Germany: Germania

by Tacitus, Herbert W. Benario (Translator)

In the Germania Tacitus provides the most-detailed extant account of the German peoples in Antiquity. This edition is one of two which claim to be the first in English for over sixty years. It contains both text and translation and a brief commentary, with an appendix of illustrations of Domitianic coins. The popular facing page translation format is perfect for the student looking for accessibility in a text which for too long has been the preserve of German scholarship.

Genres: History, Classics

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

born perhaps 55
died perhaps 120

From the death of Augustus in 14 Histories and Annals , greatest works of Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Roman public official, concern the period to Domitian in 96.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus served as a senator of the empire. The major portions examine the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those four emperors, who reigned in the year. They span the empire to the years of the first Jewish war in 70. One enormous four-books long lacuna survives in the texts.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus discusses oratory in dialogue format in Dialogus de oratoribus , Germania in De origine et situ Germanorum , and biographical notes about Gnaeus Julius Agricola, his father-in-law, primarily during his campaign in Britannia (see De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae ).

Reviews

[Teddy West · Rating 5 out of 5]

GERMANIA
By Tacitus

II (2)
Argument supporting the idea that the Germans had always lived in Germany (an area comprising Germany, Denmark, Holland, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Norway and Sweden of today)
Why on Earth, leaving Asia, or Africa, or Italy, would anybody willingly go to Germania, a country so ugly, with severe sky, desolate and sad?
VI (1)
[The Germans] paint their shields in the colours they fancy most.
XIX (1)
Nothing can help a promiscuous [German] woman to find a husband: neither beauty, nor youth, nor wealth
XL (2)
... the Angles ...nothing to note about them, but the fact they adore Nerthus, the Soil-Mother, who interferes in the business of humans and visits her peoples in a chariot.
XLIV (1)
The Gotoni: they have round shields, short swords and they are subjects to kings.
XLVI (1)
Peoples between the Germans and the Sarmatians: the Venedi (Slavs) and the Fenni (Finns).
(2) The Venedi: roam the forests between the Peucini (around the Black Sea) and the Fenni, having robbery as main activity. Nonetheless, they have houses and shields.
(3) The Fenni: living in abject poverty, homeless and eating weeds, but happy, as they do not want anything.

[BenKramp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Tacitus’ information on the Germanic people to be really really interesting because they’re a group that wrote down so little. Especially because of the laws and customs that I’d never heard of before. The real problem is that it never goes deep enough into detail to truly be satisfying. It makes me wish that Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum survived today in its entirety to shed light on their society more.
About halfway through he goes from speaking about the people of Germania generally and goes into detail on specific tribes. I wonder how he knew so much about Germania and if he had other sources he was pulling from and that those books might be rediscovered.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

La Germania, en conjunto, está separada de las Galias, Retias y Panonias por el Rhin y el Danubio, y de los Sármatas y Dacos o por los montes, o el miedo que se tienen los unos a los otros. El océano cerca lo demás, abrazando grandísimas islas y golfos, y algunas naciones y reyes, de que con la guerra se ha tenido noticia poco ha.

(...)

Y viviendo seguros para con los hombres, y seguros para con los dioses, han alcanzado una cosa dificultosísima: el no tener siquiera necesidad del deseo.

[Martin Smrz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old text with only 40% of the book providing interesting view of the German tribes and their customs via the eyes of the Romans. The rest is overview of different tribes and how they differ. Fortunately it is a short book.

[Shaun Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read the new translation from Raw Egg Nationalist. I found this to be an interesting and short read that had me spouting random history trivia for the last week.

[Ignacio Sanvicens Zilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tacitus lowkey cooked here with this book.