No More Learning

The Cheruscans indeed were
addicted to assist the Cattans, but terrified from attempting it by
Caecina, who moved about with his forces from place to place; and by
routing the Marsians who had dared to engage him, restrained all their
efforts.

Soon after arrived deputies from Segestes, praying relief against
the combination and violence of his countrymen, by whom he was held
besieged; as more powerful amongst them than his was the credit of
Arminius, since it was he who had advised the war. The genius this of
barbarians, to judge that men are to be trusted in proportion as they
are fierce, and in public commotions ever to prefer the most resolute.
To the other deputies Segestes had added Segimundus, his son; but the
young man faltered a while, as his own heart accused him; for that
the year when Germany revolted, he, who had been by the Romans created
Priest of the altar of the Ubians, rent the sacerdotal tiara and fled to
the revolters: yet, encouraged by the Roman clemency, he undertook the
execution of his father's orders, was himself graciously received, and
then conducted with a guard to the frontiers of Gaul. Germanicus led
back his army to the relief of Segestes, and was rewarded with success.
He fought the besiegers, and rescued him with a great train of his
relations and followers; amongst them too were ladies of illustrious
rank, particularly the wife of Arminius, the same who was the daughter
of Segestes: a lady more of the spirit of her husband than that of her
father; a spirit so unsubdued, that from her eyes captivity forced not
a tear, nor from her lips a breath in the style of a supplicant: not a
motion of her hands, nor a look escaped her; but, fast across her breast
she held her arms, and upon her heavy womb her eyes were immovably
fixed. There were likewise carried Roman spoils taken at the slaughter
of Varus and his army, and then divided as prey amongst many of those
who were now prisoners: at the same time appeared Segestes, of superior
stature; and from a confidence in his good understanding with the
Romans, undaunted. In this manner he spoke:

"It is not the first day this, that to the Roman People I have approved
my faith and adherence: from the moment I was by the deified Augustus
presented with the freedom of the city, I have continued by your
interest to choose my friends, by your interest to denominate my
enemies; from no hate of mine to my native country (for odious are
traitors even to the party they embrace), but because the same measures
were equally conducing to the benefit of the Romans and of the Germans;
and I was rather for peace than war. For this reason to Varus, the then
General, I applied, with an accusation against Arminius, who from me had
ravished my daughter, and with you violated the faith of leagues: but
growing impatient with the slowness and inactivity of Varus, and well
apprised how little security was to be hoped from the laws, I pressed
him to seize myself, and Arminius, and his accomplices: witness that
fatal night, to me I wish it had been the last! more to be lamented than
defended are the sad events which followed. I moreover cast Arminius
into irons, and was myself cast into irons by his faction; and as soon
as to you, Caesar, I could apply, you see I prefer old engagements to
present violence, and tranquillity to combustions, with no view of
my own to interest or reward, but to banish from me the imputation
of perfidiousness. For the German nation, too, I would thus become a
mediator, if peradventure they will choose rather to repent than be
destroyed: for my son, I intreat you, have mercy upon his youth, and
pardon his error; that my daughter is your prisoner by force I own: in
your breast it wholly lies under which character you will treat her,
whether as one by Arminius impregnated, or by me begotten. " The answer
of Germanicus was gracious: he promised indemnity to his children and
kindred, and to himself a safe retreat in one of the old provinces; then
returned with his army, and by the direction of Tiberius, received the
title of _Imperator_. The wife of Arminius brought forth a male child,
and the boy was brought up at Ravenna; his unhappy conflicts afterwards,
with the contumelious insults of fortune, will be remembered in their
place.

The desertion of Segestes being divulged, with his gracious reception
from Germanicus, affected his countrymen variously; with hope or
anguish, as they were prone or averse to the war. Naturally violent was
the spirit of Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, by the
fate of his child doomed to bondage though yet unborn, enraged even to
distraction: he flew about amongst the Cheruscans, calling them to arms;
to arm against Segestes, to arm against Germanicus. Invectives followed
his fury; "A blessed father this Segestes," he cried! "a mighty general
this Germanicus! invincible warriors these Romans! so many troops have
made prisoner of a woman. It is not thus that I conquer; before me three
legions fell, and three lieutenant-generals. Open and honourable is my
method of war, nor waged with big-bellied women, but against men and
arms; and treason is none of my weapons. Still to be seen are the Roman
standards in the German groves, there by me hung up and devoted to our
country Gods. Let Segestes live a slave in a conquered province; let him
to his son recover a foreign priesthood: with the German nations he can
never obliterate his reproach, that through him they have seen between
the Elbe and Rhine rods and axes, and the Roman toga. To other nations
who know not the Roman domination, executions and tributes are also
unknown; evils which we too have cast off, in spite of that Augustus now
dead and enrolled with the Deities; in spite too of Tiberius, his
chosen successor: let us not after this dread a mutinous army, and a boy
without experience, their commander; but if you love your country, your
kindred, your ancient liberty and laws, better than tyrants and new
colonies, let Arminius rather lead you to liberty and glory, than the
wicked Segestes to the infamy of bondage. "

By these stimulations, not the Cheruscans only were roused, but all the
neighbouring nations; and into the confederacy was drawn Inguiomerus,
paternal uncle to Arminius, a man long since in high credit with the
Romans: hence a new source of fear to Germanicus, who, to avoid the
shock of their whole forces, and to divert the enemy, sent Caecina with
forty Roman cohorts to the river Amisia, [Footnote: Ems. ] through the
territories of the Bructerans. Pedo the Prefect led the cavalry by the
confines of the Frisians: he himself, on the lake, [Footnote: The Zuyder
Zee. ] embarked four legions; and upon the bank of the said river the
whole body met, foot, horse, and fleet. The Chaucians, upon offering
their assistance, were taken into the service; but the Bructerans,
setting fire to their effects and dwellings, were routed by Stertinius,
by Germanicus despatched against them with a band lightly armed. As this
party were engaged between slaughter and plunder, he found the Eagle of
the nineteenth legion lost in the overthrow of Varus. The army marched
next to the farthest borders of the Bructerans, and the whole country
between the rivers Amisia and Luppia [Footnote: Lippe. ] was laid waste.
Not far hence lay the forest of Teutoburgium, and in it the bones of
Varus and the legions, by report still unburied.

Hence Germanicus became inspired with a tender passion to pay the
last offices to the legions and their leader; the like tenderness also
affected the whole army. They were moved with compassion, some for
the fate of their friends, others for that of their relations here
tragically slain; they were struck with the doleful casualties of war,
and the sad lot of humanity. Caecina was sent before to examine the
gloomy recesses of the forest; to lay bridges over the pools; and upon
the deceitful marshes, causeways. The army entered the doleful solitude,
hideous to sight, hideous to memory. First they saw the camp of Varus,
wide in circumference; and the three distinct spaces, allotted to the
different Eagles, showed the number of the legions. Further, they
beheld the ruinous entrenchment, and the ditch nigh choked up: in it the
remains of the army were supposed to have made their last effort, and
in it to have found their graves. In the open fields lay their bones
all bleached and bare, some separate, some on heaps; just as they had
happened to fall, flying for their lives, or resisting unto death. Here
were scattered the limbs of horses, there pieces of broken javelins; and
the trunks of trees bore the skulls of men. In the adjacent groves were
the savage altars; where, of the tribunes and principal centurions,
the barbarians had made a horrible immolation. Those who survived the
slaughter, having escaped from captivity and the sword, related the sad
particulars to the rest: "Here the commanders of the legions were slain;
there we lost the Eagles; here Varus had his first wound; there he gave
himself another, and perished by his own unhappy hand. In that place,
too, stood the tribunal whence Arminius harangued; in this quarter, for
the execution of his captives, he erected so many gibbets; in that such
a number of funeral trenches were digged; and with these circumstances
of pride and despite he insulted the ensigns and Eagles. "

Thus the Roman army buried the bones of the three legions, six years
after the slaughter: nor could any one distinguish whether he gathered
the particular remains of a stranger, or those of a kinsman; but all
considered the whole as their friends, the whole as their relations;
with heightened resentments against the foe, at once sad and revengeful.
In this pious office, so acceptable to the dead, Germanicus was a
partner in the woe of the living; and upon the common tomb laid the
first sod: a proceeding not liked by Tiberius; whether it were that upon
every action of Germanicus he put a perverse meaning, or believed that
the affecting spectacle of the unburied slain would sink the spirit
of the army, and heighten their terror of the enemy; as also that "a
general vested, as Augur, with the intendency of religious rites, became
defiled by touching the solemnities of the dead. "

Arminius, retiring into desert and pathless places, was pursued by
Germanicus; who, as soon as he reached him, commanded the horse to
advance, and dislodge the enemy from the post they had possessed.
Arminius, having directed his men to keep close together, and draw near
to the woods, wheeled suddenly about, and to those whom he had hid in
the forest gave the signal to rush out: the Roman horse, now engaged
by a new army, became disordered, and to their relief some cohorts were
sent, but likewise broken by the press of those that fled; and great
was the consternation so many ways increased. The enemy too were already
pushing them into the morass, a place well known to the pursuers, as to
the unapprised Romans it had proved pernicious, had not Germanicus drawn
out the legions in order of battle. Hence the enemy became terrified,
our men reassured, and both retired with equal loss and advantage.
Germanicus presently after returning with the army to the river Amisia,
reconducted the legions, as he had brought them, in the fleet: part
of the horse were ordered to march along the sea-shore to the Rhine.
Caecina, who led his own men, was warned, that though he was to return
through unknown roads, yet he should with all speed pass the causeway
called the long bridges: it is a narrow track this, between vast
marshes, and formerly raised by Lucius Domitius. The marshes themselves
are of an uncertain soil, here full of mud, there of heavy sticking
clay, or traversed with various currents. Round about are woods which
rise gently from the plain, and were already filled with soldiers by
Arminius; who, by shorter ways and a running march, had arrived there
before our men, who were loaded with arms and baggage. Caecina, who was
perplexed how at once to repair the causeway decayed by time, and to
repulse the foe, resolved at last to encamp in the place, that whilst
some were employed in the work, others might maintain the fight.

The Barbarians strove violently to break our station, and to fall upon
the entrenchers: they harassed our men, assaulted the works, changed
their attacks, and pushed everywhere. With the shouts of the assailants,
the cries of the workmen were confusedly mixed; and all things equally
combined to distress the Romans: the place deep with ooze sinking under
those who stood, slippery to such as advanced; their armour heavy;
the waters deep, nor could they in them launch their javelins. The
Cheruscans, on the contrary, were inured to encounters in the bogs;
their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a
distance. At last the legions, already yielding, were by night redeemed
from an unequal combat; but night interrupted not the activity of the
Germans, become by success indefatigable. Without refreshing themselves
with sleep, they diverted all the courses of the springs which rise in
the neighbouring mountains, and turned them into the plains: thus
the Roman camp was flooded, the work, as far as they had carried it,
overturned, and the labour of the poor soldiers renewed and doubled. To
Caecina this year proved the fortieth of his sustaining as officer or
soldier the functions of arms; a man in all the vicissitudes of war,
prosperous or disastrous, well experienced and thence undaunted.
Weighing, therefore, with himself all probable events and expedients, he
could devise no other than that of restraining the enemy to the woods,
till he had sent forward the wounded men and baggage; for, from the
mountains to the marshes there stretched a plain fit only to hold a
little army: to this purpose the legions were thus appointed; the fifth
had the right wing, and the one-and-twentieth the left; the first led
the van; the twentieth defended the rear.

A restless night it was to both armies, but in different ways; the
Barbarians feasted and caroused, and with songs of triumph, or with
horrid and threatening cries, filled all the plain and echoing woods.
Amongst the Romans were feeble fires, sad silence, or broken words;
they leaned drooping here and there against the pales, or wandered
disconsolately about the tents, like men without sleep, but not quite
awake. A frightful dream too terrified the General; he thought he heard
and saw Quinctilius Varus, rising out of the marsh all besmeared with
blood, stretching forth his hand, and calling upon him; but that he
rejected the call and pushed him away. At break of day, the legions
posted on the wings, through contumacy or affright, deserted their
stations, and took sudden possession of a field beyond the bogs. Neither
did Arminius fall straight upon them, however open they lay to his
assault; but, when he perceived the baggage set fast in mire and
ditches, the soldiers above it disorderly and embarrassed, the ranks and
ensigns in confusion, and, as usual in a time of distress, every one in
haste to save himself, but slow to obey his officer, he then commanded
his Germans to break in, "Behold," he vehemently cried; "behold again
Varus and his legions subdued by the same fate. " Thus he cried, and
instantly with a select body broke quite through our forces, and chiefly
against the horse directed his havoc; so that the ground becoming
slippery by their blood and the slime of the marsh, their feet flew from
them, and they cast their riders; then galloping and stumbling amongst
the ranks, they overthrew all they met, and trod to death all they
overthrew. The greatest difficulty was to maintain the Eagles; a storm
of darts made it impossible to advance them, and the rotten ground
impossible to fix them. Caecina, while he sustained the fight, had his
horse shot, and having fallen was nigh taken; but the first legion
saved him. Our relief came from the greediness of the enemy, who ceased
slaying to seize the spoil: hence the legions had respite to struggle
into the fair field and firm ground. Nor was here an end of their
miseries: a palisade was to be raised, an entrenchment digged; their
instruments too for throwing up and carrying earth, and their tools
for cutting turf, were almost all lost; no tents for the soldiers; no
remedies for the wounded; and their food all defiled with mire or blood.
As they shared it in sadness amongst them, they lamented that mournful
night, they lamented the approaching day, to so many thousand men the
last.

It happened that a horse, which had broke his collar as he strayed
about, became frightened with noise, and ran over some that were in his
way: this raised such a consternation in the camp, from a persuasion
that the Germans in a body had forced an entrance, that all rushed to
the gates, especially to the postern, as the farthest from the foe, and
safer for flight. Caecina having found the vanity of their dread, but
unable to stop them, either by his authority, or by his prayers, or
indeed by force, flung himself at last across the gate. This prevailed;
their awe and tenderness of their General restrained them from running
over his body; and the Tribunes and Centurions satisfied them the while,
that it was a false alarm.

Then calling them together, and desiring them to hear him with silence,
he reminded them of their difficulties, and how to conquer them: "That
for their lives they must be indebted to their arms, but force was to
be tempered with art; they must therefore keep close within their camp,
till the enemy, in hopes of taking it by storm, advanced; then make a
sudden sally on every side, and by this push they should break through
the enemy, and reach the Rhine. But if they fled, more forests remained
to be traversed, deeper marshes to be passed, and the cruelty of a
pursuing foe to be sustained. " He laid before them the motives and
fruits of victory, public rewards and glory, with every tender domestic
consideration, as well as those of military exploits and praise. Of
their dangers and sufferings he said nothing. He next distributed
horses, first his own, then those of the Tribunes and leaders of the
legions, to the bravest soldiers impartially; that thus mounted they
might begin the charge, followed by the foot.

Amongst the Germans there was not less agitation, from hopes of victory,
greediness of spoil, and the opposite counsels of their leaders.
Arminius proposed "to let the Romans march off, and to beset them
in their march, when engaged in bogs and fastnesses. " The advice of
Inguiomerus was fiercer, and thence by the Barbarians more applauded:
he declared "for forcing the camp, for that the victory would be quick,
there would be more captives, and entire plunder. " As soon, therefore,
as it was light, they rushed out upon the camp, cast hurdles into
the ditch, attacked and grappled the palisade. Upon it few soldiers
appeared, and these seemed frozen with fear; but as the enemy was in
swarms, climbing the ramparts, the signal was given to the cohorts;
the cornets and trumpets sounded, and instantly, with shouts and
impetuosity, they issued out and begirt the assailants. "Here are no
thickets," they scornfully cried; "no bogs; but an equal field and
impartial Gods. " The enemy, who imagined few Romans remaining, fewer
arms, and an easy conquest, were struck with the sounding trumpets, with
the glittering armour; and every object of terror appeared double to
them who expected none. They fell like men who, as they are void of
moderation in prosperity, are also destitute of conduct in distress.
Arminius forsook the fight unhurt; Inguiomerus grievously wounded; their
men were slaughtered as long as day and rage lasted. In the evening the
legions returned, in the same want of provisions, and with more wounds;
but in victory they found all things, health, vigour, and abundance.

In the meantime a report had flown, that the Roman forces were routed,
and an army of Germans upon full march to invade Gaul; so that under
the terror of this news there were those whose cowardice would have
emboldened them to have demolished the bridge upon the Rhine, had not
Agrippina restrained them from that infamous attempt. In truth, such was
the undaunted spirit of the woman, that at this time she performed all
the duties of a general, relieved the necessitous soldiers, upon the
wounded bestowed medicines, and upon others clothes. Caius Plinius,
the writer of the German wars, relates that she stood at the end of
the bridge, as the legions returned, and accosted them with thanks and
praises; a behaviour which sunk deep into the spirit of Tiberius: "For
that all this officiousness of hers," he thought, "could not be upright;
nor that it was against foreigners only she engaged the army. To the
direction of the generals nothing was now left, when a woman reviewed
the companies, attended the Eagles, and to the men distributed
largesses: as if before she had shown but small tokens of ambitious
designs, in carrying her child (the son of the General) in a soldier's
coat about the camp, with the title of Caesar Caligula: already in
greater credit with the army was Agrippina than the leaders of the
legions, in greater than their generals; and a woman had suppressed
sedition, which the authority of the Emperor was not able to restrain. "
These jealousies were inflamed, and more were added, by Sejanus; one who
was well skilled in the temper of Tiberius, and purposely furnished him
with sources of hatred, to lie hid in his heart, and be discharged with
increase hereafter. Germanicus, in order to lighten the ships in which
he had embarked his men, and fit their burden to the ebbs and shallows,
delivered the second and fourteenth legions to Publius Vitellius, to
lead them by land. Vitellius at first had an easy march on dry ground,
or ground moderately overflowed by the tide, when suddenly the fury of
the north wind swelling the ocean (a constant effect of the equinox) the
legions were surrounded and tossed with the tide, and the land was all
on flood; the sea, the shore, the fields, had the same tempestuous face;
no distinction of depths from shallows; none of firm, from deceitful,
footing. They were overturned by the billows, swallowed down by the
eddies; and horses, baggage, and drowned men encountered each other,
and floated together. The several companies were mixed at random by
the waves; they waded, now breast high, now up to the chin, and as the
ground failed them, they fell, some never more to rise. Their cries and
mutual encouragements availed them nothing against the prevailing and
inexorable waves; no difference between the coward and the brave, the
wise and the foolish; none between circumspection and chance; but
all were equally involved in the invincible violence of the flood.
Vitellius, at length struggling on to an eminence, drew the legions
thither, where they passed the cold night without fire, and destitute of
every convenience; most of them naked or lamed; not less miserable than
men enclosed by an enemy; for even to such remained the consolation of
an honourable death; but here was destruction every way void of glory.
The land returned with the day, and they marched to the river Vidrus,
[Footnote: Weser. ] whither Germanicus had gone with the fleet. There the
two legions were again embarked, when fame had given them for drowned;
nor was their escape believed till Germanicus and the army were seen to
return.

Stertinius, who in the meanwhile had been sent before to receive
Sigimerus, the brother of Segestes (a prince willing to surrender
himself) brought him and his son to the city of the Ubians. Both were
pardoned; the father freely, the son with more difficulty, because he
was said to have insulted the corpse of Varus. For the rest, Spain,
Italy, and both the Gauls strove with emulation to supply the losses of
the army; and offered arms, horses, money, according as each abounded.
Germanicus applauded their zeal; but accepted only the horses and
arms for the service of the war. With his own money he relieved the
necessities of the soldiers: and to soften also by his kindness the
memory of the late havoc, he visited the wounded, extolled the exploits
of particulars, viewed their wounds, with hopes encouraged some, with
a sense of glory animated others; and by affability and tenderness
confirmed them all in devotion to himself and to his fortune in war.

The ornaments of triumph were this year decreed to Aulus Caecina, Lucius
Apronius, and Caius Silius, for their services under Germanicus. The
title of Father of his Country, so often offered by the people to
Tiberius, was rejected by him; nor would he permit swearing upon his
acts, though the same was voted by the Senate. Against it he urged "the
instability of all mortal things, and that the higher he was raised
the more slippery he stood. " But for all this ostentation of a popular
spirit, he acquired not the reputation of possessing it, for he had
revived the law concerning violated majesty; a law which, in the days
of our ancestors, had indeed the same name, but implied different
arraignments and crimes, namely, those against the State; as when an
army was betrayed abroad, when seditions were raised at home; in short,
when the public was faithlessly administered and the majesty of the
Roman People was debased: these were actions, and actions were punished,
but words were free. Augustus was the first who brought libels under the
penalties of this wrested law, incensed as he was by the insolence of
Cassius Severus, who had in his writings wantonly defamed men and ladies
of illustrious quality. Tiberius too afterwards, when Pompeius Macer,
the Praetor, consulted him "whether process should be granted upon
this law? " answered, "That the laws must be executed. " He also
was exasperated by satirical verses written by unknown authors and
dispersed; exposing his cruelty, his pride, and his mind naturally
alienated from his mother.

It will be worth while to relate here the pretended crimes charged upon
Falanius and Rubrius, two Roman knights of small fortunes; that hence
may be seen from what beginnings, and by how much dark art of Tiberius,
this grievous mischief crept in; how it was again restrained; how at
last it blazed out and consumed all things. To Falanius was objected
by his accusers, that "amongst the adorers of Augustus, who went in
fraternities from house to house, he had admitted one Cassius, a mimic
and prostitute; and having sold his gardens, had likewise with them sold
the statue of Augustus. " The crime imputed to Rubrius was, "That he had
sworn falsely by the divinity of Augustus. " When these accusations
were known to Tiberius, he wrote to the consuls, "That Heaven was not
therefore decreed to his father, that the worship of him might be a
snare to the citizens of Rome; that Cassius, the player, was wont to
assist with others of his profession at the interludes consecrated by
his mother to the memory of Augustus: neither did it affect religion,
that his effigies, like other images of the Gods, were comprehended in
the sale of houses and gardens. As to the false swearing by his name,
it was to be deemed the same as if Rubrius had profaned the name of
Jupiter; but to the Gods belonged the avenging of injuries done to the
Gods. "

Not long after, Granius Marcellus, Praetor of Bithynia, was charged with
high treason by his own Quaestor, Cepio Crispinus; Romanus Hispo, the
pleader, supporting the charge. This Cepio began a course of life which,
through the miseries of the times and the bold wickedness of men, became
afterwards famous: at first needy and obscure, but of a busy spirit,
he made court to the cruelty of the Prince by occult informations; and
presently, as an open accuser, grew terrible to every distinguished
Roman. This procured him credit with one, hatred from all, and made a
precedent to be followed by others, who from poverty became rich; from
being contemned, dreadful; and in the destruction which they brought
upon others, found at last their own. He accused Marcellus of "malignant
words concerning Tiberius," an inevitable crime! when the accuser,
collecting all the most detestable parts of the Prince's character,
alleged them as the expressions of the accused; for, because they were
true, they were believed to have been spoken. To this, Hispo added,
"That the statue of Marcellus was by him placed higher than those of the
Caesars; and that, having cut off the head of Augustus, he had in the
room of it set the head of Tiberius. " This enraged him so, that breaking
silence, he cried, "He would himself, in this cause, give his vote
explicitly and under the tie of an oath. " By this he meant to force the
assent of the rest of the Senate. There remained even then some faint
traces of expiring liberty. Hence Cneius Piso asked him, "In what place,
Caesar, will you choose to give your opinion? If first, I shall have
your example to follow; if last, I fear I may ignorantly dissent from
you. " The words pierced him, but he bore them, the rather as he was
ashamed of his unwary transport; and he suffered the accused to be
acquitted of high treason. To try him for the public money was referred
to the proper judges.

Nor sufficed it Tiberius to assist in the deliberations of the Senate
only: he likewise sat in the seats of justice; but always on one side,
because he would not dispossess the Praetor of his chair; and by his
presence there, many ordinances were established against the intrigues
and solicitations of the Grandees. But while private justice was thus
promoted, public liberty was overthrown. About this time, Pius Aurelius,
the Senator, whose house, yielding to the pressure of the public road
and aqueducts, had fallen, complained to the Senate and prayed relief:
a suit opposed by the Praetors who managed the treasury; but he was
relieved by Tiberius, who ordered him the price of his house; for he
was fond of being liberal upon honest occasions: a virtue which he long
retained, even after he had utterly abandoned all other virtues. Upon
Propertius Celer, once Praetor, but now desiring leave to resign the
dignity of Senator, as a burden to his poverty, he bestowed a thousand
great sesterces; [Footnote: £8333. ] upon ample information, that Celer's
necessities were derived from his father. Others, who attempted the same
thing, he ordered to lay their condition before the Senate; and from
an affectation of severity was thus austere even where he acted with
uprightness. Hence the rest preferred poverty and silence to begging and
relief.

The same year the Tiber, being swelled with continual rains, overflowed
the level parts of the city; and the common destruction of men and
houses followed the returning flood. Hence Asinius Callus moved "that
the Sibylline books might be consulted. " Tiberius opposed it, equally
smothering all inquiries whatsoever, whether into matters human or
divine. To Ateius Capito, however, and Lucius Arruntius, was committed
the care of restraining the river within its banks. The provinces of
Achaia and Macedon, praying relief from their public burdens, were for
the present discharged of their Proconsular government, and subjected to
the Emperor's lieutenants. In the entertainment of gladiators at Rome,
Drusus presided: it was exhibited in the name of Germanicus, and his
own; and at it he manifested too much lust of blood, even of the blood
of slaves: a quality terrible to the populace; and hence his father
was said to have reproved him. His own absence from these shows was
variously construed: by some it was ascribed to his impatience of a
crowd; by others to his reserved and solitary genius, and his fear of
an unequal comparison with Augustus, who was wont to be a cheerful
spectator. But, that he thus purposely furnished matter for exposing the
cruelty of his son there, and for raising him popular hate, is what I
would not believe; though this too was asserted.

The dissensions of the theatre, begun last year, broke out now more
violently, with the slaughter of several, not of the people only, but of
the soldiers, with that of a Centurion. Nay, a Tribune of a Praetorian
cohort was wounded, whilst they were securing the magistrates from
insults, and quelling the licentiousness of the rabble. This riot was
canvassed in the Senate, and votes were passing for empowering the
Praetors to whip the players. Haterius Agrippa, Tribune of the People,
opposed it; and was sharply reprimanded by a speech of Asinius Gallus.
Tiberius was silent, and to the Senate allowed these empty apparitions
of liberty. The opposition, however, prevailed, in reverence to the
authority of Augustus; who, upon a certain occasion, had given his
judgment, "that players were exempt from stripes:" nor would Tiberius
assume to violate any words of his. To limit the wages of players, and
restrain the licentiousness of their partisans, many decrees were made:
the most remarkable were, "That no Senator should enter the house of a
pantomime; no Roman Knight attend them abroad; they should show nowhere
but in the theatre; and the Praetors should have power to punish any
insolence in the spectators with exile. "

The Spaniards were, upon their petition, permitted to build a temple
to Augustus in the colony of Tarragon; an example this for all the
provinces to follow. In answer to the people, who prayed to be relieved
from the _centesima_, a tax of one in the hundred, established at the
end of the civil wars, upon all vendible commodities; Tiberius by an
edict declared, "That upon this tax depended the fund for maintaining
the army; nor even thus was the Commonwealth equal to the expense, if
before their twentieth year the veterans were dismissed. " So that
the concessions made them during the late sedition, to discharge
them finally at the end of sixteen years, as they were made through
necessity, were for the future abolished.

It was next proposed to the Senate, by Arruntius and Ateius, whether,
in order to restrain the overflowing of the Tiber, the channels of the
several rivers and lakes by which it was swelled, must not be diverted.
Upon this question the deputies of several cities and colonies were
heard. The Florentines besought, "that the bed of the Clanis [Footnote:
Chiana. ] might not be turned into their river Arnus; [Footnote: Arno. ]
for that the same would prove their utter ruin. " The like plea was urged
by the Interamnates; [Footnote: Terni. ] "since the most fruitful plains
in Italy would be lost, if, according to the project, the Nar, branched
out into rivulets, overflowed them. " Nor were the Reatinians less
earnest against stopping the outlets of the Lake Velinus into the Nar;
"otherwise," they said, "it would break over its banks, and stagnate all
the adjacent country; the direction of nature was best in all natural
things: it was she that to rivers had appointed their courses and
discharges, and set them their limits as well as their sources. Regard
too was to be paid to the religion of our Latin allies, who, esteeming
the rivers of their country sacred, had to them dedicated Priests, and
altars, and groves; nay, the Tiber himself, when bereft of his auxiliary
streams, would flow with diminished grandeur. " Now, whether it were
that the prayers of the colonies, or the difficulty of the work, or the
influence of superstition prevailed, it is certain the opinion of Piso
was followed; namely, that nothing should be altered,

To Poppeus Sabinus was continued his province of Mesia; and to it was
added that of Achaia and Macedon. This too was part of the politics of
Tiberius, to prolong governments, and maintain the same men in the same
armies, or civil employments, for the most part, to the end of
their lives; with what view, is not agreed. Some think "that from an
impatience of returning cares, he was for making whatever he once liked
perpetual. " Others, "that from the malignity of his invidious nature, he
regretted the preferring of many. " There are some who believe, "that
as he had a crafty penetrating spirit, so he had an understanding ever
irresolute and perplexed. " So much is certain, that he never courted any
eminent virtue, yet hated vice; from the best men he dreaded danger
to himself, and disgrace to the public from the worst. This hesitation
mastered him so much at last that he committed foreign governments to
some, whom he meant never to suffer to leave Rome.

Concerning the management of consular elections, either then or
afterwards under Tiberius, I can affirm scarce anything: such is the
variance about it, not only amongst historians, but even in his own
speeches. Sometimes, not naming the candidates, he described them by
their family, by their life and manners, and by the number of their
campaigns; so as it might be apparent whom he meant. Again, avoiding
even to describe them, he exhorted the candidates not to disturb the
election by their intrigues, and promised himself to take care of
their interests. But chiefly he used to declare, "that to him none had
signified their pretensions, but such whose names he had delivered to
the Consuls; others too were at liberty to offer the like pretensions,
if they trusted to the favour of the Senate or their own merits. "
Specious words! but entirely empty, or full of fraud; and by how
much they were covered with the greater guise of liberty, by so much
threatening a more hasty and devouring bondage.




BOOK II

A. D. 16-19.


The commotions in the East happened not ungratefully to Tiberius, since
then he had a colour for separating Germanicus from his old and faithful
legions; for setting him over strange provinces, and exposing him at
once to casual perils and the efforts of fraud. But he, the more ardent
he found the affections of the soldiers, and the greater the hatred of
his uncle, so much the more intent upon a decisive victory, weighed
with himself all the methods of that war, with all the disasters and
successes which had befallen him in it to this his third year. He
remembered "that the Germans were ever routed in a fair battle, and upon
equal ground; that woods and bogs, short summers, and early winters,
were their chief resources; that his own men suffered not so much from
their wounds, as from tedious marches, and the loss of their arms. The
Gauls were weary of furnishing horses; long and cumbersome was his train
of baggage, easily surprised, and with difficulty defended; but, if we
entered the country by sea, the invasion would be easy, and the enemy
unapprised. Besides, the war would be earlier begun; the legions and
provisions would be carried together; and the cavalry brought with
safety, through the mouths and channels of the rivers, into the heart of
Germany. "

On that method therefore he fixed: whilst Publius Vitellius and Publius
Cantius were sent to collect the tribute of the Gauls; Silius, Anteius,
and Caecina had the direction of building the fleet. A thousand vessels
were thought sufficient, and with despatch finished: some were short,
sharp at both ends, and wide in the middle, the easier to endure the
agitations of the waves; some had flat bottoms, that without damage
they might bear to run aground; several had helms at each end, that by
suddenly turning the oars only they might work either way. Many were
arched over, for carrying the engines of war. They were fitted for
holding horses and provisions, to fly with sails, to run with oars, and
the spirit and alacrity of the soldiers heightened the show and terror
of the fleet. They were to meet at the Isle of Batavia, which was chosen
for its easy landing, for its convenience to receive the forces, and
thence to transport them to the war. For the Rhine, flowing in one
continual channel, or only broken by small islands, is, at the extremity
of Batavia, divided as it were into two rivers; one running still
through Germany, and retaining the same name and violent current, till
it mixes with the ocean; the other, washing the Gallic shore, with a
broader and more gentle stream, is by the inhabitants called by another
name, the Wahal, which it soon after changes for that of the river
Meuse, by whose immense mouth it is discharged into the same ocean.

While the fleet sailed, Germanicus commanded Silius, his lieutenant,
with a flying band, to invade the Cattans; and he himself, upon hearing
that the fort upon the river Luppia [Footnote: Lippe. ] was besieged, led
six legions thither: but the sudden rains prevented Silius from doing
more than taking some small plunder, with the wife and daughter of
Arpus, Prince of the Cattans; nor did the besiegers stay to fight
Germanicus, but upon the report of his approach stole off and dispersed.
As they had, however, thrown down the common tomb lately raised over
the Varian legions, and the old altar erected to Drusus, he restored the
altar; and performed in person with the legions the funeral ceremony of
running courses to the honour of his father. To replace the tomb was
not thought fit; but all the space between Fort Aliso and the Rhine, he
fortified with a new barrier.

The fleet was now arrived, the provisions were sent forward; ships were
assigned to the legions and the allies; and he entered the canal cut
by Drusus, and called by his name. Here he invoked his father "to be
propitious to his son attempting the same enterprises; to inspire him
with the same counsels, and animate him by his example. " Hence he
sailed fortunately through the lakes and the ocean to the river Amisia,
[Footnote: Ems. ] and at the town of Amisia the fleet was left upon the
left shore; and it was a fault that it sailed no higher, for he landed
the army on the right shore, so that in making bridges many days were
consumed. The horse and the legions passed over without danger, as it
was yet ebb; but the returning tide disordered the rear, especially the
Batavians, while they played with the waves, and showed their dexterity
in swimming; and some were drowned. Whilst Germanicus was encamping, he
was told of the revolt of the Angrivarians behind him, and thither he
despatched a body of horse and light foot, under Stertinius, who with
fire and slaughter took vengeance on the perfidious revolters.

Between the Romans and the Cheruscans flowed the river Visurgis,
[Footnote: Weser. ] and on the banks of it stood Arminius, with the other
chiefs: he inquired whether Germanicus was come; and being answered that
he was there, he prayed leave to speak with his brother. This brother
of his was in the army, his name Flavius; one remarkable for his lasting
faith towards the Romans, and for the loss of an eye in the war under
Tiberius. This request was granted: Flavius stepped forward, and was
saluted by Arminius, who, having removed his own attendance, desired
that our archers ranged upon the opposite banks might retire. When
they were withdrawn, "How came you," says he to his brother, "by that
deformity in your face? " The brother having informed him where, and
in what fight, was next asked, "what reward he had received? " Flavius
answered, "Increase of pay, the chain, the crown, and other military
gifts;" all which Arminius treated with derision, as the vile wages of
servitude.

Here began a warm contest: Flavius pleaded "the grandeur of the Roman
Empire, the power of the Emperor, the Roman clemency to submitting
nations, the heavy yoke of the vanquished; and that neither the wife nor
son of Arminius was used like a captive. " Arminius to all this opposed
"the natural rights of their country, their ancient liberty, the
domestic Gods of Germany; he urged the prayers of their common mother
joined to his own, that he would not prefer the character of a deserter,
that of a betrayer of his family, his countrymen, and kindred, to the
glory of being their commander. " By degrees they fell into reproaches;
nor would the interposition of the river have restrained them from
blows, had not Stertinius hasted to lay hold on Flavius, full of rage,
and calling for his arms and his horse. On the opposite side was seen
Arminius, swelling with ferocity and threats, and denouncing battle.
For, of what he said, much was said in Latin, having as the General of
his countrymen served in the Roman armies.

Next day, the German army stood embattled beyond the Visurgis.
Germanicus, who thought it became not a General to endanger the legions,
till for their passage and security he had placed bridges and guards,
made the horse ford over. They were led by Stertinius, and Aemilius,
Lieutenant-Colonel of a legion; and these two officers crossed the
river in distant places, to divide the foe. Cariovalda, Captain of the
Batavians, passed it where most rapid, and was by the Cheruscans, who
feigned flight, drawn into a plain surrounded with woods, whence they
rushed out upon him and assaulted him on every side; overthrew those who
resisted, and pressed vehemently upon those who gave way. The distressed
Batavians formed themselves into a ring, but were again broken, partly
by a close assault, partly by distant showers of darts. Cariovalda,
having long sustained the fury of the enemy, exhorted his men to draw up
into platoons, and break through the prevailing host; he himself forced
his way into their centre, and fell with his horse under a shower of
darts, and many of the principal Batavians round him; the rest were
saved by their own bravery, or rescued by the cavalry under Stertinius
and Aemilius.

Germanicus, having passed the Visurgis, learned from a deserter, that
Arminius had marked out the place of battle; that more nations had also
joined him; that they rendezvoused in a wood sacred to Hercules, and
would attempt to storm our camp by night. The deserter was believed;
the enemy's fires were discerned; and the scouts having advanced towards
them, reported that they had heard the neighing of horses, and the
hollow murmur of a mighty and tumultuous host. In this important
conjuncture, upon the approach of a decisive battle, Germanicus thought
it behoved him to learn the inclinations and spirit of the soldiers
and deliberated with himself how to be informed without fraud: "for the
reports of the Tribunes and Centurions used to be oftener pleasing than
true; his Freedmen had still slavish souls, incapable of free speech;
friends were apt to flatter; there was the same uncertainty in an
assemble, where the counsel proposed by a few was wont to be echoed by
all; in truth, the minds of the soldiery were then best known, when
they were least watched; when free and over their meals, they frankly
disclosed their hopes and fears. "

In the beginning of night, he went out at the augural gate, with a
single attendant; himself disguised with the skin of a wild beast
hanging over his shoulders; and choosing secret ways, he escaped the
notice of the watch, entered the lanes of the camp, listened from tent
to tent, and enjoyed the pleasing display of his own popularity and
fame; as one was magnifying the imperial birth of his general; another,
his graceful person; and all, his patience, condescension, and the
equality of his soul in every temper, pleasant or grave: they confessed
the gratitude due to so much merit, and that in battle they ought to
express it, and to sacrifice at the same time to glory and revenge these
perfidious Germans, who for ever violated stipulations and peace. In the
meantime one of the enemy who understood Latin rode up to the palisades,
and with a loud voice offered, in the name of Arminius, to every
deserter a wife and land, and as long as the war lasted an hundred
sesterces a day. [Footnote: 16s. 8d. ] This contumely kindled the wrath
of the legions: "Let day come," they cried, "let battle be given: the
soldiers would seize and not accept the lands of the Germans; take and
not receive German wives; they, however, received the offer as an omen
of victory, and considered the money and women as their destined prey. "
Near the third watch of the night, they approached and insulted the
camp; but without striking a blow, when they found the ramparts covered
thick with cohorts, and no advantage given.

Germanicus had the same night a joyful dream: he thought he sacrificed,
and, in place of his own robe besmeared with the sacred blood, received
one fairer from the hands of his grandmother Augusta; so that elevated
by the omen, and by equal encouragement from the auspices, he called an
assembly, where he opened his deliberations concerning the approaching
battle with all the advantages contributing to victory: "That to the
Roman soldiers not only plains and dales, but, with due circumspection,
even woods and forests were commodious for an engagement. The huge
targets, the enormous spears, of the Barbarians could never be wielded
amongst thickets and trunks of trees like Roman swords and javelins,
and armour adjusted to the shape and size of their bodies, so that with
these tractable arms they might thicken their blows, and strike with
certainty at the naked faces of the enemy, since the Germans were
neither furnished with headpiece nor coat of mail, nor were their
bucklers bound with leather or fortified with iron, but all bare
basket-work or painted boards; and though their first ranks were armed
with pikes, the rest had only stakes burnt at the end, or short and
contemptible darts; for their persons, as they were terrible to sight
and violent in the onset, so they were utterly impatient of wounds,
unaffected with their own disgrace, unconcerned for the honour of their
general, whom they ever deserted and fled; in distress cowards, in
prosperity despisers of all divine, of all human laws. In fine, if the
army, after their fatigues at sea and their tedious marches by land,
longed for an utter end of their labour, by this battle they might gain
it. The Elbe was now nearer than the Rhine; and if they would make him
a conqueror in those countries where his father and his uncle had
conquered, the war was concluded. " The ardour of the soldiers followed
the speech of the general, and the signal for the onset was given.

Neither did Arminius or the other chiefs neglect to declare to their
several bands that "these Romans were the cowardly fugitives of the
Varian army, who, because they could not endure to fight, had afterwards
chosen to rebel. That some with backs deformed by wounds, some with
limbs maimed by tempests, forsaken of hope, and the Gods against them,
were once more presenting their lives to their vengeful foes. Hitherto a
fleet, and unfrequented seas, had been the resources of their cowardice
against an assaulting or a pursuing enemy; but now that they were to
engage hand to hand, vain would be their relief from wind and oars after
a defeat. The Germans needed only remember their rapine, cruelty, and
pride; and that to themselves nothing remained but either to maintain
their native liberty, or by death to prevent bondage. "

The enemy, thus inflamed and calling for battle, were led into a
plain called Idistavisus: [Footnote: Near Minden. ] it lies between the
Visurgis and the hills, and winds unequally along, as it is straitened
by the swellings of the mountains or enlarged by the circuits of the
river. Behind rose a forest of high trees, thick of branches above but
clear of bushes below. The army of Barbarians kept the plain, and
the entrances of the forest. The Cheruscans alone sat down upon the
mountain, in order to pour down from thence upon the Romans as soon as
they became engaged in the fight. Our army marched thus: the auxiliary
Gauls and Germans in front, after them the foot archers, next four
legions, and then Germanicus with two Praetorian cohorts and the choice
of the cavalry; then four legions more, and the light foot with archers
on horseback and the other troops of the allies; the men all intent to
march in order of battle and ready to engage as they marched.

As the impatient bands of Cheruscans were now perceived descending
fiercely from the hills, Germanicus commanded a body of the best horse
to charge them in the flank, and Stertinius with the rest to wheel round
to attack them in the rear, and promised to be ready to assist them in
person. During this a joyful omen appeared: eight eagles were seen
to fly toward the wood, and to enter it; a presage of victory to the
General. "_Advance_," he cried, "_follow the Roman birds; follow the
tutelar Deities of the legions! _" Instantly the foot charged the enemy's
front, and instantly the detached cavalry attacked their flank and rear:
this double assault had a strange event; the two divisions of their
army fled opposite ways; that in the woods ran to the plain; that in the
plain rushed into the woods. The Cheruscans, between both, were driven
from the hills; amongst them Arminius, remarkably brave, who with his
hand, his voice, and distinguished wounds was still sustaining the
fight. He had assaulted the archers, and would have broken through them,
but the cohorts of the Retians, the Vindelicians, and the Gauls marched
to their relief; however, by his own vigour and the force of his horse,
he escaped, his face besmeared with his own blood to avoid being
known. Some have related that the Chaucians, who were amongst the
Roman auxiliaries, knew him, and let him go; the same bravery or deceit
procured Inguiomerus his escape; the rest were everywhere slain; and
great numbers attempting to swim the Visurgis were destroyed in it,
either pursued with darts, or swallowed by the current, or overwhelmed
with the weight of the crowd, or buried under the falling banks; some
seeking a base refuge on the tops of trees, and concealment amongst the
branches, were shot in sport by the archers, or squashed as the trees
were felled: a mighty victory this, and to us far from bloody!

This slaughter of the foe, from the fifth hour of the day till night,
filled the country for ten miles with carcasses and arms: amongst the
spoils, chains were found, which, sure of conquering, they had brought
to bind the Roman captives. The soldiers proclaimed Tiberius _Imperator_
upon the field of battle, and raising a mount, placed upon it as
trophies the German arms, with the names of all the vanquished nations
inscribed below.

This sight filled the Germans with more anguish and rage than all their
wounds, past afflictions, and slaughters. They, who were just prepared
to abandon their dwellings, and flit beyond the Elbe, meditate war and
grasp their arms: people, nobles, youth, aged, all rush suddenly upon
the Roman army in its march and disorder it. They next chose their
camp, a strait and moist plain shut in between a river and a forest, the
forest too surrounded with a deep marsh, except on one side, which was
closed with a barrier raised by the Angrivarians between them and the
Cheruscans. Here stood their foot; their horse were distributed and
concealed amongst the neighbouring groves, thence, by surprise, to beset
the legions in the rear as soon as they had entered the wood.

Nothing of all this was a secret to Germanicus: he knew their counsels,
their stations, what steps they pursued, what measures they concealed;
and, to the destruction of the enemy, turned their own subtilty and
devices. To Seius Tubero, his Lieutenant, he committed the horse and
the field; the infantry so disposed, that part might pass the level
approaches into the wood, and the rest force the ramparts; this was the
most arduous task, and to himself he reserved it; the rest he left to
his Lieutenants. Those who had the even ground to traverse, broke easily
in; but they who were to assail the rampart, were as grievously battered
from above, as if they had been storming a wall. The General perceived
the inequality of this close attack, and drawing off the legions a small
distance, ordered the slingers to throw, and the engineers to play, to
beat off the enemy: immediately showers of darts were poured from the
engines, and the defenders of the barrier, the more bold and exposed
they were, with the more wounds they were beaten down. Germanicus,
having taken the rampart, first forced his way, at the head of the
Praetorian cohorts, into the woods, and there it was fought foot to
foot; behind, the enemy were begirt with the morass, the Romans with the
mountains or the rivers; no room for either to retreat, no hope but in
valour, no safety but in victory.

The Germans had no inferior courage, but they were exceeded in the
fashion of arms and art of fighting. Their mighty multitude, hampered
in narrow places, could not push nor recover their long spears, nor
practise in a close combat their usual boundings and velocity of limbs.
On the contrary, our soldiers, with handy swords, and their breasts
closely guarded with a buckler, delved the large bodies and naked faces
of the Barbarians, and opened themselves a way with a havoc of the
enemy: besides, the activity of Arminius now failed him, either spent
through his continual efforts or slackened by a wound just received.
Inguiomerus was everywhere upon the spur, animating the battle, but
fortune rather than courage deserted him. Germanicus, to be the easier
known, pulled off his helmet, and exhorted his men "to prosecute the
slaughter; they wanted no captives," he said; "only the cutting off that
people root and branch would put an end to the war. " It was now late
in the day, and he drew off a legion to make a camp; the rest glutted
themselves till night, with the blood of the foe; the horse fought with
doubtful success.

Germanicus, in a speech from the tribunal, praised his victorious army,
and raised a monument of arms with a proud inscription: "That the army
of Tiberius Caesar, having vanquished entirely the nations between the
Rhine and the Elbe, had consecrated that monument to Mars, to Jupiter,
and to Augustus. " Of himself, he made no mention, either fearful of
provoking envy, or that he thought it sufficient praise to have deserved
it. He had next commanded Stertinius to carry the war amongst the
Angrivarians; but they instantly submitted; and these supplicants, by
yielding without articles, obtained pardon without reserve.

The summer now declining, some of the legions were sent back into winter
quarters by land; more were embarked with Germanicus upon the river
Amisia, to go from thence by the ocean. The sea at first was serene, no
sound or agitation but from the oars or sails of a thousand ships; but
suddenly a black host of clouds poured a storm of hail; furious winds
roared on every side, and the tempest darkened the deep, so that all
prospect was lost; and it was impossible to steer. The soldiers too,
unaccustomed to the terrors of the sea, in the hurry of fear disordered
the mariners, or interrupted the skilful by unskilful help. At last the
south wind, mastering all the rest, drove the ocean and the sky: the
tempest derived new force from the windy mountains and swelling rivers
of Germany, as well as from an immense train of clouds; and contracting
withal fresh vigour from the boisterous neighbourhood of the north, it
hurled the ships and tossed them into the open ocean, or against islands
shored with rocks or dangerously beset with covered shoals. The ships
by degrees, with great labour and the change of the tide, were relieved
from the rocks and sands, but remained at the mercy of the winds; their
anchors could not hold them; they were full of water, nor could all
their pumps discharge it: hence, to lighten and raise the vessels
swallowing at their decks the invading waves, the horses, beasts,
baggage, and even the arms were cast into the deep.

By how much the German ocean is more outrageous than the rest of the
sea, and the German climate excels in rigour, by so much this ruin was
reckoned to exceed in greatness and novelty. They were engaged in a
tempestuous sea, believed deep without bottom, vast without bounds, or
no shores near but hostile shores: part of the fleet were swallowed up;
many were driven upon remote islands void of human culture, where the
men perished through famine, or were kept alive by the carcasses of
horses cast in by the flood. Only the galley of Germanicus landed upon
the coast of the Chaucians, where wandering sadly, day and night, upon
the rocks and prominent shore, and incessantly accusing himself as
the author of such mighty destruction, he was hardly restrained by his
friends from casting himself desperately into the same hostile floods.
At last, with the returning tide and an assisting gale, the ships began
to return, all maimed, almost destitute of oars, or with coats spread
for sails; and some, utterly disabled, were dragged by those that
were less. He repaired them hastily, and despatched them to search the
islands; and by this care many men were gleaned up; many were by the
Angrivarians, our new subjects, redeemed from their maritime neighbours
and restored; and some, driven into Great Britain, were sent back by the
little British kings. Those who had come from afar, recounted wonders
at their return, "the impetuosity of whirlwinds; wonderful birds; sea
monsters of ambiguous forms, between man and beasts. " Strange sights
these! or the effects of imagination and fear.

The noise of this wreck, as it animated the Germans with hopes of
renewing the war, awakened Germanicus also to restrain them: he
commanded Caius Silius, with thirty thousand foot and three thousand
horse, to march against the Cattans: he himself, with a greater force,
invaded the Marsians, where he learnt from Malovendus, their general,
lately taken into our subjection, that the Eagle of one of Varus's
legions was hid underground in a neighbouring grove, and kept by a
slender guard. Instantly two parties were despatched; one to face the
enemy and provoke them from their post; the other to beset their rear
and dig up the Eagle; and success attended both. Hence Germanicus
advanced with great alacrity, laid waste the country, and smote the
foe, either not daring to engage, or, wherever they engaged, suddenly
defeated. Nor, as we learnt from the prisoners, were they ever seized
with greater dismay: "The Romans," they cried, "are invincible: no
calamities can subdue them: they have wrecked their fleet; their arms
are lost; our shores are covered with the bodies of their horses and
men; and yet they attack us with their usual ferocity, with the same
firmness, and with numbers as it were increased. "

The army was from thence led back into winter quarters, full of joy to
have balanced, by this prosperous expedition, their late misfortune at
sea; and by the bounty of Germanicus, their joy was heightened, since to
each sufferer he caused to be paid as much as each declared he had
lost; neither was it doubted but the enemy were humbled, and concerting
measures for obtaining peace, and that the next summer would terminate
the war. But Tiberius by frequent letters urged him "to come home, there
to celebrate the triumph already decreed him; urged that he had already
tried enough of events, and tempted abundant hazards: he had indeed
fought great and successful battles; but he must likewise remember his
losses and calamities, which, however, owing to wind and waves, and no
fault of the general, were yet great and grievous. He himself had been
sent nine times into Germany by Augustus, and effected much more by
policy than arms: it was thus he had brought the Sigambrians into
subjection, thus drawn the Suevians and King Maroboduus under the bonds
of peace. The Cheruscans too, and the other hostile nations, now the
Roman vengeance was satiated, might be left to pursue their own national
feuds. " Germanicus besought one year to accomplish his conquest; but
Tiberius assailed his modesty with a new bait and fresh opportunity, by
offering him another Consulship, for the administration of which he was
to attend in person at Rome. He added, "that if the war was still to
be prosecuted, Germanicus should leave a field of glory to his brother
Drusus, to whom there now remained no other; since the Empire had
nowhere a war to maintain but in Germany, and thence only Drusus
could acquire the title of Imperator, and merit the triumphal laurel. "
Germanicus persisted no longer; though he knew that this was all feigned
and hollow, and saw himself invidiously torn away from a harvest of ripe
glory.

Decrees of the Senate were made for driving astrologers and magicians
out of Italy; and one of the herd, Lucius Pituanius, was precipitated
from the Tarpeian Rock: Publius Marcius, another, was, by the judgment
of the Consuls, at the sound of trumpet executed without the Esquiline
Gate, according to the ancient form.

Next time the Senate sat, long discourses against the luxury of the
city were made by Quintus Haterius, a consular, and by Octavius Fronto,
formerly Praetor; and a law was passed "against using table-plate
of solid gold, and against men debasing themselves with gorgeous and
effeminate silks. " Fronto went further, and desired that "the quantities
of silver plate, the expense of furniture, and the number of domestics
might be limited;" for it was yet common for senators to depart from
the present debate and offer, as their advice, whatever they judged
conducing to the interest of the commonweal. Against him it was argued
by Asinius Callus, "That with the growth of the Empire private riches
were likewise grown, and it was no new thing for citizens to live
according to their conditions, but agreeable to the most primitive
usage: the ancient Fabricii and the later Scipios, having different
wealth, lived differently; but all suitably to the several stages of the
Commonwealth. Public property was accompanied with domestic; but when
the State rose to such a height of magnificence, the magnificence of
particulars rose too. As to plate, and train, and expense, there was no
standard of excess or frugality, but from the fortunes of men. The law,
indeed, had made a distinction between the fortunes of senators and
knights; not for any natural difference between them, but that they
who excelled in place, rank, and civil pre-eminence, might excel too in
other particulars, such as conduced to the health of the body or to the
peace and solacement of the soul; unless it were expected, that the most
illustrious citizens should sustain the sharpest cares, and undergo
the heaviest fatigues and dangers, but continue destitute of every
alleviation of fatigue and danger and care. " Gallus easily prevailed,
whilst under worthy names he avowed and supported popular vices in an
assembly engaged in them. Tiberius too had said, "That it was not a
season for reformation; or, if there were any corruption of manners,
there would not be wanting one to correct them. "

During these transactions, Lucius Piso, after he had declaimed bitterly
in the Senate against "the ambitious practices and intrigues of the
Forum, the corruption of the tribunals, and the inhumanity of the
pleaders breathing continual terror and impeachments," declared "he
would entirely relinquish Rome, and retire into a quiet corner of the
country, far distant and obscure. " With these words he left the Senate;
Tiberius was provoked; and yet not only soothed him with gentle words,
but likewise obliged Piso's relations, by their authority or entreaties,
to retain him. The same Piso gave soon after an equal instance of the
indignation of the free spirit, by prosecuting a suit against Urgulania;
a lady whom the partial friendship of Livia had set at defiance with the
laws. Urgulania being carried, for protection, to the palace, despised
the efforts of Piso; so that neither did she submit; nor would he
desist, notwithstanding the complaints and resentments of Livia, that
in the prosecution "violence and indignity were done to her own person. "
Tiberius promised to attend the trial, and assist Urgulania; but only
promised in civility to his mother, for so far he thought it became him;
and thus left the palace, ordering his guards to follow at a distance.
People the while crowded about him, and he walked with a slow and
composed air: as he lingered, and prolonged the time and way with
various discourse, the trial went on. Piso would not be mollified by the
importunity of his friends; and hence at last the Empress ordered the
payment of the money claimed by him. This was the issue of the affair:
by it, Piso lost no renown; and it signally increased the credit of
Tiberius. The power, however, of Urgulania was so exorbitant to the
State, that she disdained to appear a witness in a certain cause before
the Senate: and, when it had been always usual even for the Vestal
Virgins to attend the Forum and Courts of Justice, as oft as their
evidence was required; a Praetor was sent to examine Urgulania at her
own house.

The procrastination which happened this year in the public affairs, I
should not mention, but that the different opinions of Cneius Piso and
Asinius Gallus about it, are worth knowing. Their dispute was occasioned
by a declaration of Tiberius; "that he was about to be absent," and it
was the motion of Piso, "that for that very reason, the prosecution
of public business was the rather to be continued; since, as in the
Prince's absence, the Senate and equestrian order might administer
their several parts, the same would redound to the honour of the
Commonwealth. " This was a declaration for liberty, and in it Piso had
prevented Gallus, who now in opposition said, "that nothing sufficiently
illustrious, nor suiting the dignity of the Roman People, could be
transacted but under the immediate eye of the Emperor, and therefore the
conflux of suitors and affairs from Italy and the provinces must by
all means be reserved for his presence. " Tiberius heard and was silent,
while the debate was managed on both sides with mighty vehemence; but
the adjournment was carried.

A debate too arose between Gallus and the Emperor: for Gallus moved
"that the magistrates should be henceforth elected but once every five
years; that the legates of the legions, who had never exercised the
Praetorships, should be appointed Praetors; and that the Prince should
nominate twelve candidates every year. " It was not doubted but this
motion had a deeper aim, and that by it the secret springs and
reserves of imperial power were invaded. But Tiberius, as if he rather
apprehended the augmentation of his power, argued "that it was a heavy
task upon his moderation, to choose so many magistrates, and to postpone
so many candidates. That disgusts from disappointments were hardly
avoided in yearly elections; though, for their solacement, fresh hopes
remained of approaching success in the next; now how great must be the
hatred, how lasting the resentment of such whose pretensions were to be
rejected beyond five years? and whence could it be foreseen that, in
so long a tract of time, the same men would continue to have the
same dispositions, the same alliances and fortunes? even an annual
designation to power made men imperious; how imperious would it make
them, if they bore the honour for five years! besides, it would multiply
every single magistrate into five, and utterly subvert the laws which
had prescribed a proper space for exercising the diligence of the
candidates, and for soliciting as well as enjoying preferments. "

By this speech, in appearance popular, he still retained the spirit
and force of the sovereignty. He likewise sustained by gratuities, the
dignity of some necessitous Senators: hence it was the more wondered,
that he received with haughtiness and repulse the petition of Marcus
Hortalus, a young man of signal quality and manifestly poor. He was
the grandson of Hortensius the Orator; and had been encouraged by
the deified Augustus, with a bounty of a thousand great sestertia,
[Footnote: £8333. ] to marry for posterity; purely to prevent the
extinction of a family most illustrious and renowned. The Senate were
sitting in the palace, and Hortalus having set his four children before
the door, fixed his eyes, now upon the statue of Hortensius, placed
amongst the orators; then upon that of Augustus; and instead of speaking
to the question, began on this wise: "Conscript Fathers, you see there
the number and infancy of my children; not mine by my own choice, but in
compliance with the advice of the Prince: such too was the splendour of
my ancestors, that it merited to be perpetuated in their race; but for
my own particular, who, marred by the revolution of the times, could not
raise wealth, nor engage popular favour, nor cultivate the hereditary
fortune of our house, the fortune of Eloquence: I deemed it sufficient
if, in my slender circumstances, I lived no disgrace to myself, no
burden to others. Commanded by the Emperor, I took a wife; behold
the offspring of so many Consuls; behold the descendants of so many
Dictators! nor is this remembrance invidiously made, but made to move
mercy. In the progress of your reign, Caesar, these children may arrive
at the honours in your gift; defend them in the meantime from want:
they are the great-grandsons of Hortensius; they are the foster sons of
Augustus. "

The inclination of the Senate was favourable; an incitement this to
Tiberius the more eagerly to thwart Hortalus. These were in effect his
words: "If all that are poor recur hither for a provision of money to
their children, the public will certainly fail, and yet particulars
never be satiated. Our ancestors, when they permitted a departure from
the question, to propose somewhat more important to the State, did not
therefore permit it, that we might here transact domestic matters, and
augment our private rents: an employment invidious both in the Senate
and the Prince; since, whether they grant or deny the petitioned
bounties, either the people or the petitioners will ever be offended.
But these, in truth, are not petitions; they are demands made against
order, and made by surprise: while you are assembled upon other affairs,
he stands up and urges your pity, by the number and infancy of his
children; with the same violence, he charges the attack to me, and as
it were bursts open the exchequer; but if by popular bounties we exhaust
it, by rapine and oppression we must supply it. The deified Augustus
gave you money, Hortalus; but without solicitation he gave it, and on
no condition that it should always be given: otherwise diligence will
languish; sloth will prevail; and men having no hopes in resources
of their own, no anxiety for themselves, but all securely relying on
foreign relief, will become private sluggards and public burdens. " These
and the like reasonings of Tiberius were differently received; with
approbation by those whose way it is to extol, without distinction,
all the doings of Princes, worthy and unworthy; by most, however, with
silence, or low and discontented murmurs. Tiberius perceived it, and
having paused a little, said "his answer was particularly to Hortalus;
but if the Senate thought fit, he would give his sons two hundred great
sestertia each. " [Footnote: £1666. ] For this all the Senators presented
their thanks; only Hortalus said nothing; perhaps through present awe,
or perhaps possessed, even in poverty, with the grandeur of his ancient
nobility. Nor did Tiberius ever show further pity, though the house of
Hortensius was fallen into shameful distress.

At the end of the year, a triumphal arch was raised near the Temple of
Saturn; a monument this for the recovery of the Varian Eagles, under
the conduct of Germanicus, under the auspices of Tiberius. A temple was
dedicated to Happy Fortune near the Tiber, in the gardens bequeathed to
the Roman People by Caesar, the Dictator. A chapel was consecrated to
the Julian family, and statues to the deified Augustus, in the suburbs
called Bovillae. In the consulship of Caius Celius and Lucius Pomponius,
the six-and-twentieth of May, Germanicus Caesar triumphed over the
Cheruscans, the Cattans, the Angrivarians, and the other nations as far
as the Elbe. In the triumph were carried all the spoils and captives,
with the representations of mountains, of rivers, and of battles; so
that his conquests, because he was restrained from completing them, were
taken for complete. His own graceful person, and his chariot filled with
his five children, heightened the show and the delight of the beholders;
yet they were checked with secret fears, as they remembered "that
popular favour had proved malignant to his father Drusus; that his uncle
Marcellus was snatched, in his youth, from the burning affections of the
populace; and that ever short-lived and unfortunate were the favourites
of the Roman People. "

Tiberius distributed to the people, in the name of Germanicus, three
hundred sesterces a man, [Footnote: £2, 10s. ] and named himself his
colleague in the Consulship. Nor even thus did he gain the opinion of
tenderness and sincerity: in effect, on pretence of investing the young
Prince with fresh preferment and honours, he resolved to alienate
him from Rome; and, to accomplish it, craftily framed an occasion, or
snatched such an one as chance presented. Archelaus had enjoyed
the kingdom of Cappadocia now fifty years; a Prince under the deep
displeasure of Tiberius, because, in his retirement at Rhodes, the King
had paid him no sort of court or distinction: an omission this which
proceeded from no disdain, but from the warnings given him by the
confidents of Augustus; for that the young Caius Caesar, the presumptive
heir to the sovereignty, then lived, and was sent to compose and
administer the affairs of the East; hence the friendship of Tiberius was
reckoned then dangerous. But when, by the utter fall of the family of
the Caesars, he had gained the Empire, he enticed Archelaus to Rome,
by means of letters from his mother, who, without dissembling her son's
resentment, offered the King his mercy, provided he came and in person
implored it. He, who was either ignorant of the snare, or dreaded
violence if he appeared to perceive it, hastened to the city, where he
was received by Tiberius with great sternness and wrath, and soon after
accused as a criminal in the Senate. The crimes alleged against him were
mere fictions; yet, as equal treatment is unusual to kings, and to be
treated like malefactors intolerable; Archelaus, who was broken with
grief as well as age, by choice or fate ended his life; his kingdom was
reduced into a province, and by its revenues Tiberius declared the tax
of a hundredth penny would be abated, and reduced it for the future to
the two hundredth. At the same time died Antiochus, king of Comagena,
as also Philopator, king of Cilicia; and great combustions shook these
nations; whilst of the people many desired Roman government, and many
were addicted to domestic monarchy. The provinces, too, of Syria and
Judea, as they were oppressed with impositions, prayed an abatement of
tribute.

These affairs, and such as I have above related concerning Armenia,
Tiberius represented to the Fathers, and "that the commotions of the
East could only be settled by the wisdom and abilities of Germanicus;
for himself, his age now declined, and that of Drusus was not yet
sufficiently ripe. " The provinces beyond the sea were thence decreed to
Germanicus, with authority superior to all those who obtained provinces
by lot, or the nomination of the Prince; but Tiberius had already taken
care to remove from the government of Syria Creticus Silanus, one united
to Germanicus in domestic alliance, by having to Nero, the eldest son of
Germanicus, betrothed his daughter. In his room he had preferred Cneius
Piso, a man of violent temper, incapable of subjection, and heir to all
the ferocity and haughtiness of his father Piso; the same who, in the
civil war, assisted the reviving party against Caesar in Africa with
vehement efforts; and then followed Brutus and Cassius, but had at last
leave to come home, yet disdained to sue for any public offices; nay,
was even courted by Augustus to accept the Consulship. His son, besides
his hereditary pride and impetuosity, was elevated with the nobility and
wealth of Plancina his wife; scarce yielded he to Tiberius, and, as men
far beneath him, despised the sons of Tiberius; neither did he doubt but
he was set over Syria on purpose to thwart the measures and defeat all
the views of Germanicus. Some even believed that he had to this purpose
secret orders from Tiberius, as it was certain that Livia directed
Plancina to exert the spirit of the sex, and by constant emulation and
indignities persecute Agrippina. For the whole court was rent, and their
affections secretly divided between Drusus and Germanicus. Tiberius
was partial to Drusus, as his own son by generation; others loved
Germanicus; the more for the aversion of his uncle, and for being by his
mother of more illustrious descent; as Marc Anthony was his grandfather,
and Augustus his great-uncle. On the other side, Pomponius Atticus, a
Roman knight, by being the great-grandfather of Drusus, seemed thence
to have derived a stain upon the images of the Claudian house; besides,
Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, did in the fruitfulness of her body
and the reputation of her virtue far excel Livia, the wife of Drusus.
Yet the two brothers lived in amiable dearness and concord, no wise
shaken or estranged by the reigning contention amongst their separate
friends and adherents.

Drusus was soon after sent into Illyricum in order to inure him to war,
and gain him the affections of the army; besides, Tiberius thought
that the youth, who loved wantoning in the luxuries of Rome, would be
reformed in the camp, and that his own security would be enlarged when
both his sons were at the head of the legions. But the pretence of
sending him was the protection of the Suevians, who were then imploring
assistance against the powers of the Cheruscans. For these nations, who
since the departure of the Romans saw themselves no longer threatened
with terrors from abroad, and were then particularly engaged in a
national competition for glory, had relapsed, as usual, into their old
intestine feuds, and turned their arms upon each other. The two
people were equally powerful, and their two leaders equally brave; but
differently esteemed, as the title of king upon Maroboduus had drawn
the hate and aversion of his countrymen; whilst Arminius, as a champion
warring for the defence of liberty, was the universal object of popular
affection.

Hence not only the Cheruscans and their confederates, they who had been
the ancient soldiery of Arminius, took arms; but to him too revolted
the Semnones and Langobards, both Suevian nations, and even subjects of
Maroboduus; and by their accession he would have exceeded in puissance,
but Inguiomerus with his band of followers deserted to Maroboduus; for
no other cause than disdain, that an old man and an uncle like himself
should obey Arminius, a young man, his nephew. Both armies were drawn
out, with equal hopes; nor disjointed, like the old German battles, into
scattered parties for loose and random attacks; for by long war with us
they had learnt to follow their ensigns, to strengthen their main body
with parties of reserves, and to observe the orders of their generals.
Arminius was now on horseback viewing all the ranks: as he rode through
them he magnified their past feats; "their liberty recovered; the
slaughtered legions; the spoils of arms wrested from the Romans;
monuments of victory still retained in some of their hands. " Upon
Maroboduus he fell with contumelious names, as "a fugitive, one of
no abilities in war; a coward who had sought defence from the gloomy
coverts of the Hercynian woods, and then by gifts and solicitations
courted the alliance of Rome; a betrayer of his country, and a
lifeguard-man of Caesar's, worthy to be exterminated with no less
hostile vengeance than in the slaughter of Quinctilius Varus they had
shown. Let them only remember so many battles bravely fought; the
events of which, particularly the utter expulsion of the Romans, were
sufficient proofs with whom remained the glory of the war. "

Neither did Maroboduus fail to boast himself and depreciate the foe. "In
the person of Inguiomerus," he said (holding him by the hand), "rested
the whole renown of the Cheruscans; and from his counsels began all
their exploits that ended in success. Arminius, a man of a frantic
spirit, and a novice in affairs, assumed to himself the glory of
another, for having by treachery surprised three legions, which expected
no foe, and their leader, who feared no fraud; a base surprise, revenged
since on Germany with heavy slaughters, and on Arminius himself with
domestic infamy, while his wife and his son still bore the bonds of
captivity. For himself, when attacked formerly by Tiberius at the head
of twelve legions, he had preserved unstained the glory of Germany, and
on equal terms ended the war. Nor did he repent of the treaty, since it
was still in their hands to wage anew equal war with the Romans, or
save blood and maintain peace. " The armies, besides the incitements from
these speeches, were animated by national stimulations of their own.
The Cheruscans fought for their ancient renown; the Langobards for their
recent liberty; and the Suevians and their king, on the contrary, were
struggling for the augmentation of their monarchy. Never did armies make
a fiercer onset; never had onset a more ambiguous event; for both the
right wings were routed, and hence a fresh encounter was certainly
expected, till Maroboduus drew off his army and encamped upon the
hills; a manifest sign this that he was humbled. Frequent desertions too
leaving him at last naked of forces, he retired to the Marcomannians,
and thence sent ambassadors to Tiberius to implore succours. They were
answered, "That he had no right to invoke aid of the Roman arms against
the Cheruscans, since to the Romans, while they were warring with
the same foe, he had never administered any assistance. " Drusus was,
however, sent away, as I have said, with the character of a negotiator
of peace.

The same year twelve noble cities of Asia were overturned by an
earthquake: the ruin happened in the night, and the more dreadful as its
warnings were unobserved; neither availed the usual sanctuary against
such calamities, namely, a flight to the fields, since those who
fled, the gaping earth devoured. It is reported "that mighty mountains
subsided, plains were heaved into high hills: and that with flashes and
eruptions of fire, the mighty devastation was everywhere accompanied. "
The Sardians felt most heavily the rage of the concussion, and therefore
most compassion: Tiberius promised them an hundred thousand great
sesterces, [Footnote: £83,000. ] and remitted their taxes for five years.
The inhabitants of Magnesia, under Mount Sipylus, were held the next in
sufferings, and had proportionable relief. The Temnians, Philadelphians,
the Aegeatans, Apollonians, with those called the Mostenians or
Macedonians of Hyrcania, the cities too of Hierocaesarea, Cyme, and
Tmolus, were all for the same term eased of tribute. It was likewise
resolved to send one of the Senate to view the desolations and
administer proper remedies: Marcus Aletus was therefore chosen, one of
Praetorian rank; because, a Consular Senator then governing Asia, had
another of the like quality been sent, an emulation between equals was
apprehended, and consequently opposition and delays.

The credit of this noble bounty to the public, he increased by private
liberalities, which proved equally popular: the estate of the wealthy
Aemilia Musa, claimed by the exchequer, as she died intestate, he
surrendered to Aemilius Lepidus, to whose family she seemed to belong;
as also to Marcus Servilius the inheritance of Patuleius, a rich Roman
knight, though part of it had been bequeathed to himself; but he found
Servilius named sole heir in a former and well-attested will. He said
such was "the nobility of both, that they deserved to be supported.