Part 10

As early as the Augustan age the substantive _Seres_ appears by the side of the adjective _Sericus_. In Virgil, Horace and Ovid the words may be found and from this time downwards the express notice of a nation so called is found through a long series of writers.--

Notwithstanding this it is as late as the time of Mela before we find any author mentioning with detail and precision a geographical nationality for the Seres. "He (Mela) describes them as a very honest people who brought what they had to sell, laid it down and went away and then returned for the price of it" (Yates p. 184). Now this notice is anything rather than definite. Its accuracy moreover may be suspected, since it belongs to the ambiguous class of what may be called convertible descriptions. The same story is told of an African nation in Herodotus IV. 169.

To the statement of Mela we may add a notice from Ammianus Marcellinus of the quiet and peaceable character of the Seres (XXIII. 6.) and a statement from the novelist Heliodorus that at the nuptials of Theagenes and Chariclea the ambassadors of the Seres came bringing the thread and webs of their spiders (Aethiop. X. p. 494. Commelini).

Now notices more definite than the above of the national existence of the Seres anterior to the time of Justinian we have none whilst subsequently to the reign of that emperor there is an equal silence on the part both of historians and geographers. Neither have modern ethnographers found unequivocal traces of tribes bearing that name.

The probability of a confusion like the one indicated at the commencement of the paper is increased by the facts stated in p. 222. of the Textrinum. Here we see that besides Pausanias, Hesychius, Photius and other writers give two senses to the root _ser-_ which they say is (1.) a worm (2.) the name of a nation. Probably Clemens Alexandrinus does the same νῆμα χρυσοῦ καὶ σῆρας Ἰνδικοὺς καὶ τοὺς περιέργους βόμβυκας χαίρειν ἐῶντας. A passage from Ulpian (Textrinum p. 192) leads to the belief that σῆρας here means silk-worm. Vestimentorum sunt omnia lanea lineaque, vel _serica_ vel bombycina.

Finally the probability of the assumed confusion is verified by the statement of Procopius αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ μέταξα ἐξ ἧς εἰώθασι τὴν ἐσθῆτα ἐργάζεσθαι, ἣν πάλαι μὲν Ἥλληνες Μηδικὴν ἐκάλουν, τανῦν δὲ σηρικὴν ὀνομάζουσιν. (De Bell. Persic. I. 20.).

Militating against these views I find little unsusceptible of explanation.--

1. The expression σηρικα δερματα of the author of the Periplus Maris Erythraei means skins from the silk country.

2. The intricacy introduced into the question by a passage of Procopius is greater. In the account of the first introduction of the silk worm into Europe in the reign of Justinian the monks who introduced it having arrived from India stated that they had long resided in the country called Serinda inhabited by Indian nations where they had learned how raw silk might be produced in the country of the Romans (Textrinum p. 231). This is so much in favor of the root Ser-being gentile, but at the same time so much against the Seres being Chinese. Sanskrit scholars may perhaps adjust this matter. The Serinda is probably the fabulous Serendib.

In the countries around the original localities of the silk-worm the name for silk is as follows--

In Corean _Sir_. Chinese _se_. Mongolian _sirkek_. Mandchoo _sirghe_.

It is the conviction of the present writer that a nation called Seres had no geographical existence.

ON THE EVIDENCE OF A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CIMBRI AND THE CHERSONESUS CIMBRICA.

READ BEFORE THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

FEBRUARY 9, 1844.

It is considered that the evidence of any local connection between the Cimbri conquered by Marius, and the Chersonesus Cimbrica, is insufficient to counterbalance the natural improbability of a long and difficult national migration. Of such a connection, however, the identity of name and the concurrent belief of respectable writers are _primâ facie_ evidence. This, however, is disposed of if such a theory as the following can be established, viz. that, for certain reasons, the knowledge of the precise origin and locality of the nations conquered by Marius was, at an early period, confused and indefinite; that new countries were made known without giving any further information; that, hence, the locality of the Cimbri was always pushed forwards beyond the limits of the geographical areas accurately ascertained; and finally, that thus their supposed locality retrograded continually northwards until it fixed itself in the districts of Sleswick and Jutland, where the barrier of the sea and the increase of geographical knowledge (with one exception) prevented it from getting farther. Now this view arises out of the examination of the language of the historians and geographers as examined in order, from Sallust to Ptolemy.

Of Sallust and Cicero, the language points to Gaul as the home of the nation in question; and that without the least intimation of its being any particularly distant portion of that country. "Per idem tempus adversus Gallos ab ducibus nostris, Q. Cæpione et M. Manlio, malè pugnatum--Marius Consul absens factus, et ei decreta Provincia Gallia." _Bell._ _Jugurth._ 114. "Ipse ille Marius--influentes in Italiam Gallorum maximas copias repressit." _Cicero de Prov. Consul._ 13. And here an objection may be anticipated. It is undoubtedly true that even if the Cimbri had originated in a locality so distant as the Chersonese, it would have been almost impossible to have made such a fact accurately understood. Yet it is also true, that if any material difference had existed between the Cimbri and the Gauls of Gaul, such must have been familiarly known in Rome, since slaves of both sorts must there have been common.

Cæsar, whose evidence ought to be conclusive (inasmuch as he knew of Germany as well as of Gaul), fixes them to the south of the Marne and Seine. This we learn, not from the direct text, but from inference: "Gallos--a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit." _Bell. Gall._ i. "Belgas--solos esse qui, patrum nostrûm memoria, omni Galliâ vexatâ, Teutones Cimbrosque intra fines suos ingredi prohibuerunt." _Bell. Gall._ ii. 4. Now if the Teutones and Cimbri had moved from north to south, they would have clashed with the Belgæ first and with the other Gauls afterwards. The converse, however, was the fact. It is right here to state, that the last observation may be explained away by supposing, either that the Teutones and Cimbri here meant may be a _remnant_ of the confederation on their _return_, or else a portion that settled down in Gaul upon their way; or finally, a division that made a circle towards the place of their destination in a south-east direction. None of these however seem the plain and natural construction; and I would rather, if reduced to the alternative, read "_Germania_" instead of "_Gallia_" than acquiesce in the most probable of them.

Diodorus Siculus, without defining their locality, deals throughout with the Cimbri as a Gaulish tribe. Besides this, he gives us one of the elements of the assumed indistinctness of ideas in regard to their origin, viz. their hypothetical connexion with the Cimmerii. In this recognition of what might have been called the _Cimmerian theory_, he is followed by Strabo and Plutarch.--_Diod. Sicul._ v. 32. _Strabo_ vii. _Plutarch. Vit. Marii._

The next writer who mentions them is Strabo. In confirmation of the view taken above, this author places the Cimbri on the northernmost limit of the area geographically known to him, viz. _beyond_ Gaul and _in_ Germany, between the Rhine and the Elbe: τῶν δὲ Γερμάνων ὡς εἶπον, ὁὶ μὲν προσάρκτιοι παρηκοῦσι τῷ Ὠκεανῷ. Γνωρίζονται δ' ἀπὸ τῶν ἐκβολῶν τοῦ Ῥήνου λαβόντες τὴν ἀρχὴν μέχρι τοῦ Ἄλβιος. Τούτων δὲ εἰσὶ γνωριμώτατοι Σούγαμβροί τε καὶ Κίμβροι. Τὰ δὲ πέραν τοῦ Ἄλβιος τὰ πρὸς τῷ Ὠκεανῷ ἄγνωστα ἡμῖν ἐστιν.. (B. iv.) Further proof that this was the frontier of the Roman world we get from the statement which soon follows, viz. that "thus much was known to the Romans from their successful wars, and that more would have been known had it not been for the injunction of Augustus forbidding his generals to cross the Elbe." (B. iv.)

Velleius Paterculus agrees with his contemporary Strabo. He places them beyond the Rhine and deals with them as Germans:--"tum Cimbri et Teutoni transcendere Rhenum, multis mox nostris suisque cladibus nobiles." (ii. 9.) "Effusa--immanis vis Germanarum gentium quibus nomen Cimbris et Teutonis erat." (_Ibid._ 12.)

From the _Germania_ of Tacitus a well-known passage will be considered in the sequel. Tacitus' locality coincides with that of Strabo.

_Ptolemy._--Now the author who most mentions in detail the tribes beyond the Elbe is also the author who most pushes back the Cimbri towards the north. Coincident with his improved information as to the parts southward, he places them at the extremity of the area known to him: Καῦχοι οἱ μείζονες μέχρι τού Ἀλβίου ποταμοῦ· ἐφεξῆς δὲ ἐπὶ αὔχενα τῆς Κιμβρικῆς Χερσονήσου Σάξονες, αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν Χερσόνησον· ὑπερ μὲν τοὺς Σάξονας, Σιγουλώνες ἀπὸ δυσμῶν· εἶτα Σαβαλίγγιοι εἶτα Κόβανδοι, ὑπὲρ οὓς Χάλοι· καὶ ἔτι ὑπερτάτους δυσμικώτεροι μὲν Φουνδούσιοι, ἀνατολικώτεροι δὲ Χαροῦδες, πάντων δὲ ἀρτικώτεροι Κύμβροι--_Ptolemæi Germania._

Such is the evidence of those writers, Greek or Roman, who deal with the local habitation of the Cimbri rather than with the general history of that tribe. As a measure of the indefinitude of their ideas, we have the confusion, already noticed, between the Cimbri and Cimmerii, on the parts of Diodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch. A better measure occurs in the following extract from Pliny, who not only fixes the Cimbri in three places at once, but also (as far as we can find any meaning in his language) removes them so far northward as Norway: "Alterum genus Ingævones, quorum pars Cimbri Teutoni ac Chaucorum gentes. Proximi Rheno Istævones, quorum pars Cimbri mediterranei." (iv. 14.) "Promontorium Cimbrorum excurrens in maria longe Peninsulam efficit quæ Carthis appellatur." _Ibid._ "Sevo Mons (the mountain-chains of Norway) immanem ad Cimbrorum usque promontorium efficit sinum, qui Codanus vocatur, refertus insulis, quarum clarissima Scandinavia, incompertæ magnitudinis." (iv. 13.) Upon confusion like this it is not considered necessary to expend further evidence. So few statements coincide, that under all views there must be a misconception somewhere; and of such misconception great must the amount be, to become more improbable than a national migration from Jutland to Italy.

Over and above, however, this particular question of evidence, there stands a second one; viz. the determination of the Ethnographical relations of the nations under consideration. This is the point as to whether the Cimbri conquered by Marius were Celts or Goths, akin to the Gauls, or akin to the Germans; a disputed point, and one which, for its own sake only, were worth discussing, even at the expense of raising a wholly independent question. Such however it is not. If the Cimbri were Celts, the improbability of their originating in the Cimbric Chersonese would be increased, and with it the amount of evidence required; since, laying aside other considerations, the natural unlikelihood of a large area being traversed by a mass of emigrants is greatly enhanced by the fact of any intermediate portion of that area being possessed by tribes as alien to each other as the Gauls and Germans. Hence therefore the fact of the Cimbri being Celts will (if proved) be considered as making against the probability of their origin in the Cimbric Chersonese; whilst if they be shown to be Goths, the difficulties of the supposition will be in some degree diminished. Whichever way this latter point is settled, something will be gained for the historian; since the supposed presence of Celts in the Cimbric Chersonese has complicated more than one question in ethnography.

Previous to proceeding in the inquiry it may be well to lay down once for all as a postulate, that whatever, in the way of ethnography, is proved concerning any one tribe of the Cimbro-Teutonic league, must be considered as proved concerning the remainder; since all explanations grounded upon the idea that one part was Gothic and another part Celtic have a certain amount of _primâ facie_ improbability to set aside. The same conditions as to the burden of proof apply also to any hypotheses founded on the notion of _retiring_ Cimbri _posterior_ to the attempted invasion of Italy. On this point the list of authors quoted will not be brought below the time of Ptolemy. With the testimonies anterior to that writer, bearing upon the question of the ethnography, the attempt however will be made to be exhaustive. Furthermore, as the question in hand is not so much the absolute fact as to whether the Cimbri were Celts or Goths, but one as to the amount of evidence upon which we believe them to be either the one or the other, statements will be noticed under the head of evidence, not because they are really proofs, but simply because they have ever been looked upon as such. Beginning then with the Germanic origin of the Cimbro-Teutonic confederation, and dealing separately with such tribes as are separately mentioned, we first find the

_Ambrones._--In the Anglo-Saxon poem called the Traveller's Song, there is a notice of a tribe called _Ymbre_, _Ymbras_, or _Ymbran_. Suhm, the historian of Denmark, has allowed himself to imagine that these represent the _Ambrones_, and that their name still exists in that of the island _Amron_ of the coast of Sleswick, and perhaps in _Amerland_, a part of Oldenburg.--Thorpe's note on the Traveller's Song in the _Codex Exoniensis_.

_Teutones._--In the way of evidence of there being Teutones amongst the Germans, over and above the associate mention of their names with that of the Cimbri, there is but little. They are not so mentioned either by Tacitus or Strabo. Ptolemy, however, mentions _a_) the Teutonarii, _b_) the Teutones: Τευτονοάριοι καὶ Ουίρουνοι--Φαραδεινῶν δὲ καὶ Συήβων, Τεύτονες καὶ Ἄμαρποι. Besides this, however, arguments have been taken from _a_) the meaning of the root _teut_ = _people_ (_þiuda_, M. G.; _þeód_, A. S.; _diot_, O. H. G.): _b_) the _Saltus Teutobergius_: _c_) the supposed connection of the present word _Deut-sch_ = _German_ with the classical word _Teutones_. These may briefly be disposed of.

_a._) It is not unlikely for an invading nation to call themselves _the nation_, _the nations_, _the people_, &c. Neither, if the tribe in question had done so (presuming them to have been Germans or Goths), would the word employed be very unlike _Teuton-es_. Although the word _þiud-a_ = _nation_ or _people_, is generally strong in its declension (so making the plural _þiud-ôs_), it is found also in a weak form with its plural _thiot-ûn_ = _Teuton-_. See _Deutsche Grammatik_, i. 630.

_b._) The _Saltus Teutobergius_ mentioned by Tacitus (_Ann._ i. 60) can scarcely have taken its name from a tribe, or, on the other hand, have given it to one. It means either _the hill of the people_, or _the city of the people_; according as the syllable _-berg-_ is derived from _báirgs_ = _a hill_, or from _baúrgs_ = _a city_. In either case the compound is allowable, _e. g._ diot-_wëc_, _public way_, O. H. G.; thiod-_scatho_, _robber of the people_, O. S.; þëód-_cyning_, þeod-_mearc_, _boundary of the nation_, A. S.; þiód-_land_, þiód-_vëgr_, _people's way_, Icelandic;--Theud-_e-mirus_, Theud-_e-linda_, Theud-_i-gotha_, proper names (from _þiud-_): _himil_-bërac, _velt_-përac; _friðu_-përac, O. H. G.; _himin_biörg, _val_biörg, Icelandic (from _báirgs_ = _hill_)--_asci_purc, _hasal_purc, _saltz_purc, &c., O. H. G. (from _baúrgs_ = _city_). The particular word _diot-puruc_ = _civitas magna_ occurs in O. H. G.--See _Deutsche Grammatik_, iii. p. 478.

_c._ Akin to this is the reasoning founded upon the connection (real or supposed) between the root _Teut-_ in _Teuton-_, and the root _deut-_ in _Deut-sch_. It runs thus. The syllable in question is common to the word _Teut-ones_, _Teut-onicus_, _Theod-iscus_, _teud-iscus_, _teut-iscus_, _tût-iske_, _dût-iske_, _tiut-sche_, _deut-sch_; whilst the word _Deut-sch_ means _German_. As the _Teut-ones_ were Germans, so were the Cimbri also. Now this line of argument is set aside by the circumstance that the syllable _Teut-_ in _Teut-ones_ and _Teut-onicus_, as the names of the confederates of the Cimbri, is wholly unconnected with the _Teut-_ in _theod-iscus_, and _Deut-sch_. This is fully shown by Grimm in his dissertation on the words _German_ and _Dutch_. In its oldest form the latter word meant _popular_, _national_, _vernacular_; it was an adjective applied to the _vulgar tongue_, or the vernacular German, in opposition to the Latin. In the tenth century the secondary form _Teut-onicus_ came in vogue even with German writers. Whether this arose out of imitation of the Latin form _Romanice_, or out of the idea of an historical connection with the Teutones of the classics, is immaterial. It is clear that the present word _deut-sch_ proves nothing respecting the _Teutones_. Perhaps, however, as early as the time of Martial the word _Teutonicus_ was used in a general sense, denoting the Germans in general. Certain it is that before his time it meant the particular people conquered by Marius, irrespective of origin or locality.--See Grimm's _Deutsche Grammatik_, i. p. 17, 3rd edit. Martial, xiv. 26, _Teutonici capilli_. Claudian. in Eutrop. i. 406, _Teutonicum hostem_.

The _Cimbri_.--Evidence to the Gothic origin of the Cimbri (treated separately) begins with the writers under Augustus and Tiberius.

_Vell. Paterculus._--The testimony of this writer as to the affinities of the nations in question is involved in his testimony as to their locality, and, consequently, subject to the same criticism. His mention of them (as Germans) is incidental.

_Strabo._--Over and above the references already made, Strabo has certain specific statements concerning the Cimbri: _a._) That according to a tradition (which he does not believe) they left their country on account of an inundation of the sea. This is applicable to Germany rather than to Gaul. This liability to inundations must not, however, be supposed to indicate a locality in the Cimbric Chersonese as well as a German origin, since the coast between the Scheldt and Elbe is as obnoxious to the ocean as the coasts of Holstein, Sleswick and Jutland. _b._) That against the German Cimbri and Teutones the Belgæ alone kept their ground--ὥστε μόνους (Βέλγας) ἀντέχειν πρὸς τὴν τῶν Γερμάνων ἔφοδον, Κίμβρων καὶ Τευτόνων (iv. 3.) This is merely a translation of Cæsar (see above) with the interpolation Γερμάνων. _c._) That they inhabited their original country, and that they sent ambassadors to Augustus--καὶ γὰρ νῦν ἔχουσι τὴν χώραν ἣν εἶχον πρότερον καὶ ἕπεμπσαν τῷ Σεβαστῷ ιἑρώτατον παρ' αὐτοῖς, λέβητα, αἰτούμενοι φιλίαν καὶ ἀμνηστίαν τῶν ὑπουργμένων· τυχόντες δὲ ὧν ἠξίουν ἀφῇραν. (B. i.) Full weight must be given to the definite character of this statement.

_Tacitus._--Tacitus coincides with Strabo, in giving to the Cimbri a specific locality, and in stating special circumstances of their history. Let full weight be given to the words of a writer like Tacitus; but let it also be remembered that he wrote from hearsay evidence, that he is anything rather than an independent witness, that his statement is scarcely reconcileable with those of Ptolemy and Cæsar, and that above all the locality which both he and Strabo give the _Cimbri_ is also the locality of the _Sicambri_, of which latter tribe no mention is made by Tacitus, although their wars with the Romans were matters of comparatively recent history. For my own part, I think, that between a confusion of the _Cimbri_ with the _Cimmerii_ on the one hand, and of the _Cimbri_ with the _Sicambri_ on the other, we have the clue to the misconceptions assumed at the commencement of the paper. There is no proof that in the eyes of the writers under the Republic, the origin of the Cimbri was a matter of either doubt or speculation. Catulus, in the History of his Consulship, commended by Cicero (_Brutus_, xxxv.), and Sylla in his Commentaries, must have spoken of them in a straightforward manner as Gauls, otherwise Cicero and Sallust would have spoken of them less decidedly. (See Plutarch's _Life of Marius_, and _note_.) Confusion arose when Greek readers of Homer and Herodotus began to theorize, and this grew greater when formidable enemies under the name of _Sicambri_ were found in Germany. It is highly probable that in both Strabo and Tacitus we have a commentary on the lines of Horace--

Te cæde gaudentes Sicambri Compositis venerantur armis.

"Eumdem (with the Chauci, Catti, and Cherusci) Germaniæ sinum proximi Oceano Cimbri tenent, parva nunc civitas, sed gloria ingens: veterisque famæ lata vestigia manent, utrâque ripâ castra ac spatia, quorum ambitu nunc quoque metiaris molem manusque gentis, et tam magni exitus fidem--occasione discordiæ nostræ et civilium armorum, expugnatis legionum hibernis, etiam Gallias affectavêre; ac rursus pulsi, inde proximis temporibus triumphati magis quam victi sunt." (_German._ 38.)

_Justin._--Justin writes--"Simul e _Germaniâ_ Cimbros--inundâsse Italiam." Now this extract would be valuable if we were sure that the word _Germania_ came from Justin's original, Trogus Pompeius; who was a Vocontian Gaul, living soon after the Cimbric defeat. To him, however, the term _Germania_ must have been wholly unknown; since, besides general reasons, Tacitus says--"Germaniæ vocabulum recens et nuper additum: quoniam, qui primum Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen, non gentis evaluisse paullatim, ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine _Germani_ vocarentur." Justin's interpolation of _Germania_ corresponds with the similar one on the part of Strabo.

Such is the evidence for the Germanic origin of the Cimbri and Teutones, against which may now be set the following testimonies as to their affinity with the Celts, each tribe being dealt with separately.

_The Ambrones._--Strabo mentions them along with the Tigurini, an undoubted Celtic tribe--Κατὰ τὸν πρὸς Ἄμβρωνας καὶ Τωϋγενοὺς πόλεμον.

Suetonius places them with the Transpadani--"per Ambronas et Transpadanos." (_Cæsar_, § 9.)

Plutarch mentions that their war-cries were understood and answered by the Ligurians. Now it is possible that the Ligurians were Celts, whilst it is certain that they were not Goths.

_The Teutones._--Appian speaks of the Teutones having invaded Noricum, and this under the head Κέλτικα.

Florus calls one of the kings of the Teutones Teutobocchus, a name Celtic rather than Gothic.

Virgil has the following lines:--

... late jam tum ditione premebat Sarrastes populos, et quæ rigat æquora Sarnus; Quique Rufas, Batulumque tenent, atque arva Celennæ; Et quos maliferæ despectant mœnia Abellæ: _Teutonico_ ritu soliti torquere _cateias_. Tegmina queis capitum raptus de subere cortex, Æratæque micant peltæ, micat æreus ensis.--_Æn._ vii. 737-743.