The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 4 [60]
60. The ties of loyalty on the one hand, and the necessities of famine on the
other, kept the besieged wavering between the alternatives of glory and infamy.
While they thus hesitated, all usual and even unusual kinds of food failed them,
for they had consumed their horses and beasts of burden and all the other animals,
which, though unclean and disgusting, necessity compelled them to use. At last
they tore up shrubs and roots and the grass that grew between the stones, and
thus shewed an example of patience under privations, till at last they shamefully
tarnished the lustre of their fame by sending envoys to Civilis to beg for their
lives. Their prayers were not heard, till they swore allegiance to the empire
of Gaul. Civilis then stipulated for the plunder of the camp, and appointed
guards who were to secure the treasure, the camp-followers, and the baggage,
and accompany them as they departed, stripped of everything. About five miles
from the spot the Germans rose upon them, and attacked them as they marched
without thought of danger. The bravest were cut down where they stood; the greater
part, as they were scattered in flight. The rest made their escape to the camp,
while Civilis certainly complained of the proceeding, and upbraided the Germans
with breaking faith by this atrocious act. Whether this was mere hypocrisy,
or whether he was unable to restrain their fury, is not positively stated. They
plundered and then fired the camp, and all who survived the battle the flames
destroyed.
61. Then Civilis fulfilled a vow often made by barbarians; his hair, which
he had let grow long and coloured with a red dye from the day of taking up arms
against Rome, he now cut short, when the destruction of the legions had been
accomplished. It was also said that he set up some of the prisoners as marks
for his little son to shoot at with a child’s arrows and javelins. He neither
took the oath of allegiance to Gaul himself, nor obliged any Batavian to do
so, for he relied on the resources of Germany, and felt that, should it be necessary
to fight for empire with the Gauls, he should have on his side a great name
and superior strength. Munius Lupercus, legate of one of the legions, was sent
along with other gifts to Veleda, a maiden of the tribe of the Bructeri, who
possessed extensive dominion; for by ancient usage the Germans attributed to
many of their women prophetic powers and, as the superstition grew in strength,
even actual divinity. The authority of Veleda was then at its height, because
she had foretold the success of the Germans and the destruction of the legions.
Lupercus, however, was murdered on the road. A few of the centurions and tribunes,
who were natives of Gaul, were reserved as hostages for the maintenance of the
alliance. The winter encampments of the auxiliary infantry and cavalry and of
the legions, with the sole exception of those at Mogontiacum and Vindonissa,
were pulled down and burnt.
62. The 16th legion, with the auxiliary troops that capitulated at the same
time, received orders to march from Novesium to the Colony of the Treveri, a
day having been fixed by which they were to quit the camp. The whole of this
interval they spent in many anxious thoughts. The cowards trembled to think
of those who had been massacred at the Old Camp; the better men blushed with
shame at the infamy of their position. “What a march is this before us!” they
cried, “Who will lead us on our way? Our all is at the disposal of those whom
we have made our masters for life or death.” Others, without the least sense
of their disgrace, stowed away about their persons their money and what else
they prized most highly, while some got their arms in readiness, and girded
on their weapons as if for battle. While they were thus occupied, the time for
their departure arrived, and proved even more dismal than their anticipation.
For in their intrenchments their woeful appearance had not been so noticeable;
the open plain and the light of day revealed their disgrace. The images of the
Emperors were torn down; the standards were borne along without their usual
honours, while the banners of the Gauls glittered on every side. The train moved
on in silence like a long funeral procession. Their leader was Claudius Sanctus;
one of his eyes had been destroyed; he was repulsive in countenance and even
more feeble in intellect. The guilt of the troops seemed to be doubled, when
the other legion, deserting the camp at Bonna, joined their ranks. When the
report of the capture of the legions became generally known, all who but a short
time before trembled at the name of Rome rushed forth from the fields and houses,
and spread themselves everywhere to enjoy with extravagant delight the strange
spectacle. The Picentine Horse could not endure the triumph of the insulting
rabble, and, disregarding the promises and threats of Sanctus, rode off to Mogontiacum.
Chancing to fall in with Longinus, the murderer of Vocula, they overwhelmed
him with a shower of darts, and thus made a beginning towards a future expiation
of their guilt. The legions did not change the direction of their march, and
encamped under the walls of the colony of the Treveri.
63. Elated with their success, Civilis and Classicus doubted whether they
should not give up the Colonia Agrippinensis to be plundered by their troops.
Their natural ferocity and lust for spoil prompted them to destroy the city;
but the necessities of war, and the advantage of a character for clemency to
men founding a new empire, forbade them to do so. Civilis was also influenced
by recollections of kindness received; for his son, who at the beginning of
the war had been arrested in the Colony, had been kept in honourable custody.
But the tribes beyond the Rhine disliked the place for its wealth and increasing
power, and held that the only possible way of putting an end to war would be,
either to make it an open city for all Germans, or to destroy it and so disperse
the Ubii.
64. Upon this the Tencteri, a tribe separated by the Rhine from the Colony,
sent envoys with orders to make known their instructions to the Senate of the
Agrippinenses. These orders the boldest spirit among the ambassadors thus expounded:
“For your return into the unity of the German nation and name we give thanks
to the Gods whom we worship in common and to Mars, the chief of our divinities,
and we congratulate you that at length you will live as free men among the free.
Up to this day have the Romans closed river and land and, in a way, the very
air, that they may bar our converse and prevent our meetings, or, what is a
still worse insult to men born to arms, may force us to assemble unarmed and
all but stripped, watched by sentinels, and taxed for the privilege. But that
our friendship and union may be established for ever, we require of you to strip
your city of its walls, which are the bulwarks of slavery. Even savage animals,
if you keep them in confinement, forget their natural courage. We require of
you to massacre all Romans within your territory; liberty and a dominant race
cannot well exist together. Let the property of the slain come into a common
stock, so that no one may be able to secrete anything, or to detach his own
interest from ours. Let it be lawful for us and for you to inhabit both banks
of the Rhine, as it was of old for our ancestors. As nature has given light
and air to all men, so has she thrown open every land to the brave. Resume the
manners and customs of your country, renouncing the pleasures, through which,
rather than through their arms, the Romans secure their power against subject
nations. A pure and untainted race, forgetting your past bondage, you will be
the equals of all, or will even rule over others.”
65. The inhabitants of the Colony took time for deliberation, and, as dread
of the future would not allow them to accept the offered terms, while their
actual condition forbade an open and contemptuous rejection, they replied to
the following effect: “The very first chance of freedom that presented itself
we seized with more eagerness than caution, that we might unite ourselves with
you and the other Germans, our kinsmen by blood. With respect to our fortifications,
as at this very moment the Roman armies are assembling, it is safer for us to
strengthen than to destroy them. All strangers from Italy or the provinces,
that may have been in our territory, have either perished in the war, or have
fled to their own homes. As for those who in former days settled here, and have
been united to us by marriage, and as for their offspring, this is their native
land. We cannot think you so unjust as to wish that we should slay our parents,
our brothers, and our children. All duties and restrictions on trade we repeal.
Let there be a free passage across the river, but let it be during the day-time
and for persons unarmed, till the new and recent privileges assume by usage
the stability of time. As arbiters between us we will have Civilis and Veleda;
under their sanction the treaty shall be ratified.” The Tencteri were thus appeased,
and ambassadors were sent with presents to Civilis and Veleda, who settled everything
to the satisfaction of the inhabitants of the Colony. They were not, however,
allowed to approach or address Veleda herself. In order to inspire them with
more respect they were prevented from seeing her. She dwelt in a lofty tower,
and one of her relatives, chosen for the purpose, conveyed, like the messenger
of a divinity, the questions and answers.
66. Thus strengthened by his alliance with the Colonia Agrippinensis, Civilis
resolved to attach to himself the neighbouring States, or to make war on them
if they offered any opposition. He occupied the territory of the Sunici, and
formed the youth of the country into regular cohorts. To hinder his further
advance, Claudius Labeo encountered him with a hastily assembled force of Betasii,
Tungri, and Nervii, relying on the strength of his position, as he had occupied
a bridge over the river Mosa. They fought in a narrow defile without any decided
result, till the Germans swam across and attacked Labeo’s rear. At the same
moment, Civilis, acting either on some bold impulse or by a preconcerted plan,
rushed into the Tungrian column, exclaiming in a loud voice, “We have not taken
up arms in order that the Batavi and Treveri may rule over the nations. Far
from us be such arrogance! Accept our alliance. I am ready to join your ranks,
whether you would prefer me to be your general or your comrade.” The multitude
was moved by the appeal, and were beginning to sheathe their swords, when Campanus
and Juvenalis, two of the Tungrian chieftains, surrendered the whole tribe to
Civilis. Labeo made his escape before he could be intercepted. The Betasii and
Nervii, also capitulating, were incorporated by Civilis into his army. He now
commanded vast resources, as the States were either completely cowed, or else
were naturally inclined in his favour.
67. Meanwhile Julius Sabinus, after having thrown down the pillars that recorded
the treaty with Rome, bade his followers salute him as Emperor, and hastened
at the head of a large and undisciplined crowd of his countrymen to attack the
Sequani, a neighbouring people, still faithful to Rome. The Sequani did not
decline the contest. Fortune favoured the better cause, and the Lingones were
defeated. Sabinus fled from the battle with a cowardice equal to the rashness
with which he had precipitated it, and, in order to spread a report of his death,
he set fire to a country-house where he had taken refuge. It was believed that
he there perished by a death of his own seeking. The various shifts by which
he contrived to conceal himself and to prolong his life for nine years, the
firm fidelity of his friends, and the noble example of his wife Epponina, I
shall relate in their proper place. By this victory of the Sequani the tide
of war was stayed. The States began by degrees to recover their senses, and
to reflect on the claims of justice and of treaties. The Remi were foremost
in this movement, announcing throughout Gaul that deputies were to be sent to
consult in common assembly whether they should make freedom or peace their object.
68. At Rome report exaggerated all these disasters, and disturbed Mucianus
with the fear that the generals, though distinguished men (for he had already
appointed Gallus Annius and Petilius Cerialis to the command), would be unequal
to the weight of so vast a war. Yet the capital could not be left without a
ruler, and men feared the ungoverned passions of Domitian, while Primus Antonius
and Varus Arrius were also, as I have said, objects of suspicion. Varus, who
had been made commander of the Praetorian Guard, had still at his disposal much
military strength. Mucianus ejected him from his office, and, not to leave him
without consolation, made him superintendent of the sale of corn. To pacify
the feelings of Domitian, which were not unfavourable to Varus, he appointed
Arretinus Clemens, who was closely connected with the house of Vespasian, and
who was also a great favourite with Domitian, to the command of the Praetorian
Guard, alleging that his father, in the reign of Caligula, had admirably discharged
the duties of that office. The old name he said, would please the soldiers,
and Clemens himself, though on the roll of Senators, would be equal to both
duties. He selected the most eminent men in the State to accompany him, while
others were appointed through interest. At the same time Domitian and Mucianus
prepared to set out, but in a very different mood; Domitian in all the hope
and impatience of youth, Mucianus ever contriving delays to check his ardent
companion, who, he feared, were he to intrude himself upon the army, might be
led by the recklessness of youth or by bad advisers to compromise at once the
prospects of war and of peace. Two of the victorious legions, the 6th and 8th,
the 21st, which belonged to the Vitellianist army, the 2nd, which consisted
of new levies, were marched into Gaul, some over the Penine and Cottian, some
over the Graian Alps. The 14th legion was summoned from Britain, and the 6th
and 10th from Spain. Thus rumours of an advancing army, as well as their own
temper, inclined the States of Gaul which assembled in the country of the Remi
to more peaceful counsels. Envoys from the Treveri were awaiting them there,
and among them Tullius Valentinus, the most vehement promoter of the war, who
in a set speech poured forth all the charges usually made against great empires,
and levelled against the Roman people many insulting and exasperating expressions.
The man was a turbulent fomenter of sedition, and pleased many by his frantic
eloquence.
69. On the other hand Julius Auspex, one of the leading chieftains among
the Remi, dwelt on the power of Rome and the advantages of peace. Pointing out
that war might be commenced indeed by cowards, but must be carried on at the
peril of the braver spirits, and that the Roman legions were close at hand,
he restrained the most prudent by considerations of respect and loyalty, and
held back the younger by representations of danger and appeals to fear. The
result was, that, while they extolled the spirit of Valentinus, they followed
the counsels of Auspex. It is certain that the Treveri and Lingones were injured
in the eyes of the Gallic nations by their having sided with Verginius in the
movement of Vindex. Many were deterred by the mutual jealousy of the provinces.
“Where,” they asked, “could a head be found for the war? Where could they look
for civil authority, and the sanction of religion? If all went well with them,
what city could they select as the seat of empire?” The victory was yet to be
gained; dissension had already begun. One State angrily boasted of its alliances,
another of its wealth and military strength, or of the antiquity of its origin.
Disgusted with the prospect of the future, they acquiesced in their present
condition. Letters were written to the Treveri in the name of the States of
Gaul, requiring them to abstain from hostilities, and reminding them that pardon
might yet be obtained, and that friends were ready to intercede for them, should
they repent. Valentinus still opposed, and succeeded in closing the ears of
his countrymen to this advice, though he was not so diligent in preparing for
war as he was assiduous in haranguing.
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