Now, that our friendly alliance may be ratified for all
eternity, we demand of you that you pull down those bulwarks of
slavery, the walls of your town, for even wild beasts lose their
spirit if you keep them caged: that you put to the sword every Roman
on your soil, since tyrants are incompatible with freedom; that all
the property of those killed form a common stock and no one be
allowed to conceal anything or to secure any private advantage. It
must also be open both for us and for you to live on either
river-bank, as our forefathers could in earlier days. As daylight is
the natural heritage of all mankind, so the land of the world is free
to all brave men. Resume again the customs and manners of your own
country and throw off those luxurious habits which enslave Rome's
subjects far more effectively than Roman arms. Then, grown simple and
uncorrupt, you will forget your past slavery and either know none but
equals or hold empire over others.'
The townspeople took time to consider these proposals, and, 65
feeling that their apprehensions for the future forbade them to
assent, while their present circumstances forbade them to return a
plain negative, they answered as follows: 'We have seized our first
opportunity of freedom with more haste than prudence, because we
wanted to join hands with you and all our other German kinsmen. As for
our town-walls, seeing that the Roman armies are massing at this
moment, it would be safer for us to heighten them than to pull them
down.
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