The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 2 [10]
10. Then began a controversy. The one spoke of the greatness of Rome, the resources
of Caesar, the dreadful punishment in store for the vanquished, the ready mercy
for him who surrenders, and the fact that neither Arminius’s wife nor his son
were treated as enemies; the other, of the claims of fatherland, of ancestral
freedom, of the gods of the homes of Germany, of the mother who shared his prayers,
that Flavus might not choose to be the deserter and betrayer rather than the
ruler of his kinsfolk and relatives, and indeed of his own people. By degrees
they fell to bitter words, and even the river between them would not have hindered
them from joining combat, had not Stertinius hurried up and put his hand on
Flavus, who in the full tide of his fury was demanding his weapons and his charger.
Arminius was seen facing him, full of menaces and challenging him to conflict.
Much of what he said was in Roman speech, for he had served in our camp as leader
of his fellow-countrymen.
11. Next day the German army took up its position on the other side of the Visurgis.
Caesar, thinking that without bridges and troops to guard them, it would not
be good generalship to expose the legions to danger, sent the cavalry across
the river by the fords. It was commanded by Stertinius and Aemilius, one of
the first rank centurions, who attacked at widely different points so as to
distract the enemy. Chariovalda, the Batavian chief, dashed to the charge where
the stream is most rapid. The Cherusci, by a pretended flight, drew him into
a plain surrounded by forest-passes. Then bursting on him in a sudden attack
from all points they thrust aside all who resisted, pressed fiercely on their
retreat, driving them before them, when they rallied in compact array, some
by close fighting, others by missiles from a distance. Chariovalda, after long
sustaining the enemy’s fury, cheered on his men to break by a dense formation
the onset of their bands, while he himself, plunging into the thickest of the
battle, fell amid a shower of darts with his horse pierced under him, and round
him many noble chiefs. The rest were rescued from the peril by their own strength,
or by the cavalry which came up with Stertinius and Aemilius.
12. Caesar on crossing the Visurgis learnt by the information of a deserter
that Arminius had chosen a battle-field, that other tribes too had assembled
in a forest sacred to Hercules, and would venture on a night attack on his camp.
He put faith in this intelligence, and, besides, several watchfires were seen.
Scouts also, who had crept close up to the enemy, reported that they had heard
the neighing of horses and the hum of a huge and tumultuous host. And so as
the decisive crisis drew near, that he ought thoroughly to sound the temper
of his soldiers, he considered with himself how this was to be accomplished
with a genuine result. Tribunes and centurions, he knew, oftener reported what
was welcome than what was true; freedmen had slavish spirits, friends a love
of flattery. If an assembly were called, there too the lead of a few was followed
by the shout of the many. He must probe their inmost thoughts, when they were
uttering their hopes and fears at the military mess, among themselves, and unwatched.
13. At nightfall, leaving his tent of augury by a secret exit, unknown to the
sentries, with one companion, his shoulders covered with a wild beast’s skin,
he visited the camp streets, stood by the tents, and enjoyed the men’s talk
about himself, as one extolled his noble rank, another, his handsome person,
nearly all of them, his endurance, his gracious manner and the evenness of his
temper, whether he was jesting or was serious, while they acknowledged that
they ought to repay him with their gratitude in battle, and at the same time
sacrifice to a glorious vengeance the perfidious violators of peace. Meanwhile
one of the enemy, acquainted with the Roman tongue, spurred his horse up to
the entrenchments, and in a loud voice promised in the name of Arminius to all
deserters wives and lands with daily pay of a hundred sesterces as long as war
lasted. The insult fired the wrath of the legions. “Let daylight come,” they
said, “let battle be given. The soldiers will possess themselves of the lands
of the Germans and will carry off their wives. We hail the omen; we mean the
women and riches of the enemy to be our spoil.” About midday there was a skirmishing
attack on our camp, without any discharge of missiles, when they saw the cohorts
in close array before the lines and no sign of carelessness.
14. The same night brought with it a cheering dream to Germanicus. He saw himself
engaged in sacrifice, and his robe being sprinkled with the sacred blood, another
more beautiful was given him by the hands of his grandmother Augusta. Encouraged
by the omen and finding the auspices favourable, he called an assembly, and
explained the precautions which wisdom suggested as suitable for the impending
battle. “It is not,” he said, “plains only which are good for the fighting of
Roman soldiers, but woods and forest passes, if science be used. For the huge
shields and unwieldly lances of the barbarians cannot, amid trunks of trees
and brushwood that springs from the ground, be so well managed as our javelins
and swords and closefitting armour. Shower your blows thickly; strike at the
face with your swords’ points. The German has neither cuirass nor helmet; even
his shield is not strengthened with leather or steel, but is of osiers woven
together or of thin and painted board. If their first line is armed with spears,
the rest have only weapons hardened by fire or very short. Again, though their
frames are terrible to the eye and formidable in a brief onset, they have no
capacity of enduring wounds; without, any shame at the disgrace, without any
regard to their leaders, they quit the field and flee; they quail under disaster,
just as in success they forget alike divine and human laws. If in your weariness
of land and sea you desire an end of service, this battle prepares the way to
it. The Elbe is now nearer than the Rhine, and there is no war beyond, provided
only you enable me, keeping close as I do to my father’s and my uncle’s footsteps,
to stand a conqueror on the same spot.”
15. The general’s speech was followed by enthusiasm in the soldiers, and the
signal for battle was given. Nor were Arminius and the other German chiefs slow
to call their respective clansmen to witness that “these Romans were the most
cowardly fugitives out of Varus’s army, men who rather than endure war had taken
to mutiny. Half of them have their backs covered with wounds; half are once
again exposing limbs battered by waves and storms to a foe full of fury, and
to hostile deities, with no hope of advantage. They have, in fact, had recourse
to a fleet and to a trackless ocean, that their coming might be unopposed, their
flight unpursued. But when once they have joined conflict with us, the help
of winds or oars will be unavailing to the vanquished. Remember only their greed,
their cruelty, their pride. Is anything left for us but to retain our freedom
or to die before we are enslaved?
16. When they were thus roused and were demanding battle, their chiefs led them
down into a plain named Idistavisus. It winds between the Visurgis and a hill
range, its breadth varying as the river banks recede or the spurs of the hills
project on it. In their rear rose a forest, with the branches rising to a great
height, while there were clear spaces between the trunks. The barbarian army
occupied the plain and the outskirts of the wood. The Cherusci were posted by
themselves on the high ground, so as to rush down on the Romans during the battle.
Our army advanced in the following order. The auxiliary Gauls and Germans were
in the van, then the foot-archers, after them, four legions and Caesar himself
with two praetorian cohorts and some picked cavalry. Next came as many other
legions, and light-armed troops with horse-bowmen, and the remaining cohorts
of the allies. The men were quite ready and prepared to form in line of battle
according to their marching order.
17. Caesar, as soon as he saw the Cheruscan bands which in their impetuous spirit
had rushed to the attack, ordered the finest of his cavalry to charge them in
flank, Stertinius with the other squadrons to make a detour and fall on their
rear, promising himself to come up in good time. Meanwhile there was a most
encouraging augury. Eight eagles, seen to fly towards the woods and to enter
them, caught the general’s eye. “Go,” he exclaimed, “follow the Roman birds,
the true deities of our legions.” At the same moment the infantry charged, and
the cavalry which had been sent on in advance dashed on the rear and the flanks.
And, strange to relate, two columns of the enemy fled in opposite directions,
that, which had occupied the wood, rushing into the open, those who had been
drawn up on the plains, into the wood. The Cherusci, who were between them,
were dislodged from the hills, while Arminius, conspicuous among them by gesture,
voice, and a wound he had received, kept up the fight. He had thrown himself
on our archers and was on the point of breaking through them, when the cohorts
of the Raeti, Vendelici, and Gauls faced his attack. By a strong bodily effort,
however, and a furious rush of his horse, he made his way through them, having
smeared his face with his blood, that he might not be known. Some have said
that he was recognised by Chauci serving among the Roman auxiliaries, who let
him go. Inguiomerus owed his escape to similar courage or treachery. The rest
were cut down in every direction. Many in attempting to swim across the Visurgis
were overwhelmed under a storm of missiles or by the force of the current, lastly,
by the rush of fugitives and the falling in of the banks. Some in their ignominious
flight climbed the tops of trees, and as they were hiding themselves in the
boughs, archers were brought up and they were shot for sport. Others were dashed
to the ground by the felling of the trees.
18. It was a great victory and without bloodshed to us. From nine in the morning
to nightfall the enemy were slaughtered, and ten miles were covered with arms
and dead bodies, while there were found amid the plunder the chains which the
Germans had brought with them for the Romans, as though the issue were certain.
The soldiers on the battle field hailed Tiberius as Imperator, and raised a
mound on which arms were piled in the style of a trophy, with the names of the
conquered tribes inscribed beneath them.
19. That sight caused keener grief and rage among the Germans than their wounds,
their mourning, and their losses. Those who but now were preparing to quit their
settlements and to retreat to the further side of the Elbe, longed for battle
and flew to arms. Common people and chiefs, young and old, rushed on the Roman
army, and spread disorder. At last they chose a spot closed in by a river and
by forests, within which was a narrow swampy plain. The woods too were surrounded
by a bottomless morass, only on one side of it the Angrivarii had raised a broad
earthwork, as a boundary between themselves and the Cherusci. Here their infantry
was ranged. Their cavalry they concealed in neighbouring woods, so as to be
on the legions’ rear, as soon as they entered the forest.
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