BOOK IXON LANGUAGES, RACES, EMPIRES, WARFARE, CITIZENS, RELATIONSHIPS
ON LANGUAGES, RACES, EMPIRES, WARFARE, CITIZENS, RELATIONSHIPS
In spiteof the apparent lack of unity indicated by the title, the subject of Book IX may be fairly described as mankind. It is true that language is the first topic, but it is brought in merely because Isidore believed that differences of race were based on differences of language. It is followed by a survey of the races of mankind, ending with an account of the races that had won military prominence. Isidore then turns to man within the state and treats of him first as a soldier and then as a citizen. Finally man is taken up as a member of the family, and an account of family relationship and of marriage is given.[321]
Chapter 1. On the languages of the nations.
1. The diversity of languages arose after the flood, at the building of the tower; for before that proud undertaking divided human society among different languages (in diversos signorum sonos) there was one tongue for all peoples, which is called Hebrew. This the patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but in the sacred writings as well. At first there were as many languages as peoples, then more peoples than languages, because many peoples sprang from one language.
3. There are three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and they are supreme through all the world. For it was in these three languages that the charge against the Lord was written above the cross by Pilate. Wherefore, because of the obscurity of the holy Scriptures, a knowledge of these three languages is necessary, in order that there may be recourse to a second if the expression in one of them leads to doubt of a word or its meaning.
4. But the Greek tongue is considered most famous amongthe tongues of the nations. For it is more resonant than the Latin and all other tongues, and its variety is discerned in its five divisions: of which the first is called κοινή, that is, debased or common, which all use.
5. The second is Attic, that is, the Athenian speech which all the writers of Greece used. The third is Doric, which the Egyptians have and the Sicilians. The fourth is Ionic. The fifth, Aeolic, which the Aeoles spoke. In observing the Greek tongue there are definite distinctions of this sort; for their language is divided in this way.
6. Certain have asserted that there are four Latin languages, namely, the early, the Latin, the Roman, the corrupted. The early is that which the oldest Italians used in the time of Janus and Saturn, a rude speech, as is shown in the songs of the Salii; the Latin, which they spoke in Latium under Latinus and the kings of Tuscia, in which the twelve tables were written.
7. The Roman, which began to be spoken by the Roman people after the kings were driven out, which was used by the poets Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, Virgilius, the orators Gracchus, Cato, Cicero, and the rest. The corrupted Latin, which, after the empire was extended more widely, burst into the Roman state along with customs and men, corrupting the soundness of speech by solecisms and barbarisms.
10. Every language, Greek, Latin, or of other nations, any man can grasp by hearing it, or can get from a teacher by reading. Though a knowledge of all languages is difficult for anyone, still no one is so sluggish that, situated as he is in his own nation, he should not know his own nation’s language. For what else is he to be thought except lower than the brute animals? For they make the sound that is proper to them, but he is worse who lacks a knowledge of his own language.
11. What sort of language God spoke at the beginning of the world when he said “Let there be light”, it is difficult to discover. For there were no languages yet. Likewise [it is hard to learn] in what tongue he spoke later to man’s external ear, especially when he spoke to the first man or to theprophets, or when God’s voice sounded corporally[322]as when he said, “Thou art my beloved son”, where it is believed by certain authorities that he used that one and single language that existed before there was a diversity of language. However among the different nations it is believed that God speaks to them in that same tongue which they themselves use, so as to be understood by them.
12. God speaks to men, not through the agency of invisible substance, but by an embodied being, in which form he has willed to appear to men when he has spoken. The Apostle says also: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”, where the question arises in what tongue angels speak. Not that angels have languages, but this is said figuratively.
13. Likewise it is asked what tongue men will speak in future. The answer is nowhere found....
14. And we have written first about tongues and later about nations for the reason that nations have arisen from tongues, not tongues from nations.
Chapter 2. On names of Nations.
2. The nations among whom the earth is divided are seventy-three. Fifteen from Japhet, thirty-one from Cham, twenty-seven from Sem, which make seventy-three, or rather, as calculation shows, seventy-two, and as many languages began to exist throughout the lands, and increasing they filled the provinces and islands.
9.... These[323]are the nationsof the stock of Sem, possessing the southern land from the sun-rise all the way to the Phoenicians.
25. ... These[323]are the nations of the stock of Cham, who hold all the southern part from Sidon all the way to the Strait of Cadiz.
37. These are the nations of the stock of Japhet, whichpossessed the half of Asia and all Europe as far as the British Ocean, leaving names to both places and peoples from Mt. Taurus to Aquilo, of which at a later time a great many were changed, but the rest remain as they were.
38. For the names of many peoples have remained in part, so that it is evident to-day whence they were derived, as the Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but they have changed in part, through length of time, so that the most learned men scanning the oldest histories have with difficulty been able to find the origins, not of all, but of some of them.
39. ... And if all things should be considered, it is evident that a greater number of peoples have changed their names than have kept them, and different reasons have imposed different names on them. For the Indi were so-called from the river Indus which bounds them on the west.
40. The Seres[324]obtained a name from their own town, a people lying toward the East, among whom wool taken from trees is woven.
89. The Goths are believed to have been named from Magog, son of Japhet, from the likeness of the last syllable. These the ancients called Getae, rather than Goths, a race brave and very powerful, of lofty massive stature, fear-inspiring in the matter of arms....
96. The Vindilicus is a river bursting forth in the extremity of Gaul, near which stream the Vandals are said to have dwelt, and to have derived their name from it.
97. The nations of Germany are so-called because their bodies are of monstrous size, and their tribes are terrible, being inured to the fiercest cold, and they have derived their characteristics from the rigor of the climate, of fierce spirit and always unconquerable, living on plunder and hunting. Of these there are very many tribes, varying in their armor and in the color of their dress and with different languages, andthe derivation of their names is doubtful.... The frightfulness of their barbarism contributes a certain fearfulness of sound to their very names.
100. The tribe of Saxons, dwelling on the shores of the Ocean and among pathless marshes, brave and active. And from this they get their name, because they are a hardy and very strong race of men, and one that surpasses other tribes in piracy.
101. It is believed that the Francs were so-called from a certain leader. Others think that their name comes from the savagery of their character. For their customs are uncouth, and they have a natural fierceness of spirit.
102. Certain suspect that the Britons were so-called according to the Latin because they are stupid (bruti), a people situated in the midst of the Ocean, separated by the sea, as it were, beyond the circle of lands.
105. In accordance with diversity of climate, the appearance of men and their color and bodily size vary and diversities of mind appear. Thence we see that the Romans are dignified, the Greeks unstable, the Africans crafty, the Gauls fierce by nature and somewhat headlong in their disposition, which the character of the climates brings about.
132. The Anthropophagi, a very fierce people, situated in the direction of the Seres. And they are named Anthropophagi because they eat human flesh. And just as in the case of these, so in the case of other peoples throughout the ages, names have been changed either because of kings, or countries, or customs, or some other causes, so that the first origin of their name is not evident, owing to distance of time.
133. Moreover those who are called Antipodes, because they are believed to be opposite to our feet, so that, being as it were placed beneath the earth, they tread in footsteps that are opposed to our feet. It is by no means to be believed, because neither the solid texture nor the center of the earth admits it. Besides, this is not established by any historical evidence, but the poets arrive at this conclusion by a sort of reasoning.
Chapter 3. On kingdoms and terms used in warfare.
2. Whole nations have enjoyed sovereignty each in its own turn, as the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, whose turns the lot of time so rolled around that one was destroyed by another. Amid all the kingdoms of the earth, however, two are said to be more glorious than the rest; that of the Assyrians first, then that of the Romans, being separated and distinguished from one another both in time and place.
3. For as the former was earlier and the latter later, so the former arose in the East and the latter in the West; finally at the destruction of the former the beginning of the latter immediately appeared. All other kingdoms and all other kings are regarded as appendages of these.