CHAPTER VII. GERMANIA. A.G. Plate V. THE first grand division of the German nations is into the Istævones, on the west of Germany, who inhabited the countries adjacent to the Rhine; the Hermiones, on the South, who were those adjacent to the Danube; and the Suevi, and afterwards the Vendili, or Vandals, in the North, who were contiguous to the Baltic, and the most celebrated of the three. The Western bank of the Rhine has already been described, as containing several German nations, in the three Gallic provinces along the Rhine. On the Eastern bank of the Rhine, on the coast, are the Frisii, or Frisons; their country was intersected by a canal, made by Drusus, called Flevo, the waters of which, having in time increased, now from the Zuyder Zee, or Southern Sea, one of whose channels, the Vlie, still retains traces North-east of the Frisii were the The of the original name. Chauci Minores and Majores, a Suevic race, distinguished by Tacitus as the most noble and just of all the German nations. The Minores were situated between the Amisia, or Ems, and the Visurgis, or Weser; the Majores between the Visurgis and the Albis, or Elbe. South of the Frisii were the Bructeri; in the Eastern parts of whose country were the Chamavi and Angrivarii. The former had originally been settled on the banks of the Rhine, till removed by the Usipii; the latter gave name to Angria; the kingdom of the Saxon Witikind. Marsii or Marsaci, and Chasuarii were also in this district, the former on the West, the latter on the Eastern side. South-east of the Chauci, between the Visurgis and Albis, were the Cherusci, who, under the conduct of Arminius, defeated and slew the three Roman legions commanded by Varus, A.D. 10, in the Saltus Teutobergiensis, or Bishopric of Paderborn. They were afterwards defeated by Germanicus, and never recovered their former eminence. On the East bank of the Rhine, South of the Usipii, were the Sicambri, who were driven over it by the Catti, in the time of Augustus, and settled in Germania Prima, under the name of Gugerni. Tencteri inhabited a district South of the Sicambri. of these was the great and powerful nation of the Catti, called by Cæsar the Suevi, an Hermionic tribe, who were seated in Hesse. A fortress of the Catti, called Castellum, still bears the name of Cassel, but their capital, Mattium, is Marpurg. South of them, along the Rhine, were the Mattiaci, a nation in firm alliance with the Roman empire; and South of these was the original settlement of the Marcomanni, who afterwards migrated into The East Bohemia. South-east of these was Mons Abnoba, or the Black Mountain, in which the Danube rises; the adjoining district was called the Decumates Agri, because the inhabitants were subject to a tax of the tenth of their produce. Here the Alemanni settled, from whom Germany was called, in the middle ages, Almagne. East of these, the Hermunduri, the first of the Hermionic tribes, were a great and powerful nation, in the interior of Germany, attached to the Romans. East of them, on the bank of the Danube, were the Narisci, where is Regina, now Ratisbon: North-east of whom in the centre of Germany, were the Boii, or Boiohemi, in Bohemia, whose country was seized by the Marcomanni, under their king Maroboduus, in the reign of Augustus, South-east of the Boii, or Marcomanni, were the Quadi. who occupied Moravia. North-east of the Marcomanni and Quadi were the Gothini, Marsigni, Osi, Burii, and Lygii, which last nation bordered on the Vistula. The rest of the German tribes are Vandal or Suevic; the most noble of them were the Semnones, between the Albis and Viadrus, or Oder. North of these on the East bank of the Albis, were the Langobardi, or Lombards; the Varini were supposed to have been in Mecklenburgh. Towards the mouth of the Elbe and the Chersonesus Cimbrica, in Holstein, were the Angli and Saxones, our English progenitors. The Teutones and Cimbri had their original settlements here. The whole coast of the Baltic was occupied by various tribes of the Vendili, or Vandals, and the name of the Rugii is still preserved in Rugenwald; the Bergundiones, South-east of the Lan gobardi, afterwards migrated to France, and possessed the province of Burgundy. On the North were the Gothones, or Goths; and above them the Lemovii. That part of the Baltic which washes the shores of Germania was called Sinus Codanus; and above it was Scandinavia, comprising Sweden and Norway, but very imperfectly known to the antients*. The remainder of Europe, East of Germania and North of the immediate vincinity of the Danube, was known by the generic name of Sarmatia, and the inhabitants were called Samarta and Sauromatæ. In like manner, the North of Asia, beyond the Euxine and Caspian Seas, was known by the generic name of Scythia. We should not omit, in our account of Germany, to notice the immense forest called the Hercynia Sylva, the whole extent of which was unknown; but it took Cæsar nine days to cross it, and it had been travelled, longitudinally sixty days' journey, without coming to any boundary. It contained part of Switzerland and Transylvania. An account of it is to be seen in the sixth book of Cæsar's Gallic Wars. They seem to have considered it as consisting of a number of islands. Of the two nations mentioned by Tacitus, the Suiones are thought to have been the inhabitants of Sweden, and the Sitones of Norway. CHAPTER VIII. COUNTRIES SOUTH OF THE DANUBE. A. G. Plates I. VI. IX. THE remainder of Europe, not yet described, consists of countries South of the Danube, and East of the Adriatic: these, with the exception of Greece and its immediately adjacent country, will form the subject of the following chapter. Immediately below the Danube (Pl. VI.), from its sources on Mount Abnoba, was Vindelicia; and South of it was Rhætia, bounded on the West by the Helvetii or Swiss, on the South by Cisalpine Gaul and the upper part of Italy, and on the East by Noricum. It more than comprised the country of the Grisons. The Rhæti were a colony of the Tuscans, who degenerated into the barbarism of the surrounding Gallic and Germanic tribes, and were subdued by Drusus, under the reign of Augustus, B.C. 15, A.U.C. 739. His victory is celebrated in |