1. Germany [2] is separated from Gaul, Rhaetia, [3] and Pannonia, [4] by
the rivers Rhine and Danube; from Sarmatia and Dacia, by mountains [5] and
mutual dread. The rest is surrounded by an ocean, embracing broad
promontories [6] and vast insular tracts, [7] in which our military
expeditions have lately discovered various nations and kingdoms. The
Rhine, issuing from the inaccessible and precipitous summit of the Rhaetic
Alps, [8] bends gently to the west, and falls into the Northern Ocean. The
Danube, poured from the easy and gently raised ridge of Mount Abnoba, [9]
visits several nations in its course, till at length it bursts out [10] by
six channels [11] into the Pontic sea; a seventh is lost in marshes.

2. The people of Germany appear to me indigenous, [12] and free from
intermixture with foreigners, either as settlers or casual visitants. For
the emigrants of former ages performed their expeditions not by land, but
by water; [13] and that immense, and, if I may so call it, hostile ocean,
is rarely navigated by ships from our world. [14] Then, besides the danger
of a boisterous and unknown sea, who would relinquish Asia, Africa, or
Italy, for Germany, a land rude in its surface, rigorous in its climate,
cheerless to every beholder and cultivator, except a native? In their
ancient songs, [15] which are their only records or annals, they celebrate
the god Tuisto, [16] sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the
fathers and founders of their race. To Mannus they ascribe three sons,
from whose names [17] the people bordering on the ocean are called
Ingaevones; those inhabiting the central parts, Herminones; the rest,
Istaevones. Some, [18] however, assuming the licence of antiquity, affirm
that there were more descendants of the god, from whom more appellations
were derived; as those of the Marsi, [19] Gambrivii, [20] Suevi, [21] and
Vandali; [22] and that these are the genuine and original names. [23] That