[Illustration: Gaius Julius Caesar. From a bust in the British Museum]
This defeat ended any thought that the Romans may have had of conquering all Germany. For the next one hundred and fifty years, Germans and Romans lived apart, each afraid of the other. Then came a time when the Germans again became the attacking party. Other fiercer and wilder peoples, like the Huns, were assailing them in the east and pushing them forward. They finally broke over the Rhine-Danube boundary and poured across the Roman Empire in wave after wave. Some of these tribes were the Vandals, Burgundians, Goths, Franks, and Lombards. The Roman Empire went to pieces under their savage attacks.
Why is it that after nations become civilized, people need less land to live on?
Are barbarous tribes more likely to engage in war than civilized peoples?
Explain why clubs were the earliest weapons and why the more civilized tribes were better armed than the barbarians.
Can a people be said to be civilized when they enjoy bloodshed and are not moved by the sufferings of others?
What was it that lowered the morals of the Roman republic?
In what way were the Germans better men than the later Romans?
What was the religion of the Moors and the Arabs?
Why did the German tribes invade the Roman empire?
The early chief a fighter.—The club the sign of power.—Free men led by a chief of their own choosing.—The first slaves.—Barbarians conquer civilized nations.—A ruling class among conquered people.—All men no longer free and equal.—The value of arms and armor.—The robber chiefs.—How kings first came.—Treaties between tribes follow constant wars.—Tribes unite for protection against enemies.—A king is chosen for the time being.—Some kings refuse to resign their office when the danger is past.—New generations grow up which never knew a kingless state.—The word “king” becomes sacred.
The chiefs of the invading tribes knew no law except the rule of the sword. If they saw anything which they wanted, they took it. Rich cities were plundered at will. They did not admit any man’s ownership of anything. In the old days when the tribes were roaming around, there was no private ownership of land. Everything belonged to the tribe in common. Each man had a vote in the council of the tribe.