Sources

Germania

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Germania." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/germania.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Germania. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/germania

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-germania,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Germania},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/germania},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Germania is the Roman historian Tacitus's own ethnographic account of the Germanic peoples, written around 98 CE, and its tenth chapter describes a Germanic lot-casting divination rite using marked strips cut from a fruit-bearing tree. As Tacitus's own text it is the correct primary source for this early Roman description, in the historian's own words, rather than a later retelling. Its limit is significant and specific, Tacitus calls the marks notae, ordinary signs, and never uses the word rune or describes anything resembling the later runic alphabet, and he was writing at least two centuries before the earliest securely dated runic inscriptions, so a claim asserting this passage describes runes specifically overstates what the primary text actually says.

Facts

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Tacitus's Germania, a first century CE Roman primary account describing a Germanic lot casting rite using marked wooden strips; Tacitus calls the marks notae rather than runes, writing at least two centuries before the earliest securely dated runic inscriptions.

Notes

Chapter 10 describes a Germanic lot-casting rite using marked strips cut from a fruit-bearing tree. Tacitus calls the marks notae. He does not say they were runes, and he was writing at least two centuries before the earliest securely dated runic inscriptions.

Citation

Author

Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Publication Year

Source Type

primary-text

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Germanic Peoples

This source names Germanic Peoples directly: "own ethnographic account of the Germanic peoples, written around 98 CE, and its tenth chapter describes a Germanic lot-casting divination rite using marked strips cut from a fruit-bearing tree."

Source GermaniaPublius Cornelius Tacitus

Claims Backed By This Source (45 claims)

This source backs 45 claims across the atlas. As facts: 20 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 9 holds, 1 connected. Plus 13 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Deities, 13 claims: 3 well-attested, 5 holds, 5 general references.
Sacred Sites, 12 claims: 5 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 3 holds, 2 general references.
Articles, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 connected, 1 general references.
Sources, 7 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 holds.
Subcategories, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Cultures, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Historical Figures, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Language Families, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Runes, 1 claims: 1 general references.