Ancient Germanic War and Leaders
Even iron is not plentiful among them, as may be gathered from the style of their weapons. Few have swords or the longer kind of lance: they carry short spears,…
From: Unknown To: 120 C.E.
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From Dialogus, Agricola, Germania by Cornelius Tacitus, translated by William Peterson, 1914.
War and Leaders
Even iron is not plentiful among them, as may be gathered from the style of their weapons. Few have swords or the longer kind of lance: they carry short spears, in their language “frameae” with a narrow and small iron head, so sharp and so handy in its use that they fight with the same weapon, as circumstances demand, both at close quarters and at a distance. The mounted man is content with a shield and framea: the infantry launch showers of missiles in addition, each man a volley, and hurl these to great distances, for they wear no outer clothing, or at most a light cloak.
There is no bravery of apparel among them: their shields only are picked out with choice colours. Few have breast-plates: scarcely one or two at most have metal or hide helmets. The horses are conspicuous neither for beauty nor speed; but then neither are they trained like our horses to run in shifting circles: they ride them forwards only or to the right, with but one turn from the straight, dressing the line so closely as they wheel that no one is left behind. On a broad view there is more strength in their infantry, and accordingly cavalry and infantry fight in one body, the swift-footed infantryman, whom they pick out of the whole body of warriors and place in front of the line, being well-adapted and suitable for cavalry battles.
The number of these men is fixed—one hundred from each canton: and among themselves this, “the Hundred,” is the precise name they use; what was once a number only has become a title and a distinction. The battle-line itself is arranged in wedges: to retire, provided you press on again, they treat as a question of tactics, not of cowardice: they carry off their dead and wounded even in drawn battles. To have abandoned one’s shield is the height of disgrace; the man so disgraced cannot be present at religious rites, nor attend a council: many survivors of war have ended their infamy with a noose.
They take their kings on the ground of birth, their generals on the basis of courage: the authority of their kings is not unlimited or arbitrary; their generals control them by example rather than command, and by means of the admiration which attends upon energy and a conspicuous place in front of the line. But anything beyond this—capital punishment, imprisonment, even a blow—is permitted only to the priests, and then not as a penalty or under the general’s orders, but as an inspiration from the god whom they suppose to accompany them on campaign: certain totems, in fact, and emblems are fetched from groves and carried into battle.
The strongest incentive to courage lies in this, that neither chance nor casual grouping makes the squadron or the wedge, but family and kinship: close at hand, too, are their dearest, whence is heard the wailing voice of woman and the child’s cry: here are the witnesses who in each man’s eyes most precious; here the praise he covets most: they take their wounds to mother and wife, who do not shrink from counting the hurts and demanding a sight of them: they minister to the combatants food and exhortation.
Tacitus, Cornelius. Dialogus, Agricola, Germania. Edited by T. E. Page and W. H. D. Rouse. Translated by William Peterson, W. Heinemann, 1914.
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