The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 4 [20]
20. When the Batavians were near the camp at Bonna, they sent on before them
delegates, commissioned to deliver to Herennius Gallus a message from the cohorts.
It was to this effect: “We have no quarrel with the Romans, for whom we have
so often fought. Wearied with a protracted and fruitless service, we long for
our native land and for rest. If no one oppose us, our march will be harmless,
but if an armed force encounter us, we will make a way with the sword.” The
soldiers prevailed upon the hesitating legate to risk the chances of a battle.
Three thousand legionaries, some raw Belgian cohorts, and with them a mob of
rustics and camp-followers, cowardly, but bold of speech before the moment of
danger, rushed out of all the gates, thinking to surround the Batavians, who
were inferior in number. But the enemy, being veteran troops, formed in columns,
presenting on every side a dense array, with front, flanks, and rear secure.
Thus they were able to break the thin line of our soldiers. The Belgians giving
way, the legion was driven back, retreating in confusion on the entrenchments
and the gates. It was there that the greatest slaughter took place. The trenches
were heaped up with corpses. Nor was it only from the deadly blows of the enemy
that they suffered; many perished in the crush and by their own weapons. The
victorious army, who avoided the Colonia Agrippinensis, did not venture on any
other hostile act during the remainder of their march, and excused the conflict
at Bonna, alleging that they had asked for peace, and that when it was refused
they had but looked to their own safety.
21. Civilis, who now on the arrival of these veteran cohorts was at the head
of a complete army, but who was undecided in his plans, and still reflected
on the power of Rome, made all who were with him swear allegiance to Vespasian,
and sent envoys to the two legions which after their defeat in the previous
engagement had retreated into the Old Camp, advising them to accept the same
allegiance. Their reply was: “We do not follow the advice of traitors or enemies.
Vitellius is our Emperor; to him we will retain our fealty and devote our swords
till our last breath. Then let not a Batavian refugee affect to decide the destinies
of Rome; let him rather await the merited penalty of his guilt.” When this reply
was delivered to Civilis, he was furious with anger, and hurried the whole Batavian
nation into open war. The Bructeri and the Tencteri joined him, and messengers
summoned all Germany to share in his plunder and his glory.
22. To meet the threatened dangers of the gathering war, the legates of the
legions, Munius Lupercus and Numisius Rufus, strengthened their entrenchments
and walls. The buildings, which during a long period of peace had grown up like
a town near the camp, were destroyed, lest they might be useful to the enemy.
Little care, however, was taken about the conveyance of supplies into the camp.
These the generals allowed to be plundered; and so, what might long have sufficed
for their necessities, was wantonly wasted in a few days. Civilis, who occupied
the centre of the army with the elite of the Batavian troops, wishing to add
a new terror to his demonstration, covered both banks of the Rhine with columns
of his German allies, while his cavalry galloped about the plains. At the same
time the fleet was moved up the stream. Here were the standards of the veteran
cohorts; there the images of wild beasts, brought out of the woods and sacred
groves, under the various forms which each tribe is used to follow into battle,
and these mingled emblems of civil and of foreign warfare utterly confounded
the besieged. The extent of the entrenchment raised the hopes of the besiegers.
Constructed for two legions, it was now held by not more than five thousand
Roman soldiers. But there was with them a great number of camp-followers, who
had assembled there on the disturbance of peace, and who could be employed in
the contest.
23. Part of the camp occupied the gentle slope of a hill; to part was a level
approach. By this encampment Augustus had thought the German tribes might be
watched and checked; never had he contemplated such a pitch of disaster, as
that these tribes should themselves advance to attack our legions. Hence no
labour was bestowed on the ground or on the defences. Our valour and our arms
seemed defence enough. The Batavians and the Transrhenane tribes took up their
position, each tribe by itself, to distinguish and so the better to display
the valour of each; first annoying us by a distant volley; then, as they found
that very many of their missiles fixed themselves harmlessly in the turrets
and battlements of the walls, and they themselves suffered from the stones showered
down on them, they fell on the entrenchment with a shout and furious rush, many
placing their scaling-ladders against the ramparts, and others mounting on a
testudo formed by their comrades. Some were in the act of climbing over when
they were thrust down by the swords of the enemy, and fell overwhelmed by a
storm of javelins and stakes. Always very daring at first and excessively elated
by success, they now in their eagerness for plunder bore up against reverse.
They also ventured to use what to them was a novelty, engines of war; they had
themselves no skill in handling them, but the prisoners and deserters taught
them to pile up timber in the shape of a bridge, under which they put wheels,
and so propelled it, some standing on the top, and fighting as they would from
an earth-work, others concealing themselves within and undermining the walls.
But the stones thrown by the catapults prostrated the ill-constructed fabric,
and when they set themselves to prepare hurdles and mantlets, burning spears
were thrown on them by the engines, fire being thus actually used against the
assailants. At last, despairing of success by force, they changed their plans,
and resolved to wait, for they were well aware that only a few days’ provisions
were in the camp, and that there was a great crowd on non-combatants; and they
counted at the same time on the treachery that might follow on scarcity, on
the wavering fidelity of the slaves, and on the chances of war.
24. Meanwhile Flaccus, who had heard of the siege of the camp, and had sent
into all parts of Gaul to collect auxiliaries, put under command of Dillius
Vocula, legate of the 18th legion, some troops picked from the legions with
orders to hasten by forced marches along the banks of the Rhine. Flaccus himself,
who was weak in health and disliked by his troops, travelled with the fleet.
The troops indeed complained in unmistakable language that their general had
despatched the Batavian cohorts from Mogontiacum, had feigned ignorance of the
plans of Civilis, and was inviting the German tribes to join the league. “This,”
they said, “has strengthened Vespasian no less than the exertions of Primus
Antonius and Mucianus. Declared enmity and hostility may be openly repulsed,
but treachery and fraud work in darkness, and so cannot be avoided. Civilis
stands in arms against us, and arranges the order of his battle; Hordeonius
from his chamber or his litter gives such orders as may best serve the enemy.
The swords of thousands of brave men are directed by one old man’s sick caprice.
How much better by slaying the traitor, to set free our valour and our fortune
from these evil auspices!” The passions already kindled by the language which
they thus held among themselves were yet more inflamed by a despatch from Vespasian,
which Flaccus, finding that it could not be concealed, read before an assembly
of the troops, sending the persons who had brought it in chains to Vitellius.
25. With feelings somewhat appeased, they arrived at Bonna, the winter-camp
of the first legion. The troops there were even more enraged against Hordeonius,
and laid on him the blame of the late disaster. They said that it was by his
orders that they had offered battle to the Batavians, supposing that the legions
from Mogontiacum were following them; that it was through his treachery that
they had been slaughtered, no reinforcements coming up; that all these events
were unknown to the other legions, and were not told to their Emperor, though
the sudden outburst of treason might have been crushed by the prompt action
of so many provinces. Hordeonius read to the army copies of all the letters
which he had sent about Gaul, begging for reinforcements, and established as
a precedent a most disgraceful practice, namely, the handing over the despatches
to the standard-bearers of the legions, through whose means they were read by
the soldiers sooner than by the generals. He then ordered one of the mutineers
to be put in irons, more for the sake of asserting his authority than because
any one man was in fault. The army was then moved from Bonna to the Colonia
Agrippinensis, while auxiliaries from Gaul continued to flow in; for at first
that nation zealously supported the cause of Rome. Soon indeed as the Germans
increased in power, many of the states took up arms against us, moved by the
hope of freedom and, could they once shake off the yoke, even by the lust of
empire. The irritation of the legions still increased, nor had the imprisonment
of a single soldier struck them with terror. This fellow indeed actually charged
the general with complicity; he had, he said, acted as a messenger between Civilis
and Flaccus, and because he might tell the truth he was now being crushed under
a false charge. With wonderful firmness Vocula ascended the tribunal, and ordered
the man, who had been seized by the lictors, and was loudly remonstrating, to
be led off to execution. All the best men acquiesced in the order, while the
ill-affected were struck with terror. Then, as all with common consent demanded
that Vocula should be their general, Hordeonius handed over to him the supreme
command.
26. But there were many things to exasperate the already divided feelings
of the soldiery. Pay and provisions were scanty, Gaul was rebelling against
conscription and taxes, while the Rhine, owing to a drought unexampled in that
climate, would hardly admit of navigation, and thus supplies were straitened
at the same time that outposts had to be established along the entire bank to
keep the Germans from fording the stream; the self-same cause thus bringing
about a smaller supply of grain and a greater number of consumers. Among ignorant
persons the very failure of the stream was regarded as a prodigy, as if the
very rivers, the old defences of the Empire, were deserting us. What, in peace,
would have seemed chance or nature, was now spoken of as destiny and the anger
of heaven. As the army entered Novesium the sixteenth legion joined it; Herennius
Gallus, its legate, was associated with Vocula in the responsibilities of command.
As they did not venture to advance upon the enemy, they constructed a camp at
a place called Gelduba. Here the generals sought to give steadiness to the troops
by such exercises as forming in order of battle, constructing fortifications,
making entrenchments, and whatever else might train them for war. In the hope
that they might be fired to courage by the delights of plunder, Vocula led the
army against the nearest villages of the Gugerni, who had accepted the alliance
of Civilis. Some of the troops remained permanently with Herennius Gallus.
27. One day it happened that at no great distance from the camp the Germans
were endeavouring to drag off to their own bank a vessel laden with corn, which
had run aground in the shallows. Gallus could not endure this, and sent a cohort
to help. The numbers of the Germans also increased; as fresh troops continued
to join both sides, a regular battle ensued. The Germans, besides inflicting
great loss on our men, carried off the vessel. The vanquished troops, following
what had become a regular practice, laid the blame not on their own cowardice,
but on supposed treachery in the legate. Dragged out of his tent, his garments
torn, and his person severely beaten, he was commanded to declare for what bribe
and with what accomplices he had betrayed the army. Their old hatred of Hordeonius
reappeared. He, they declared, was the instigator of the crime, Gallus his tool.
At last, utterly terrified by their threats of instant death, the legate himself
charged Hordeonius with treachery. He was then put in irons, and only released
on the arrival of Vocula, who the next day inflicted capital punishment on the
ringleaders of the mutiny; such wide extremes of license and of subordination
were to be found in that army. The common soldiers were undoubtedly loyal to
Vitellius, but all the most distinguished men were in favour of Vespasian. The
result was an alternation of outbreaks and executions, and a strange mixture
of obedience and frenzy, which made it impossible to restrain the men whom it
was yet possible to punish.
28. Meanwhile all Germany was raising the power of Civilis by vast additions
of strength, and the alliance was secured by hostages of the noblest rank. He
directed that the territories of the Ubii and the Treveri should be ravaged
by the several tribes on which they bordered, and that another detachment should
cross the river Mosa, to threaten the Menapii and the Morini and the frontiers
of Gaul. In both quarters plunder was collected; with peculiar hostility in
the case of the Ubii, because, this nation, being of German origin, had forsworn
its native country, and assumed the Roman name of the Agrippinenses. Their cohorts
were cut up at the village of Marcodurum, where they lay in careless security,
presuming on their distance from the river-bank. The Ubii did not remain quiet,
but made predatory excursions into Germany, escaping at first with impunity,
though they were afterwards cut off. Throughout the whole of this war, they
were more loyal than fortunate. Civilis, grown more formidable now that the
Ubii had been crushed, and elated by the success of his operations, pressed
on the siege of the legions, keeping a strict watch to prevent any secret intelligence
of advancing succours from reaching them. He entrusted to the Batavians the
care of the machines and the vast siege-works, and when the Transrhenane tribes
clamoured for battle, he bade them go and cut through the ramparts, and, if
repulsed, renew the struggle; their numbers were superfluously large, and their
loss was not felt. Even darkness did not terminate the struggle.
29. Piling up logs of wood round the walls and lighting them, they sat feasting,
and rushed to the conflict, as each grew heated with wine, with a useless daring.
Their missiles were discharged without effect in the darkness, but to the Romans
the ranks of the barbarians were plainly discernible, and they singled out with
deliberate aim anyone whose boldness or whose decorations made him conspicuous.
Civilis saw this, and, extinguishing the fires, threw the confusion of darkness
over the attack. Then ensued a scene of discordant clamour, of accident, and
uncertainty, where no one could see how to aim or to avoid a blow. Wherever
a shout was heard, they wheeled round and strained hand and foot. Valour was
of no avail, accident disturbed every plan, and the bravest frequently were
struck down by the missiles of the coward. The Germans fought with inconsiderate
fury; our men, more alive to the danger, threw, but not at random, stakes shod
with iron and heavy stones. Where the noise of the assailants was heard, or
where the ladders placed against the walls brought the enemy within reach of
their hands, they pushed them back with their shields, and followed them with
their javelins. Many, who had struggled on to the walls, they stabbed with their
short swords. After a night thus spent, day revealed a new method of attack.
Leave A Comment