OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

jealousy were a better safeguard of conjugal fi-delity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchsof a Persian haram. To this reason, anothermay be added, of a more honourable nature.The Germans treated their women with esteemand confidence, consulted them on every occa-sion of importance, and fondly believed, that intheir breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom morethan human. Some of these interpreters of fate,such as Yelleda, in the Batavian war, governed,in the name of the deity, the fiercest nations ofGermany . m The rest of the sex, without beingadored as goddesses, were respected as the freeand equal companions of soldiers ; associated,even by the marriage ceremony, to a life of toil,of danger, and of glory." In their great inva-sions, the camps of the barbarians were filledwith a multitude of women, who remained firmand undaunted amidst the sound of arms, thevarious forms of destruction, and the honourablewounds of their sons and husbands." Faintingarmies of Germans have more than once beendriven back upon the enemy, by the generousdespair of the women, who dreaded death muchless than servitude. If the day was irrecoverablylost, they well knew how to deliver themselvesand their children, with their own hands, from

m Tacit. Anna!, iv, 01, 65.

” The marriage present was a yoke of oxen, horses, and arms. SeeGerm. c. 18. Tacitus is somewhat too florid on the subject.

0 The change of exigere into exsugere , is a most excellent correc-tion.

b b

3G9

CHAP.

IX

VOL. I.