Documents for English Constitutional and Legal History During the Middle Ages

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1905 Excerpt: ... 93508 FEE 23 1906 F 4-577 DOCUMENTS FOR ENGLISH CONSTI-TUTIONAL AND LEGAL HISTORY. No. 1. Extracts from Caesar and Tacitus--Early Germanic Institutions. I. Extracts from Caesar's Commentaries. Cir S3 D. C. Book VI. ch. 22. They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large portion ot their food consists in milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one a fixed quantity of land or his own individual limits; but the magistrates and the leading nr en each year apportion to the tribes and families, who have united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think proper, and the year after compel them to move elsewhere. For this practice they advance many reasonslest seduced by long continued custom, they may exchange their ardor in the waging of war for agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acqui-e extensive estates, and the more powerful drive the weaker from their pos sessions; lest they construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold and heat; lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause divisions and discords arise; and that they may keep the common people in a contented state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an equality with those of the most powerful. Book IV. ch. I. The nation of the Suevi is by far the largest and the most war like nation of the Germans. They are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they send yearly from their territories for the purpose of war a thousand armed men: the others who remain at home maintain both themselves and those engaged in the expedition. The latter again, in their turn, are in arms the year after: the former remain, at home. Thus neither husbandry, nor the art and practice of war are neglected. But among them there exists no private or separat...