ABSTRACT
The Germania was published in all likelihood in 98, but contains material from sources of earlier decades; it is the most extensive source that has survived from classical antiquity on the customs and beliefs of the Germanic barbarians who lived east of the Roman province of Gaul. The text that is most often quoted as evidence for the attitude of the pagan Germanic tribes toward homosexuality is in the twelfth chapter: "Penalties are pro portional to the gravity of the offense; traitors and deserters they hang on a tree, the slothful and cowardly and sexually infamous (ignavos et imbelles et corpore infames) they drown in mud and swamps with a wicker basket placed over their heads." This passage has been interpreted as expressing an intolerance of homosex ual behavior that preceded any contact with the Christianity of the Mediterra nean world, but in fact the three Latin words express a single Germanic one, corresponding to Old Norse argr, which is a designation for the male who is in gen eral passive, cowardly, and effeminate; the penalty named is for cowardice and lack of manliness on the battlefield, not for sexual activity per se. However, rightwing circles in twentieth-century Germany conceived on the basis of this text the notion that their pagan ancestors pun ished homosexuals by drowning them.
