Excerpts from Germania

'In all their houses the children are reared naked and nasty; and thus grow into those limbs, into that bulk, which with marvel we behold. They are all nourished with the milk of their own mothers, and never surrendered to handmaids and nurses.'

From this quote, the tone of Tacitus throughout this reading can be discerned. He seems to admire the culture of the Germanic people and this is probably because the Germanic people seem to do certain things differently from the Romans.

The above quote suggests that even in the past (before Hitler’s time), the Germans have always been admired for their physical attributes regardless of their political significance. Perhaps his praise for how Germans were raised was written with a pinch of salt, as if to say he was unhappy at how Roman babies tend to be raised by maids and nurses.

Tacitus seems to admire the fact that the people of Germany do not have ‘inter-marriages with other nations’, making them a ‘people pure…and resembling none but themselves’. Perhaps he envies the purity of the Germans because the Romans are known to have inter marriages with other nations to foster stronger ties with each other (as discussed in class).

This reading also seems to place a higher value for females in society as the wives are said to 'suffer alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war', which to me suggests that females are regarded with more respect in Germany than in Rome.