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CHAPTER IX.
The passion of the ancient Scandinavians for arms: their valour: the manner in which they made war. A digression concerning the state of population among them.
“ROME had reckoned from its foundation six hundred and forty years, when the arms of the Cimbri were first heard of among us. From that time to the present have elapsed two hundred and six years more. So long have we been in conquering Germany. And in the course of so tedious a war, what various losses have been sustained by each party? No nation hath given us more frequent alarms; neither the Samnites, the Carthaginians, the Spaniards, the Gauls, nor even the Parthians: so much less vigour hath the despotic power of Arsaces had, than the liberty of the Germans. For, except
