Germania 44

1Next come the states of the Suiones, in the Ocean itself, which besides men and arms are strong in fleets. 1The shape of their ships differs in that a prow at either end presents a front always ready for putting in to land. 1They neither work them with sails nor fix oars in rows along the sides: the oarage is loose, as on some rivers, and can be shifted, as the situation demands, to this side or that. 2Among them wealth too is held in honour, and therefore one man rules, now with no restrictions, with no precarious right to obedience. 3Nor are arms, as among the other Germans, open to all, but locked away under a guard, and that a slave, because the Ocean prevents sudden incursions by enemies, while idle hands with arms easily grow unruly: indeed, it is not in a king's interest to put a noble or a freeborn man, or even a freedman, in charge of the arms.