The personal appearance of these barbarians was as rude and simple as
were their manners. Says Tacitus:

“The clothing in use is a loose mantle, made fast with a clasp, or, when
that cannot be had, with a thorn. Naked in other respects, they loiter
away whole days by the fireside. The rich wear a garment, not, indeed,
displayed and flowing, like the Parthians or the people of Sarmatia,
but drawn so tight that the form of the limbs is palpably expressed. The
skins of wild animals are also much in use. Near the frontier, on the
borders of the Rhine, the inhabitants wear them, but with an air of
neglect that shows them altogether indifferent about the choice, The
people who live more remote, near the northern seas, and have not
acquired by commerce a taste for new-fashioned apparel, are more curious
in the selection. They choose particular beasts and, having stripped
off the furs, clothe themselves with the spoil, decorated with
parti-coloured spots, or fragments taken from the skins of fish that
swim the ocean as yet unexplored by the Romans. In point of dress there
is no distinction between the sexes, except that the garment of the
women is frequently made of linen, adorned with purple stains, but
without sleeves, leaving the arms and part of the bosom uncovered.”

The Germanic Tribes

It is also from Tacitus that we glean what were the names and
descriptions of those tribes who occupied the territory adjacent to the
Rhine. The basin of the river between Strassburg and Mainz was inhabited
by the Tribacci, Nemetes, and Vangiones, further south by the Matiacci
near Wiesbaden, and the Ubii in the district of Cologne. Further north
lay the Sugambri, and the delta of the river in the Low Countries was
the seat of the brave Batavii, from whom came the bulk of the legions by