0* ' 4 o '• %.^* -'^ffi'- ^^/ ••^'•: %/ *' * A. <* .^' ^*\ t^o"^ / ..^' .0' c '^i. ^ V-0^ 'o^ *'.. s* A .-J^^ .. .- G^ ^o ^?^,^ A '^O^ <" o "-^^^^'^■^%o^ V*^\/ %'^^"'y .. r- A ^^0^ ^^-V^, V ^--ii<;^%* ^-^ <' ^J> * O N O ' -^^ .^^^ /^. ^«i^: ^'^^ °^^«^^ .^^ .^^ c^ 0^ '^ .,-=;s.^.- . V -^^^^ -yi^^.' .V ^. -.^ "•' .^' 15 ^ s • • > ^J>. ^.^ ^4l^ ^./ ^^^ %.^ - :i^\y^ ^^0^ V-O^ ' -o^-^-?'o^ \;^B\/ -o,/^'-*/ -Jv-' .' 0" o / FffiiflEPlHiDGM DD [f4®HD(DDra PIKEOJSSEW^iET^TOS 5©. HI-TW-SrO-KK.KiOlEEH & HaOTKERS. HISTOEY OF GERMANY, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. FOUNDED ON DR. DAVID MULLER'S "HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE." By CHARLTON T. LEWIS. '^ 4 % NEW YORK: HARPEE & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1874. i^^-ozsoTI Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 187-t, by Harper & Brothers, In tlie Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, PREFACE. De. David Mullek's "History of the German People" is the most useful and popular of the books from which the young people of Germany learn the story of their fatherland. Its author is scrupulously accurate in his as- sertions, and skillful in selecting and grouping the facts most worthy of remembrance ; and he has closely con- densed his narrative, without destroying its vivacity and interest. His work has therefore been selected as the basis of a History of Germany for American students. In pre- paring this, I have made a careful examination of other standard books which treat of the same subject, or of parts of it — many of them the authorities used by Dr. Miiller — and have thus been able 'to correct a few errors of fact, and to make a large number of additions, designed to render more intelligible the sequence of events, or to com- plete a just view of popular movements or of eminent men. Dr. Miiller's history of his Third Period, including the two centuries preceding the Peformation, is but a meagre sketch of national events, supplemented with fuller accounts of the leading princely houses and of their terri- tol'ies, in the expectation that each student will read that which relates to his own district or ruling family, and dis- regard the rest. For the American reader, who is inter- ested in German history only as it is a part of universal history, these notices recall no local or patriotic associa- vi PKEFACE. tions, but interrupt the narrative and confuse the memory. I have, therefore, from other sources — mainly the works of Ranke, Wirth, and Menzel — much enlarged the sketch of the history of the Empire during this period, incor- porating in it whatever is of national interest in the local notices, and excluding all that could find no place in the general narrative. I have also added, in a final chapter, a brief outline of the principal events in the new Empire since the Peace of Frankfort, the date at which the latest edition of Dr. Miiller's work ends. Thus my large indebt- edness to his admirable compendium for most of the ma- terials of this work demands an ample acknowledgment; but no responsibility for the assertions and views here pre- sented can be thrown upon him. Chaelton T. Lewis. New Yobk, June 2, 1874. CONTENTS. BOOK I. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE EMPIRE OF CHARLE- Chap. MAGNE. A.D. 800. Page I. FromtheEarliestAgestotheGieatMigrationofNations,A.D.375 1 II. The Great Migrations and the Fall of the "Western Empire, A.D. 375-476 33 III. The Franks, the Merovingians, and the Family of Pepin, A.D. 481-768 56 IV. Charlemagne, A.D. 768-814 81 BOOK 11. FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO THE GREAT INTERREGNUM. A.D. 814-1254. V. The Carlovingian Emperors, A. D. 814-918 99 VL The Saxon Emperors, A.D. 919-1024 121 VII. Emperors of the House of Franconia, A.D. 1024-1125 151 VIII. The House of Hohenstaufen, A.D. 1138-1254 179 IX. German Civilization under the Hohenstaufen Emperors 212 BOOK III. FROM THE GREAT INTERREGNUM TO THE REFORMATION. A.D. 1254-1517. X. To the Death of Lewis the Bavarian, A.D. 1 347 235 XI. From the Accession of Charles IV. to the Death of Sigismund, A.D. 1347-1437 262 XII. From the Accession of Albert II. to the Reformation, A.D. 1438-1517 286 XIII. German Civilization in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ; the Cities and their Leagues 317 XIV. German Civilization — Continued : Life of the People, Plague and Persecution, Science and Art 333 BOOK IV. THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY ; FROM LUTHER TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. A.D. 1517-1648. XV. Beginning and Early Progress of the Reformation ; Luther 354 XVI. Formation of the Protestant Churches, and the Religious Wars of Charles V 378 viii CONTENTS. Chap. . Page XVII. From the Religious Peace of Augsburg to tlie Edict of Resti- tution, A.D. 1555-1G29 399 XVIII. End of the Thirty- Years' War ; the Peace of Westphalia, A.D. 1629-164:8 421 XIX. German Civilization from Luther to the Peace of Westphalia 438 BOOK V. FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE PEACE OF PARIS. A.D. 1648-1810. XX. Decline of the Hapsburg IMonarchy 456 XXI. Rise and Rapid Growth of Prussia 477 XXII. Frederick the Great, and his Reign until the Seven- Years'. War 495 XXIII. The Seven-Years' War, A.D. 1 756-1763 51 1 XXIV. From the Peace of Hubertsburg to the French Revolution, A.D. 1 763-1791 ' 526 XXV. From the French Revolution to the Peace of Luneville, A.D. 1792-1 801 .548 XXVI. From the Peace of Luneville to the Peace of Tilsit, A.D. 1802-1807 , 564 XXVII. Napoleon's Supremacy in Germany, A.D. 1 807-1810 583 XXVIII. The Last Years of French Supremacy ; Napoleon in Russia 601 XXIX. The New Birth of German Patriotism ; the War of Freedom begins, A.D. 1813 618 XXX. The Emancipation of Germany; Napoleon Driven beyond the Rhine ' 631 XXXI. The Overthrow of Napoleon ; Congress of Vienna 647 BOOK VI. FROM THE PEACE OF PARIS TO THE PRESENT TIME. A.D. 1815-1874. XXXII. The Period of the German Confederation, A.D. 1815-1865.. 666 XXXIII. The War of 1866, and the North German Confederation, A. D. 1 866-1 871 689 XXXIV. The War of 1 870 to the Surrender of Sedan 712 XXXV. The War with France — Continued ; Capitulation of Paris ; Peace of Frankfort -726 XXXV;^he New German Empti^A^D. 1871-1874 748 INDEX 775 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Frederick the Great Frontispiece. ^<3 EMPERORS OP GERMANY. A.D. Page 768.— Charlemagne 81 8 1 i, — Lewis the Pious 99 876. — Lewis the German 10-t 876.— Charles the Fat 108 ■ 887.— Arnulf of Carinthia 110 900.— Lewis the Child 115 91-1. — Conrad I., of Franco- nia 117 91-9.— Henry 1 121 936.— Otto the Great 129 973.— Otto 11 139 983.— Otto III U2 1002.— Henry II 146 1024.- Conrad II l.-,0 1039.— Henry III 156 1056.— Henry IV 162 1106.— Henry V.. 174 1125. — Lothaire the Saxon 179 1138. — Conrad III 184 1152. — Frederick I., Barbarossa 187 1190.— Henry VI 198 1 197.— Philip of Suabia 201 1 197.— Otto IV. 202 1215.— Frederick II 204 1273.— Rudolph of Hapsburg. . . 240 ] 292.— Adolphus of Nassau 244 1298.— Albert 1 246 A.D. Page 1308.— Henry VII 250 1314. — Lewis the Bavarian 253 1314.— Frederick the Fair 255 1347.— Charles IV 262 T349. — Giinther of Schwarzburg 264 1378.— Wenceslaus 269 1400.— Eupert 274 1410.— Sigismund 277 1437.— Albert II 286 1440.— Frederick III 291 1493.— Maximilian 1 300 1520.— Charles V 363 1556.— Ferdinand 1 395 1564.— Maximilian II 403 1576.— Rudolph II 405 1612.— Matthias 409 1619.— Ferdinand II 412 1 637.— Ferdinand III 432 1657.— Leopold I 458 1705.— Joseph 1 469 171 1.— Charles VI 471 1742.— Charles VII 502 1745.— Francis 1 505 1765. — Joseph II 535 1790.— Leopold II 539 1792.— Francis II 552 1871.— William 1 752 ^^^^^^o^dA^. 5fe^^^ > ■%..■ / ir^€fi^if HISTORY OF GERMANY. BOOK I. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE EMPIRE OF CHAR- LEMAGNE, A.D. 800. CHAPTER I. FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE GREAT MIGRATION OF NA- TIONS, A.D. 375. § 1 . Character and Unity of German History. § 2. The Ancestors of the Germans in Asia. § 3. The Arian Migration. § 4. The German Race enter Europe. § 5. The Cimbri and Teutons. § 6. Their Battles with Marius. § 7. They enter Gaul. § 8. Cajsar and Ariovistus. § 9. Csesar crosses the Rhine. § 10. Caesar's Account of the Germans. § 11. Their Wars with Rome. § 1 2. Drusus and Tiberius. § 1 3. Arminius. § 14. Ger- manicus. § 15. Fall of Arminius and Maioboduus. § 16. The Germans desci-ibed by Tacitus. § 17. Their Political Institutions. § 18. Personal Allegiance. § 19. Their Religion. § 20. Compared with that of the Northmen. § 21. Roman Influence among the Germans. § 22. Cities and Trade. § 23. Germans in the Imperial Armies. § 24. The First Ger- man Kingdoms. § 25. The Goths. § 20. The Allemanni, Thuringii, Bur- gundii, Saxons, and Franks. § 27. Weakness of the Empire; Strength of the Germans. § I. The name Germany is familiar to us as that of a large tract of country in Central Europe. But history properly deals with peoples, not with lands, and, in tracing the growth, character, and achievements of a race, must follow them wherever they go. The Germans first became known to us as the most restless, migratory, and aggressive of men ; and, before they attained a permanent social organization, they had already wielded a potent influence and sown the seeds of lini- illess good or evil to come in every part of Western Europe, B 2 HISTORY OF GERMAxNY. Book I. from Gibraltar and the British Channel to Constantinople and the Baltic Sea. Nor would an account of the race at the present day be complete if confined even to the vast em- pire they have just founded, hailing it as the fulfillment of the passionate desire of their long disintegrated race for unity; since at least one fourth of them, retaining all their national characteristics, and even their ancient language, are building up new Germanies beyond its borders. Nearly a million of Germans are among the most enterprising subjects of the Czar of Russia ; at least four millions of people of their blood are already planted in America, and are weekly receiving additions ; and more than nine millions of them obey the dynasty whose supremacy is the only bond of union among the discordant races of Austria and Hungary. In fact, the Germans, as a whole, have never yet attained the or- ganic unity which is commonly implied by the word nation, but they have been almost always distracted between rival creeds and among many rival governments. But there is one important sense in which German history has a unity of its own, such as belongs to the history of no other highly civilized race or nation. Here and nowhere else do we find a vast people, whose annals lie before us from the times of their heathen barbarism to their attainment of a foremost place among enlightened nations, without such an intermixt- ure of foreign blood at any time as to affect the identity of the race, or to force upon it a revolution in language, man- ners and customs, or religion. Though the most obstinately disintegrated of all races in their political institutions, yet, in the historical development of their social and intellectual life, the- Germans have been the most independent and the most vmiformly progressive of all. This fact gives to their history a unity of a higher kind than that which depends on the con- tinuous supremacy of one dynasty, or even on the continuous development of one series of political institutions. Surely no study can be more instructive than that of the growth of a great nation, whose own internal strength has impelled it forward and sustained it for two thousand years against im- measurable hinderances, and often along the verge of utter ruin, until it has achieved the foremost place among the nations of Europe in military power and political influence, as well Chap. I. ORIGIN OF THE GERMAN RACE. 3 as in science, art, literature, and general intelligence. Such is the growth which this work is an endeavor to sketch. § 2. All speculations upon the origin of the German tribes, their relations to other branches of the Arian race, and the routes by which they reached Europe, belong to the sciences of ethnology and antiquities rather than to history. Scholars are agreed that the languages of the Celtic, German, and Sclavonic tribes, with the ancient tongues of Persia, India, Greece, and Italy, have enough in common to prove that they are but modifications or branches of one original language, spoken ages ago by the common ancestors of these people. Further, the grains cultivated by all these nations, and the domesticated animals kept by them all, are known to have had their native homes in Asia. On these grounds, together with what tradition tells us of the course of rhigrations in early days, it seems certain that the fathers of the Arian races once lived in the highlands of Central Asia. There are philo- logical reasons for believing that, before their dispersion, they were shepherds and herdsmen, possessed of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, and of our common barn-yard fowls ; fond of the chase, and accustomed to kill for food many kinds of game ; with little knowledge even of the rudiments of agri- culture, gathering a few sorts of grain which grew wild around them. Above all, they had the family, formed of the man with one wife and their children. Their religious notions were as simple as their manners. The vast forces and the grand recurring phenomena of nature: the sky, the wind, storm, and lightning ; the sea, the night, the dawn — all these were referred directly to the will and power of superior be- ings, and honored as divine. § 3. But history first finds tlie Arian race in later ages, when its branches had not only wandered far away from one another and from their first home, but had formed each a dis- tinct national or race character for itself, and attained very different degrees of civilization. It was near the Christian era when the Germans began to be known to the Romans, then the rulers of the civilized world. Herodotus speaks of a Persian tribe of " Gerraanii " in his time, but does not de- scribe them, and there is no evidence to connect them with the European Germans of later centuries. Long befoi'e the 4 HISTORY OF GERMANY. Book I. date of authentic tradition, Avian tribes occupied the two peninsulas of Southern Europe, and there they achieved all that Greek and Roman history reports to us. Much later the Celts moved westward ; and after the fifth century before Christ were active as nomadic plunderers, invading Italy and the rich provinces on the Danube. But they had no political organization, and constantly quarreled among themselves. In the second century before Christ they were crushed by the Romans and the Germans. Only remnants of the race now cling to the rocks of the Atlantic coast, in Brittany, Wales, and Ireland. § 4. The Germans were doubtless the last of the Arian races to reach Western Europe. They probably came across the vast region which is now Russia, and took possession first of Scandinavia' and of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea; then entered Germany from the northeast, and gradually drove before them the Celts, who throughout the great his- toric period of Greece had been supreme in Central Europe. The first recorded notice of any of the German tribes is that of the Teutons and Guthons on the Baltic coast, where they were visited by Pytheas of Massilia, in the time of Alexander the Great. It is curious that the ancient historians did not believe the reports of Pytheas. Polybius thinks it impossible that he coxald ever have made the voyages he describes, and Strabo expressly and often calls him a liar. But time has shown that many of his accounts are too accurate not to have been founded on personal observation. Thus it is in the lat- ter part of the fourth century before Christ that we first hear of Germans in Europe. But within a few generations after- ward they had not only occupied the whole of Germany, but had entirely forgotten their ancient migrations. The Ger- mans, when the Romans became acquainted with them, re- garded themselves as children of heroes who had been born of the gods upon the soil they tilled. There were at that time at least forty independent tribes of them, with no political bond of union among them. But they had a well-marked national physiognomy ; their language, their religion, and their customs in administering justice were the same; and they preserved a vague tradition of their common descent from one general father, Tuisco, whose tliree grandsons, sons of " Mannus," had Chap. I. THE GERMANS INVADE EUROPE. 6 given their names to the three great divisions of the race, the Istaevones, the Ingaevones, and the Hermiones. These tliree principal stems correspond roughly to the Franks, to the Sax- ons and Lombards, and to the Allemanni and Swabians of later times ; but seem not to include the Thuringians, Bava- rians, Burgundians, and some smaller tribes. The national name " German," given to the whole race by Csesar and Tac- itus, means " shouters in battle," and is parallel to Homer's favorite epithet of Menelaus, "good at the war-cry." The name "Deutsche," by which the Germans, since the ninth century, have called themselves and their language, is prob- ably derived from that of their divine ancestor, Tuisco. § 5. After the end of the Punic Wars, the Romans were masters of the countries upon the Mediterranean Sea; that is, of the then known world. As they set out from the Alps, the wall that shut in Italy, and went westward and northward to subdue the Celts, they unexpectedly fell in with the Ger- mans, who were engaged in the same work. The first German tribe they met was the Cimbri (i. e., warriors, cliampions, or, as the Romans interpreted it, robbers). It is uncertain whence they came; but at that time (b.c. 113) they were in motion, pressing hard upon the Scordisci, a Celtic tribe dwelling in Noricum, east of the Alps, and were striving to subdue or to break through them. This was the first time the Romans saw that wonderful phenomenon, a migrating nation — a whole vast people, who have taken up their goods, and abandoned their country, to go out into the wide world in search of bet- ter homes. The Celts now called for help on Papirius Carbo, the Roman consul, who thought this new enemy too strong to fight with any arms but treachery. lie pretended friendship for the Cimbri, and then suddenly fell upon them at night. But they rallied with full vigor and self-possession, and utter- ly defeated him at Noreja (now Klagenfurth, in Carinthia). They then advanced Avestward along the Alps, entered Gaul, defeated four more consular armies (b.c. 109-105), laid waste the whole country from the Rhone to the Pyrenees, and final- ly invaded Spain, where, however, they were successfully resisted. The " Cimbrian panic " went before them, and Rome shook with terror at their name, as of old at that of Brennus or Hannibal. For all that was told of them was strange and 6 HISTORY OF GERMANY. Book 1. fearful. Their tense and active frames, of giant size, witli their fair locks — boys with the hair of old men, the Italians said — with bold blue eyes, and unequaled strength, were a new wonder of the world. They wore brazen mail and gleam- ing white shields, and helmets shaped like the heads of un- known beasts of prey, with horribly distended jaws. For a missile, they carried a double-pointed spear; but in a hand- to-hand fight they used long, heavy swords,* Even the wom- en seemed to be warriors ; at least they followed the men into the field with shouts of encouragement. Some of them, in white linen, officiated as priestesses, cutting the throats of prisoners of war over a brass vessel, and finding portents in the flowing blood. Tui'ning back again from the Pyrenees toward the north, these Cimbri joined the Teutons, another German tribe, then spreading westward across the lower part of the Rhine. The united tiibes now demanded from the Romans land on which to settle, but the Romans really had none to give. Unable to stay longer in Gaul, which they had laid waste, the tribes, now too numerous to move together, parted again, but undertook by a concerted plan to make a . simultaneous attack on Italy. The Teutons preferred to fol- low the i-oad along the coast, entering Italy south of the Mar- itime Alps, while the Cimbri chose the way by the passes of the Eastern Alps. It was still land that they wanted — land in which to settle, and to establish permanent homes. They did not seek booty; they avoided the most thickly settled and the richest parts of Italy ; they even destroyed the horses and armor of the men they slew in battle. Their aim was to find a country in which they and their herds and flocks could live in plenty; but without a thought of "glory" or of em- pire, § 6. Cains Marius, the son of the day-laborer of Arpinum, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was the only fit man Rome could find to meet such a danger. He was now consul for the fourth time, and had taken up his position near Aries, in the prov- ince of Gaul, to guard the main entrance into Italy. By years of exercise and service, he had accustomed his troops to the old Roman discipline, and had steeled them against panic before the barbarians. Now that the Teutons undertook * Plutarch's Life of Marias. Chap. I. WARS WITH ROME. 7 to make their way to Rome, passing by his well-guarded camp, he pursued them, and fell on them with such vigor, at the warm springs called Aquse Sextiie (now Aix, near Mar- seilles), that their whole host of two hundred thousand was de- stroyed (December, b.c. 102). He then, in the fifth year of his consulship, betook himself to Italy. The Cimbri meanwhile made an irruption by the valley of the Etsch, defeated the consul Marcellus, and had already spent a year in the plains north of the Po before Marius reached them, with an increased Roman army. In a bloody battle at Vercellae he destroyed their forces, which were drawn up against him in a square, with a side of three miles and a half (July 30, b.c. 101). In their last desperate struggles, the German women showed the same invincible spirit and passion for liberty as the men. At Aquae Sextise they offered to surrender to the Romans, if per- mitted to become the slaves of the vestal virgins ; but when this was refused, they resisted to the last, and then, in de- spair, th^y slew their children and themselves. The Romans long remembered their terrible foe, and the countrymen of Marius were not far wrong in hailing him, after these victo- ries, as " the third founder of Rome." § 7. During these twelve years of war the Romans esti- mated that half a million of the Germans had been destroyed by them ; yet, in the great and general movement of the German race to the westward, the Cimbri and the Teutons were but the bold pioneers whom new hordes weit- soon to follow. More than forty years, indeed, were now spent by the Roman Republic in party contentions and civil wars be- fore its warriors again met the Germans on the soil of Gaul, the land they both claimed. Meanwhile the Germans pressed steadily forward toward the Rhine, and across it. They en- croached on the Ilelvetii, a Celtic tribe, in the Alpine terri- tory, and the Lower Rhine was no longer a barrier to them. South of it, the fruitful Belgian races, formed by a mixture of Germans and Celts, occupied the country as far as the Seine and the Marne. These Avandering hordes of Germans, known as Suevi (wanderers), forced their way over the Rhine farther to the south, and entered Gaul ; not suddenly, indeed, but in successive bodies, until their number increased there from 15,000 (b.c. 59) to 120,000 men (b.c. 57). At their head 8 HISTORY OF GERMANY. Book I. was Ariovistus, a warrior king, who, once invited into the rich, attractive land by factions arnong its own inhabitants, now aimed at its complete conquest. § 8. This was the situation at the time (b.c. 58) whenCaius Julius Cffisar went to Gaul to seek conquest, fame, and the fut- ure mastery of the whole empire of Rome. The^dui, the peo- ple next threatened by the Germans, invoked his protection against Ariovistus. With true Roman pride, Caesar, resolved that the Germans should not gradually accustom themselves to cross the Rhine, and perhaps renew the danger which Italy had incurred from the Cimbri, summoned the German com- mander to appear before him as his judge. With pride equal to Caesar's, Ariovistus replied that " when he needed Caesar he would go to Caesar ; but meanwhile Caesar might come to him : and what business had Caesar or Rome in his part of Gaul which he had conquered in war." No such lan- guage had been addressed to a Roman consul for centuries. The only appeal was to arms. But, like Marius, Caesar had need of all his cunning and presence of mind to induce his troops to light these terrible Germans, whose very bearing and look, the Gauls insisted, were insupportable in battle. It was rather by a surprise than by victory in the open field that Caesar then overcame Ariovistus on the banks of the Little Doller, in Upper Alsace, and drove the Suevi down the 111 and across the Rhine. But the Triboci, the Nemetes, and the Vangiovi, left behind by the Suevi, accepted Ca3sar's moderate terms; and he assigned them a home on the left bank of the Rhine, between that river and the Vosges Mount- ains, that they might be a barrier of Rome against their coun- trymen. § 9. During the next eight years (b.c. 58-50) the Gauls and Belgians were subdued, and thus all the other German tribes which had crossed the Lower Rhine became subject to Rome ; as did the Ubii, who set up their principal place of worship (ara Ubiorum) where Cologne now stands. The Nervii were overcome in a hard-fought battle, one of Caesar's most ftxmous achievements. The Tenchteri and Usipetes, who had, in part, been driven across the Rhine by the Suevi, were destroyed by Caesar with Roman faithlessness. A mere remnant of them survived, and afterward occupied the right bank of the Chap. I. C^SAR DESCRIBES THE GERMANS. 9 Rhine from the Lahn to the Yssel. These victories encour- aged Caesar twice to bridge the Rhine (b.c. 55 and 58), and he was thus the first Roman captain to cross that lordly river. But he ventured no farther into the wooded and to him in- hospitable region beyond. Gaul had submitted ; but for a long time the Rhine remained the acknowledged boundary between the Roman possessions and the free Germans. § 10. Caesar's own writings give the earliest trustworthy account of the land and its inhabitants. He was the first to distinguish the Germans from the Celts. He praises their warlike strength, their endurance, their hospitality, and their pure morals. Of the interior of their land, he describes the great " Hercynian forest," stretching indefinitely eastward from the Upper Rhine toward Bohemia; and the Bacenis forest, including the Hartz Mountains and the territory be- tween them and the Rivers Rhine and Main. He tells of wonderful and fabulous wild beasts which lived in this Avil- derness. But his descriptions of the government and social life of the people apply chiefly to the Suevi, with whom his intercourse was most direct. These tribes were still unsettled, and individual ownership of the soil was unknown to them ; the whole of the land they occupied being the property of the community. It was cultivated a part at a time, the rest lying fallow. Half of the men took their turn at the work, while the rest went forth for war and conquest. They thought it both honorable and safe to lay waste on all sides a broad tract of the country bordering on them. But besides such tribes as these, there were doubtless already others in the north and northwest of Germany which lived a settled and widely diflferent life ; yet the mass of the German tribes in Caesar's time were probably in a transition state, between the wild and wanton career of the migrating Teutons and Cimbri, and the fixed homes and settled customs attained by their posterity. § 11. The Romans soon came into contact with the inhab- itants of the interior of Germany. Julius Caesar fell by the assassin's dagger, and once more civil war divided the Ro- man world. Finally Octavius Caesar, now called Augustus, reaped the harvest sown by his uncle, obtained a sovereignty without a rival, and founded the empire. This huge mon- 10 HlfeTOKY OF GERMANY. Book L archy began to set its provinces in order, and to secure its boundaries. The general result of the wars with the Ger- mans was that Rome had control of all the territories west of the Rhine, or south of the Danube. The Germans had settled along the left bank of the Rhine from Upper Alsace to the sea, and this strip .of land, pompously called Roman Germany, was incorporated into the province of Gaul. It was divided by the Moselle into Upper and Lower Germany. The country between the mouths of the Rhine, called the Island of the Batavians, was also subject to the Empire. South of the Danube were the three provinces Rhsetia (including Vin- delicia), Noricum, and Pannonia, inhabited by Celtic tribes, which had been subdued by Drusus and Tiberius, step-sons of Augustus. But nearly all the vast territory east of the Rhine and north of the Danube was free, and this was known as " Germania Magna," or " Barbara." The Romans fortified both rivers to protect their provinces ; and these military works were the origin of Bingen, Bonn and Neuss on the Rhine, and of Regensburg (Ratisbon) on the Danube. Only the Tenchteri and Usipetes, on the east bank of the Rhine, and the Ubii, who occupied both banks, obeyed the Romans. The chief place of the Ubii was made a Roman colony, and received the name " Colonia Claudia Agrippina," in honor of Agrippina, Nero's mother. It became the capital of Lower Germany, and is still called Cologne. All the Germans east of these were free. The Frisii held the sea-coast from the Rhine to the Eras, and the Chauci (" strong and upright men, of giant stature," the Romans call them) from the Ems east- ward. The Bructeri and the Marsi occupied the lowlands on the Lippe, and thence to the sources of the Ems. South of them came the Sigambri, a tribe kindred to the Marsi, in the region where the Rivers Ruhr, Sieg, and Eder take their rise, and extending to the Rhine. East of these, in the coun- try now known as Hesse, were the obstinate and warlike Chatti — perhaps the very Suevi of Ariovistus, now become a settled people. The Angrivarii dwelt in the flat country between the Weser and the Aller; and southeast of them, reaching from the Weser to the east side of the Hartz Mount- ains, were the Cherusci, then the mightiest tribe of all. Be- yond these, in the Thuringian forest and onward to the Chap. I. CAMPAIGNS OF DRUSUS. 11 Danube, dwelt the Hermunduri, who soon entered into friend- ly relations with the neighboring Romans. All these German tribes had settled abodes, and are clear- ly distinguished from the wandering tribes, or Suevi, to the south and east, already described by Coesar. Among them the Langobardi, west of the Lower Elbe, were famed for their bravery ; and the Seranones, on the Rivers Havel and Spree, for their strength and stature. In what is now Mecklenburg, on the coast, were the Vinili; beyond the Oder the Rugii; and farther on, about the mouths of the Vistula, the Goth- ones. The Burgundii possessed the region southward, upon the Warthe and the Netz. Beyond these the Marcomanni (i. e., " march-men," or " border-warriors") were the most im- portant of the Suevian races toward the Danube. Under their general, Maroboduus, they invaded and conquered the land of the Celtic Boii, now Bohemia ; and there Maroboduus established his government over them, in obvious imitation of the Roman emperors. This kingdom of Maroboduus was extended from the Danube to the Vistula and the Elbe, and is memorable as the first attempt ever made to found a large state among the German tribes. A large number of lesser tribes (Silingi and others) occupied the region of the Upper Oder and Vistula, and on to the borders of the Sclavic Sar- matians ; while the Quadi dwelt in what is now Moravia, and in the adjoining parts of Hungary. § 12. The names and abodes of these German tribes grad- ually became known to the Romans after Csfisar's time. When the Empire under Augustus acquired strength and consistency, the Romans entered upon a war of subjugation, in which the divisions and strifes of the Germans promised them an easy success. Drusus, the step-son of Augustus, as- sumed the chief command on the Rhine (b.c. 12-9). He con- nected that river with the Zuyder Zee by a canal ; formed an alliance Avith the Batavi and Frisii, and attacked the Bruc- teri both by land and water — his fleet sailing up the Ems, while his army marched up the bank of the Lippe (b.c. 12). Yet his campaign accomplished little. The next year he es- tablished a fortified camp at Aliso, near the Lippe, and march- ed across the Weser against the Cherusci (b.c. 11). There he secured a fixed base for future operations (b.c. 10) by placing 12 HISTORY OF GERMANY, Book I. fortresses along the Rhine, from Mayence (Mogontiacum) to Xanten (Castra Vetera), and setting out from the Main (b.c. 9), he forced his way, first to Werra, then to the eastward of the Hartz Mountains, and even to the Elbe. This was the end of his march ; as the story goes, a female giant, the guardian genius of the land, appeared to him, with a warning against advancing farther, and terrified him by predicting his speedy death. On the retreat he died, aged but thirty years. His brother, the cunning Tiberius, succeeded to his command. This prince knew how to make use of the civil dissensions among the Germans, and to ply them with all the charms of Roman power and luxury, so that he soon made himself master of all the Germans between the Rhine and the Elbe. Roman markets and Roman settlers soon made their appearance in German territory, and Roman merchants traversed it in all directions. German princes entered the Roman service, and there learned the arts of war and of statesmanship. By an infamous breach of faith, Tiberius succeeded in transplanting 40,000 Sigambri from the interior of Germany to the mouths of the Rhine ; then, being ordered into Germany by the em- peror, he marched from Italy against Maroboduus. This king had collected a force of 70,000 foot and 4000 horse, had subdued the Suevian tribes up to the borders of the Semnones and the Langobards, and was growing dangerous to the Ro- man Empire, to which he had hitherto professed subjection. Tiberius was on the march to attack him, when he was called away by an insurrection of the tribes on the Lower Danube. § 13. Meanwhile Quintilius Varus, who had now succeeded to the command formerly held by Tiberius, treated North Germany as a subjugated province. He substituted the Ro- man system of law for that of the country, and set in opera- tion all the arts of oppression which he had formerly practiced among the servile Syrians. By this conduct, the popular indignation and the defiant spirit of liberty were slowly but terribly aroused, and the people found an avenger in Armin- ius (or Hermann), the son of Segiraer, a young prince of the Cherusci. He was but twenty-five years of age, and had a commanding presence, a bold hand, and a ready mind. In the service of Rome he had learned Roman warfare and cun- ning. He now prepared for an insurrection of the North- Chap. I. THE LEGIONS OF VARUS DESTROYED. 13 German tribes — the Bructeri, Marsi, Angrivarii, and Chatti, but especially of his own tribe, the Cherusci. Maroboduus was invited to join them, but kept out of the plot, though he had recently been threatened by the Romans. Varus mean- while lay securely in his camp on the Weser, disregarding the warning of Segestes, a prince of the Cherusci, who, out of personal hatred to Arminius, betrayed the scheme. When the conspiracy was complete, a small and remote tribe, as had been agreed, first raised the standard of revolt. Varus marched to put it down, even permitting Arminius, with Ger- man auxiliaries, to go with him. But in the pathless Teuto- burg forest, near where Detmold now is, and in the midst of a frightful storm, the entire mass of the confederates sud-