Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/85

THE BARBARIAN WORLD 49 regarded as customary, sacred, eternal, and unchangeable. The object of government, they thought, was not to make new laws, but to maintain the good old customs. Neither was there any state taxation, because there was no coinage and few officials, and all government and warfare were attended to personally by the freemen without receiving pay. Tacitus says, however, that it was customary to make voluntary gifts of honor to the chiefs. Caesar states that the tribe chose a single leader only when about to engage in war; and some of the Teutonic peoples appear not to have had kings until they invaded the Roman Empire. Tacitus affirms that their kings are chosen for their ancestry; their gen- erals, for their valor; that the power of the former is limited, - and that the latter lead more by example than command, only the priests venturing to inflict such penalties as death, flogging, or imprisonment. The first part of this statement probably refers to the custom of electing the king from among the members of some one noble family. The king was liable to be deposed by the assembly or violently slain by some offended warrior or ambitious rival. Besides the tribal army, the Germans had a smaller and more persona! military organization, commonly known by its Latin name, cornitatus, indicating a band of The comrades (comites). Caesar tells us that fre- comttatus quently in an assembly a chief would propose a raid upon some neighboring tribe and ask for volunteers to join therein. It was easy to get them, because, as Tacitus says, "If their native state sinks into the lethargy of long peace and quiet, many of the noble youths voluntarily seek those tribes that are still carrying on war." Such young men would join the following of some distinguished chief and take an oath "to defend and protect him and give him all the glory of their brave deeds." To survive him in battle was a lasting infamy. He in return had to support them with the proceeds of plunder and war. In Beowulf the com- panions live in their lord's hall and his wife mends their clothes. The size and fighting ability of his cornitatus