The Quadi were the eastern neighbours of the Marcomanni. The eastern part of the Hercynian forest which surrounded Bohemia, the wald or forest of Moravia, separated the Marcomanni from the Quadi,* beyond whom Ptolemy places the Aoura λn-Lunian wald, the country of anciently worked iron mines, which in the time of Tacitus were dug by the Gothini. It does not appear that in Cæsar's time the Quadi had yet settled in this country. That writer places the Volca Tectosages, who were Celts, in the Hercynian forest; and M. Zeuss has observed that they cannot with probability be fixed in the forest country of Moravia, and that the Quadi were perhaps bands of the victorious Marcomanni who pushed their conquests on the eastern side.‡ Beyond the Quadi and the Luna sylva, that is towards the south-east, Ptolemny places the Bami, whom he terms "a great nation reaching to the Danube, and there bordering on the Teracatriæ." The latter were perhaps a Celtic people. It seems that after the leaders Maroboduus and Catualda had fallen, the Suevic bands founded a new domain under Vannius, at the head of the Quadi, and these are probably the Bæmi, who preserved the name of Bohemia, from which they had been driven. By Tacitus this new Suevian state, which reached to the Carpathian mountains, is termed "dives regnum, quod Vannius trigenta per annos auxerat." His subjects are termed Suevi by Tacitus, and this tribe of Suevi, which in later times had the name of Bæmi, were the farthest of all the German tribes towards the south-east, where they reached, according to Ptolemy, from the Lunian forest to the Danube.§ It was in the eastern region of Germany, and among the Suevian tribes, that those warlike confederations began in the second century which first disturbed the Roman empire. At the head of these were the Marcomanni and other Suevic bands, as the Quadi, whom Ammianus terms "immensum quantum antehâc bellatrix et potens."|| E. The Lygian tribes. The Lygii or Lugii are placed by Tacitus to the eastward *Tac. Germ. 41. C. Ptol. loc. cit. Zeuss, 118. + Tac. Germ. The name of the Quadi is perhaps preserved in Quedlinburg. § C. Ptolem. p. 53. Ammian. xxix. 6. of the nations already mentioned. They were a groupe nations distinct from and in hostility with the Suevi. Ptolemy reckons among them the Buri, who are placed by Tacitus nearly in the same quarter, and makes them extend to the Vistula.* The country of the Buri was near the sources of the Oder and the Vistula.+ F. The Bastarnæ. The Bastarnæ are the first German nation mentioned in history: they are enumerated among the troops led by the Macedonian king Perseus against the Romans, in the first half of the second century before Christ. Their abode was on the northern bank of the Lower Danube, whence they reached to the Carpathian mountains, behind the Dacians. As the Greeks were accustomed to the inroads of Gauls from the adjoining tracts of the Scordisci, they mistook the Bastarnæ for Gauls, and Polybius, Plutarch, and Livy, who copied Greek accounts, mention the Bastarnæ as Galatæ. Strabo, however, declares them to be of the Germanic race:‡ he was the first writer who gave any distinct account of them and of their tribes. Pliny likewise asserts them to be Germans, and Tacitus fully confirms that opinion by reference to their language. "Peucini quos quidam Bastarnas vocant, sermone, cultu, sede ac domiciliis, ut Germani agunt."S The physical characters of the Bastarnæ must have been remarkable, since they are noticed by many writers, as resembling those of the great northern races of Europe. Polybius mentions their great stature and boldness in combat, and Livy observes their "procera et immania corpora," and "quanta in periculis audacia." Plutarch terms them "äropes vụnλoì μèv τὰ σώματα, θαυμαστοὶ δὲ τὰς μελετάς, μεγάλαυχοι δὲ καὶ λαμπροὶ ταῖς κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων ἀπειλαῖς.”|| The Bastarnæ, as M. Zeuss observes, appear as the first numerous German nation who moved gradually towards the Euxine from their ancient abode, which was probably near the higher course of the Vistula in the neighbourhood of the Tac. Germ. xlv. Ptolem. Geog. lib. ii. cap. 11. Lygii. By Scymnus Chius they are mentioned as a new people in the neighbourhood of the Pontus.* Their movements have an historical importance which we shall have occasion to notice when we come to the history of the Goths. Paragraph 2.-German tribes inhabiting the Low Countries on the sea coast, supposed to be the Ingævones of Tacitus. A. Frisii, Chauci, and the neighbouring tribes. The name of the Frisii, which is still preserved in that of Friesland, appears first in history in the account given by Tacitus of the expedition of Drusus, by whom they were obliged to pay tribute:" Frisiis, transrhenano populo, Drusus tributum jusserat modicum pro angustia rerum, ut in usus militares coria boum penderent." Pliny mentions the Frisii and Frisiabones with other nations between the mouths of the Rhine, above the Batavi.§ Ptolemy makes the "piocío" inhabitants of the whole sea-coast of the German Ocean, as far as the mouths of the Ems, or Amisios. + The Chauci are joined with the Frisii in the earliest accounts of that people, with whom they appear to have been nearly connected. The Weser flowed through the country of the Chauci and divided them into two bodies. "Visæ nobis Chaucorum gentes, qui majores, minoresque appellantur," says Pliny. Ptolemy mentions the Lesser Chauci as succeeding to the Phrissii, that is, situated to the northward of them, and reaching to the river Visurgis or Weser, after whom were the Greater Chauci, reaching as far as the Elbe or Albis. Greater Chauci occupied the modern Dutchy of Bremen. Taci The tus describes the situation of the Chauci in a similar manner. He says, as we turn from the west of Germany towards the north, we first discover "the country of the Chauci, which though it begins immediately from Frisia and occupies part of the sea-shore, yet stretches so far as to border on all the nations before mentioned till it winds round to meet the territory of the Chatti." He represents the Chauci as bordering to the northward on all the western nations of Germany. "This immense Seym. Ch. v. 50. Οὗτοι δὲ Θράκες, Βαστάρναι τ' ἐπήλυδες. Tac. loco supra citato. Tac. Ann. iv. 72. § Plin. H. N. iv. 15. tract is not only possessed but filled by the Chauci, a people who maintain their greatness by justice rather than violence. They abound in men and horses, and maintain their military fame even in peace.' Pliny visited the country of the Chauci, and described the people and their mode of life from personal observation. “On this coast," he says, "the Ocean twice in each day and night ebbs and flows over an immense space, which is subject to an eternal controversy between the sea and land. Here the miserable inhabitants keep themselves in cabins fixed on hillocks, and are like people floating in boats when the sea has risen, and like shipwrecked wretches when it subsides, and they catch around their dwellings the fishes which fly from them in the retiring waters. They can feed no cattle for food or milk, nor even carry on war against wild beasts like their rude neighbours, since neither pastures nor thickets are at hand. They weave into cords sea-weed and marshy reeds, and with these materials frame nets for catching fish; they have no other drink than water collected in troughs from showers of rain. Yet these nations, if conquered by the Romans, would deem the lot of servitude their greatest calamity. Thus does fortune indulge many for their own punishment." B. Nations of the Cimbric Peninsula and the neighbouring countries. We have already mentioned the Cimbri among thenations whose connection with the Celtic race is rendered on the whole probable, by a few words of their language which are yet extant, and by the description left of their manners. The Romans took them for Germans, as Plutarch says, judging from their complexion. An argument which probably had more weight was their connection with German tribes, particularly with the Teutones. It does not appear, however, quite clear that the Cimbri left their northern abode in company with the Teutones. It might be supposed, from the occasion on which the Teutones are first mentioned, that they met the Cimbri accidentally, when both nations were engaged in a similar attempt. The Cimbri were first seen by the *Tacitus, Germ. c. 35. Romans under the Consulate of C. C. Metellus and Cn. Papirius Carbo, B.C. 115, when they invaded Illyricum and defeated the consular armies.* Noreja is mentioned by Strabo as the place of the conflict. Neither of the writers names the Teutones on this occasion. Appian, indeed, probably by mistake, terms the host merely Teutones. He mentions their departure thence into Gaul. In the south of Gaul the Cimbri were again victorious: they passed the Rhone, and, after defeating the Roman generals, traversed the Pyrenees into Spain, and were repulsed by the Celtiberi. After their return to Gaul they resolved upon the invasion of Italy, and here they are found acting in concert with the Teutones. But they marched by separate routes: the Teutones and Ambrones, who appear to have been more closely connected, passed in one body through Liguria, while it fell to the lot of the Cimbri to traverse Noricum by a north-eastern route. The defeat of both armies by Marius immediately ensued. This account leaves it somewhat doubtful whether the migration of these tribes from the north was a simultaneous movement; and even if it were, the circumstance by no means proves their consanguinity. The Tigurini, who joined their expedition into Italy, are known as a Celtic tribe.§ The armies of Attila included bands of Goths, Alani, and other nations, and the Teutones and Ambrones may have been people reduced under the more powerful Cimbri, without any family relationship. The Teutones are supposed to be mentioned by Pytheas :|| Pliny names them among the Ingævones or German tribes, who inhabited the sea-coast. Tacitus appears to term them Nuithones, among the nations beyond the Elbe. Ptolemy places them opposite the Langobards from the Elbe to the Oder, between the Saxones, Suardones, Suevi, and Varini, that is, near the lakes of Mecklenburg and the Havel. The Ambrones, closely connected, as it appears, with the Teutones, vanish from history. Nothing is found to indicate + Strabo, v. p. 214. + Liv. Epit. 67. * Livii Epit. 65. § Eutropius mentions them thus: "Romani Consules in Cimbris et Teutonibus, et Tigurinis et Ambronibus quæ erant Germanorum et Gallorum gentes victi sunt." (Lib. v. 1.) The passage of Pliny in which Pytheas appears to have mentioned the Teutones is probably corrupt, as we shall afterwards observe. |