The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus; / With His Account of Germany, and Life of Agricola

by Cornelius Tacitus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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