Note 40 — Chapter II · Sources

Cf. Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 210: “What he [Tacitus] has in view throughout [the Germania] is to bring the vices of civilized luxury into stronger relief by a contrast with the idealized simplicity of the German tribes ... the social life of the Western German tribes is drawn in implicit or expressed contrast to the elaborate social conventions of what he considers a corrupt and degenerate civilization.” Gudeman (ed. of Agricola and Germania, Boston, 1900, Introd., p. xli), though rejecting the ethical purpose of the Germania, says: “Now to a man like Tacitus who, dissatisfied with the conditions in which his lot was cast, longed to dwell in the ‘good old times,’ these sturdy vigorous Germans naturally came to serve as a welcome background for his pessimistic reflections.”