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Ethnography had a long and distinguished heritage in classical literature , and the Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by authors from Herodotus to Julius Caesar. Tacitus himself had already written a similar—albeit shorter—essay on the lands and tribes of Britannia in his Agricola (chapters 10–13).
The Germania begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germans (chapters 1–27); it then segues into descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic, with a description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes beyond them.
The work contains elements of both the moralising tract and the political pamphlet; these are not, however, its primary purposes. Tacitus' descriptions of the German character are at times favorably contrasted to the Romans of his day. He holds the strict monogamy and chastity of German marriage customs worthy of the highest praise, in contrast to what he saw as the vice and immorality rampant in Roman society of his day (ch. 18), and he admires their open hospitality, their simplicity, and their bravery in battle. All of these traits were highlighted because of their similarity to idealized Roman virtues . These glowing portrayals made the work popular in Germany—especially among German nationalists and German RomanticsIn the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant cultural movement of much of the nineteenth century. Since the aesthetic of German classicism was a relatively late development compared to its English c—from the sixteenth century on. One should not, however, think that Tacitus' portrayal of Germanic customs is entirely favorable; he castigates the Germans for what he saw as their habitual drunkenness, laziness, and barbarism, among other traits .
Despite this bias, he does supply us with many names for tribeViewed historically or developmentally, a tribe consists of a social formation existing before the development of, or outside of, states. Many people use the term to refer to any non- Western or indigenous society. Some social scientists use the term to rs with which Rome had come into contact, although his information was not, in general, based on first-hand knowledge, and more recent research has shown that many of his assumptions were incorrect. In fact, contemporary historians debate whether all these tribes were really Germanic in the sense that they spoke a Germanic languageThe Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. They are characterised by a number of unique linguistic feature - some of them, like the BataviiThe Batavii (or Batavi Batavians were a Germanic, or possibly Celtic tribe reported by Julius Caesar and Tacitus to have lived around the Rhine delta, in the area which is currently the Netherlands. This led to the Latin name of Batavia . They were mentio, may have been Celts. He is also to blame for the misnaming of the Battle of the Teutoburg ForestIn the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9) an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius (also known in German as Hermann , the son of Segimerus of the Cherusci, ambushed and wiped out a Roman army of three entire Legions. The battle established the Rh, which did not quite take place in the saltus Teutoburgiensis, as he claimed in the Germania.