Agricola And Germania

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Agricola & Germania Among various cultures one would expect to find considerable differences in all aspects of life, but also many similarities. Tacitus, a roman senator and historian, began to take account in detail of the many scattered Germanic tribes throughout Europe and revealed to the world the facts about their society. Tacitus, being of Roman descent, has a slight condescending view of foreign nations and their peoples but tries to accurately report what he observed whilst writing his account. From the very beginning Tacitus negatively comments on the change of settlement from ones current homeland to that of Germania, “- who would leave Asia, Africa, or Italy and seek out Germania, with its unlovely scenery and bitter climate, dreary to inhabit and even to behold, unless it were his home?” (Tacitus 35). This quote shows that Tacitus did not hold Germanic society in the highest regard, but in the spirit of preserving the truth goes through every part of the Germanic people piece by piece. One area of Germanic culture that Tacitus personally finds praiseworthy is the traditional and non-barbaric way that the German tribes handle marriage, “For all that, marriage there is strict, and no feature of their culture deserves higher praise.” (Tacitus 43). It’s obvious that Tacitus approved of how the Germanic tribes handled the concept of marriage and found that it was close in line with his own culture. Marriage, from Tacitus’s point of view, is found to be quite civilized and nowhere near outlandish as some of the other aspects of the Germanic life. Within the Germanic tribes, marriage is found to be very traditional and many of the meanings and duties that come along with it are universal. It seems that Tacitus is surprised to find that the proceedings of marriage and the concept of monogamy are somewhat ironic to the fact they are the typical savages in the eyes of the Romans. Tacitus points out that, “They are almost unique among the barbarians in being satisfied with one wife each…” (Tacitus 43). Perhaps a common misconception to Tacitus, the stereotypical barbarian’s savagery usually spills over into all aspects of Germanic life, but this is found to be very infrequent. The Germanic people are guided by a sense of honor in how marriage is conducted and realize that it is a sacred act. The Germanic people find that distrust in matrimony is very immoral and Tacitus observes that, ‘For a nation so populous, adultery is rare in the extreme, and its punishment is summary and left to the husband.” (Tacitus 44). Tacitus appears to admire the civility the Germanic tribes hold in love and romance. To an extent, Tacitus may even be jealous that, compared to his own people, the Germanic tribes respect the bond between one man and one woman and any attempt to sabotage that union is of the utmost disrespect and would not be tolerated. Today marriage is viewed as a permanent connection between two people and that whatever trials and tribulations lay ahead, that the two people are expected to face and hopefully surpass the obstacles together. The Germanic peoples of Europe carried the almost exact same attitude towards marriage and saw it as two becoming one. According to Tacitus, “The dowry is brought not by wife to husband, but by husband to wife.” (Tacitus 43). While this is quite different from the traditional view of marriage, the dowry is still viewed as bringing together ones belongings and making individual items the whole families. In Germanic culture the dowry did not consist of items that would please the woman or anything to adorn her body and beautify her but rather that of oxen, a horse, a shield with spear and sword. These
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