium, shows that ance which Genseric made with Attila, king of the he was living at Constantinople, and dedicated his work Huns, effectually secured him against their attempts. to the Emperor Constantine, "a successor of ConstanGenseric's next object was the formation of a naval tine, the first Christian emperor," stating that he wrote power: an immense number of ships were built, and it in compliance with his desire, and praising him for his fleets ravaged the shores of Sicily and Italy. In his zeal for science and philosophy, and also for his vited by the Empress Eudoxia, he sailed up the Tiber, philanthropic disposition. The emperor here meant is A.D. 455, and permitted his soldiers, for the space of supposed by some to have been Constantine Porphyfourteen days, to pillage Rome. In A.D. 460 he de- rogenitus, and the compilation is generally ascribed to stroyed the fleet which the Emperor Majorian had col- Cassianus Bassus, a native of Bithynia, who, however, lected for the invasion of Africa; and, as his power is stated by others to have lived some centuries before increased, his ravages became more extensive. The the time of Porphyrogenitus. The question respecting island of Sardinia was conquered, and Spain, Italy, the authorship of the Geoponica has excited much disSicily, Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor were plunder-cussion, and Needham, in his edition of the work (Caned every year by the Vandal pirates. Leo, the emper- tab., 1704), has treated the subject at great length. The or of the East, at last resolved to make a vigorous work is divided into twenty books, which are subdieffort for the recovery of Africa. A great army was vided into short chapters, explaining the various proassembled, and the command was given to Basilicus. cesses of cultivation adapted to various soils and crops, He landed at Bona, and at first met with considerable and the rural labours suited to the different seasons of success, but was at length obliged to retire from the the year; together with directions for sowing the vaprovince. After this victory Genseric met with no rious kinds of corn and pulse; for training the vine, farther opposition, but remained undisturbed master of and the art of wine-making, upon which the author is the sea till his death, which happened A.D. 477. He very diffuse. He also treats of olive-plantations and was succeeded by his son Hunneric. Genseric was an oil-making, of orchards and fruit-trees, of evergreens, Arian, and is said to have persecuted the Catholics of kitchen-gardens, of the insects and reptiles that are with great cruelty. (Procop., de Bell. Vand.-Gib-injurious to plants, of the economy of the poultry-yard, bon, Decline and Fall, c. 33-36.) GENTIUS, king of the Illyrians, sold his services to Perses, king of Macedonia, for ten talents, and threw into prison the Roman ambassadors. He was addicted to intemperance, and hated by his subjects. The prætor Anicius conquered him in the space of twenty or thirty days, and led Gentius himself, his wife, brother, and children in triumph at Rome. (Liv, 43, 19, seqq.) of the horse, the ass, and the camel; of horned cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, &c., and the care they require; of the method of salting meat; and, lastly, of the various kinds of fishes. Every chapter is inscribed with the name of the author from whom it is taken, and the compiler gives, at the beginning of the first book, a list of the principal authorities. Other authors besides these are quoted in the course of the work. Two or GENUA, now Genoa, a celebrated town of Liguria, three chapters are inscribed with the name of CassiIn the second Punic war, Genua, then a celebrated anus, who speaks of himself in them as a native of emporium, took part with the Romans, and was, in Maratonymus in Bithynia, where he had an estate. consequence, plundered and burned by Mago the Car-(Geopon., 5, 6, et 36.) The work is curious, as giv thaginian. (Liv., 28, 46.) It was afterward rebuilting a course of ancient agriculture, collected from the by the Romans (Liv., 30, 1), and was made a municip-most approved authorities then extant. The best edi tion of the Geoponica is that of Niclas, Lips., 1781, 4 vols. 8vo. (Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 11, p. 156.— Scholl, Gesch. Griech. Litt., vol. 3, p. 439.) GEORGICA, the title of Virgil's poem on husbandry. (Vid. Virgilius.) GERESTUS, a promontory of Euboea, terminating the island to the southwest. It is now Cape Mantelo. (Homer, Od., 3, 176.-Eurip., Orest., v. 992.) There was a well-frequented haven near the promontory. (Plin., 4, 12.-Steph. Byz., s. v.) ing the ground. They thought that the Germans must have lived there from the beginning, and therefore called them indigenæ, or “natives of the soil." (Tacit., de Mor. Germ., 2.) Modern inquiries, however, have traced the descent of the Germanic race from the inhabitants of Asia; since it is now indisputably established that the Teutonic dialects belong to one great family with the Latin, the Greek, the Sanscrit, and the other languages of the Indo-Germanic chain. Von Hammer calls the Germans a BactrianoGERGIS OF GERGITHA, a city of Dardania in Troas, Median nation. He makes the name Germani or Sera settlement of the ancient Teucri, and, consequent-mani, in its primitive import, to have meant those who ly, a town of very great antiquity. (Herod., 5, 122. followed the worship of Buddha, and hence the Ger-Id., 7, 43.) Cephalo, an early historian, who is mans, according to him, are that ancient and primitive cited by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Athenæus, and race who came down from the mountains of Upper others as having written a history of Troy, was a na-Asia, the cradle of the human species, and, spreading tive of this place. (Dion. Hal., A. R., 1, p. 180.— themselves over the low country more to the south, Athen., 9, p. 393. Strab., 589.-Steph. Byz., s. v. gave origin to the Persian and other early nations. Apiobη, Tpaikós.) Gergis, according to Xenophon, Hence the name Dschermania applied in early times was a place of strength, having an acropolis and very to all that tract of country which lay to the north of lofty walls, and one of the chief towns held by Mania, the Oxus. The land of Erman, therefore, which was the Dardanian princess. (Xen., Hist. Gr., 3, 1, 12.) situate beyond this river, and which corresponds to It had a temple sacred to Apollo Gergithius, and was the modern Chorasin, is made by Von Hammer the said to have given birth to the sibyl, who is sometimes native home of the Germanic race, and the Germans called Erythræa, from Erythræ, a small place on Mount themselves are, as he informs us, called Dschermani, Ida (Dion. Hal., 1, 55), and at others Gergithia. In their primitive name, by the Oriental writers down confirmation of this fact, it was observed that the coins to the fourteenth century. (Von Hammer, Wien. of this city had the effigy of the prophetess impressed Jahrb., vol. 2, p. 319.-Compare vol. 9, p. 39.) Anupon them. (Phlegon, ap. Steph. Byz., s. v. Tépyıç.) other remarkable circumstance is, that, besides the Some of these coins are still extant, and accord with name referred to, that of the modern Prussians may be the testimony of Phlegon. They are thus described found under its primitive form in the Persian tongue. by numismatic writers: "Caput muliebre adversum We have there the term Pruschan or Peruschan, in laureatur cum stola ad collum R. TEP. Sphinx alata the sense of "a people." In Meninski (1, p. 533) we sedens F, 3." (Sestini, Lett. Numism., t. 1, p. 88.) have Berussan and Beruschan, in the sense of " comIt appears from Strabo that Gergitha having been taken munitas ejusdem religionis," while, in Ferghengi Schuby Attalus, king of Pergamus, he removed the inhab-uri, Peruschan or Poruschan more than once occurs. tants to the sources of the Caïcus, where he founded a new town of the same name. (Strab., 616.) The Romans, according to Livy, made over the territory of the old town to the Ilienses (38, 39). Herodotus, in describing Xerxes' march along the Hellespont, states that he had the town of Dardanus on his left, and Gergitha on the right; it is evident, therefore, that the latter must have been situated inland, and towards Mount Ida. (Herod., 7, 43.—Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 84, seqq.) GERGOVIA, a strong town and fortress of Gaul, belonging to the Arverni. It was situate on a very high mountain, and of difficult access on all sides. It is now Gergovie. (Cas., B. G., 7, 9.) (Vol. 1, B. 182, V. l. Z. and S. 183, e. Z.) Even the name Sachsen or Sassen (Saxons) is to be found in the Persian tongue, under the form Sassan, as indicating not only the last dynasty of the Persian empire (the Sassanides), but also those acquainted with the doctrines of the Dessatin, the old Persian dialect of which is far more nearly related to the Gothic than the modern Persian to the German. In the Oriental histories, moreover, mention is made of the dynasty of the sons of Boia, in whom we may easily recognise the progenitors of the Boii; while traces of the name of the Catti may be found in that of Kat, in Chorasin. (Fergh. Schuuri, B. 231.) The Geta, too, frequently appear under the appellation of the Dschete in the hisGERMANIA. The word Germania was employed by tory of Timour; and finally, the name of the Franks the Romans to designate a country of greater extent has been traced to the Persian Ferheng, "reason" or than modern Germany. They included under this name "understanding." (Von Hammer, in Kruse's Archiv. all the nations of Europe east of the Rhine and north der Germanischen Völkerstamme, hft. 2, p. 124, seqq.) of the Danube, bounded on the north by the German Even as early as the time of Herodotus, the name of the Ocean and the Baltic, including Denmark and the | Tepμávioi (Ġermanii) appears among the ancient Perneighbouring islands, and on the east by the Sarma-sian tribes (Herod., 1, 125), while the analogies betians and Dacians. It is difficult, however, to ascer- tween the Persian and German are so striking as to tain how far Germany stretched to the East. Accord-have excited the attention of every intelligent scholar. ing to Strabo (289), Germanic tribes dwelt nearly as far as the mouths of the Borysthenes (or Dnieper). The northern and northeastern parts of Gaul were also known under the name of Germany in the time of the Roman emperors, after the province of Belgica had been subdivided into Germania Prima and Germania Secunda. Von Hammer has promised to show remarkable affinities between upward of 4000 German and Persian words. (Archiv., p. 126, not.) And, besides all this, an ancient Georgian MS. of laws, recently brought to light, proves conclusively, that the Georgian nation had among them ordeals precisely similar to those of the early Germans, and also the same judicial forms of proceeding, and the same system of satisfactions to be 1. Origin of the Germanic nations. paid in cases of homicide, according to the rank of the The origin of the Germanic nations is involved in party slain. (Annal. de legislat. et de Jurisprudence, uncertainty. The inhabitants of the beautiful re- Nro. 40, Paris, 1829.-Compare, on the general gions of Italy, who had never known a rougher coun- question of German and Persian affinities, Adelung, try, could hardly believe that any nation had desert-Mithradates, vol. 1, p. 278, seqq. — Id. ib., vol. 2 p. ed its native soil to dwell in the forests of Germany, where severe cold prevailed for the greater part of the year, and where, even in summer, impenetrable forests prevented the genial rays of the sun from reach 170, seqq.-. ises be true, and they are acknowledged to be so by Isembling; scorning every restraint, considering indeevery scholar who has examined them, the commonly-pendence as the most precious of all things, and therereceived derivation of the name Germani falls to the fore ready to give up life rather than liberty. Unacground. The advocates for this etymology maintain, quainted with the arts of civilization, ignorant of agrithat the appellation in question comes from wer, "war," culture and of the use of metals and letters, the Gerand mann, "a man," and that "Germani" therefore man lives in his forests and pastures, supported by the means men of war" or "warriors," the Roman al- chase, and the produce of his herds and flocks; his phabet, in consequence of its not having any w, con- life being divided between inaction, sensual pleasures, verting this letter into a soft g. They refer also to and great hardships. In time of peace, sleep and idleTacitus, who states, that the Tungri first assumed this ness, by day and night, are the sole pleasure of the inname on crossing the Rhine, and that it gradually dolent, discontented warrior, who longs for war, and spread over the whole nation. (De Mor. Germ., 2.) manly, dangerous adventures. Till these arrive, he Others again assert, that the term is of Celtic origin, surrenders himself, with all the passion of unrestrained and was first applied by the Gauls to their German nature, to drinking and gaming. A beverage, prepared conquerors, and they deduce it from the Celtic gerr, with little art from wheat and barley, indemnifies him "war," and mann, “a man.' (Lemaire, Ind. Geogr., for the absence of the juice of the grape, which nature ad Cæs., s. v., p. 269.) The true origin of the name, has denied him, and exhilarates his noisy feasts. His however, as has already been remarked, must be sought personal liberty is not too precious to be staked on the in the remote East.-There was also another nation-cast of a die; and, faithful to his word, he suffers himal name which the Germans applied to themselves, self to be fettered, without resistance, by the lucky and that was Teutones. In this we recognise at once winner, and sold into distant slavery. The form of the root of the modern term Deutsche or Teutsche; and government, in the greater part of Germany, is demothe appellation would seem to have come from the cratic. The German obeys general and positive laws old German word Diet, "a people," and to have been less than the casual ascendancy of birth or valour, of used as a name for the whole German race, consid- eloquence or superstitious reverence. On the shores ered as forming but one people, though divided into of the Baltic there are several tribes which acknowlmany independent tribes. (Klemm, Germ. Alter-edge the authority of kings, without, however, resignthumsk., p. 79.) ing the natural rights of man. Mutual protection forming the tie which unites the Germans, the neces2. Geographical acquaintance with Ancient Germany. sity was early felt of rendering individual opinion subThe Greeks and Romans had very little knowledge ject to that of the majority; and these few rude outof Germany before the time of Julius Cæsar, who met lines of political society are sufficient for a nation deswith several Germanic tribes in Gaul, and crossed the titute of high ambition. The youth, born of free paRhine on two occasions, rather with the view of pre-rents and ripened to manhood, is conducted into the venting their incursions into Gaul, than of making any permanent conquests. His acquaintance was, however, limited to those tribes which dwelt on the banks of the Rhine. Under the early Roman emperors many of these tribes were subdued, and the country west of the Visurgis (or Weser) was frequently traversed by the Roman armies. But at no period had the Romans any accurate knowledge of the country east of this river; and it is therefore difficult to fix with certainty the position of the German tribes, particularly as the Germans were a nomade people. Some parts of Germany were inhabited by the Gauls, who were, according to Cæsar (B. G., 6, 24), the more warlike nation in early times. Tacitus, at a later day, divides the Germans into three great tribes, which were subdivided into many smaller ones: 1. the Ingævones, bordering on the ocean. 2. Hermiones, inhabiting the central parts. 3. Istævones, including all the others. Pliny (4, 14) makes five divisions: 1. Vindili, including the Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Gullones. 2. Ingævones, including the Cimbri, Teutones, and Chauci. 3. Istævones, near the Rhine, including the midland Cimbri. 4. Her-distribute justice, or compose differences in their remiones, inhabiting the central parts, including the Suevi, Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci. 5. Peucini and Bastarnæ, bordering on the Dacians. general assembly of his countrymen, furnished with the shield and spear, and received as an equal and worthy member of their warlike republic. These assemblies, consisting of men able to bear arms, and belonging to the same tribe, are summoned at fixed periods or on sudden emergencies. The free vote of the members of these councils decides on public offences, the election of magistrates, on war or peace. For though the leaders are allowed to discuss all subjects previously, yet the right of deciding and executing is solely with the people. Impatient of delay, and obeying the impulse of their passions, without regard to justice or policy, the Germans are quick in adopting resolutions. Their applause or dissatisfaction is announced by the clashing of their arms or by a murmur. In times of danger a leader is chosen, to whom several tribes submit. The most valiant is selected for this purpose, to lead his countrymen more by his example than his authority. As soon as the danger is past, his authority, reluctantly borne by his free-minded countrymen, ceases. In times of peace, no other superior is known than the princes, who are chosen in the assemblies to spective districts. Every prince has a guard and a council of 100 persons. Although the Romans called several German princes kings, yet these rulers had not so much as the right of punishing a freeman with death, or imprisonment, or blows. A nation to which every kind of restraint was thus odious, and which acknowl 3. Manners and Customs of the Ancient Germans. Our principal information on this subject is derived from Tacitus, who wrote a separate treatise on the man-edged no authority, respected no obligations but those ners and customs of the Germanic tribes, entitled " De which they imposed upon themselves. To leaders of Situ, Moribus, et Populis Germania." Occasional approved valour the noblest youths voluntarily devoted notices and scattered hints are also found in the works their arms and services; and as the former vied with of other ancient authors, particularly in the Gallic com- each other in assembling the bravest companions mentaries of Cæsar.-A nation free from any foreign around them, so the latter contended for the favour of intermixture (say the Roman writers), as is proved by their leaders. It was the duty of the leader to be the their peculiar national physiognomy, inhabits the coun- first in courage in the hour of danger, and the duty of tries beyond the Rhine, with fierce blue eyes, deep his companions not to be inferior to him. To survive yellow hair, a robust frame, and a gigantic height; in his fall was an indelible disgrace to his companions, ured to cold and hunger, but not to thirst and heat, for it was their most sacred duty to defend his person, warlike, honest, faithful, friendly and unsuspicious and to heighten his glory by their own deeds. The towards friends, but towards enemies cunning and dis- | leader fought for victory, his companions, for their leader. Valour was the grace of man, chastity the | virtue of woman. The primitive nations of German origin attached something of a sacred character to the female sex. Polygamy was only permitted to the princes as a means of extending their connexions; divorce was forbidden rather by a sense of propriety than by law. Adultery was considered an inexpiable crime, and was, therefore, very rare. Seduction was not to be excused on any consideration. The religious notions of this race could not but be rude and imperfect. The sun and moon, fire and earth, were their deities, whom they worshipped, with some imaginary beings to whom they ascribed the direction of the most important circumstances of life, and whose will the priests pretended to divine by secret arts. Their temples were caverns, rendered sacred by the veneration of many generations. The ordeals so famous in the middle ages were considered by them infallible in all dubious cases. Religion afforded the most powerful means for inflaming their courage. The sacred standards, preserved in the dark recesses of consecrated caverns, were raised on the field of battle, and their enemies were devoted, with dreadful imprecations, to the gods of war and thunder. The valiant only enjoyed the favour of the gods; a warlike life, and death in battle, were considered as the surest means of attaining the joys of the other world, where the heroes were rejoiced by the relation of their deeds, while sitting around the festal table, and quaffing beer out of large horns or the sculls of their enemies. But the glory which the priests promised after death was conferred by the bards on earth. They celebrated in the battle and at the triumphal feasts the glorious heroes of past days, the ancestors of the brave who listened to their simple but fiery strains, and were inspired by them with contempt of death, and kindled to glorious deeds ened to the Rhine, erected fortifications along the banks of this river to oppose the progress of the enemy, and gave his stepson Drusus the chief command against them. This general was victorious in several expeditions, and advanced as far as the Elbe. He died A.U.C. 745. Tiberius, after him, held the chief command on the Rhine during two years, and exercised more cunning than force against the Germans. He induced them to enter the Roman service. The bodyguard of Augustus was composed of Germans, and the Cheruscan Arminius was raised to the dignity of knight. From 740 to 755, different Roman generals commanded in those regions. Tiberius, having received the chief command a second time (A.U.C. 756), advanced to the Elbe; and the Romans would probably have succeeded in making Germany a Roman province, but for the imprudence of his successor, Quintilius Varus, by which all the advantages which had been previously gained were lost. His violent measures for changing the manners and customs of the Germans produced a general conspiracy, headed by the Cheruscan Arminius, who had received his education in Rome. Decoyed with three legions into the forest of Teutoberg, Varus was attacked and destroyed with his army. A few fugitives only were saved by the legate Asprenas, who was stationed with three legions in the vicinity of Cologne. The consequence of this victory, gained by the Germans A.D. 9, was the loss of all the Roman possessions beyond the Rhine; the fortress of Aliso, built by Drusus, was destroyed. The Cherusci then became the principal nation of Germany. Four years after, the Romans, under the command of Germanicus, made a new expedition against the Germans; but, notwithstanding the valour and military skill of the young hero, he did not succeed in re-establishing the Roman dominion. The Romans then renounced the project of subjugating the Germans, whose invasions they easily repelled, and against any serious attacks 4. History of Ancient Germany. from whom they were secured by the internal dissenThe Romans first became acquainted with the an- sions which had arisen in Germany. Maroboduus, who cient Germans in B.C. 113, when they appeared un- had been educated at the court of Augustus, had united, der the name of Teutones and Cimbri, on the confines partly by persuasion and partly by force, several Suof the Roman dominion, and then moving south, car- evian tribes into a coalition, which is known under ried the terror of their arms over Gaul and part of Nor- the name of the Marcomannic confederacy. At the thern Italy, until overthrown by Marius and Catulus head of this powerful league, he attacked the great (103 and 101 B.C.). When Julius Cæsar had estab- kingdom of the Boii, in the southern part of Bohemia lished himself in Gaul, he became acquainted with a and Franconia, conquered it, and founded a formidable nation then designated by the name of Germans. Ari- state, whose authority extended over the Marcomanni, ovistus, the leader of the ration, which had previously Hermunduri, Quadi, Longobardi, and Semnones, and inhabited the banks of the Danube, attempted to es- which was able to send 70,000 fighting men into the tablish himself in Gaul, but, being defeated by Cæsar, field. Augustus had ordered Tiberius, with twelve he was obliged to flee beyond the Rhine. Of the fu- legions, to attack Maroboduus and destroy his powgitives who returned over the Rhine, the nation of the er; but a general rebellion in Dalmatia obliged him to Marcomanni seems to have been formed. Cæsar cross- conclude a disadvantageous peace. The disasters ed the Rhine twice; not with the view of making con- which afterward befell the Romans in the west of quests in that wilderness, but to secure Gaul against Germany, prevented them from renewing their atthe destructive irruptions of the barbarians. He even tempts against the Marcomanni, who ventured to make enlisted Germans in his army, first against the Gauls, frequent incursions into the southern parts of Germathen against Pompey. He obtained an accurate knowl-ny. Two powerful nations, therefore, now existed in edge of those tribes only that lived nearest to the Germany, the Marcomanni and the Cherusci, who, Rhine, as the Ubii, Sygambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri. however, soon became engaged in disputes. On the The rest of Germany, he was told, was inhabited by one hand, the Longobardi and Semnones, disgusted the Suevi, who were divided into 100 districts, each with the oppressions of Maroboduus, deserted his conof which annually sent 1000 men in quest of booty. federacy and joined the Cherusci; and, on the other, They lived more by hunting and pasture than by agri- Inguiomerus, the uncle of Arminius, having become culture, held their fields in common, and prevented the jealous of his nephew, went over to Maroboduus. Afapproach of foreign nations by devastating their bor-ter the war between the two rivals had been carried on ders. This account is true, if it is applied to the Ger- for a considerable time, according to the rules of the mans in general, and if by the 100 districts are under-military art, which Arminius and Maroboduus had stood different tribes.--The civil wars diverted the learned in the school of the Romans, the victory at attention of the Romans from Germany. The confed- last remained with the Cherusci. Tiberius, instead of eracy of the Sygambri made inroads into Gaul with assisting Maroboduus, who had solicited his help, inimpunity, and Agrippa transferred the Ubii, who were stigated Catualda, king of the Goths, to fall upon him, hard pressed by them, to the west side of the Rhine. forced him to leave his country, and to seek refuge But the Sygambri having defeated Lollius, the legate with the Romans. Catualda, however, soon experiof Augustus (A.U.C. 739), the emperor himself hast-enced the same fate from the Hermunduri, who now |