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THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS;

T >> TACITUS >> THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS;




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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