第25章 A.D.16-19(4)

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."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?

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.

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.

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.