§4.1.1Ea quae secuta est hieme, qui fuit annus Cn. Pompeio, M. Crasso consulibus, Usipetes Germani et item Tencteri magna [cum] multitudine hominum flumen Rhenum transierunt, non longe a mari, quo Rhenus influit.
In the winter which followed, which was the year when Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus were consuls, the Usipetes, a German tribe, and likewise the Tencteri, crossed the river Rhine with a great multitude of men, not far from the sea into which the Rhine flows.
§4.1.2Causa transeundi fuit quod ab Suebis complures annos exagitati bello premebantur et agri cultura prohibebantur.
The reason for their crossing was that, having been harassed by the Suebi for several years, they were hard pressed by war and prevented from agricultural pursuits.
§4.1.3Sueborum gens est longe maxima et bellicosissima Germanorum omnium.
The nation of the Suebi is by far the largest and the most warlike of all the Germans.
§4.1.4Hi centum pagos habere dicuntur, ex quibus quotannis singula milia armatorum bellandi causa ex finibus educunt.
They are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they lead out yearly a thousand armed men from their territories for the purpose of waging war.
Reliqui, qui domi manserunt, se atque illos alunt; §4.1.5hi rursus in vicem anno post in armis sunt, illi domi remanent.
The remainder, who have stayed at home, support themselves and the others; these, in their turn, are in arms the year after, while the former remain at home.
§4.1.6Sic neque agri cultura nec ratio atque usus belli intermittitur.
In this manner, neither agriculture nor the theory and practice of war is interrupted.
§4.1.7Sed privati ac separati agri apud eos nihil est, neque longius anno remanere uno in loco colendi causa licet.
But there is no private and separate land among them, nor is it permitted to remain in one place longer than a year for the purpose of cultivation.
§4.1.8Neque multum frumento, sed maximam partem lacte atque pecore vivunt multum sunt in venationibus; §4.1.9quae res et cibi genere et cotidiana exercitatione et libertate vitae, quod a pueris nullo officio aut disciplina adsuefacti nihil omnino contra voluntatem faciunt, et vires alit et immani corporum magnitudine homines efficit.
They do not live much on corn, but for the most part on milk and cattle, and are much engaged in hunting; which habit, both from the nature of their food, and their daily exercise, and the freedom of their life (because from their boyhood, being accustomed to no duty or discipline, they do nothing at all contrary to their inclination), both nourishes their strength and makes them men of immense bodily stature.
§4.1.10Atque in eam se consuetudinem adduxerunt ut locis frigidissimis neque vestitus praeter pelles habeant quicquam, quarum propter exiguitatem magna est corporis pars aperta, et laventur in fluminibus.
And they have brought themselves to such a habit that, in spite of the coldest climate, they have no clothing except skins, owing to the smallness of which a great part of the body is exposed, and they bathe in the rivers.