Quid Tacitus . . . ? The Germania and the Study of Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

The construction of the Germanic comitatus by Cornelius Tacitus in one of his early works, the Germania, offers scholars of Anglo-Saxon England an easy shorthand way to discuss the heroic code as it appears in an assortment of late Old English texts, notably including Beowulf and the Battle of Maldon. This convenient shorthand has been much used, beginning in the nineteenth century with such scholars of history as John Richard Green and John Mitchell Kemble, and largely continuing in a straight line — although with some changes in emphasis and occasional concerns about relevance — to the present day. This dependence, or at the very least this call to a Roman history to provide a sense of longitude and certainty to the construction of AngloSaxon heroic behaviour, offers scholars a kind of chronological certainty in their consideration of the Germanic tribes and their behaviours when they first migrated to England. Tacitus could demonstrate the fixed and longstanding construction of heroism and of the cultural mores of Germanic society. The Germania could function as a touchstone text, a way to indicate the longevity of the notion of a fiercely individual, frequently violent, and fiercely loyal tribesman serving a chosen lord. To some extent, this use of Tacitus derives from the clarity and elegance with which the late Roman historian expressed himself, making it easy for scholars to comprehend and to quote his historiography of the Germanic tribes. However, it might also be argued that the call to Tacitus reflects a more profound desire to establish Anglo-Saxon social behaviour as part of a longstanding and rich tradition, as reflecting a personal integrity which reaches back to the Germanic tribes ranged against the Roman legions, and defeating them. Here, I will argue, first, that Tacitus wrote the Germania for very