sufficient to account for the character of his descriptions. As a youth he had lived in all likelihood on the German border, and in his maturer years he would be able to add to his early impressions information gathered from Roman soldiers who had served in Germany, from members of the Emperor's German body-guard, from travellers and merchants, from the elder Pliny, with whom he was personally acquainted, and from the numerous Germans who were at that time living in Rome. The 'Germania' bears the marks of a youthful composition. It is in passages highly rhetorical, and even poetic in some of its turns of expression. It is occasionally harsh and obscure, particularly in its description of localities, which is usually vague and illdefined. The satire which is so characteristic of Tacitus is continually meeting us in this work. German life and manners are so described that a Roman reader must have felt that the degeneracy of his countrymen was being intentionally put to shame. The text is in a more satisfactory state than that of the Agricola, and the recensions of Haupt and Kritz, considerably more recent than that of Orelli, have probably done for it as much as a careful examination of the MSS. and a sound estimate of their comparative value can accomplish. Table of Passages in which the Text of this Edition of the 'Germania' differs from that of Orelli. XIII. haec dignitas, hae vires, haec dignitas, hae vires; XX. tamquam [ii] et animum tamquam et animum &c. XXII. Ergo detecta et nuda Ergo detecta et nuda omnium omnium mens postera mens; postera die retrac die retractatur, et tatur, et salva, &c. |