Tacitus, Germania. Chapter 39.
39. The Semnones give themselves out to be the most ancient and renowned branch of the Suevi. Their antiquity is strongly attested by their religion. At a stated period, all the tribes of the samne race assemble by their representatives in a grove consecrated by the auguries of their forefathers, and by immerial associations of terror. Here, having puclicly slaughtered a human victim, they celebrate the horrible beginning of their barbarous rite. Reverence also in other ways is paid to the grove. No one enters it except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledging the might of the local divinity. If he chance to fall, it is not lawful fo rhim to b lifted up, or to rise to his feet; he must crawl out along the ground. All this superstition implies the belief that from thsi spot the nation took its origin, that here dwells the supreme and all-ruling deity, to whom all else is subject and obedient. The fortunate lot of the Semnones strengthens this belief; a hundred cantons are in their occupation, and the vastness of their community makes them regard themselves as the head of the Suevic race.
39. The Semnones give themselves out to be the most ancient and renowned branch of the Suevi. Their antiquity is strongly attested by their religion. At a stated period, all the tribes of the samne race assemble by their representatives in a grove consecrated by the auguries of their forefathers, and by immerial associations of terror. Here, having puclicly slaughtered a human victim, they celebrate the horrible beginning of their barbarous rite. Reverence also in other ways is paid to the grove. No one enters it except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledging the might of the local divinity. If he chance to fall, it is not lawful fo rhim to b lifted up, or to rise to his feet; he must crawl out along the ground. All this superstition implies the belief that from thsi spot the nation took its origin, that here dwells the supreme and all-ruling deity, to whom all else is subject and obedient. The fortunate lot of the Semnones strengthens this belief; a hundred cantons are in their occupation, and the vastness of their community makes them regard themselves as the head of the Suevic race.
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Tacitus, Germania - translated by Alfred Lord Church and William Jackson Brodribb.
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place time topic people language
Ancient Germany - Ancient/1st century CE - General history - Germans - Latin translation
Ancient Germany - Ancient/1st century CE - General history - Germans - Latin translation
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