The Wars with the Romans: A Short History of Germany in the Ancient World

IN the eighth century before Christ, Rome was peopled by fugitives from different parts of the country. The city was at first governed by kings, who might almost be termed robber kings, on account of the depredations they committed against neighboring nations. The Romans, however, strengthened by petty conquests, and rendered hardy and independent by continual warfare, soon drove out their kings, and founded a republic on the plan of the more ancient ones of Greece, whence they subsequently drew their refinement and arts, whilst from the brave Alpine nations, with whom they early came in collision, they acquired that heroic spirit which, at a later period, rendered them as formidable to the Greeks as their superior science and knowledge became to the Germans...