I have already mentioned that with people who do not cultivate the earth, marriages are less fixed than with others, and that they generally take many wives."Of all the barbarous nations the Germans were almost the only people who were satisfied with one wife, if we except," says Tacitus, "some persons who, not from a dissoluteness of manners, but because of their nobility, had many."
Gorago esan dudanez, lurra lantzen ez zuten herrietan, ezkontzak ez ziren hain finkoak, eta gizonek zenbait emazte hartu ohi zituzten. "Germaniarrak ia bakarrak ziren barbaro guztien artean emazte bakar bat askiesten", dio Tazitok, "zenbait pertsonaren kasuan salbu: horiek, ez lizunkeriaz, baizik eta beren nobleziaren kariaz, zenbait emazte zituzten".