Tradition relates, that armies beginning to give way have been rallied by the females, through the earnestness of their supplications, the interposition of their bodies, 54 and the pictures they have drawn of impending slavery, 55 a
calamity
which these people bear with more impatience for their women than themselves; so that those states who have been obliged to give among their hostages the daughters of noble families, are the most effectually bound to fidelity.
Tacitus
They carry off their slain even while the battle remains undecided.
The greatest disgrace that can befall them is to have abandoned their shields.
49 A person branded with this ignominy is not permitted to join in their religious rites, or enter their assemblies; so that many, after escaping from battle, have put an end to their infamy by the halter.
7. In the election of kings they have regard to birth; in that of generals, 50 to valor. Their kings have not an absolute or unlimited power; 51 and their generals command less through the force of authority, than of example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure obedience from the admiration they inspire. None, however, but the priests 52 are permitted to judge offenders, to inflict bonds or stripes; so that chastisement appears not as an act of military discipline, but as the instigation of the god whom they suppose present with warriors. They also carry with them to battle certain images and standards taken from the sacred groves. 53 It is a principal incentive to their courage, that their squadrons and battalions are not formed by men fortuitously collected, but by the assemblage of families and clans. Their pledges also are near at hand; they have within hearing the yells of their women, and the cries of their children. These, too, are the most revered witnesses of each man's conduct, these his most liberal applauders. To their mothers and their wives they bring their wounds for relief, nor do these dread to count or to search out the gashes. The women also administer food and encouragement to those who are fighting.
8.
Tradition relates, that armies beginning to give way have been rallied by the females, through the earnestness of their supplications, the interposition of their bodies, 54 and the pictures they have drawn of impending slavery, 55 a calamity which these people bear with more impatience for their women than themselves; so that those states who have been obliged to give among their hostages the daughters of noble families, are the most effectually bound to fidelity. 56 They even suppose somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex; and therefore neither despise their counsels, 57 nor disregard their responses. 58 We have beheld, in the reign of Vespasian, Veleda, 59 long reverenced by many as a deity. Aurima, moreover, and several others, 60 were formerly held in equal veneration, but not with a servile flattery, nor as though they made them goddesses. 61
9. Of the gods, Mercury 62 is the principal object of their adoration; whom, on certain days, 63 they think it lawful to propitiate even with human victims. To Hercules and Mars 64 they offer the animals usually allotted for sacrifice. 65 Some of the Suevi also perform sacred rites to Isis. What was the cause and origin of this foreign worship, I have not been able to discover; further than that her being represented with the symbol of a galley, seems to indicate an imported religion. 66 They conceive it unworthy the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their deities within walls, or to represent them under a human similitude: 67 woods and groves are their temples; and they affix names of divinity to that secret power, which they behold with the eye of adoration alone.
10. No people are more addicted to divination by omens and lots. The latter is performed in the following simple manner. They cut a twig 68 from a fruit-tree, and divide it into small pieces, which, distinguished by certain marks, are thrown promiscuously upon a white garment. Then, the priest of the canton, if the occasion be public; if private, the master of the family; after an invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, thrice takes out each piece, and, as they come up, interprets their signification according to the marks fixed upon them. If the result prove unfavorable, there is no more consultation on the same affair that day; if propitious, a confirmation by omens is still required.
7. In the election of kings they have regard to birth; in that of generals, 50 to valor. Their kings have not an absolute or unlimited power; 51 and their generals command less through the force of authority, than of example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure obedience from the admiration they inspire. None, however, but the priests 52 are permitted to judge offenders, to inflict bonds or stripes; so that chastisement appears not as an act of military discipline, but as the instigation of the god whom they suppose present with warriors. They also carry with them to battle certain images and standards taken from the sacred groves. 53 It is a principal incentive to their courage, that their squadrons and battalions are not formed by men fortuitously collected, but by the assemblage of families and clans. Their pledges also are near at hand; they have within hearing the yells of their women, and the cries of their children. These, too, are the most revered witnesses of each man's conduct, these his most liberal applauders. To their mothers and their wives they bring their wounds for relief, nor do these dread to count or to search out the gashes. The women also administer food and encouragement to those who are fighting.
8.
Tradition relates, that armies beginning to give way have been rallied by the females, through the earnestness of their supplications, the interposition of their bodies, 54 and the pictures they have drawn of impending slavery, 55 a calamity which these people bear with more impatience for their women than themselves; so that those states who have been obliged to give among their hostages the daughters of noble families, are the most effectually bound to fidelity. 56 They even suppose somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex; and therefore neither despise their counsels, 57 nor disregard their responses. 58 We have beheld, in the reign of Vespasian, Veleda, 59 long reverenced by many as a deity. Aurima, moreover, and several others, 60 were formerly held in equal veneration, but not with a servile flattery, nor as though they made them goddesses. 61
9. Of the gods, Mercury 62 is the principal object of their adoration; whom, on certain days, 63 they think it lawful to propitiate even with human victims. To Hercules and Mars 64 they offer the animals usually allotted for sacrifice. 65 Some of the Suevi also perform sacred rites to Isis. What was the cause and origin of this foreign worship, I have not been able to discover; further than that her being represented with the symbol of a galley, seems to indicate an imported religion. 66 They conceive it unworthy the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their deities within walls, or to represent them under a human similitude: 67 woods and groves are their temples; and they affix names of divinity to that secret power, which they behold with the eye of adoration alone.
10. No people are more addicted to divination by omens and lots. The latter is performed in the following simple manner. They cut a twig 68 from a fruit-tree, and divide it into small pieces, which, distinguished by certain marks, are thrown promiscuously upon a white garment. Then, the priest of the canton, if the occasion be public; if private, the master of the family; after an invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, thrice takes out each piece, and, as they come up, interprets their signification according to the marks fixed upon them. If the result prove unfavorable, there is no more consultation on the same affair that day; if propitious, a confirmation by omens is still required.
