Tacitus here falls into a very common kind of error, in
assuming
a local fact (viz.
Tacitus
5; Servius on Virgil, Aen.
xi.
626.
]
7 (return)
[ Scandinavia and Finland, of which the Romans had a very slight knowledge, were supposed to be islands. ]
8 (return)
[ The mountains of the Grisons. That in which the Rhine rises is at present called Vogelberg. ]
9 (return)
[ Now called Schwartzwald, or the Black Forest. The name Danubius was given to that portion of the river which is included between its source and Vindobona (Vienna); throughout the rest of its course it was called Ister. ]
10 (return)
[ Donec erumpat. The term erumpat is most correctly and graphically employed; for the Danube discharges its waters into the Euxine with so great force, that its course may be distinctly traced for miles out to sea. ]
11 (return)
[ There are now but five. ]
12 (return)
[ The ancient writers called all nations indigenae (i. e. inde geniti), or autochthones, "sprung from the soil," of whose origin they were ignorant. ]
13 (return)
[ It is, however, well established that the ancestors of the Germans migrated by land from Asia.
Tacitus here falls into a very common kind of error, in assuming a local fact (viz. the manner in which migrations took place in the basin of the Mediterranean) to be the expression of a general law. —ED. ]
14 (return)
[ Drusus, father of the emperor Claudius, was the first Roman general who navigated the German Ocean. The difficulties and dangers which Germanicus met with from the storms of this sea are related in the Annals, ii. 23. ]
15 (return)
[ All barbarous nations, in all ages, have applied verse to the same use, as is still found to be the case among the North American Indians. Charlemagne, as we are told by Eginhart, "wrote out and committed to memory barbarous verses of great antiquity, in which the actions and wars of ancient kings were recorded. "]
16 (return)
[ The learned Leibnitz supposes this Tuisto to have been the Teut or Teutates so famous throughout Gaul and Spain, who was a Celto-Scythian king or hero, and subdued and civilized a great part of Europe and Asia. Various other conjectures have been formed concerning him and his son Mannus, but most of them extremely vague and improbable. Among the rest, it has been thought that in Mannus and his three sons an obscure tradition is preserved of Adam, and his sons Cain, Abel, and Seth; or of Noah, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japhet. ]
17 (return)
[ Conringius interprets the names of the sons of Mannus into Ingäff, Istäf, and Hermin. ]
18 (return)
[ Pliny, iv. 14, embraces a middle opinion between these, and mentions five capital tribes. The Vindili, to whom belong the Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Guttones; the Ingaevones, including the Cimbri, Teutoni, and Chauci; the Istaevones, near the Rhine, part of whom are the midland Cimbri; the Hermiones, containing the Suevi, Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci; and the Peucini and Bastarnae, bordering upon the Dacians. ]
19 (return)
[ The Marsi appear to have occupied various portions of the northwest part of Germany at various times.
7 (return)
[ Scandinavia and Finland, of which the Romans had a very slight knowledge, were supposed to be islands. ]
8 (return)
[ The mountains of the Grisons. That in which the Rhine rises is at present called Vogelberg. ]
9 (return)
[ Now called Schwartzwald, or the Black Forest. The name Danubius was given to that portion of the river which is included between its source and Vindobona (Vienna); throughout the rest of its course it was called Ister. ]
10 (return)
[ Donec erumpat. The term erumpat is most correctly and graphically employed; for the Danube discharges its waters into the Euxine with so great force, that its course may be distinctly traced for miles out to sea. ]
11 (return)
[ There are now but five. ]
12 (return)
[ The ancient writers called all nations indigenae (i. e. inde geniti), or autochthones, "sprung from the soil," of whose origin they were ignorant. ]
13 (return)
[ It is, however, well established that the ancestors of the Germans migrated by land from Asia.
Tacitus here falls into a very common kind of error, in assuming a local fact (viz. the manner in which migrations took place in the basin of the Mediterranean) to be the expression of a general law. —ED. ]
14 (return)
[ Drusus, father of the emperor Claudius, was the first Roman general who navigated the German Ocean. The difficulties and dangers which Germanicus met with from the storms of this sea are related in the Annals, ii. 23. ]
15 (return)
[ All barbarous nations, in all ages, have applied verse to the same use, as is still found to be the case among the North American Indians. Charlemagne, as we are told by Eginhart, "wrote out and committed to memory barbarous verses of great antiquity, in which the actions and wars of ancient kings were recorded. "]
16 (return)
[ The learned Leibnitz supposes this Tuisto to have been the Teut or Teutates so famous throughout Gaul and Spain, who was a Celto-Scythian king or hero, and subdued and civilized a great part of Europe and Asia. Various other conjectures have been formed concerning him and his son Mannus, but most of them extremely vague and improbable. Among the rest, it has been thought that in Mannus and his three sons an obscure tradition is preserved of Adam, and his sons Cain, Abel, and Seth; or of Noah, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japhet. ]
17 (return)
[ Conringius interprets the names of the sons of Mannus into Ingäff, Istäf, and Hermin. ]
18 (return)
[ Pliny, iv. 14, embraces a middle opinion between these, and mentions five capital tribes. The Vindili, to whom belong the Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Guttones; the Ingaevones, including the Cimbri, Teutoni, and Chauci; the Istaevones, near the Rhine, part of whom are the midland Cimbri; the Hermiones, containing the Suevi, Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci; and the Peucini and Bastarnae, bordering upon the Dacians. ]
19 (return)
[ The Marsi appear to have occupied various portions of the northwest part of Germany at various times.
