Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/299

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 275 animated strains. The view of arms and of danger CHAP, heightened the effect of the miUtary song ; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death, were the habitual senti- ments of a German mind *'. Such was the situation, and such were the manners. Causes of the ancient Germans. Their cHmate, their want of ^i^ J^j^^g^j ^jj^ learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honour, progress of . the Oer- of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, mans. impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all con- tributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet we find, that during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barbarians made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their progress was checked by their want of arms and discipline, and their fury was diverted by the intestine divisions of ancient Germany. I. It has been observed with ingenuity, and not Want of without truth, that the command of iron soon gives a ^^^""^ nation the command of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the possession of the one as well as the other. The face of a German army displayed their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer kind of lances, they could seldom use. Their framece (as they called them in their own language) were long spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, and which, as occasion required, they either darted from a distance or pushed in close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, ■» See Tacit. Germ. c. 3; Diodor. Sicul. 1. v.; Strabo, 1. iv. p. 197. The classical reader may remember the rank of Deraodocus in the Phaeacian court, and the ardour infused by Tyrtaeus into the fainting Spartans. Yet there is little probability that the Greeks and the Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be spared, if our antiquarians would condescend to reflect, that similar manners will naturally be produced by similar situations. t2