CHAP. III. Circumstances favourable to the Increase of the SAXON Power on the Continent. ABOVE a century elapsed after Ptolemy, before the to the Elbe. The descendants of the first Scythian population Progress of of Europe had acquired the name of Germans in the the Romans time of Cæsar. That it was a recent appellation, we learn from Tacitus. They were first invited into Gaul, to assist one of its contending factions, and the fertility of the country was so tempting, that their 15,000 auxiliaries gradually swelled into 120,000 conquerors, who established themselves in the 1 Tacitus, Mor. Germ. c. 2. 2 So one of the Keltic princes told Cæsar, lib. i. c. 23. In combating these Germans, the Eduari of Gaul, a Keltic race, had lost almost all their nobility, senate, and cavalry. BOOK II. northern provinces. Cæsar defeated them with great destruction; but he admits that France, from the Rhine to the Seine and Marne, was peopled by German tribes, differing from the Kelts in language, laws, and customs, little civilised, averse from trade, but excelling in bravery.3 The same insuppressible love of distinction and adventure which led Cæsar into Britain, actuated him to an invasion of Germany. He resolved to pass the Rhine, that he might show them that the Romans could both dare and accomplish the attempt. He was offered ships; but he chose to construct a bridge, as better suited to the dignity of the Roman nation." He crossed the Rhine, burnt the towns and villages of one tribe, alarmed others; and after staying eighteen days in the country, returned to France, and made his first incursion into Britain. In a subsequent year, he entered Germany again by a temporary bridge; but the natives retiring to their woods, he thought it dangerous to pursue them, and left a garrison on the Rhine. He used some German auxiliaries against the Gauls; and was materially benefited by a charge of German horse, in his great battle at Pharsalia.8 His vast project of entering and subduing Germany from the Euxine has been already noticed. Yet Cæsar had but shown Germany to the Romans, as he had led them to the knowledge of Britain. It was the succeeding reign of Augustus, which was the actual era of the establishment of the Roman power in Germany, as that of Claudius afterwards introduced it into our island. The reign of Augustus was, therefore, as important in its consequences to the Barbaric as it was to the Roman mind. It spread an intellectual cultivation through the outer circle of his civilised III. empire, superior to that which its varying provinces CHAP. had before enjoyed; and it began the improvement of the German intellect and society, by adding to the principles, customs, and spirit of the Barbaric continent, whatever its uncivilised tribes could successively imbibe, of the literature and arts of the Roman world. The Germans had much which the wild savages of the New World have been found without, and in which even the Romans were deficient, for they had some of the noblest principles of social polity and morals; but they had scarcely any literature, few arts, few luxuries, and no refinement. When these became united to their own nobility of spirit and political principles, kingdoms arose in many parts of Europe, whose peoples have far transcended those of the Grecian states, and of the Roman empire. Under Augustus, Gaul or France was completely reduced to Roman provinces; and most of its natives adopted the Roman appearance, language, and modes of life, and polity. Many colonies of the Romans were planted both in France and Spain, each a little image of Rome; and the natives assisted him. to subdue the Germans. The country between Gaul and the Rhine was also subdued into Roman provinces, and roads were constructed in every part. Eight of these were made in Belgium, diverging from a single town. All these parts were formed into two grand divisions, called Germania Prima, and Germania Secunda. 9 Thus Thoulouse became famous both for its great temple to Pallas, which Strabo mentions, 1. 4., and also Martial, 1. 9. ep. 10., and for its rhetorical schools, where Sidonius remarks that Theodoric was educated. Budæus, p. 39. 41. This city became afterwards celebrated for its floral games of eloquence and poetry. Tacitus praises the liberal studies at Autun, whose schools in Diocletian's time were destroyed by the Bagaudæ, but restored by Constantius. Apollo was worshipped there, ib. p. 25. Narbonne became also distinguished. The inscription which has been found there is a complete instance of the Roman deification and adoration of their emperor. It orders sacrifices to Augustus, and appoints the days of the worship, ib. p. 34. Bourdeaux was repeatedly the theme of the panegyric of Ausonius. Sidonius praises the schools at Auvergne and Lyons. Others are noticed, as Triers and Besançon. BOOK II. Castles and forts were built all along the Rhine, nearly fifty, and chiefly on its left bank, over which several bridges were thrown. A whole nation, the Ubii, was transplanted from beyond the Rhine to live along its left side: a Roman colony was placed among them, which increased afterwards into the city of Cologne. Other towns, as Mentz, Bonn, Worms, and Spires, arose from Roman stations. Eight legions were divided and placed in the most commanding spots to watch and overawe the Germans; and Augustus expressed and cultivated so strong an attachment to this people, that he had a body of Germans for his guard. Thus the reign of Augustus completely reduced all the regions up to the Rhine into the condition of Roman provinces: all within that boundary were debilitated into a state of subjection, of peaceful life, and of beginning civilisation. 10 The natives immediately beyond the Rhine stretching to the ancient country of our ancestors, were the Batavi, in the present Holland; the Frisii, in Friesland; the Bructeri, towards the Ems; the Catti, and the Cherusci, who extended to the Weser; and the Chauci, who inhabited the shores from the Weser to the Elbe; while the Suevi spread from the Main to the Danube. The German nations nearest to the Rhine frequently passed it in the reign of Augustus, to attack the stations of the Romans; and these as willingly crossed the same river to defeat, plunder, and ravage, as far as they could penetrate. 10 It was most probably from the new policy adopted by Augustus, and from its effects, and with a complimentary reference to it, that Virgil penned the celebrated lines, which, conceding to Greece the superiority in arts and eloquence, called thus upon Rome to subdue the world to a state of social tranquillity. Tu regere imperio populos, Romane! memento. En. L. 6. 851. Augustus fulfilled this admonition of Anchises. He fought to pacify, and ruled to civilise. Every Roman before him bad warred for power, fame, and destruction disturbing, not harmonising, the world. Augustus often visited these parts of Germany; but operated more decisively on its southern regions. From the progress of his legions, the southern part, from the Alps to the Danube, became a Roman province, under the name of Noricum; and two other contiguous provinces, called Rhetia and Vindelicia, were also established from the Alps to the Rhine, the Inn, and the Adige. 11 The capital of Vindelicia was the present Augsburg, which Tacitus then called a most splendid colony. The Roman dominion being thus established in the southern district of Germany, the Emperor's son-in-law, Drusus, felt and cherished the same spirit of ambitious but unjust enterprise which had incited Cæsar; projected the conquest of the whole Continent, and actually began it. A passage in Tacitus displays the insatiable thirst of distinction with which the active-minded youths of Rome were urged upon expeditions incompatible with the comforts of the rest of mankind. Drùsus crossed the Rhine from Holland, and ravaged around to the Main, while a fleet navigated along the coast into the Zuyderzee, and the Ems. In the ensuing spring he penetrated to the Weser, and in another year to the Elbe; laying the country waste, and building forts on the Maes, the Rhine, the Weser, and the Elbe; but before he passed that river, he suddenly received, from natural causes, the fate which he was unsparingly dealing to others. Tiberius succeeded to the station, though not to the abilities, of Drusus. He moved several times into Germany. In one year he passed the Weser; and in another, attacking the Chauci and Langobardi, he waived the imperial standards over the Elbe. His fleet triumphantly sailed up the river: he contemplated the collected warriors who lined its northern bank; but hazarded no attack.12 Two of the 11 Tacitus. 12 Dion. Cassius, p. 622-628., and the authors in Mascou's learned history of CHAP. III. |