Germ. 2.1Ipsōs Germānōs indigenās crēdiderim minimēque aliārum gentium adventibus et hospitiīs mīxtōs, quia nec terrā ōlim sed classibus advehēbantur quī mūtāre sēdēs quaerēbant, et immēnsus ultrā utque sīc dīxerim adversus Oceanus rārīs ab orbe nostrō nāvibus aditur.The Germans themselves I should judge to be native to the soil and very little mixed by arrivals and visits from other races, because in former times those who sought to change their homes came not by land but on fleets, and the Ocean beyond, boundless and, so to speak, hostile, is visited by few ships from our world. Germ. 2.2Quis porrō, praeter perīculum horridī et ignōtī maris, Asiā aut Āfricā aut Ītaliā relictā Germāniam peteret, īnfōrmem terrīs, asperam caelō, trīstem cultū aspectūque nisi sī patria sit?Who, besides, apart from the danger of a rough and unknown sea, would leave Asia or Africa or Italy and make for Germany, shapeless in its lands, harsh in its climate, grim to live in and to look upon, unless it were his fatherland? Germ. 2.3Celebrant carminibus antīquīs, quod ūnum apud illōs memoriae et annālium genus est, Tuistōnem deum terrā ēditum.In ancient songs, which are the only kind of record and annals among them, they celebrate Tuisto, a god born from the earth.
Germ. 2.3Eī fīlium Mannum orīginem gentis conditōrēsque Mannō trēs fīliōs adsignant, ē quōrum nōminibus proximī Oceanō Ingaevonēs, mediī Hermīnonēs, cēterī Istaevonēs vocentur.To him they assign a son, Mannus, as the origin and founder of the race, and to Mannus three sons, from whose names those nearest the Ocean are called Ingaevones, those in the middle Herminones, and the rest Istaevones. Germ. 2.4Quīdam, ut in licentiā vetustātis, plūrēs deō ortōs plūrēsque gentis appellātiōnēs, Marsōs Gambriviōs Suēbōs Vandiliōs adfirmant, eaque vēra et antīqua nōmina.Some, as happens in the freedom of antiquity, assert that more sons were born to the god and that there are more names of the race, Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi, Vandilii, and that these are the true and ancient names. Germ. 2.5Cēterum Germāniae vocābulum recēns et nūper additum, quoniam quī prīmī Rhēnum trānsgressī Gallōs expulerint ac nunc Tungrī, tunc Germānī vocātī sint: ita nātiōnis nōmen, nōn gentis, ēvaluisse paulātim, ut omnēs prīmum ā victōre ob metum, mox et ā sē ipsīs inventō nōmine Germānī vocārentur.But the name of Germany, they say, is recent and lately applied, since those who first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungri, were then called Germans: thus the name of a tribe, not of a race, gradually prevailed, so that all were called Germans, first by the victor to inspire fear, and soon by themselves too, once the name had been found.