No More Learning

" For, Augustus, when, a few
years before, he solicited the Senate to grant to Tiberius another
term of the authority of the Tribuneship, though he mentioned him with
honour, yet taking notice of his odd humour, behaviour, and manners,
dropped some expressions, which, while they seemed to excuse him,
exposed and upbraided him.

As soon as the funeral of Augustus was over, a temple and divine
worship were forthwith decreed him. The Senate then turned their instant
supplications to Tiberius, to fill his vacant place; but received
an abstruse answer, touching the greatness of the Empire and his own
distrust of himself; he said that "nothing but the divine genius of
Augustus was equal to the mighty task: that for himself, who had been
called by him into a participation of his cares, he had learnt
by feeling them, what a daring, what a difficult toil was that of
government, and how perpetually subject to the caprices of fortune: that
in a State supported by so many illustrious patriots they ought not to
cast the whole administration upon one; and more easy to be administered
were the several offices of the Government by the united pains and
sufficiency of many. " A pompous and plausible speech, but in it little
faith and sincerity. Tiberius, even upon subjects which needed no
disguises, used words dark and cautious; perhaps from his diffident
nature, perhaps from a habit of dissembling: at this juncture indeed,
as he laboured wholly to hide his heart, his language was the more
carefully wrapped up in equivoques and obscurity: but the Senators, who
dreaded nothing so much as to seem to understand him, burst into tears,
plaints, and vows; with extended arms they supplicated the Gods, invoked
the image of Augustus, and embraced the knees of Tiberius. He then
commanded the imperial register to be produced and recited. It contained
a summary of the strength and income of the Empire, the number of
Romans and auxiliaries in pay, the condition of the navy, of the
several kingdoms paying tribute, and of the various provinces and
their revenues, with the state of the public expense, the issues of the
exchequer, and all the demands upon the public. This register was all
writ by the hand of Augustus; and in it he had subjoined his counsel to
posterity, that the present boundaries of the Empire should stand fixed
without further enlargement; but whether this counsel was dictated by
fear for the public, or by envy towards his successors, is uncertain.

Now when the Senate was stooping to the vilest importunity and
prostrations, Tiberius happened to say, that, "as he was unequal to
the weight of the whole government; so if they entrusted him with any
particular part, whatever it were, he would undertake it. " Here Asinius
Gallus interposed: "I beg to know, Caesar," says he, "what part of
the government you desire for your share? " He was astonished with
the unexpected question, and, for a short space, mute; but recovering
himself, answered, that "it ill became his modesty to choose or reject
any particular branch of the administration, when he desired rather to
be excused from the whole. " Gallus, who in his face conjectured sullen
signs of displeasure, again accosted him, and said, "by this question I
did not mean that you should do an impracticable thing, and share
that power which cannot be separated; but I meant to reason you into a
confession that the Commonwealth is but one body, and can be governed
only by one soul. " He added an encomium upon Augustus, and reminded
Tiberius himself of his many victories, of the many civil employments
which he had long and nobly sustained: nor even thus could he mollify
the wrath of Tiberius, who had long hated him, for that Gallus had
married Vipsania, daughter of Marcus Agrippa, and formerly wife to
Tiberius, who thence suspected that by this match he meant to soar above
the rank of a subject, and possessed too the bold and haughty spirit of
Asinius Pollio his father.

Lucius Arruntius incurred his displeasure next, by a speech not much
unlike that of Gallus: it is true, that towards him Tiberius bore no
old rancour; but Arruntius had mighty opulence, prompt parts, noble
accomplishments, with equal popularity, and hence was marked by him with
a fell eye of suspicion. For, as Augustus, shortly before his decease,
was mentioning those among the great men, who were capable of the
supreme power, but would not accept it; or unequal to it, yet wished
for it; or such, as had both ambition and sufficiency; he had said, that
"Marcus Lepidus was qualified, but would reject it; Asinius would be
aspiring, but had inferior talents; and that Lucius Arruntius wanted no
sufficiency, and upon a proper occasion would attempt it. " That he spoke
thus of Lepidus and Asinius, is agreed; but, instead of Arruntius, some
writers have transmitted the name of Cneius Piso: and every one of these
great men, except Lepidus, were afterwards cut off, under the imputation
of various crimes, all darkly framed by Tiberius. Quintus Haterius and
Mamercus Scaurus did thereafter incense his distrustful spirit;
the first by asking him, "How long, Caesar, wilt thou suffer the
Commonwealth to remain destitute of a head? " Scaurus, because he had
said "there was room to hope that the prayers of the Senate would
not prove abortive, since he had not opposed as Tribune, nor rendered
invalid, as he might, the motion of the Consuls in his behalf. " With
Haterius he fell into instant rage; towards Scaurus his resentment was
more deep and implacable, and in profound silence he hid it. Wearied
at last with public importunity and clamour, and with particular
expostulations, he began to unbend a little; not that he would own his
undertaking the Empire, but only avoid the uneasiness of perpetually
rejecting endless solicitations. It is known how Haterius, when he went
next day to the palace to implore pardon, and throwing himself at the
feet of Tiberius embraced his knees, narrowly escaped being slain by the
soldiers; because Tiberius, who was walking, tumbled down, whether by
chance, or whether his legs were entangled in the arms of Haterius:
neither was he a jot mollified by the danger which threatened so great a
man, who was at length forced to supplicate Augusta for protection; nor
could even she obtain it, but after the most laboured entreaties.

Towards Livia, too, exorbitant was the flattering court of the Senate.
Some were for decreeing her the general title of Mother; others the more
particular one of Mother Of Her Country; and almost all moved, that to
the name of Tiberius should be added, The Son Of Julia: Tiberius urged
in answer, that "public honours to women ought to be warily adjudged,
and with a sparing hand; and that with the same measure of moderation he
would receive such as were presented to himself. " In truth, full of envy
as he was, and anxious lest his own grandeur should sink as that of his
mother rose, he would not suffer so much as a Lictor to be decreed her,
and even forbade the raising her an altar upon her late adoption,
or paying her any such solemnities. But for Germanicus he asked the
Proconsular power; and to carry him that dignity, honourable deputies
were sent, as also to mollify his sorrow for the death of Augustus. If
for Drusus he demanded not the same honour, it was because Drusus was
present and already Consul designed. He then named twelve candidates
for the Praetorship; the same number settled by Augustus; and though the
Senate requested him to increase it, by an oath he bound himself never
to exceed.

The privilege of creating Magistrates was now first translated from
the assemblies of the people to the Senate; for though the Emperor had
before conducted all affairs of moment at his pleasure; yet till that
day some were still transacted by the Tribes, and carried by their bent
and suffrages. Neither did the regret of the people for the seizure of
these their ancient rights rise higher than some impotent grumbling. The
Senate too liked the change; as by it they were released from the charge
of buying votes, and from the shame of begging them: and so moderate was
Tiberius, that of the twelve candidates he only reserved to himself the
recommendation of four, to be accepted without opposition or caballing.
At the same time, the Tribunes of the people asked leave to celebrate at
their own expense certain plays in honour of Augustus, such as were
to be called after his name, and inserted in the calendar. But it was
decreed, that out of the Exchequer the charge should be defrayed, and
the Tribunes should in the circus wear the triumphal robe; but to be
carried in chariots was denied them. The annual celebration of these
plays was, for the future, transferred to one of the Praetors, him
in particular to whom should fall the jurisdiction of deciding suits
between citizens and strangers.

Thus stood affairs at Rome when a sedition seized the legions in
Pannonia; without any fresh grounds, save that from a change of Princes,
they meant to assume a warrant for licentiousness and tumult, and from a
civil war hoped great earnings and acquisitions: they were three legions
encamped together, all commanded by Junius Blesus, who, upon notice of
the death of Augustus and the accession of Tiberius, had granted the
soldiers a recess from their wonted duties for some days, as a time
either of public mourning or festivity. From being idle they waxed
wanton, quarrelsome, and turbulent; greedily listened to mutinous
discourses; the most profligate amongst them had most credit with them,
and at last they became passionate for a life of sloth and riot, utterly
averse to all military discipline and every fatigue of the camp. In the
camp was one Percennius; formerly a busy leader in the embroilments
of the theatre, and now a common soldier; a fellow of a petulant,
declaiming tongue, and by inflaming parties in the playhouse, well
qualified to excite and infatuate a crowd. This incendiary practised
upon the ignorant and unwary, such as were solicitous what might prove
their future usage, now Augustus was dead. He engaged them in nightly
confabulations, and by little and little incited them to violence and
disorders; and towards the evening, when the soberest and best affected
were withdrawn, he assembled the worst and most turbulent. When he
had thus ripened them for sedition, and other ready incendiaries were
combined with him, he personated the character of a lawful Commander,
and thus questioned and harangued them:

"Why did they obey, like slaves, a few Centurions and a fewer Tribunes?
When would they be bold enough to demand redress of their heavy
grievances, unless they snatched the present occasion, while the Emperor
was yet new and his authority wavering, to prevail with him by petition,
or by arms to force him? They had already by the misery of many years
paid dear for their patient sloth and stupid silence, since decrepit
with age and maimed with wounds, after a course of service for thirty or
forty years, they were still doomed to carry arms: nor even to those who
were discharged was there any end of the misery of warfare; they were
still kept tied to the colours, and under the creditable title of
Veterans endured the same hardships, and underwent the same labours.
But suppose any of them escaped so many dangers, and survived so many
calamities, where was their reward at last? Why, a long and weary march
remained yet to be taken into countries far remote and strange; where,
under the name of lands given them to cultivate, they had unhospitable
bogs to drain, and the wild wastes of mountains to manure. Severe and
ungainful of itself was the occupation of war: ten Asses [Footnote:
About 5d. ] a day the poor price of their persons and lives; out of this,
they must buy clothes, and tents, and arms; out of this, bribe the cruel
Centurions for a forbearance of blows, and occasional exemption from
hard duty: but stripes from their officers, and wounds from their
enemies, hard winters and laborious summers, bloody wars and barren
peace, were miseries without end: nor remained there other cure or
relief than to refuse to enlist but upon conditions certain, and fixed
by themselves; particularly, that their pay be a denarius or sixteen
Asses a day, [Footnote: About 8-1/2d. ] sixteen years be the utmost
term of serving; when discharged, to be no longer obliged to follow the
colours, but have their reward in ready money, paid them in the camp
where they earned it. Did the Praetorian Guards, they who had double
pay, they who after sixteen years' service were paid off and sent home,
bear severer difficulties, undergo superior dangers? He did not mean to
detract from the merit of their brethren the City guards; their own lot
however it was, to be placed amongst horrid and barbarous nations, nor
could they look from their tents, but they saw the foe. "

The whole crowd received this harangue with shouts of applause; but
from various instigations. Some displayed upon their bodies the obvious
impressions of stripes, others their hoary heads, many their vestments
ragged and curtailed, with backs utterly bare; as did all, their various
griefs, in the bitterness of reproach. At length to such excessive fury
they grew, that they proposed to incorporate the three legions into
one; nor by aught but emulation was the project defeated: for to his own
legion every man claimed the prerogative of swallowing and denominating
the other two. They took another method, and placed the three Eagles
of the legions, with the standards of the several cohorts, altogether
without rank or priority; then forthwith digged turf and were rearing
a tribunal, one high enough to be seen at a distance. In this
hurry arrived Blesus, who, falling into sore rebukes, and by force
interrupting particulars, called with vehemence to all: "Dip your hands
rather in my blood: to murder your General will be a crime less shameful
and heinous than to revolt from your Prince; for determined I am, either
to preserve the legions in their faith and obedience, if you kill me not
for my intended good office; or my death, if I fall by your hands, shall
hasten your remorse. "

For all this, turfs were accumulated, and the work was already breast
high, when, at last, overcome by his spirit and perseverance, they
forbore. Blesus was an able speaker: he told them "that sedition and
mutiny were not the methods of conveying to the Emperor the pretensions
of the soldiers; their demands too were new and singular; such as
neither the soldiers of old had ever made to the ancient Generals, nor
they themselves to the deified Augustus: besides, their claims were
ill-timed, when the Prince, just upon his accession, was already
embarrassed with the weight and variety of other cares. If, however,
they meant to try to gain in full peace those concessions, which, even
after a civil war, the conquerors never claimed; yet why trample upon
duty and obedience, why reject the laws of the army, and rules of
discipline? And if they meant to petition, why meditate violence? They
might at least appoint deputies; and in his presence trust them with
their pretensions. " Here they all cried out, "that the son of Blesus,
one of their Tribunes, should execute that deputation; and demand in
their name that, after sixteen years' service they should be discharged:
they said they would give him new orders, when he had succeeded in
these. " After the departure of the young officer, a moderate recess
ensued; the soldiers however exulted to have carried such a point:
the sending the son of their General, as the public advocate for their
cause, was to them full proof that they had gained by force and terror
that which by modesty and gentle means they would never have gained.

In the meantime those companies which, before the sedition began, were
sent to Nauportum [Footnote: Over-Laybach, in Carniola. ] to mend roads
and bridges, and upon other duties, no sooner heard of the uproar in
the camp, but they cast off all obedience, tore away the ensigns, and
plundered the neighbouring villages; even Nauportum itself, which for
greatness resembled a municipal town, was plundered. The endeavours
of the Centurions to restrain this violence, were first returned with
mockery and contempt, then with invectives and contumelies, at last
with outrage and blows. Their vengeance was chiefly bent against the
Camp-Marshal, Aufidienus Rufus: him they dragged from his chariot, and,
loading him with baggage, drove him before the first ranks; they then
insulted him, and asked in scorn, "whether he would gladly bear such
enormous burdens, whether endure such immense marches? " Rufus had
been long a common soldier, then became a Centurion, and afterwards
Camp-Marshal; a severe restorer of primitive strictness and discipline;
an indefatigable observer of every military duty, which he exacted from
others with the more rigour, as he had himself undergone them all with
patience.

By the arrival of this tumultuous band the sedition was again awakened
to its former outrage, and the seditious, roving abroad without control,
ravaged the country on every side. Blesus, for an example of terror
to the rest, commanded those who were most laden with plunder, to be
punished with stripes and cast into prison: for the General was still
dutifully obeyed by the Centurions, and by all the soldiers of any
merit; but the criminals refused to submit, and even struggled with
the guard who were carrying them off; they clasped the knees of the
bystanders, implored help from their fellows, now calling upon every
individual, and conjuring them by their particular names; then appealed
to them in a body, and supplicated the company, the cohort, the legion
to which they belonged; warning and proclaiming that the same ignominy
and chastisement hung over them all. With the same breath they heaped
invectives without measure upon their General, and called upon heaven
and all the Gods to be their witnesses and avengers; nor left they aught
unattempted to raise effectual hatred, compassion, terror, and every
species of fury. Hence the whole body rushed to their relief, burst open
the prison, unbound and rescued the prisoners: thus they owned for their
brethren, and incorporated with themselves, infamous revolters, and
traitors convict and condemned.

Hence the violence became more raging, and hence more sedition from more
leaders. There was particularly one Vibulenus, a common soldier, who,
exalted on the shoulders of his comrades, before the tribunal of Blesus,
thus declaimed in the ears of a multitude already outrageous, and eager
to hear what he had to say. "To these innocents," says he, "to these
miserable sufferers, our fellow-soldiers, you have indeed restored
breath and liberty: but who will restore life to my poor brother; who
my poor brother to me? He was sent hither by the German armies, with
propositions for our common good; and for this, was last night butchered
by that same Blesus, who in the murder employed his gladiators, bloody
men, whom he purposely entertains and arms for our common execution.
Where, oh where, Blesus, hast thou thrown his unoffending and mangled
corpse? Even open enemies do not inhumanly deny burial to the slain:
when I have satiated my sorrow with a thousand kisses, and a flood
of tears; command me also to be murdered, that these our brethren may
together bury my poor brother and me, slaughtered both as victims, yet
both guiltless of any crime but that of studying the common interest of
the legions. "

He inflamed those his complaints and expostulations with affecting sighs
and lamentations, beat his breast, tore his face, and showed all the
symptoms of anguish. Then those who carried him giving way, he threw
himself headlong at the feet of his companions; and thus prostrate and
supplicating, in them raised such a spirit of commiseration and such a
storm of vengeance, that one party of them instantly seized and bound
the General's gladiators; another, the rest of his family; while many
ran and dispersed themselves to search for the corpse: and had it not
been quickly manifest that there was no corpse to be found, that
the slaves of Blesus had upon the rack cleared themselves, and that
Vibulenus never had any brother; they had gone nigh to have sacrificed
the General. As it was, they expulsed the Camp-Marshal and Tribunes;
and as they fled, plundered their baggage: they likewise put to
death Lucilius the Centurion, whom they had sarcastically named _Cedo
Alteram_, because when upon the back of a soldier he had broken one
wand, he was wont to call for another, and then a third. The other
Centurions lurked in concealment, all but Julius Clemens, who for his
prompt capacity was saved, in order to manage the negotiations of the
soldiers: even two of the legions, the eighth and the fifteenth, were
ready to turn their swords upon each other; and had, but for the ninth:
one Sirpicus, a centurion, was the subject of the quarrel; him the
eighth required to be put to death, and the fifteenth protected him; but
the ninth interposed with entreaties to both, and with threats to those
who would not listen to prayers.

Tiberius, however, close and impenetrable, and ever labouring to smother
all melancholy tidings, was yet driven by those from Pannonia, to
despatch his son Drusus thither, accompanied by the principal nobility
and guarded by two Praetorian cohorts; but charged with no precise
instructions, only to adapt his measures to the present exigency: the
cohorts were strengthened with an extraordinary addition of chosen men,
with the greatest part of the Praetorian horse, and main body of the
German, then the Emperor's guards. Aelius Sejanus, lately joined with
his father Strabo in the command of the Praetorian bands, was also sent,
not only as Governor to the young Prince, but as his credit with the
Emperor was known to be mighty, to deal with the revolters by promises
and terrors. When Drusus approached, the legions, for show of respect,
marched out to meet him; not with the usual symptoms and shouts of
joy, nor with gay ensigns and arms glittering, but in a dress and
accoutrements hideous and squalid: in their countenances too, though
composed to sadness, were seen greater marks of sullenness and
contumacy.

As soon as he was within the camp, they secured the entrances with
guards, and in several quarters of it placed parties upon duty: the rest
crowded about the tribunal of Drusus, who stood beckoning with his hand
for silence. Here as often as they surveyed their own numbers and met
one another's resentful looks, they uttered their rage in horrible
cries: again, when upon the tribunal they beheld Caesar, awe and
trembling seized them: now, there prevailed an hollow and inarticulate
murmur; next, a furious clamour; then suddenly a dead silence: so that,
by a hasty succession of opposite passions, they were at once dismayed
and dreadful. When at last the uproar was stayed, he read his father's
letters, who in them declared, "that he would take an affectionate
care of the brave and invincible legions by whom he had sustained
successfully so many wars; and, as soon as his grief was a little
abated, deal with the Senate about their demands; in the meantime he
had sent them his son, on purpose to make them forthwith all the
concessions, which could instantly be made them: the rest were to
be reserved for the Senate, the proper distributers of rewards and
punishments by a right altogether unalienable. "

The assembly answered, that to Julius Clemens they had intrusted what
to speak in their name: he began with their demands, "to be discharged
after sixteen years' service, to have the reward which, for past
services upon that discharge, they claimed; their pay to be increased
to a Roman denarius; the veterans to be no longer detained under their
ensigns. " When Drusus urged, that wholly in the judgment of the Senate
and his father, these matters rested he was interrupted by their
clamours: "To what purpose came he; since he could neither augment their
pay, nor alleviate their grievances? and while upon them every officer
was allowed to inflict blows and death, the son of their Emperor wanted
power to relieve them by one beneficent action. The policy this of the
late reign, when Tiberius frustrated every request of the soldiers, by
referring all to Augustus; now Drusus was come with the same artifices
to delude them: were they never to have a higher visit than from the
children of their Prince? It was, indeed, unaccountable, that to the
Senate the Emperor should leave no part in the direction of the army,
only the rewarding of the soldiery: ought not the same Senate to be
consulted as often as a battle was to be fought, or a private man to be
punished? or, were their recompenses to be adjudged by many masters,
but their punishments to remain without any restraint or moderator
whatsoever? "

At last they abandoned the tribunal, and with menaces and insults fell
upon all they met belonging to Drusus, either as guards or friends;
meditating thus to provoke a quarrel, and an introduction to blood.
Chiefly enraged they were against Cneius Lentulus, as one for years and
warlike renown superior to any about the person of Drusus, and thence
suspected to have hardened the Prince, and been himself the foremost to
despise these outrages in the soldiery: nor was it long after, that as
he was leaving Drusus, and from the foresight of danger returning to the
winter quarters, they surrounded him and demanded "whither he went? to
the Emperor or Senate? there also to exercise his enmity to the legions,
and oppose their interest? " and instantly assaulted him with stones.
He was already covered with wounds and blood, and awaiting certain
assassination, when the troops attending Drusus flew to his assistance
and saved him.

The following night had a formidable aspect, and threatened the speedy
eruption of some tragical vengeance; when a phenomenon intervened and
assuaged all. The Moon, in the midst of a clear sky, seemed to the
soldiers suddenly to sicken; and they, who were ignorant of the natural
cause, took this for an omen foreboding the issue of their present
adventures: to their own labours, they compared the eclipse of the
planet; and prophesied, "that if to the distressed Goddess should be
restored her wonted brightness and vigour, equally successful would
be the issue of these their struggles. " Hence they strove to charm and
revive her with sounds, and by ringing upon brazen metal, and an uproar
of trumpets and cornets, made a vehement bellowing. As she appeared
brighter or darker, they exulted or lamented; but when gathering clouds
had utterly bereft them of her sight, and they believed her now buried
in everlasting darkness; then, as minds once thoroughly dismayed are
pliant to superstition, they bewailed "their own eternal sufferings
thus portended, and that against their misdeeds the angry Deities
were contending. " Drusus, who thought it behoved him to improve this
disposition of theirs, and to reap the fruits of wisdom from the
operations of chance; ordered certain persons to go round, and apply
to them from tent to tent. For this purpose, he called and employed
the Centurion Julius Clemens, and whoever else were by honest methods
acceptable to the multitude. These insinuated themselves everywhere,
with those who kept watch, or were upon patrol, or guarded the gates;
soothing all with hopes, and by terrors rousing them. "How long," said
they, "shall we hold the son of our Emperor thus besieged? Where will
our broils and wild contentions end? Shall we swear allegiance to
Percennius and Vibulenus? Will Vibulenus and Percennius support us with
pay during our service, and reward us with lands when dismissed? In
short, shall two common men dispossess the Neros and the Drusi, and to
themselves assume the Empire of the Roman People? Let us be wiser; and
as we were the last to revolt, be the first to relent. Such demands, as
comprise terms for all, are ever slowly accorded; but particulars may,
when they please, merit instant favour, and instantly receive it. "
These reasonings alarmed them, and filled them with mutual jealousies.
Presently the fresh soldiers forsook the veterans, and one legion
separated from another; then by degrees returned the love of duty and
obedience. They relinquished the guard of the gates: and the Eagles
and other ensigns, which in the beginning of the tumult they had thrown
together, were now restored each to its distinct station.

Drusus, as soon as it was day, summoned an assembly, and though
unskilled in speaking, yet with a haughtiness inherent in his blood,
rebuked their past and commended their present behaviour. "With threats
and terrors," he said, "it was impossible to subdue him; but if he saw
them reclaimed to submission, if from them he heard the language of
supplicants, he would send to his father to accept with a reconciled
spirit the petitions of the legions," Hence, at their entreaty, for
their deputy to Tiberius the same Blesus was again despatched, and with
him Lucius Apronius, a Roman Knight of the cohort of Drusus; and Justus
Catonius, a Centurion of the first order. There followed great debates
in the council of Drusus, while some advised "to suspend all proceeding
till the return of the deputies, and by a course of courtesy the while
to soothe the soldiers; others maintained, that remedies more potent
must needs be applied: in a multitude, was to be found nothing on this
side extremes; always imperious where they are not awed, and to be
without danger despised when frightened: to their present terror from
superstition was to be added the dread of their General, by his dooming
to death the authors of the sedition. " Rather prompt to rigorous
counsels was the genius of Drusus: Vibulenus and Percennius were
produced, and by his command executed; it is by many recounted, that in
his own tent they were secretly despatched and buried; by others, that
their bodies were ignominiously thrown over the entrenchments, for a
public spectacle of terror.

Search was then made for other remarkable incendiaries. Some were caught
skulking without the camp, and there by the Centurions or Praetorian
soldiers slain; others were by their several companies delivered up, as
a proof of their own sincere faith. The consternation of the soldiers
was heightened by the precipitate accession of winter, with rains
incessant and so violent, that they were unable to stir from their
tents, or maintain common intercourse, nay, scarce to preserve their
standards, assaulted continually by tempestuous winds and raging floods.
Dread besides of the angry Gods still possessed them; nor was it at
random, they thought, that such profane traitors were thus visited
with black eclipses and roaring tempests; neither against these their
calamities was there other relief than the relinquishing of a camp by
impiety contaminated and accursed, and after expiation of their guilt
returning to their several garrisons. The eighth legion departed first;
and then the fifteenth: the ninth, with earnest clamours, pressed
for continuing there till the letters from Tiberius arrived; but when
deserted by the other two, their courage failed, and by following of
their own accord, they prevented the shame of being forced. Drusus
seeing order and tranquillity restored, without staying for the return
of the deputies, returned himself to Rome.

Almost at the same time, and from the same causes, the legions in
Germany raised an insurrection, with greater numbers, and thence with
more fury. Passionate too were their hopes that Germanicus would never
brook the rule of another, but yield to the spirit of the legions, who
had force sufficient to bring the whole Empire under his sway. Upon
the Rhine were two armies; that called the higher, commanded by Caius
Silius, Lieutenant-General; the lower, by Aulus Caecina: the command in
chief rested in Germanicus, then busy collecting the tribute in Gaul.
The forces however under Silius, with cautious ambiguity, watched the
success of the revolt which others began: for the soldiers of the lower
army had broken out into open outrages, which took its rise from the
fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth; who after them drew the first,
and twentieth. These were altogether upon the frontiers of the Ubians,
passing the campaign in utter idleness or light duty: so that upon the
news that Augustus was dead, the whole swarm of new soldiers lately
levied in the city, men accustomed to the effeminacies of Rome, and
impatient of every military hardship, began to possess the ignorant
minds of the rest with many turbulent expectations, "that now was
presented the lucky juncture for veterans to demand entire dismission;
the fresh soldiers, larger pay; and all, some mitigation of their
miseries; as also to return due vengeance for the cruelties of the
Centurions. " These were not the harangues of a single incendiary, like
Percennius amongst the Pannonian legions; nor uttered, as there, in the
ears of men who, while they saw before their eyes armies greater than
their own, mutinied with awe and trembling: but here was a sedition of
many mouths, filled with many boasts, "that in their hands lay the power
and fate of Rome; by their victories the empire was enlarged, and from
them the Caesars took, as a compliment, the surname of Germanicus. "

Neither did Caecina strive to restrain them. A madness so extensive had
bereft him of all his bravery and firmness. In this precipitate frenzy
they rushed at once, with swords drawn, upon the Centurions, the eternal
objects of their resentment, and always the first victims to their
vengeance. Them they dragged to the earth, and upon each bestowed
a terrible portion of sixty blows; a number proportioned to that of
Centurions in a legion. Then bruised, mangled, and half expiring, as
they were, they cast them all out of the camp, some into the stream
of the Rhine. Septimius, who had for refuge fled to the tribunal of
Caecina, and lay clasping his feet, was demanded with such imperious
vehemence, that he was forced to be surrendered to destruction. Cassius
Cherea (afterwards famous to posterity for killing Caligula), then a
young man of undaunted spirit, and one of the Centurions, boldly opened
himself a passage with his sword through a crowd of armed foes striving
to seize him. After this no further authority remained to the Tribunes,
none to the Camp-Marshals. The seditious soldiers were their own
officers; set the watch, appointed the guard, and gave all orders proper
in the present exigency; hence those who dived deepest into the spirit
of the soldiery, gathered a special indication how powerful and obdurate
the present insurrection was like to prove; for in their conduct were no
marks of a rabble, where every man's will guides him, or the instigation
of a few controls the whole. Here, all at once they raged, and all at
once kept silence; with so much concert and steadiness, that you would
have believed them under the sovereign direction of one.

To Germanicus the while, then receiving, as I have said, the tribute in
Gaul, news were brought of the decease of Augustus; whose grand-daughter
Agrippina he had to wife, and by her many children: he was himself the
grandson of Livia, by her son Drusus, the brother of Tiberius; but ever
under heavy anxiety from the secret hate which his uncle and grandmother
bore him: hate the more virulent as its grounds were altogether
unrighteous; for, dear and adored was the memory of his father Drusus
amongst the Roman People, and from him was firmly expected that had he
succeeded to the Empire, he would have restored public liberty: hence
their zeal for Germanicus, and of him the same hopes conceived; as
from his youth he possessed a popular spirit, and marvellous affability
utterly remote from the comportment and address of Tiberius, ever
haughty and mysterious. The animosities too between the ladies
administered fresh fuel; while towards Agrippina, Livia was actuated
by the despite natural to step-mothers: and over-tempestuous was the
indignation of Agrippina; only that her known chastity and love for her
husband, always gave her mind, however vehement, a virtuous turn.

But Germanicus, the nearer he stood to supreme rule, the more vigour he
exerted to secure it to Tiberius: to him he obliged the Sequanians, a
neighbouring people, as also the several Belgic cities, to swear present
allegiance; and the moment he learnt the uproar of the legions, posted
thither: he found them advanced without the camp to receive him, with
eyes cast down, in feigned token of remorse. After he entered the
entrenchments, instantly his ears were filled with plaints and
grievances, uttered in hideous and mixed clamours: nay, some catching
his hand, as if they meant to kiss it, thrust his fingers into their
mouths, to feel their gums destitute of teeth; others showed their limbs
enfeebled, and bodies stooping under old age. As he saw the assembly
mixed at random, he commanded them "to range themselves into companies,
thence more distinctly to hear his answers; as also to place before
them their several ensigns, that the cohorts at least might be
distinguished. "

With slowness and reluctance it was, that they obeyed him; then
beginning with an encomium upon the "venerable memory of Augustus," he
proceeded to the "many victories and many triumphs of Tiberius," and
with peculiar praises celebrated the "glorious and immortal deeds, which
with these very legions in Germany he had accomplished;" he next boasted
the quiet state of things, the consent of all Italy, the loyal faith
of both the Gauls: and every quarter of the Roman State exempt from
disaffection and turbulence.

Thus far they listened with silence, at least with moderate murmuring;
but the moment he touched their sedition and questioned, "where now was
the wonted modesty of soldiers? where the glory of ancient discipline?
whither had they chased their Tribunes, whither their Centurions? " to a
man, they stripped themselves to the skin, and there exposed the seams
of their wounds and bruises of their chastisements, in the rage of
reproach. Then in the undistinguished voice of uproar, they urged
"the exactions for occasional exemptions, their scanty pay, and their
rigorous labours;" which they represented in a long detail: "ramparts to
be reared, entrenchments digged, trees felled and drawn, forage cut and
carried, fuel prepared and fetched," with every other article of
toil required by the exigencies of war, or to prevent idleness in the
soldiery. Above all, from the veterans arose a cry most horrible:
they enumerated thirty years or upwards undergone in the service; "and
besought that to men utterly spent he would administer respite, nor
suffer them to be beholden to death for the last relief from their
toils; but discharge them from a warfare so lasting and severe, and
grant them the means of a comfortable recess. " Nay, some there were
who of him required the money bequeathed them by Augustus; and towards
Germanicus uttering zealous vows, with omens of happy fortune, declared
their cordial attachment to his cause if he would himself assume the
Empire. Here, as if already stained with their treason, he leaped
headlong from the Tribunal; but with swords drawn they opposed his
departure, and threatened his life, if he refused to return: yet, with
passionate protestations that "he would rather die than be a traitor,"
he snatched his sword from his side, and aiming full at his breast,
would have buried it there, had not those who were next him seized his
hand and by force restrained him. A cluster of soldiers in the extremity
of the assembly exhorted him, nay, what is incredible to hear, some
particulars advancing nearer, exhorted him _to strike home_: in truth
one Calusidius, a common soldier, presented him his naked sword, and
added, "it is sharper than your own;" a behaviour which to the rest,
outrageous as they were, seemed savage, and of horrid example: hence the
friends of Germanicus had time to snatch him away to his tent.

It was here consulted what remedy to apply: for it was advised, that
"ministers of sedition were preparing to be despatched to the other
army, to draw them too into a confederacy in the revolt; that the
capital of the Ubians was destined to be sacked; and if their hands were
once inured to plunder, they would break in, and ravage all Gaul. " This
dread was augmented by another: the enemy knew of the sedition in the
Roman army, and were ready to invade the Empire, if its barrier the
Rhine were left unguarded. Now, to arm the allies and the auxiliaries of
Rome, and lead them against the departing legions, was to rouse a civil
war: severity was dangerous: the way of largesses infamous; and alike
threatening it was to the State to grant the turbulent soldiers nothing,
or yield them everything. After revolving every reason and objection,
the result was, to feign letters and directions from Tiberius, "that
those who had served twenty years should be finally discharged; such as
served sixteen be under the ensign and privileges of veterans, released
from every duty but that of repulsing the enemy; and the legacy, which
they demanded, should be paid and doubled. "

The soldiers, who perceived that, purely to evade present difficulty,
the concessions were forged, insisted to have them forthwith executed;
and instantly the Tribunes despatched the discharge of the veterans:
that of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters; but
the fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth, refused to stir, till in
that very camp they were paid; so that out of the money reserved by
himself and his friends for travailing expenses, Germanicus was obliged
to raise the sum. Caecina, Lieutenant-General, led the first legion and
twentieth back to the capital of the Ubians: an infamous march, when the
plunder of their General's coffers was carried amidst the ensigns and
Roman Eagles. Germanicus, the while, proceeding to the army in higher
Germany, brought the second, thirteenth, and sixteenth legions to swear
allegiance without hesitation: to the fourteenth, who manifested some
short suspense, he made unasked a tender of their money, and a present
discharge.

But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions, and
then in garrison among the Chaucians, as they began a sedition there,
were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body: an
execution this, commanded by Maenius, Camp-Marshal, and rather of good
example, than done by competent authority. The tumult, however, swelling
again with fresh rage, he fled, but was discovered; so that, finding
no safety in lurking, from his own bravery he drew his defence, and
declared "that to himself, who was only their Camp-Marshal, these their
outrages were not done, but done to the authority of Germanicus, their
General, to the majesty of Tiberius their Emperor. " At the same time,
braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him, he fiercely
snatched the colours, faced about towards the Rhine, and pronouncing
the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks,
brought them back to their winter quarters, mutinous, in truth, but not
daring to mutiny.

In the meantime the deputies from the Senate met Germanicus at the
altar of the Ubians [Footnote: Cologne. ], whither in his return he was
arrived. Two legions wintered there, the first and twentieth, with the
soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans; men already under
the distractions of guilt and fear: and now a new terror possessed them,
that these Senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every
concession which they had by sedition extorted; and, as it is the custom
of the crowd to be ever charging somebody with the crimes suggested by
their own false alarms, the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid
upon Minutius Plancus, a Senator of consular dignity, and at the head of
this deputation. In the dead of night, they began to clamour aloud for
the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus, and, rushing
tumultuously to his gate, burst the doors, dragged the Prince out of his
bed, and, with menaces of present death, compelled him to deliver the
standard. Then, as they roved about the camp, they met the deputies,
who, having learnt the outrage, were hastening to Germanicus: upon
them they poured a deluge of contumelies, and to present slaughter were
devoting them, Plancus chiefly, whom the dignity of his character had
restrained from flight; nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge
than the quarters of the first legion, where, embracing the Eagle and
other ensigns, he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration
ever paid them. But, in spite of religion, had not Calpurnius, the
Eagle-bearer, by force defeated the last violence of the assault, in the
Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman People, and
with his blood had been stained the inviolable altars of the Gods; a
barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy. At last, day returning,
when the General, and the soldiers, and their actions could be
distinguished, Germanicus entered the camp, and commanding Plancus to
be brought, seated him by himself upon the tribunal: he then inveighed
against the late "pernicious frenzy, which in it, he said, had fatality,
and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers, but by that of the
angry Gods. " He explained the genuine purposes of that embassy, and
lamented with affecting eloquence "the outrage committed upon Plancus,
altogether brutal and unprovoked; the foul violence done to the sacred
person of an Ambassador, and the mighty disgrace from thence derived
upon the legion. " Yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than
calmness, he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse.

During this affright, Germanicus was by all men censured, "that he
retired not to the higher army, whence he had been sure of ready
obedience, and even of succour against the revolters: already he had
taken wrong measures more than enow, by discharging some, rewarding all,
and other tender counsels; if he despised his own safety, yet why expose
his infant son, why his wife big with child, to the fury of outrageous
traitors, wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men? It
became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and
to the State. " He was long unresolved; besides Agrippina was averse to
leave him, and urged, that "she was the grand-daughter of Augustus, and
it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger. " But embracing
her and their little son, with great tenderness and many tears, he
prevailed with her to depart. Thus there marched miserably along a band
of helpless women: the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive,
and upon her bosom bore her infant son: about her a troop of other
ladies, dragged from their husbands, and drowned in tears, uttering
their heavy lamentations; nor weaker than theirs was the grief felt by
all who remained.

These groans and tears, and this spectacle of woe, the appearances
rather of a city stormed and sacked, than of a Roman camp, that of
Germanicus Caesar, victorious and flourishing, awakened attention and
inquiry in the soldiers: leaving their tents, they cried, "Whence these
doleful wailings? what so lamentable! so many ladies of illustrious
quality, travelling thus forlorn; not a Centurion to attend them; not
a soldier to guard them; their General's wife amongst them,
undistinguished by any mark of her princely dignity; destitute of her
ordinary train; frightened from the Roman legions, and repairing, like
an exile, for shelter to Treves, there to commit herself to the faith
of foreigners. " Hence shame and commiseration seized them, and the
remembrance of her illustrious family, with that of her own virtues;
the brave Agrippa her father; the mighty Augustus her grandfather; the
amiable Drusus her father-in-law, herself celebrated for a fruitful bed,
and of signal chastity: add the consideration of her little son, born
in the camp, nursed in the arms of the legions, and by themselves named
Caligula, a military name from the boots which of the same fashion
with their own, in compliment to them, and to win their affections, he
frequently wore. But nothing so effectually subdued them as their own
envy towards the inhabitants of Treves: hence they all besought, all
adjured, that she would return to themselves, and with themselves
remain: thus some stopped Agrippina; but the main body returned with
their entreaties to Germanicus, who, as he was yet in the transports
of grief and anger, addressed himself on this wise to the surrounding
crowd.

"To me neither is my wife or son dearer than my father and the
Commonwealth. But him doubtless the majesty of his name will defend; and
there are other armies, loyal armies, to defend the Roman State. As to
my wife and children, whom for your glory I could freely sacrifice, I
now remove them from your rage; that by my blood alone may be expiated
whatever further mischief your fury meditates; and that the murder of
the great grandson of Augustus, the murder of the daughter-in-law of
Tiberius, may not be added to mine, nor to the blackness of your past
guilt. For, during these days of frenzy what has been too horrid for you
to commit? What so sacred that you have not violated? To this audience
what name shall I give? Can I call you _soldiers_? you who have beset
with arms the son of your Emperor, confined him in your trenches, and
held him in a siege? _Roman citizens_ can I call you? you who
have trampled upon the supreme authority of the Roman Senate? Laws
religiously observed by common enemies, you have profaned; violated
the sacred privileges, and persons of Ambassadors; broken the laws of
nations. The deified Julius Caesar quelled a sedition in his army by a
single word: he called all who refused to follow him, _townsmen_. The
deified Augustus, when, after the battle of Actium, the legions who won
it lapsed into mutiny, terrified them into submission by the dignity
of his presence and an awful look. These, it is true, are mighty and
immortal names, whom I dare not emulate; but, as I am their descendant,
and inherit their blood, should the armies in Syria and Spain reject my
orders, and contemn my authority, I should think their behaviour strange
and base: are not the present legions under stronger ties than those in
Syria and Spain? You are the first and the twentieth legions; the former
enrolled by Tiberius himself; the other his constant companions in so
many battles, his partners in so many victories, and by him enriched
with so many bounties! Is this the worthy return you make your Emperor,
and late Commander, for the distinction he has shown you, for the favour
he has done you, and for his liberalities towards you?
And shall I be
the author of such tidings to him; such heavy tidings in the midst of
congratulations and happy accounts from every province in the Empire?
Must it be my sad task to acquaint him that his own new levies, as well
as his own veterans who long fought under him; these not appeased by
their discharge, and neither of them satiated with the money given them,
are both still combined in a furious mutiny? must I tell him that here
and only here the Centurions are butchered, the Tribunes driven away,
the Ambassadors imprisoned; that with blood the camp is stained, and
the rivers flow with blood; and that for me his son, I hold a precarious
life at the mercy of men, who owe me duty, and practise enmity?

"Why did you the other day, oh unseasonable and too officious friends!
why did you leave me at their mercy by snatching from me my sword, when
with it I would have put myself out of their power? He who offered me
his own sword showed greater kindness, and was more my friend. I would
then have fallen happy; happy that my death would have hid from mine
eyes so many horrible crimes since committed by my own army; and for
you, you would have chosen another general, such a general, no doubt, as
would have left my death unpunished, but still one who would have sought
vengeance for that of Varus and the three legions; for the Gods are too
just to permit that ever the Belgians, however generously they offer
their service, shall reap the credit and renown of retrieving the glory
of the Roman name, and of reducing in behalf of Rome the German nations
her foes. Filled with this passion for the glory of Rome, I here
invoke thy spirit now with the Gods, oh deified Augustus; and thy image
interwoven in the ensigns, and thy memory, oh deceased father. Let thy
revered spirit, oh Augustus, let thy loved image and memory, oh Drusus,
still dear to these legions, vindicate them from this guilty stain,
this foul infamy of leaving to foreigners the honour of defending
and avenging the Roman State. They are Romans; they already feel the
remorses of shame; they are already stimulated with a sense of honour:
improve, oh improve this generous disposition in them; that thus
inspired they may turn the whole tide of their civil rage to the
destruction of their common enemy. And for you, my fellow-soldiers,
in whom I behold all the marks of compunction, other countenances,
and minds happily changed; if you mean to restore to the Senate its
ambassadors; to your Emperor your sworn obedience; to me, your general,
my wife and son; be it the first instance of your duty, to fly the
contagious company of incendiaries, to separate the sober from the
seditious: this will be a faithful sign of remorse, this a firm pledge
of fidelity. "

These words softened them into supplicants: they confessed that all
his reproaches were true; they besought him to punish the guilty and
malicious, to pardon the weak and misled, and to lead them against the
enemy; to recall his wife, to bring back his son, nor to suffer the
fosterling of the legions to be given in hostage to the Gauls. Against
the recalling of Agrippina he alleged the advance of winter, and her
approaching delivery; but said, that his son should return, and that
to themselves he left to execute what remained further to be executed.
Instantly, with changed resentments, they ran, and seizing the most
seditious, dragged them in bonds to Caius Cretonius, commander of the
first legion, who judged and punished them in this manner. The legions,
with their swords drawn, surrounded the tribunal; from thence the
prisoner was by a Tribune exposed to their view, and if they
proclaimed him guilty, cast headlong down, and executed even by his
fellow-soldiers, who rejoiced in the execution, because by it they
thought their own guilt to be expiated: nor did Germanicus restrain
them, since on themselves remained the cruelty and reproach of the
slaughter committed without any order of his. The veterans followed the
same example of vengeance, and were soon after ordered into Rhetia, in
appearance to defend that province against the invading Suevians; in
reality, to remove them from a camp still horrible to their sight, as
well in the remedy and punishment, as from the memory of their crime.
Germanicus next passed a scrutiny upon the conduct and characters of the
Centurions: before him they were cited singly; and each gave an account
of his name, his company, country, the length of his service, exploits
in war, and military presents, if with any he had been distinguished:
if the Tribunes or his legion bore testimony of his diligence and
integrity, he kept his post; upon concurring complaint of his avarice or
cruelty, he was degraded.

Thus were the present commotions appeased; but others as great still
subsisted, from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and twenty-first
legions. They were in winter quarters sixty miles off, in a place called
the Old Camp, [Footnote: Xanten. ] and had first began the sedition: nor
was there any wickedness so horrid, that they had not perpetrated; nay,
at this time, neither terrified by the punishment, nor reclaimed by the
reformation of their fellow-soldiers, they persevered in their fury.
Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle, if they persisted
in their revolt; and prepared vessels, arms, and troops to be sent down
the Rhine.

Before the issue of the sedition in Illyricum was known at Rome, tidings
of the uproar in the German legions arrived; hence the city was filled
with much terror; and hence against Tiberius many complaints, "that
while with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the Senate and
people, once the great bodies of the estate, but now bereft of power and
armies, the soldiery were in open rebellion, one too mighty and stubborn
to be quelled by two princes so young in years and authority: he
ought at first to have gone himself, and awed them with the majesty of
imperial power, as doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the
sight of their Emperor, a Prince of consummate experience, the sovereign
disposer of rewards and severity. Did Augustus, even under the pressure
of old age and infirmities, take so many journeys into Germany? and
should Tiberius, in the vigour of his life, when the same or greater
occasions called him thither, sit lazily in the Senate to watch senators
and cavil at words? He had fully provided for the domestic servitude
of Rome; he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers,
to restrain their turbulent spirits, and reconcile them to a life of
peace. "

But all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius: he was
determined not to depart from the capital, the centre of power and
affairs; nor to chance or peril expose his person and empire. In truth,
many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him: "the German
army was the stronger; that of Pannonia nearer; the power of both the
Gauls supported the former; the latter was at the gates of Italy. Now to
which should he repair first? and would not the last visited be inflamed
by being postponed? But by sending one of his sons to each, the equal
treatment of both was maintained; as also the majesty of the supreme
power, which from distance ever derived most reverence. Besides, the
young princes would be excused, if to their father they referred such
demands as were for them improper to grant; and if they disobeyed
Germanicus and Drusus, his own authority remained to appease or punish
them: but if once they had contemned their Emperor himself, what other
resource was behind? " However, as if he had been upon the point of
marching, he chose his attendance, provided his equipage, and prepared
a fleet: but by various delays and pretences, sometimes that of the
winter, sometimes business, he deceived for a time even the wisest men;
much longer the common people, and the provinces for a great while.

Germanicus had already drawn together his army, and was prepared to take
vengeance on the seditious: but judging it proper to allow space for
trial, whether they would follow the late example, and consulting their
own safety do justice upon one another, he sent letters to Caecina,
"that he himself approached, with a powerful force; and if they
prevented him not, by executing the guilty, he would put all
indifferently to the slaughter. " These letters Caecina privately read
to the principal officers, and such of the camp as the sedition had not
tainted; besought them "to redeem themselves from death, and all
from infamy; urged that in peace alone reason was heard and merit
distinguished; but in the rage of war the blind steel spared the
innocent no more than the guilty. " The officers, having tried those they
believed for their purpose, and found the majority still to persevere
in their duty, did, in concurrence with the General, settle the time for
falling with the sword upon the most notoriously guilty and turbulent.
Upon a particular signal given they rushed into their tents and
butchered them, void as they were of all apprehension; nor did any but
the centurions and executioners know whence the massacre began, or where
it would end.

This had a different face from all the civil slaughters that ever
happened: it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies, nor from
different and opposite camps, nor in a day of battle; but of comrades
upon comrades, in the same tents where they ate together by day, where
they slept together by night. From this state of intimacy they flew
into mortal enmity, and friends launched their darts at friends: wounds,
outcries, and blood were open to view; but the cause remained hid: wild
chance governed the rest, and several innocents were slain. For the
criminals, when they found against whom all this fury was bent, had also
betaken themselves to their arms; neither did Caecina, nor any of the
Tribunes, intervene to stay the rage; so that the soldiers had full
permission to vengeance, and a licentious satiety of killing. Germanicus
soon after entered the camp now full of blood and carcasses, and
lamenting with many tears that "this was not a remedy, but cruelty
and desolation," commanded the bodies to be burnt. Their minds, still
tempestuous and bloody, were transported with sudden eagerness to attack
the foe, as the best expiation of their tragical fury: nor otherwise,
they thought, could the ghosts of their butchered brethren be appeased,
than by receiving in their own profane breasts a chastisement of
honourable wounds. Germanicus fell in with the ardour of the soldiers,
and laying a bridge upon the Rhine, marched over twelve thousand
legionary soldiers, twenty-six cohorts of the allies, and eight
regiments of horse; men all untainted in the late sedition.

The Germans rejoiced, not far off, at this vacation of war, occasioned
first by the death of Augustus, and afterwards by intestine tumults in
the camp; but the Romans by a hasty march passed through the Caesian
woods, and levelling the barrier formerly begun by Tiberius, upon
it pitched their camp. In the front and rear they were defended by a
palisade; on each side by a barricade of the trunks of trees felled.
From thence, beginning to traverse gloomy forests, they stopped to
consult which of two ways they should choose, the short and frequented,
or the longest and least known, and therefore unsuspected by the
foe: the longest way was chosen; but in everything else despatch was
observed; for by the scouts intelligence was brought that the Germans
did, that night, celebrate a festival with great mirth and revelling.
Hence Caecina was commanded to advance with the cohorts without their
baggage, and to clear a passage through the forest: at a moderate
distance followed the legions; the clearness of the night facilitated
the march, and they arrived at the villages of the Marsians, which with
guards they presently invested. The Germans were even yet under the
effects of their debauch, scattered here and there, some in bed, some
lying by their tables; no watch placed, no apprehension of an enemy. So
utterly had their false security banished all order and care; and they
were under no dread of war, without enjoying peace, other than the
deceitful and lethargic peace of drunkards.

The legions were eager for revenge; and Germanicus, to extend their
ravage, divided them into four battalions. The country was wasted by
fire and sword fifty miles round; nor sex nor age found mercy; places
sacred and profane had the equal lot of destruction, all razed to the
ground, and with them the temple of Tanfana, of all others the most
celebrated amongst these nations: nor did all this execution cost the
soldiers a wound, while they only slew men half asleep, disarmed, or
dispersed. This slaughter roused the Bructerans, the Tubantes, and the
Usipetes; and they beset the passes of the forest, through which the
army was to return: an event known to Germanicus, and he marched in
order of battle. The auxiliary cohorts and part of the horse led the
van, followed close by the first legion; the baggage was in the middle;
the twenty-first legion closed the left wing, and the fifth the right;
the twentieth defended the rear; and after them marched the rest of the
allies. But the enemy stirred not, till the body of the army entered
the wood: they then began lightly to insult the front and wings; and at
last, with their whole force, fell upon the rear. The light cohorts were
already disordered by the close German bands, when Germanicus riding up
to the twentieth legion, and exalting his voice, "This was the season,"
he cried, "to obliterate the scandal of sedition: hence they should
fall resolutely on, and into sudden praise convert their late shame and
offence. " These words inflamed them: at one charge they broke the enemy,
drove them out of the wood, and slaughtered them in the plain. In the
meanwhile, the front passed the forest, and fortified the camp: the rest
of the march was uninterrupted; and the soldiers, trusting to the merit
of their late exploits, and forgetting at once past faults and terrors,
were placed in winter quarters.

The tidings of these exploits affected Tiberius with gladness and
anguish: he rejoiced that the sedition was suppressed; but that
Germanicus had, by discharging the veterans, by shortening the term of
service to the rest, and by largesses to all, gained the hearts of the
army, as well as earned high glory in war, proved to the Emperor matter
of torture. To the Senate, however, he reported the detail of his feats,
and upon his valour bestowed copious praises, but in words too pompous
and ornamental to be believed dictated by his heart. It was with more
brevity that he commended Drusus, and his address in quelling the
sedition of Illyricum, but more cordially withal, and in language
altogether sincere; and even to the Pannonian legions he extended all
the concessions made by Germanicus to his own.

There was this year an admission of new rites, by the establishment
of another College of Priests, one sacred to the deity of Augustus; as
formerly Titus Tatius, to preserve the religious rites of the Sabines,
had founded the fraternity of Titian Priests. To fill the society,
one-and-twenty, the most considerable Romans were drawn by lot, and
to them added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus. The games in
honour of Augustus began then first to be embroiled by emulation among
the players, and the strife of parties in their behalf. Augustus had
countenanced these players and their art, in complaisance to Maecenas,
who was mad in love with Bathyllus the comedian; nor to such favourite
amusements of the populace had he any aversion himself; he rather judged
it an acceptable courtesy to mingle with the multitude in these their
popular pleasures. Different was the temper of Tiberius, different
his politics: to severer manners, however, he durst not yet reduce the
people, so many years indulged in licentious gaieties.

In the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Caius Norbanus, a triumph was
decreed to Germanicus, while the war still subsisted. He was preparing
with all diligence to prosecute it the following summer; but began much
sooner by a sudden irruption early in the spring into the territories of
the Cattans: an anticipation of the campaign, which proceeded from the
hopes given him of dissension amongst the enemy, caused by the opposite
parties of Arminius and Segestes; two men signally known to the Romans
upon different accounts; the last for his firm faith, the first for
faith violated. Arminius was the incendiary of Germany; but by Segestes
had been given repeated warnings of an intended revolt, particularly
during the festival immediately preceding the insurrection: he had even
advised Varus "to secure himself and Arminius, and all the other chiefs;
for that the multitude, thus bereft of their leaders, would dare to
attempt nothing; and Varus have time to distinguish crimes and such
as committed none. " But by his own fate, and the sudden violence of
Arminius, Varus fell. Segestes, though by the weight and unanimity of
his nation he was forced into the war, yet remained at constant variance
with Arminius: a domestic quarrel too heightened their hate, as Arminius
had carried away the daughter of Segestes, already betrothed to another;
and the same relations, which amongst friends prove bonds of tenderness,
were fresh stimulations of wrath to an obnoxious son and an offended
father.

Upon these encouragements, Germanicus to the command of Caecina
committed four legions, five thousand auxiliaries, and some bands of
Germans, dwellers on this side the Rhine, drawn suddenly together;
he led himself as many legions with double the number of allies, and
erecting a fort in Mount Taunus, [Footnote: Near Homburg. ] upon the old
foundations of one raised by his father, rushed full march against the
Cattans; having behind him left Lucius Apronius, to secure the ways from
the fury of inundations: for as the roads were then dry and the rivers
low, events in that climate exceeding rare, he had without check
expedited his march; but against his return apprehended the violence of
rains and floods. Upon the Cattans he fell with such surprise, that all
the weak through sex or age were instantly taken or slaughtered: their
youth, by swimming over the Adrana, [Footnote: Eder. ] escaped, and
attempted to force the Romans from building a bridge to follow them, but
by dint of arrows and engines were repulsed; and then, having in vain
tried to gain terms of peace, some submitted to Germanicus; the rest
abandoned their villages and dwellings, and dispersed themselves in the
woods. Mattium, [Footnote: Maden. ] the capital of the nation, he burnt,
ravaged all the open country, and bent his march to the Rhine; nor durst
the enemy harass his rear, an usual practice of theirs, when sometimes
they fly more through craft than affright. 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.