tacitus germania on pre-parasite germany. the assembly is competent also to hear criminal charges, especially those involving the risk of capital punishment. the mode of execution varies according to the offence. traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; cowards, shirkers, and sodomites are pressed down under a wicker hurdle into the slimy mud of a bog. this distinction in the punishments is based on the idea that offenders against the state should be made a public example of, whereas deeds of shame should be buried out of men's sight. less serious offences, too, have penalties proportioned to them. the man who is found guilty has to pay a fine of so many horses or cattle, part of which goes to the king or the state, part to the victim of the wrongful act or to his relatives. these same assemblies elect, among other officials, the magistrates who administer justice in the districts and villages. each magistrate is assisted by a hundred assessors chosen from the people to advise him and to add weight to his decisions. they choose their kings for their noble birth, their commanders for their valour. the power even of the kings is not absolute or arbitrary. the commanders rely on example rather than on the authority of their rank - on the admiration they win by showing conspicuous energy and courage and by pressing forward in front of their own troops. capital punishment, imprisonment, even flogging, are allowed to none but the priests, and are not inflicted merely as punishments or on the commanders' orders, but as it were in obedience to the god whom the germans believe to be present on the field of battle. they actually carry with them into the fight certain figures and emblems taken from their sacred groves.
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