 Section 16 of the Complete Works of Tacitus, edited by Thomas Gordon. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. The Complete Works of Tacitus, to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author. Edited and translated by Thomas Gordon, with introductory essays by Thomas Gordon. Volume 1, The Annals, Book 1, Part 3, The Sedition at Pannonia. Thus stood affairs at Rome when a sedition seized the legions in Pannonia. Without any fresh grounds, save that from a change of princes, they meant to assume a warrant for licentiousness and tumult. And from a civil war hoped great earnings and acquisitions. They were three legions encamped together, all commanded by Junius Blaesus, who, upon notice of the death of Augustus and the accession of Tiberius, had granted the soldiers a recess from their wanted duties for some days, as a time either of public mourning or festivity. From being idle, they waxed haunting, quarrelsome, and turbulent, and greedily listened to mutinous discourses. The most profligate amongst them had most credit with them, and at last they became passionate for a life of ease and riot, utterly adverse to all military discipline and every fatigue of the camp. In the camp was one Perkeneus, formerly a busy leader in the embroilments of the theater, and now a common soldier, a fellow of a petulant, declaiming tongue, by inflaming parties in the playhouse, well qualified to excite and infatuate a crowd. This incendiary practiced upon the ignorant and unwary, such as were solicitous what might prove their future usage now Augustus was dead. He engaged them in nightly confabulations, and, little by little, incited them to violence and disorders, and, towards the evening, when the soberest and best affected were withdrawn, he assembled the worst and most turbulent. When he had thus ripened them for sedition, and other ready incendiaries were combined with him, he personated the character of a lawful commander, and thus questioned and harangued them. Why did they obey, like slaves, a few centurions, and a few tribunes? When would they be bold enough to demand redress of their heavy grievances, unless they snatched the present occasion, while the emperor was yet new, and his authority wavering, to prevail with him by petition or by arms to force him. They had already, by the misery of many years, paid dear for their patient sloth and stupid silence, since decrepit with old age, and maimed with wounds. After a course of service for thirty or forty years, they were still doomed to carry arms. Nor, even to those who were discharged, was there any end of the misery of warfare. They were still kept tied to the colors, and under the creditable title of veterans, endured the same hardships, and underwent the same labors. But suppose any of them escaped so many dangers, and survived so many calamities, where was their reward at last? A long and weary march remained yet to be taken into countries far, remote, and strange, where, under the name of lands given to them to cultivate, they had hospitable bogs to train, and the wild wastes of mountains to manure. Severe and ungainful of itself was the occupation of war. Ten as is the day, the poor price of their persons and lives. Out of this they must buy clothes, and tents, and arms. Out of this bribe the cruel centurions, for a forbearance of blows, and occasional exemption from hard duty. But stripes from their officers, and wounds from their enemies, hard winters and laborious summers, bloody wars, and barren peace, were miseries without end. Nor remain there other cure or relief than to refuse to list, but upon conditions certain, and fixed by themselves, particularly, that their pay be a denarius or sixteen as is the day. Sixteen years be the utmost term for serving, when discharged, to be no longer obliged to follow the colors, but to have their reward, and ready money, paid them in the camp where they earned it. Did the Praetorian guards, they who had double pay, they who, after sixteen years service were paid off and sent home, bear severe difficulties, undergo superior dangers? He did not mean to detract the merit of their brethren, the city guards. Their own harder lot, however, was to be placed amongst horrid and barbarian nations, nor could they look from their tents, but they saw the foe. The whole crowd received this harangue with shouts of applause, but from various instigations, some displayed upon their bodies the impressions of stripes, others their hoary heads, many their vestments ragged and curtailed, with backs utterly bare, as did all their various griefs in the bitterness of reproach, and length to such excessive fury they grew, that they proposed to incorporate the three legions into one, nor by ought but emulation was the project defeated. Four, to his own legion every man claimed the prerogative of swallowing and denominating the other two. They took another method and placed the three eagles of the legions, with the standards of the several cohorts altogether without rank or priority. Then forthwith dig turf, and were rearing a tribunal, one high enough to be seen into distance. In this hurry arrived Blaesus, who, falling into sore rebukes and by force interrupting particulars, called with venomance to all. Dip your hands, rather, in my blood, to murder your general will be a crime less shameful than heinous, than to revolt from your prince. Four, determined am I, either to preserve the legions in their faith and obedience, if you kill me not for my intended good office, or my death, if I fall by your hands, shall hasten your remorse. For all this, turfs were accumulated, and the work was already breast-high, when, at last, overcome by his spirit and perseverance they forbore. Blaesus was an able speaker. He told them that sedition and mutiny were not the methods of conveying to the emperor the pretensions of the soldiers. Their demands, too, were new and singular, such as neither the soldiers of old had ever made to the ancient generals, nor they themselves to the deified Augustus. Besides, their claims were ill-timed, when the prince, just upon his accession, was already embarrassed with the weight and variety of other cares. If, however, they meant to try to gain in full peace those concessions, which, even after a civil war, the conquerors never claimed, yet why trample upon duty and obedience, why reject the laws of the army and the rules of discipline, and if they meant to petition, why meditate violence? They might at least appoint deputies, and in his presence trust them with their pretensions. Here they all cried out that the son of Blaesus, one of their tribunes, should execute that deputation and demand in their name that, after sixteen years' service, they should be discharged. They said they would give him new orders when he succeeded in these. After the departure of the young officer, a moderate recess ensued. The soldiers, however, exalted to have carried such a point, the sending the son of their general, as the public advocated their cause, was to them full proof that they had gained, by force and terror, that which, by modesty and gentle means, they would never have gained. In the meantime, those companies, which before the sedition began, were sent to now Portum, to men' roads and bridges, and upon other duties. No sooner heard of their uproar in the camp, but they cast off all obedience, tore away the ensigns, and plundered the neighboring villages. Even now Portum itself, which for greatness resembled a municipal city, was plundered. The endeavors of the Santorians to restrain this violence, were first returned with mockery and contempt, then with invectives and contemporaries, and last with outrage and blows. Their vengeance was chiefly bent against the camp-martial. Alphidianus Rufus, him they dragged from his chariot, and loading him with baggage, drove him before the first ranks. They then insulted him and asked in scorn, whether he should bear such enormous burdens, whether endure such immense marshes. Rufus had long been a common soldier, then became a Santorian, and afterwards camp-martial, a severe restorer of primitive strictness and discipline, an indefatigable observer of every military duty, which he exacted from others with the more rigor, he had himself undergone them with all patience. By the arrival of this tumultuous band, the sedition was again awakened to its former outrage, and the seditious roved abroad without control, ravaged the country on every side. Places, for an example of terror to the rest, commanded those who were most laden with plunder to be punished with stripes and cast into prison, for the general was still dutifully obeyed by the Santorians, and by all the soldiers of any merit. But the criminals refused to submit, and even struggled with the guard who was carrying them off. They clasped the knees of the bystanders, implored help from their fellows, now calling upon every individual, and conjuring them by their particular names, then appealed to them in a body, and supplicated the company, the cohort, the legion, to which they belonged, warning and proclaiming that the same ignominy and chastisement hung over them all, with the same breath they heap invectives without measure upon their general, and called upon heaven and all the gods to be their witness and avengers, nor left they ought unattempted to raise the factual hatred, compassion, terror, and every species of fury. Hence the whole body rushed to their relief, burst open the prison, unbound and rescued the prisoners, thus they owned for their brethren and incorporated with themselves infamous revolters and traitors convicted and condemned. Hence the violence became more raging, and hence more sedition from more leaders. There was particularly one Vubulanus, a common soldier who exalted on the shoulders of his comrades before the tribunal of Blasus, thus declaimed in the ears of a multitude already outrageous and eager to hear what he had to say. To these innocents, says he, to those miserable sufferers, our fellow soldiers, you have indeed restored breath and liberty, but who will restore life to my poor brother? Who, my poor brother, to me? He was sent hither by the German armies with propositions for our common good, and for this was last night butchered by the same Blasus, who in the murder employed his gladiators, bloody men, whom he purposefully entertains and arms for our common execution, where, O Blasus, hast thou thrown his mangled corpse? Even open enemies do not inhumanly deny burial to the slain. When I have satiated my sorrow with a thousand kisses and a flood of tears, command me also to be murdered, that these our brethren may together bury my poor brother and me, slaughtered both his victims, yet both guiltless of any crime, but that of studying the common interest of the lesions. He inflamed those his complaints and expostulations with affecting sighs and lamentations, beat his breast and tore his face. Then those who carrying him gave way. He threw himself headlong to the feet of his companions, and thus prostrate and supplicating, and then raised such a spirit of commiseration and such a storm of vengeance that one party of them seized and bound the general's gladiators, another, the rest of his family, while they ran and dispersed themselves to search for the core, and, had it not been quickly manifest that there was no core to be found, that the slaves of Blasus had upon the rack cleared themselves and that Vubulanus never had any brother, they had gone nigh to have sacrificed to the general. As it was, they expulsed the count-martial and tribunes, and, as they fled, plundered their baggage. They likewise put the death, Lucilius the Centurion, whom they had sarcastically named Cade Alteram, because when upon the back of his soldier he had broken one wand, he was wont to call for another, then a third. The other Centurions lurked in concealment, all but Julius Clemens, who, for his prop capacity, was saved in order to manage the negotiations of the soldiers. Even two of the legions, the Eight and the Fifteenth, were ready to turn their swords upon each other, and had but for the Ninth. Once Serpicius, a Centurion, was the subject of the quarrel, him the Eighth required to be put to death, the Fifteenth protected him, but the Ninth interposed with treaties to both, and with threats to those who would not listen to prayers. Tiberius, however close and impenetrable, and ever laboring to smother all melancholy tidings, was yet driven by those from Pannonia to dispatch his son, Drusus Thither, accompanied by the principal nobility and guarded by two Praetorian cohorts, but charged them with no precise instructions, only to adapt his measures to the present exigency. The cohorts were strengthened with an extraordinary addition of chosen men, with the greatest part of the Praetorian horse and the main body of the German, then the emperor's guards. Ilius Sejanus, lately joined with his father Strabo in the command of the Praetorian bands, was also sent, not only as governor to the young prince, but as his credit with the emperor was known to be mighty, to deal with the revoltors by promises and terrors. When Drusus approached, the legions, for show of respect, marched out to meet him, not with the usual symptoms and shouts of joy, nor with gay ensigns and arms glittering, but in a dress and accrutiments hideous and squalid, in their countenances too, though composed to sadness, were seeing greater marks of silliness and contumacy. As soon as he was within the camp, they secured the entrances with guards and in several quarters of it placed parties upon duty. The rest crowded about the tribunal of Drusus, who stood beckoning with his hand for silence. Here, as often as they surveyed their own numbers and met one another's resentful looks, they uttered their rage and horrible cries. Then, when they beheld Caesar upon the tribunal, all and trembling seized them. Now they're prevailed at hollow and inarticulate murmur, next a furious clamour, then suddenly a dead silence, so that, by hasty secession of opposite passions, they were at once dismayed and dreadful. When, at last, the uproar was stayed, he read his father's letters, who in them declared, that he would take an affectionate care of his grave and invincible legions, by whom he had sustained successfully so many wars, and, as soon as his grief was a little abated, deal with the senate about their demands. In the meantime, he had sent them his son, on purpose to make them forthwith all the concessions which could instantly be made them. The rest were to be reserved for the senate, the proper distributors of rewards and punishments by a right altogether unalienable. The assembly answered that to Julius Clemens they had entrusted what to speak in their name. He began with their demands, to be discharged after sixteen years' service, to have the reward which, for past services upon that discharge, they claimed their pay to be increased to a Roman denarius. The veterans no longer detained under their ensigns. When Drusus urged that holy in the judgment of the senate and his father these matters rested, he was interrupted by the clamours. To what purpose came he, since he could neither augment their pay nor alleviate their grievances? And, while every officer was allowed to inflict upon them blows and death, the son of their emperor wanted power to relieve them by one beneficent action. This was the policy of the late reign, when Tiberius frustrated every request of the soldiers by referring all to Augustus. Now Drusus was calm with the same artifices to delude them. Were they never to have a higher visit than from the children of their prince? It was indeed unaccountable that to the senate the emperor should leave no part in the direction of the army, only the rewarding of the soldiery. Not the same senate to be consulted as often as a battle was to be fought, or a private man to be punished, or were their recompenses to be adjudged by many masters, but their punishments to remain without any restraint, or moderation whatsoever. At last they abandoned the tribunal, and with menaces and insults fell upon all they met, belonging to Drusus either as guards or friends, meditating thus to provoke a quarrel and an introduction to blood. Chiefly enraged they were against Neus Lentulus, as one, for years in warlike renown, superior to any above the person of Drusus, and then suspected to have hardened the prince, and bent himself the foremost to despise these outrages in the soldiery. Nor was it long after that, he was leaving Drusus, and from the foresight of danger, and returning to winter quarters, they surrounded him, and demanded wither he went to the emperor or senate, there also to exercise his enmity to the legions and oppose their interest, and instantly assaulted him with stones. He was already covered with wounds and blood, and awaiting a certain assassination when the troops attending Drusus flew to his assistants and saved him. The following night had a formidable aspect and threatened the speedy eruption of some tragical vengeance, when a phenomena intervened and assuaged all. The moon, in the midst of a clear sky, seemed to the soldiers suddenly to sicken. They who were ignorant of the natural cause, took this for an omen, forbidding the issue of their present adventures. To their own labors they compared the eclipse of the planet and prophesied that, if to the distressed goddess should be restored her wanted brightness and vigor, then successful would be the issue of these their struggles. Hence they strove to charm and revive her with sounds, and by ringing upon brazen metal, and an uproar of trumpets and coronets made a veniment bellowing. Alas, she appeared brighter or darker. They exalted or lamented, but when gathering clouds had utterly bereft them over sight, and they believed her now buried in everlasting darkness, then, as minds once thoroughly devoured, they bewailed their own eternal sufferings thus pretended, and that against their misdeeds the angry deities were contending. Drusus, who thought it behoved him to improve this disposition of theirs, and to reap the fruits of wisdom from the operations of chance, ordered certain persons to go around and supply them from ten to ten. From this purpose he called and employed the Centurion, Julius Clemens, and whoever else were by honest means acceptable and subdued. They insinuated themselves everywhere, with those who kept watch, or were upon patrol, or guarded the gates, soothing them all with hopes, and by terrors rousing them. How long, said they, shall we hold the son of our emperor thus besieged? Where were our broils and wild contentions in? Shall we swear allegiance to Perkeneus and Vuballanus? Will Vuballanus and Perkeneus go and dismiss? In short, shall two common men dispossess the Neroes and the Drusai, and to themselves assume the empire of the Roman world. Let us be wiser, and as we were the last to revolt, be the first to relent. Such demands, as comprised terms for all, are ever slowly accorded, but particulars may, when they please, merit instant favor, and instantly receive it. These reasonings alarmed them for centuries. Presently the fresh soldiers overtook the veterans, one legion separated from another, and by degrees returned the love of duty and obedience. They relinquished the guard of the gates and the eagles in the other end signs, which, in the beginning of the tumult they had thrown together, were now restored to its distinct station. Drusus, as soon as it was day, summoned in assembly, and though unskilled in speaking, yet with a haughtiness inherent in his blood, cast and commanded their present behavior. With threats and tears, he said, it was impossible to subdue him, but if he saw them reclaimed to submission, if from them he heard the language of supplicants, he would send them to his father to accept, with a reconciled spirit, the petitions of the legions. Hence, at their entreaty, for the deputy to Tauberius the same blazes was again dispatched, and with him Lucia Sopronius, a Roman knight and intimate companion of Drusus, and Justice Cantonius, a centurion of the First Order. There followed great debates in the council of Drusus, while some advised to suspend all proceedings to the return of the deputies, and by a course of courtesy, the while to sue the soldiers, others maintained that remedies more potent must needs be applied. In a multitude was to be found nothing on this side extremes. Always imperious were they are not odd and to be despised without danger when frightened. To their present terror from superstition was to be added the dread of their general, by his dooming to death the authors of the sedition. Rather prompt to rigorous councils was the genius of Drusus. Vubulanus and Percanius were produced, and by his command executed. It is by many recounted that in his own tent they were secretly dispatched and buried. By others, that their bodies were ignominiously thrown over the entrenchments for a public spectacle of terror. Search was then made for other remarkable incendiaries. Some were called scalking without the camp, and there by the Centurions or Praetorian soldiers slain. Others were by their several companies delivered up as a proof of their own fidelity. The consternation of the soldiers was heightened by the precipitated secession of winter, with rains in cessant and so violent that they were removed from within their tents. Or maintained common intercourse, nays scarce to preserve their standards, assaulted continually by tempestuous winds and raging floods. Dread besides of the angry gods still possessed them. Nor was it at random they thought that such profane traders were thus visited with black eclipses and roaring tempests. Neither against these their calamities was their other relief than the relinquishing of a camp by impiety contaminated and accursed, and after the expiation of their guilt returned to their several garrisons. The eighth legion departed first, then the fifteenth. The ninth with earnest clamors pressed for continuing there till the letters from Tiberius arrived, but when deserted by the other two their courage failed, and by following of their own accord, they prevented the shame of being forced. Druces seeing order and tranquility thus restored, without staying for the return of the deputies, returned himself to Rome. End of section 16 Section 17 of The Complete Works of Tacitus edited by Thomas Gordon This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org The Complete Works of Tacitus to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author. Edited and translated by Thomas Gordon with introductory essays by Thomas Gordon Volume 1 The Annals Book 1 Part 4 The German Insurrection Almost at the same time, and from the same causes, the legions in Germany raised in insurrection with greater numbers and thence with more fury. Passionate, too, were their hopes that Germanicus never broke the rule of another, but yield to the spirit of the legions who had force sufficient to bring the whole empire under his sway. Upon the Rhine were two armies, that called the Hire, commanded by Gaius Cilius, left-hand general, the Lower by Aulus Caetina. The command in chief rested in Germanicus, then busy collecting the tribute in Gaul. The forces, however, under Cilius with cautious ambiguity, watched the success of the revolt which others began, for the soldiers of the Lower army had broken out into open outrages, which began from the Fifth Legion and the One and Twentieth who drew after them the First and the Twentieth. These were altogether upon the frontiers of the Ubeans, passing the campaign in utter idleness, or light duty, so that upon the news that Augustus was dead, the whole swarm of new soldiers lately levied in the city. Men accustomed to the effeminacies of Rome and impatient of every military hardship began to possess the ignorant minds of the rest with many turbulent expectations. That now was presented the lucky juncture for veterans to demand entire dismissions. The fresh soldiers, larger pay, and all some mitigation of their miseries, also to return due vengeance for the cruelties of the Centurions. These were not the harangs of a single incendiary, like Perkeneus among the Pannonian legions, nor uttered as there in the ears of men who, while they saw before their eyes armies greater than their own, mutinied with awe and trembling. But here was a sedition of many mouths, filled with many boasts, where hands lay the power and fate of Rome. By their victories the empire was enlarged, and from then the Caesars took, as a compliment, the surname of Germanicus. Neither did Keikeneus strive to restrain them. A madness so extensive had bereft him of all his bravery and firmness. In this precipitous frenzy they rushed at once with swords drawn upon the Centurions objects of their resentment and always the first victims to their vengeance. Them they dragged to the earth, and upon each bestowed a terrible portion of sixty blows, a number proportioned to that of Centurions in a legion. Then, bruised, mangled and half-expiring as they were, they cast them all out of the camp, some into the stream of the Rhine. Septimus, who had for refuge fled to the tribunal of Keikene and lay clasping his feet, was demanded with such imperious vehemence that he was forced to be surrendered to destruction. Cassius' career, afterwards famous to posterity for killing Caligula, then a young man of undaunted spirit and one of the Centurions, boldly opened himself a passage with his sword through a crowd of armed foes striving to seize him. After this no further authority remained given to the camp marshals. The seditious soldiers were their own officers, set the watch, appointed the guard, and gave all orders proper in the present exigency. Hence those who dived deepest into the spirit of the soldiery gathered a special indication how powerful and obdurate the present insurrection was like to prove, for in their conduct were no marks of a rabble, where every man's will guides him, or the instigation to control the whole. Here all at once they raged and all at once kept silent, with so much concert and steadiness that you would have believed them under the sovereign direction of one. To Germanicus the while, then receiving, as I have said, the tribute in Gaul, news were brought of the deceased of Augustus, whose granddaughter Agrippina he had to wife and by her many children. He was himself the grandson of Livia, her son Jusus, the brother of Tiberius, but ever under heavy anxiety from the secret hate which his uncle and grandmother bore him, hate the more virulent as its grounds were altogether unrighteous. For dear and adored was the memory of his father Jusus, amongst the Roman people, and from him was firmly expected that had he succeeded to the empire he would have restored public liberty. Hence their zeal for Germanicus and of him the same hopes conceived as from his youth he possessed a popular spirit and a marvellous affability, utterly remote from the comportment and address of Tiberius, ever haughty and mysterious. The animosities too between the ladies administered fresh fuel, while towards Agrippina Livia was actuated by the despite natural to step-mothers, and over tempestuous was the indignation of Agrippina, that her known chastity and love for her husband always gave her mind, however vehement, a virtuous turn. But Germanicus, the nearer he stood to supreme rule the more vigour he exerted to secure it to Tiberius, to whom he obliged the sequenians and neighbouring people, as also the several Belgic cities to swear present allegiance, and the moment he learnt the uproar of the legions, posted thither. He found them advanced without the camp to receive him, with eyes cast down in feigned token of remorse. After he entered the entrenchments, instantly his ears were filled with complaints and grievances, uttered in hideous and mixed clamours. Nay, some catching his hand, as if they meant to kiss it, thrust his fingers into their mouths to feel their gums destitute of teeth. Others showed their limbs enfeebled and bodies stooping under old age. As he saw the assembly mixed at random he commanded them to range themselves into companies thence more distinctly to hear his answers, as also to place before them their several ensigns, that the cohorts might at least be distinguished. With slowness and reluctance they obeyed him. Then, beginning with an anconium upon the venerable memory of Augustus he proceeded to the many victories and many triumphs of Tiberius, and with peculiar praises celebrated the glorious and immortal deeds which with these very legions he had accomplished in Germany. He next boasted the quiet state of things, the consent of all Italy, the loyal faith of both the Gauls, and every quarter of the Roman state exempt from disaffection and disorders. Thus far they listened with silence, at least with moderate murmuring. But the moment he touched their sedition where now was the wanted modesty of soldiers, where the glory of ancient discipline wither had they chased their tribunes and wither their centurions to a man they stripped themselves to the skin and there exposed the seams of their wounds and the bruises of their chastisements in the rage of reproach. Then, in the undistinguished voice of uproar they urged the exactions for occasional exemptions, their scanty pay, and their rigorous labours, in a long detail, ramparts to be reared, entrenchments dig, trees felled and drawn, forage cut and carried, fuel prepared and fetched, with every other article of toil required by the exigencies of war or to prevent idleness in the soldiery. Above all, from the veterans arose a cry most vehement and furious. They enumerated thirty years or upwards undergone in the service, and besought that, to men they spent, he would administer respite, nor suffer them to be beholden to death for the last relief from their toils, but discharge them from a warfare so lasting and severe, and grant them the means of a comfortable recess. Nay, some there were who required of him the money bequeathed them by Augustus, and towards Germanicus uttering zealous vows with omens of happy fortune declared their cordial attachment to his cause, if he would himself assume a temper. Here, as if already stained with their treason, he leapt headlong from the tribunal, but with swords drawn they opposed his departure and threatened his life if he refused to return, yet with passionate protestations that he would rather die than be a traitor, he snatched his sword from his side, and, aiming full at his breast, would have buried it there, had not those who were next to him seized his hand, and by force restrained him. A cluster of soldiers in the extremity of the assembly assorted him. Nay, what is incredible to hear, some particulars advancing nearer exorted him to strike home. In truth, one Calusidius, a common soldier, presented him his naked sword, and added, it is sharper than your own, a behaviour which to the rest outrageous as they were seemed savage and of horrid example. Hence the friends of Germanicus had time to snatch him away to his tent. Here consulted what remedy to apply, for it was advised that ministers of sedition were preparing to be dispatched to the other army to draw them too into a confederacy in the revolt, that the capital of the Ubeans was destined to be sacked, and if their hands were once inured to plunder they would break in and ravage all gall. This dread was augmented by another. The enemy knew of the sedition in the Roman army and were ready to invade the empire if its barrier the Rhine were left unguarded. Now to arm the allies and the auxiliaries of Rome and lead them against the departing legions was to rouse a civil war. Severity was dangerous. The way of largesse is infamous and alike threatening it was to the state, to grant the turbulent soldiers nothing or yield them everything. After revolving every reason and objection the result was to feign letters and directions of barbarous that those who had served twenty years should be finally discharged such as had served sixteen be under the ensign and privilege of veterans released from every duty but that of repulsing the enemy and the legacy which they demanded should be paid and doubled. The soldiers who perceived that purely to evade present difficulty the concessions were forged insisted to have them forthwith executed and instantly the tribunes dispatched the charge of the veterans. That of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters but the fifth legion and the one and twentieth refused to stir till in that very camp they were paid so that out of the money reserved by himself and his friends for travelling expenses Germanicus was obliged to raise the sum. Chiquina, Lieutenant General, led the first legion and twentieth back to the capital of the Ubiens. An infamous march when the plunder of their generals coffers was carried amongst the ensigns and Roman eagles Germanicus, the while proceeding to the army in higher Germany, brought the second, thirteenth and sixteenth legions to swear allegiance without hesitation. To the fourteenth who manifested some short suspense he made unasked a tender of their money and a present discharge. But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions and then in garrison among the Chaukians as they began a sedition there were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body an execution commanded by many as Camp Marshal and rather a good example than done by competent authority. The tumult however swelling again with fresh rage he fled but was discovered so that finding no safety in lurking from his own bravery he drew his defence and declared himself who was only their Camp Marshal these their outrages were not done but to the authority of Germanicus their general to the majesty of Tiberius their emperor at the same time braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him he fiercely snatched the colours faithed about towards the Rhine and pronouncing the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks brought them back to their winter quarters mutinous in truth but not daring to mutiny. In the meantime the deputies from the senate met Germanicus at the altar of the Eubians wither in his return he was arrived two legions wintered there the first and twentieth with the soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans men already under the distractions of guilt and fear and now a new terror possessed them that these senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every concession which they had by sedition extorted and as it is the custom of the crowd to be ever charging some body with the crimes suggested by their own false alarms the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid upon Minutius Plancus a senator of consular dignity and at the head of this deputation in the dead of night they began to clamour aloud for the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus and rushing tumultuously to his gate burst the doors, dragged the prince out of his bed and with menaces of present death compelled him to deliver the standard then as they roved about the camp they met the deputies who having learnt the outrage were hastening to Germanicus upon them they poured a deluge of contumilies and were devoting them to present slaughter Plancus chiefly whom the dignity of his character had restrained from flight nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge than the quarters of the first legion rare embracing the eagle and other ensigns he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration ever paid them but in spite of religion had not calpurnious the eagle bearer by force defeated the violent assault in the Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman people and with his blood the inviolable alters of the gods had been stained a barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy at last they returning when the general and the soldiers and their actions could be distinguished Germanicus entered the camp and commanding Plancus to be brought seated him by himself upon the tribunal he then invade against the late pernicious frenzy which in it he said had fatality and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers but by that of the angry gods he explained the genuine purposes of that embassy and lamented with effecting eloquence the outrage committed upon Plancus altogether brutal and unprovoked the foul violence done to the sacred person of an ambassador and the mighty disgrace from thence derived upon the legion yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than calmness he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse during this affright Germanicus was by all men censured that he retired not from the higher army whence he had been sure of ready obedience and even of succour against the revoltors already he had taken the wrong measures more than enough by discharging some rewarding all and other tender councils if he despised his own safety yet why expose his infant son why his wife big with child to the fury of outrageous traitors wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men it became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and to the state he was long unresolved besides Agrippina was averse to leave him and urged that she was the grand daughter of Augustus and it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger but embracing her and their little son with great tenderness and many tears he prevailed with her to depart thus there marched miserably along a band of helpless women the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive and upon her bosom bore her infant son about her a troop of other ladies dragged from their husbands and drowned in tears uttering their heavy lamentations nor weaker than theirs was the grief felt by all who remained these groans and tears and this spectacle of woe the appearances rather of a city stormed of a Roman camp that of Germanicus Caesar, victorious and flourishing awakened attention and inquiry in the soldiers leaving their tents they cried whence these doleful wailings what so lamentable so many ladies of illustrious quality travelling thus forlorn not a centurion to attend them not a soldier to guard them their generals wife amongst them undistinguished by any mark of her princely dignity frightened from the Roman legions and repairing like an exile for shelter to trev there to commit herself to the faith of foreigners hence shame and commiseration sees them and the remembrance of her illustrious family with that of her own virtues the brave agriper her father the mighty Augustus her grandfather the amiable drusas her father in law herself celebrated for a fruitful bed and of signal chastity ad the consideration of her little son born in the camp nursed in the arms of the legions and by themselves named Caligula a military name from the boots which of the same fashion with their own in compliment to them and to win their affections he frequently wore but nothing so effectually subdued them as their own envy towards the inhabitants of trev hence they all besought all adured that she would return to themselves with themselves remain thus some stopped Agrippina but the main body returned with their entreaties to Dramanicus who as he was yet in the transports of grief and anger addressed himself on this wise to the surrounding crowd to me neither is my wife or son dearer than my father and the commonwealth but him doubtless his proper majesty will defend and the other armies will defend the roman state as to my wife and children whom for your glory I could freely sacrifice I now remove them from your rage that by my blood alone may be expiated whatever further mischief your fury meditates and that the murder of the great grandson of Augustus the murder of the daughter in law of Tiberius may not be added to mine nor to the blackness of your past guilt for during these days of frenzy what has been too horrid for you to commit what so sacred that you have not violated to this audience what name shall I give can I call you soldiers you who have beset with arms the son of your emperor confined him in your trenches and held him in a siege roman citizens can I call you you who have trampled upon the supreme authority of the roman senate laws religiously observed and have profaned violated the sacred privileges and persons of ambassadors broken the laws of nations the deified Julius Caesar quelled a sedition in his army by a single word by calling all who refuse to follow him townsmen the deified Augustus when after the battle of Actium the legions lapsed into mutiny terrified them into submission by the dignity of his presence these it is true are mighty characters whom I dare not emulate but as I inherit their blood should the armies in Syria and Spain condemn my authority I should think their behaviour strange and base yet you are the first and the 20th legions the former enrolled by Tiberius himself the other his constant companions in so many battles his partners in so many victories and by him enriched with so many bounties is this the worthy return you make your emperor and late commander and shall I be the author of such tidings to him in the midst of congratulations and happy accounts from every province in the empire that his own new levies as well as his own veterans who long fought under him these not appeased by their discharge and neither of them satiated with the money given them are both still combined in a furious mutiny that here and only here the centurions are butchered the tribunes driven away the ambassadors imprisoned that with blood the camp is stained that the rivers flow with blood and that for me his son I hold a precarious life amongst men thus raging and implacable why did you the other day oh unreasonable friend snatch away my sword when I would have plunged it into my breast he who offered me his own sword acted better and was more my friend I would then have fallen happy as my death would have hid from my eyes so many horrible crimes since committed by my own army you too would have chosen another general who though he would have left my death unpunished yet would have sought vengeance for that of Varus and the three legions for the gods are too just to permit that the Belgians however generously they offer their service shall reap the credit and renown of retrieving the glory of the Roman name and of reducing in behalf of Rome the German nations her foes I therefore here invoke thy spirit now with the gods O deified Augustus and thy image interwoven in the ensigns and thy memory O deceased father to vindicate these legions from this foul infamy they already feel the remorse of shame and a sense of honour let them turn the tide of their civil rage to the destruction of their common enemy and for you my fellow soldiers in whom I now behold other countenances and minds happily changed if you mean to restore to the Senate its ambassadors to your emperor your sworn obedience to me my wife and son fly the company of incendiaries separate the sober from the seditious this will be a faithful sign of remorse this a firm pledge of fidelity these words softened them into supplicants they confessed that all his reproaches were true they besought him to punish the guilty and malicious to pardon the weak and misled and to lead them against the enemy to recall his wife to bring back his son not to suffer the fostering of the legions to be given in hostage to the Gauls against the recalling of Agrippina he alleged the advance of winter and her approach in delivery but said that his son should return and that to themselves he left to execute what remained further to be executed instantly with changed resentment they ran and seizing the most seditious dragged them in bonds the first legion who judged and punished them in this manner the legions with their swords drawn surrounded the tribunal from thence the prisoner was by a tribune exposed to their view and if they proclaimed him guilty cast headlong down and executed in by his fellow soldiers who rejoiced in the execution because by it they thought their own guilt to be expiated nor did Germanicus restrain them since on themselves remained the cruelty and reproach of the slaughter committed without any order of his the veterans followed the same example of vengeance and were soon after ordered in Turecia in appearance to defend that province against the invading Suavians in reality to remove them from a camp still horrible to their sight as well as in the remedy and punishment as from the memory of their crime Germanicus next passed a scrutiny upon the conduct and characters of the Centurions before him they were cited singly and each gave account of his name, his company country, the length of his service exploits in war and military presence if he had been distinguished with any if the tribunes or his legion brought testimony of his diligence and integrity he kept his post upon concurring complaint of his avarice or cruelty he was degraded were the present commotions appeased but others as great still subsisted from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and 21st legions they were in winter quarters 60 miles off in a place called the old camp and had first begun the sedition nor was there any wickedness so horrid that they had not perpetrated nay at this time neither terrified by the punishment nor reclaimed by the reformation of their fellow soldiers they persevered in their fury Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle if they persisted in their revolt and prepared vessels, arms and troops to be sent down the Rhine before the issue of the sedition in Ilericum was known at Rome tidings of the uproar and the German legions arrived hence the city was filled with much terror and hence against Tiberius many complaints that while with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the sedition people once the great bodies of the estate but now bereft of power and armies the soldiery were in open rebellion one too mighty and stubborn to be quelled by two princes so young in years and authority he ought at first to have gone himself and awed them with the majesty of imperial power as doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the sight of their emperor the sovereign disposer of rewards and severity did Augustus even under the pressures of old age and infirmities take so many journeys into Germany and should Tiberius in the vigor of his life when the same or greater occasions called him Vither sit lazily in the senate to watch senators and caval at words he had fully provided for the domestic servitude of Rome he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers to restrain their turbulent spirits and reconcile them to a life of peace but all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius he was determined not to depart from the capital the centre of power and affairs nor exposed to chance or peril his person and empire in truth many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him the German army was the stronger that of Pannonia nearer the power of both the Gauls supported the former the latter was at the gates of Italy now to which should he repair first and would not the last visited be enraged by being postponed but by sending one of his sons to each the equal treatment of both was maintained as also the majesty of the supreme power which from distance ever derived more reverence besides the young princes would be excused if to their father they referred such demands as were improper for them to grant and if they disobey Germanicus and Drusus his own authority remained to appease or punish them but if once they had contempt the emperor himself what other resource was behind however as if he had been upon the point of marching he chose his attendants provided his equipage and prepared a fleet by various delays and pretenses sometimes that of winter sometimes business he deceived for a time even the wisest of men much longer the common people and the provinces for a great while Germanicus had already drawn together his army and was prepared to take vengeance on the seditious but judging it proper to allow space for trial whether they would follow the late example and consulting their own safety do justice upon one another he sent letters to Kaikina that he himself approached with a powerful force and if they prevented him not by executing the guilty he would put all indifferently to the slaughter these letters Kaikina privately read to the principal officers and such of the camp as the sedition had not tainted besought them to redeem themselves from death and all from infamy urged that in peace alone reason was heard and married distinguished in the rage of war the blind steel spared the innocent no more than the guilty the officers having tried those whom they believed for their purpose and found the majority still to persevere in their duty settled in concurrence with the general the time for falling with the sword upon the most notoriously guilty and turbulent upon a particular signal given they rushed into their tents and butchered them void as they were of all apprehension did any but the centurions and executioners know whence the massacre began or where it would end this had a different face from all the civil slaughters that had ever happened it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies nor from different and opposite camps nor in a day of battle but of comrades upon comrades in the same tents where they ate together by day where they slept together by night from this state of intimacy they fly into mortal entity friends launched their darts at friends wounds outcries and blood were opened to view but the cause remained hid wild chance governed the rest and several innocence were slain for the criminals when they found against whom all this fury was bent had also be taken themselves to their arms neither did Caikina nor any of the tribunes intervene to stay the rage so that the soldiers had full permission of vengeance with a licentiousness and satiety of killing Germanicus soon after entered the camp now full of blood and carcasses and lamenting with many tears that this was not a remedy but cruelty and desolation commanded the bodies to be burnt the minds of the rest still tempestuous and bloody were transported with sudden eagerness to attack the foe as the best expiation of their tragical fury nor otherwise they thought could the ghosts of their butchered brethren be appeased than by receiving in their own profane breasts a chastisement of honourable wounds Germanicus fell in with the ardour of the soldiers and laying a bridge upon the Rhine marched over 12,000 legionary soldiers 26 cohorts of the allies and eight regiments of horse men all untainted in the late sedition the Germans rejoiced not far off at this vacation of war occasioned first by the death of Augustus and afterwards by intestine tumult in the camp but the Romans by hasty march passed through the Caesian woods and levelling the barrier formally begun by Tiberias pitched their camp upon it in the front and rear made by barricade of the trunks of trees felled from thence beginning to traverse gloomy forests they stopped to consult which of two ways they should choose the short and frequented or the longest and least known and therefore unsuspected by the foe the longest way was chosen but in everything else dispatch was observed for by the scouts intelligence was brought that the Germans did that night celebrate a festival with great mirth and levelling hence Kaikino was commanded to advance with the cohorts without their baggage and to clear a passage through the forest at a moderate distance followed the legions the clearness of the night facilitated the march and they arrived at the villages of the Marzians which they presently invested with guards the Germans were even yet under the effects of their debauch scattered here and there some in bed, some lying by their tables no watch placed, no apprehension of an enemy so utterly had their false security banished all order and care and they were under no dread of war without enjoying peace other than the deceitful and lethargic peace of drunkards the legions were eager for revenge and Germanicus to extend their ravage divided them into four battalions the country was wasted by fire and sword fifty miles round nor sex nor age found mercy places sacred and profane had the equal lot of destruction all raised to the ground and with them the temple of Tanfana of all others the most celebrated amongst these nations nor did all this execution cost the soldiers a wound while they only slew men half asleep disarmed or dispersed this slaughter roused the Brook Torens the Tubantis and the Usipites and they beset the passes of the forest through which the enemy was to return an event known to Germanicus and he marched in order of battle the auxiliary cohorts and part of the horse led the van followed close by the first legion the baggage was in the middle the twenty first legion closed the left wing and the fifth the right the twentieth defended the rear and after them marched the rest of the allies but the enemy stirred not till the body of the army they began lightly to insult the front and wings and at last with the whole force fell upon the rear the light cohorts were already disordered by the close German bands when Germanicus riding up the twentieth legion and exalting his voice this was the season he cried to obliterate the scandal of sedition hence they should fall resolutely on and convert into sudden praise their late shame and offence these words inflamed them at one charge they broke the enemy drove them out of the wood and slaughtered them in the plane in the meanwhile the front passed the forest and fortified the camp the rest of the march was uninterrupted and the soldiers trusting to the merit of their late exploits and forgetting at once past faults and terrors were placed in winter quarters the tidings of these exploits affected Tiberius with gladness and anguish he rejoiced that the sedition was suppressed but that Germanicus had by discharging the veterans by shortening the term of service to the rest and by largesse to all gained the heart of the army as well as earned high glory in war proved to the emperor matter of torture to the senate however he reported the detail of his feet sand upon his valour bestowed copious praises but in words too pompous and ornamental not dictated by his heart it was with more brevity that he commended juices and his address in quelling the sedition of Ilyricum but more cordially with all and in language altogether sincere and even to the Panonian legions he extended all the concessions made by Germanicus to his own end of section 17 section 18 of the complete works of Tacitus edited by Thomas Gordon this is a Librivox recording while Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Kalinda the complete works of Tacitus to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author edited and translated by Thomas Gordon with introductory essays by Thomas Gordon volume 1 the annals book 1 part 5 the rise of Germanicus the same year died Julia for her lewdness long since banished by her father Augustus into the isle of Pandeteria and afterwards to the city of Regium upon the straits of Sicily whilst Caia and Lucius her sons by Agrippa yet lived she was given in marriage to Tiberius and despised him as a man beneath her nor any motive so cogent as this had Tiberius for his retirement erodes when he came to the empire she was already under the pressures of infamy and exile and since the death of Agrippa Postamus destitute of all hope and support yet such multiplied distresses softened not the emperor who by a long train of miseries and continued want caused her finally to perish as he suppose that in the distance of her banishment her tragical death would remain concealed from their same root was derived his cruelty to Sympronius Grocus the descendant of a family eminently noble himself of a lively wit and prevailing eloquence but cautiously applied he while Julia was yet Agrippa's wife had debouched her neither with Agrippa ended their vicious league but after she was given to Tiberius he still persisted her adulterer and towards her husband inspired her with notable aversion and contumacy the letters too by her written to her father full of asperity against Tiberius and laboring his ruin were thought to have been composed by Grocus he was therefore banished to Cercina an island in the African sea where for fourteen years he suffered exile the soldiers dispatched to the assassination found him upon a rising by the shore to himself presaging nothing joyful from their arrival of them he only desired a short respite to send his last will in a letter to Aliaria his wife and then extended his neck to the sword of the assassins a constancy in death not unworthy the Sympronian name in his life he had degenerated some authors have related that these soldiers were not sent directly from Rome but by Lucius Aspranus, proconsul of Africa by the policy and command of Tiberius who in vain hoped to have cast upon Aspranus the imputation of the murder there was likewise this year an admission of new rights by the establishment of another college of priests one sacred to the deity of Augustus as formerly Titus Taceus to preserve the religious rights of the Sabines had founded the fraternity of the Titian priests to fill the society one in twenty the most considerable Romans were drawn by lot and to them were added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius and Germanicus the games in honor of Augustus began then first to be embroiled by emulation among the players and by the strife of parties in their behalf Augustus had countenanced these players and their art in complacence to Messinus who was mad in love with Bathilus the Comedian nor to such favorite amusements of the populus had he any aversion himself or rather judged it an acceptable courtesy to mingle with the multitude in these their popular pleasures different was the temper of Tiberius different his politics to severer manners however he durst not yet reduced the people so many years indulged in licentious geities in the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Caes Norbanus a triumph was decreed to Germanicus while the war still subsisted he was preparing with all diligence to prosecute it the following summer he began much sooner by a sudden eruption early in the spring into the territories of the Cadians an anticipation of the campaign which proceeded from the hopes given him of the dissension amongst the enemy caused by the opposite parties of Arminius and Segestes two men signally known to the Romans upon different accounts the last for his firm faith the first for faith violated Arminius was the incendiary of Germany but by Segestes had been given repeated warnings of an intended revolt in the festival immediately preceding the insurrection he had even advised Varus to secure him and Arminius and all the other chiefs for that the multitude thus bereft of their leaders would dare to attempt nothing and Varus have time to distinguish crimes and such as committed none but by his own fate and the sudden violence of Arminius Varus fell Segestes though by the weight and unanimity of his nation he was forced into the war with the Germans with Arminius a domestic quarrel too heightened their hate as Arminius had carried away the daughter of Segestes already betrothed to another and the same relations which amongst friends proved bonds of tenderness were fresh stimulations of wrath to an obnoxious son and an offended father upon these encouragements Germanicus committed to the command of Sassina four legions five thousand auxiliaries and some bands of Germans drawn suddenly together he led himself as many legions with double the number of allies and erecting a fort in Mount Taunus upon the old foundations of one raised by his father rushed full march against the Cadians having behind him left Lucius Apronius to secure the ways from the fury of inundations for as the roads were then dry and the rivers low events in that climate exceedingly rare he had without check expedited his march but against his return ended the violence of rains and floods upon the Cadians he fell with such surprise that all the week through sex or age were instantly taken or slaughtered their youth by swimming over the Adrana escaped and attempted to force the Romans from building a bridge to follow them but by dint of arrows and engines were repulsed then having in vain tried to gain terms of peace some submitted to Germanicus the rest abandoned their villages and dwellings and dispersed themselves in the woods by the end of the war the capital of the nation he burnt ravaged all the open country and bent his march to the Rhine nor durced the enemy harasses rear and unusual practice of theirs when sometimes they fly more through craft than a fright the Choreskans, indeed, were addicted to assist the Cadians but terrified from attempting it by Cicina who moved about with his forces from place to place and by routing the Marzians who had dared to engage him soon after arrived deputies from Segestis praying relief against the combination and violence of his countrymen by whom he was held besieged as more powerful amongst them than his was the credit of Arminius since it was he who had advised the war this is the genius of Barbarians to judge that men are to be trusted in proportion as they are fierce and in public commotions ever to prefer the most resolute to the other deputies Segestis had added Segemundus his son for a while as his own heart accused him for that the year when Germany revolted he who had been by the Romans created priests of the altar of the Ubiens rent the sacerdotal tiara and fled to the revoltors yet encouraged by the Roman clemency he undertook the execution of his father's orders was himself graciously received and then conducted with a guard to the frontiers of Gaul Germanicus led back his army to the relief of Segestis and was rewarded with success he fought the besiegers and rescued him with a great train of his relations and followers amongst them too were ladies of illustrious rank particularly the wife of Arminius she who was the daughter of Segestis a lady more of the spirit of her husband than that of her father a spirit so unsubdued that from her eyes captivity forced not a tear nor from her lips a breath in the style of a supplicant not a motion of her hands nor a look escaped her but fast across her breast she held her arms upon her heavy womb her eyes were immovably fixed there were likewise carried Roman spoils taken at the slaughter of Varys and his army and then divided as prey amongst many of those who were now prisoners at the same time appeared Segestis a superior stature and from a confidence in his good understanding with the Romans undaunted in this manner he spoke this is not the first day that to the Roman people I have approved my faith and adherence the moment I was by the deified Augustus presented with the freedom of the city I have continued by your interest to choose my friends by your interest to denominate my enemies from no hate of mine to my native country for odious are traitors even to the party which they embrace but because the same measures were equally conducing to the benefit of the Romans and of the Germans and I was for peace rather than war for this reason I applied to Varys the then general with an accusation against Arminius who from me had my ravish daughter and with you violated the faith of leagues but growing impatient with the slowness and inactivity of Varys and well apprised how little security was to be hoped from the laws I pressed him to seize myself and Arminius and his accomplices witness that fatal night to me I wish it had been the last more to be lamented than defended are the sad events which followed I moreover cast Arminius into irons and was myself cast into irons by his faction and as soon as to you Caesar I could apply you see I prefer old engagements to present violence tranquility to combustions with no view of my own to interest or reward but to banish from me the imputation of perfidiousness for the German nation too I would thus become a mediator if per adventure they will choose rather to repent than be destroyed for my son I entreat you have mercy upon his youth pardon his error your daughter is your prisoner by force I own in your own breast it wholly lies under which character you will treat her whether as one who has conceived by Arminius or as one by me begotten the answer of Germanicus was gracious he promised indemnity to his children and kindred and to himself a safe retreat in one of the old provinces then returned with his army and by the direction of Tiberius received the title of Imperator the wife of Arminius brought forth a male child and the boy was brought up at Revena his unhappy conflicts afterwards with the Contamellius insults of fortune will be remembered in their place the desertion of Cegestus being divulged with his gracious reception from Germanicus affected his countrymen variously with hope or anguish as they were prone or averse to the war naturally violent was the spirit of Arminius and now by the captivity of his wife and by the fate of his child doomed to bondage though yet unborn enraged even to distraction he flew about amongst the Charestians calling them to arms to arm against Cegestus to arm against Germanicus invectives followed his fury a blessed father this Cegestus he cried a mighty general this Germanicus invincible warriors these Romans so many troops have made prisoner of women it is not thus that I conquer before me three legions fell and three lieutenant generals opened and honorable as my method of war nor waged with big bellied women but against men and arms and treason is none of my weapons still to be seen are the Roman standards in the German groves there by me hung up and devoted to our country gods let Cegestus live a slave in a conquered province let him recover to his son a foreign priesthood with the German nations he can never obliterate his reproach that through him they have seen between the Elben the Rhine rods and axes and the Roman toga to other nations who know not the Roman domination executions and tributes are also unknown evils which we too have cast off in spite of that Augustus now dead and enrolled with the deities in spite too of Tiberius his chosen successor let us not after this dread a mutinous army and a boy without experience their commander but if you love your country your kindred your ancient liberty and laws better than tyrants and new colonies let Arminius rather lead you to liberty and glory than the wicked Cegestus to the infamy of bondage by these stimulations not the Chorescans only were roused but all the neighboring nations and into the Confederacy was drawn Inguemeris paternal uncle to Arminius a man long since in high credit with the Romans hence a new source of fear to Germanicus who to avoid the shock of their whole forces and to divert the enemy sent Cicina with 40 Roman cohorts to the river Amesia through the territories of the Bractarians Peta the prefect led the cavalry by the confines of the Friesians he himself embarked four legions on the lake and upon the bank of the said river the whole body met foot horse and the fleet the Chossians upon offering their assistance were taken into the service but the Bractarians setting fire to their effects and dwellings were routed by Strattinius by Germanicus dispatched against them with a band lightly armed as this party were engaged between slaughter and plunder he found the eagle of the 19th legion lost in the Battle of Varus the army marched next to the furthest borders of the Bractarians and the whole country between the rivers Amesia and Lupia was laid waste not far hence lay the forest of Tutoburgium and in it the bones of Varus and the legions by report still unburied hence Germanicus became inspired with a tender passion to play the last offices to the legions and their leader the like tenderness also affected the whole army they were moved with compassion some for the fate their friends others for that of their relations here tragically slain they were struck with the doleful casualties of war and the sad lot of humanity Cicina was sent before to examine the gloomy recesses of the forest to lay bridges over the pools and upon the deceitful marshes causeways the army entered the doleful solitude hideous to sight hideous to memory first they saw the camp of Varus wide in circumference and the three distinct spaces allotted to the different eagles and the number of the legions further they beheld the ruinous entrenchment and the ditch nigh choked up in it the remains of the army were supposed to have made their last effort and in it to have found their graves in the open fields lay their bones all bleached and bare some separate some on heaps just as they had happened to fall flying for their lives or resisting unto death here were scattered the limbs of horses their pieces of broken javelins and the trunks of trees bore the cells of men in the adjacent groves were the savage alters where the barbarians had made a horrible immolation of the tribunes and principal centurions those who survived the slaughter having escaped from captivity and the sword related the sad particulars to the rest here the commanders of the legions were slain there we lost the eagles here Varus had his first wound there he gave himself another and perished by his own unhappy hand in that place too to the tribunal whence Arminius harangued in this quarter for the execution of his captives he erected so many gibbits in that such a number of funeral trenches were digged and with these circumstances of pride and despite he insulted the ensigns and eagles thus the roman army buried the bones of the three legions six years after the slaughter nor could anyone distinguish whether he gathered the particular remains of a stranger or those of a kinsman or the whole as their friends the whole as their relations with heightened resentments against the foe at once sad and revengeful in this pious office so acceptable to the dead Germanicus was a partner in the woe of the living and upon the common tomb laid the first sod a proceeding not liked by Tiberius whether it were that upon every action of Germanicus he put a perverse meaning or believed that the affecting spectacle of the unburied slain would sink the spirit of the army and heighten their terror of the enemy as also that a general vested as auger with the intendency of religious rights became defiled by assisting at the salamnities of the dead Arminius retiring into desert and pathless places was pursued by Germanicus who as soon as he reached him commanded the horse to advance and dislodge the enemy from the post they had possessed Arminius having directed his men to keep close together and draw near to the woods wheeled suddenly about and to those whom he had hid in the forest gave the signal to rush out the Roman horse now engaged by a new army became disordered and to their relief some cohorts were sent but likewise broken by the press of those that fled and great was the consternation so many ways increased the enemy too were already pushing them into the morass a place well known to the pursuers as to the unapprised Romans it had proved pernicious had not Germanicus drawn out the legions in order of battle hence the enemy became terrified Armin reassured and both retired with equal loss and advantage Germanicus presently after returning with the army to the River Amesia reconducted the legions as he had brought them in the fleet part of the horse were ordered to march along the seashore to the Rhine Cicina who led his own men was warned that though he was to return through known roads yet he should with all speed past the causeway called the long bridges it is a narrow track between vast marshes and formerly raised by Lucius Demitius the marshes themselves are of an uncertain soil here full of mud there of heavy sticking clay or traversed with various currents round about our woods which rise gently from the plain and were already filled with soldiers by Arminius who by shorter ways and a running march had arrived there before our men who were loaded with arms and baggage Cicina who was perplexed how it wants to repair the causeway decayed by time and to repulse the foe resolved at last to encamp in the place that whilst some were employed in the work others might maintain the fight the barbarians strove violently to break our station and to fall upon the entrenchers harassed our men assaulted the works changed their attacks and pushed everywhere with the shouts of the assailants the cries of the workmen were confusedly mixed and all things equally combined to distress the Romans the place deep with ooze sinking under those who stood slippery to such as advance their armor heavy the waters deep in the time could they launch their javelins the churuscans on the contrary were enured to encounters in the bogs their persons tall their spears long such as could wound at a distance at last the legions already yielding were by night redeemed from an unequal combat but night interrupted not the activity of the Germans become by success indefatigable without refreshing themselves with sleep they diverted all the courses of the springs which rise in the neighboring mountains and turned them into the plains where the water was flooded the work as far as they had carried it overturned and the labor of the poor soldiers renewed and doubled to Cicina this year proved the 40th of his sustaining as officer or soldier the functions of arms a man in all the vicissitudes of war prosperous or disastrous well experienced and then sundaunted weighing therefore with himself all probable events and expedience he could devise no other than that of restraining the enemy to the woods a man in baggage for from the mountains to the marshes there stretched a plane fit only to hold a little army to this purpose the legions were thus appointed the fifth had the right wing and the one and twentieth the left the first led the van the twentieth defended the rear a restless night it was to both armies but in different ways the barbarians feasted and caroused and with songs of triumph or with horrid and threatening cries filled all the plain and echoing woods amongst the Romans were feeble fires sad silence or broken words they leaned drooping here and there against the pails or wandered disconsolately about the tents like men without sleep but not quite awake a frightful dream too terrified the general he thought he heard and saw Quintilius Varus rising out of the marsh all besmeared with blood stretching forth his hand and calling upon him but that he rejected the call and pushed him away at break of day the legions posted on the wings through contumacy or a fright deserted their stations and took sudden possession of a field beyond the bogs neither did Arminius fall straight upon them however open they lay to his assault but when he perceived the baggage set fast and mired in ditches the soldiers about it disorderly and embarrassed the ranks and ensigns in confusion and as usual in a time of distress everyone in haste to save himself but slow to obey his officer he then commanded his Germans to break in behold he vehemently cried behold again Varus and his legions subdued by the same fate thus he cried and at the same time with a select body broke quite through our forces and chiefly against the horse directed his havoc so that the ground becoming slippery by their blood and the slime of the marsh their feet flew from them and they cast their riders then galloping and stumbling amongst the ranks they overthrew all they met and trod to death all they overthrew the greatest difficulty was to maintain the eagles a storm of darts made it impossible to advance them and the rotten ground impossible to fix them Cicina, while he sustained the fight had his horse shot and having fallen was nigh taken but the first legion saved him our relief came from the greediness of the enemy who ceased slaying to seize the spoil hence the legions had respite to struggle into the fair field and firm ground nor was here an end to their miseries a palisade was to be raised an entrenchment digged their instruments too for throwing up and carrying earth and their tools for cutting turf were almost all lost no tents for the soldiers no remedies for the wounded and their food all defiled with mire or blood as they shared it in sadness amongst them they lamented that mournful night they lamented the approaching day to so many thousand men the last it happened that a horse which had broke his collar as he strayed about became frightened with noise and ran over some that were in his way this raised such a consternation in the camp a persuasion that the Germans in a body had forced an entrance that all rushed to the gates especially to the postern as the furthest from the foe and safer for flight Cecina having found the vanity of their dread but unable to stop them either by his authority or by his prayers or indeed by force flung himself at last across the gate this prevailed and their awe and tenderness of their general restrained them from running over his body and the tribunes and centurions satisfied them the wild false alarm then calling them together and desiring them to hear him with silence he minded them of their difficulties and how to conquer them that for their lives they must be indebted to their arms but force was to be tempered with art they must therefore keep close within their camp till the enemy in hopes of taking it by storm advanced then make a sudden sally on every side and by this push they should break through the enemy and reach the Rhine but if they fled more forests remain to be traversed deeper marshes to be passed and the cruelty of a pursuing foe to be sustained he laid before them the motives and fruits of victory public rewards and glory with every tender domestic consideration as well as those of military exploits and praise of their dangers and sufferings he said nothing he next distributed horses first his own then those of the tribunes and leaders of the legion to the bravest soldiers impartially that thus mounted they might begin the charge followed by the foot amongst the Germans there was not less agitation from hopes of victory, greediness of spoil and the opposite councils of their leaders Arminius proposed to let the Romans march off and to beset them in their march when engaged in bogs and fastnesses the advice of Ingliomerus was fiercer and thence more applauded by the barbarians he declared for forcing the camp for that the victory would be quick there would be more captives and entire plunder as soon therefore as it was light they rushed out upon the camp cast hurdles into the ditch attacked and grappled the palisade upon it few soldiers appeared and these seemed frozen with fear but as the enemy and swarms were climbing the ramparts the signal was given to the cohorts the cornets and trumpets sounded and instantly with shouts and impetuosity they issued out and begirt the assailants here are no thickets they scornfully cried no bogs but an equal field and impartial gods the enemy who imagined few Romans remaining fewer arms and an easy conquest were struck with the sounding trumpets with the glaring armor and every object of terror appeared double to them who expected none they fell like men who as they are void of moderation and prosperity are also destitute of conduct and distress Arminius forsook the fight unhurt Ingliomerus grievously wounded their men were slaughtered as long as day and rage lasted in the evening the legions returned in the same want of provisions and with more wounds but in victory they found all things health, vigor and abundance in the meantime a report had flown that the Roman forces were routed and an army of Germans upon full march to invade Gaul so that under the terror of this news there were those whose cowardice would have emboldened them to have demolished the bridge upon the Rhine had not agrippina restrained them from that infamous attempt in truth such was the undaunted spirit of the woman that at this time she performed all the duties of a general relieved the necessitous soldiers upon the wounded bestowed medicines and upon others clothes Caius Plinius the writer of the German wars relates that she stood at the end of the bridge as the legions returned and accosted them with thanks and praises a behavior which sunk deep into the spirit of Tiberius for that all the sufficeness of her as he thought could not be upright nor that it was against foreigners only she engaged the army to the direction of the generals nothing was now left the companies attended the eagles and to the men distributed largesse as if before she had shown but small tokens of ambitious designs in carrying her child the son of the general in a soldier's coat about the camp with the title of Caesar Caligula already in greater credit with the army was agrippina than the leaders of the legions in greater than their generals and a woman had suppressed sedition which the authority of the emperor was not able to restrain these jealousies were inflamed and more were added by Sejanus one who was well skilled in the temper of Tiberius and purposely furnished him with sources of hatred to lie hid in his heart and be discharged with increase hereafter Germanicus in order to lighten the ships in which he had embarked his men and fit their burden to the ebbs and shallows delivered the second and fourteenth legions to Publius Vitellius to leave them by land Vitellius at first had an easy march on dry ground or ground moderately overflowed by the tide when suddenly the fury of the north wind swelling the ocean a constant effect of the equinox the legions were surrounded and tossed with the tide and the land was all on flood the sea, the shore, the fields had the same tempestuous face no distinction of depths from the shallows none of firm from deceitful footing they were overturned by the billows swallowed down by the eddies and horses baggage and drowned men encountered each other and floated together the several companies were mixed at random by the waves waited now breast high now up to their chin and as the ground failed them they fell some never more to rise their cries and mutual encouragements availed them nothing against the prevailing and inexorable waves no difference between the coward and the brave the wise and the foolish none between circumspection and chance but all were equally involved in the invincible violence of the flood Vitellius at length, struggling into an eminence drew the legions thither where they passed the cold night without fire the destitute of every convenience most of them naked or lambed not less miserable than men enclosed by an enemy for even to such remain the consolation of an honourable death but here was destruction every way void of glory the land returned with the day and they marched to the river Vidris where the Germanicus had gone with the fleet there the two legions were again embarked when fame had given them for drowned nor was their escape believed till Germanicus and the army were seen to return Strattinius who in the meanwhile had been sent before to receive Sagimaris the brother of Sagestis a prince willing to surrender himself brought him and his son to the city of the Ubiens both were pardoned the father freely, the son with more difficulty because he was said to have insulted the corpse of Varus for the rest Spain, Italy and both the Gauls strove with emulation to supply the losses of the army and offered arms, horses, money according as each abounded Germanicus applauded their zeal but accepted only the horses and arms for the service of war with his own money he relieved the necessities of the soldiers and to soften also by his kindness the memory of the late Havoc he visited the wounded extolled the exploits of particulars viewed their wounds with hopes encouraged some with a sense of glory animated others and by affability and tenderness confirmed them all in devotion to himself and to his fortune in war the ornaments of triumph were this year he agreed to Aula Cicina, Lucia Sopronius and Caia Cilius for their services ended Germanicus the title of father of his country so often offered by the people to Tiberius was rejected by him nor would he permit swearing upon his acts though the same was voted by the senate against it he urged the instability of all mortal things and that the higher he was raised the more slippery he stood but for all this ostentation of a popular spirit there was a reputation of possessing it for he had revived the law concerning violated majesty a law which in the days of our ancestors had indeed the same name but implied different arraignments and crimes namely those against the state as when an army was betrayed abroad when seditions were raised at home in short when the public was faithlessly administered and the majesty of the Roman people were debased these were actions and actions were punished but words were free Tiberius was the first who brought libles under the penalties of this rested law and sensed as he was by the insolence of Cassius Severus who had in his writings wantonly defamed men and ladies of illustrious quality Tiberius too afterwards when Pompeius Maser the praitor consulted him whether process should be granted upon this law answered that the laws must be executed he also was exasperated by satirical verses written by unknown authors and dispersed exposing his cruelty, his pride and his mind unnaturally alienated from his mother it will be worthwhile to relate here the pretended crimes charged upon Philanias and Ruberius two Roman knights of small fortunes that hence may be seen from what beginnings and by how much dark art of Tiberius this grievous mischief crept in how it was again restrained how at last it blazed out and consumed all things to Philanias was objected by his accusers that amongst the adorers of Augustus who went in fraternities from house to house he had admitted one Cassius a mimic and prostitute and having sold his gardens had likewise with them sold the statue of Augustus the crime imputed to Ruberius was that he had sworn falsely by the divinity of Augustus when these accusations were known to Tiberius he wrote to the consuls that heaven was not therefore decreed to his father that the worship of him might be a snare to the citizens of Rome that the snare was want to assist with others of his profession at the interludes consecrated by his mother to the memory of Augustus neither did it affect religion that his effigies like other images of the gods was comprehended in the sale of houses and gardens as to the false swearing by his name it was to be deemed the same as if Ruberius had profaned the name of Jupiter but to the gods belonged the avenging of injuries done to the gods not long after Granius Marcellus Prater of Bithynia by treason by his own questor Cepio Crispinus Romanus Hyspo the pleader supported the charge this Cepio began a course of life which through the miseries of the times and the bold wickedness of men became afterwards famous at first, needy and obscure but of busy spirit he made court to the cruelty of the prince by occult informations and presently as an open accuser grew terrible to every distinguished Roman this procured him credit with one he made a precedent to be followed by others who from poverty became rich from being condemned dreadful and in the destruction which they brought upon others found at last their own he accused Marcellus of malignant words concerning Tiberius an inevitable crime when the accuser collecting all the most detestable parts of the prince's character alleged them as the expressions of the accused for because they were true they were believed to have been spoken to this Hyspo added that the statue of Marcellus was by him placed higher than those of the Caesars and that having cut off the head of Augustus he had in the room of it set the head of Tiberius this enraged him so that breaking silence he cried he would himself in this cause give his vote explicitly and under the tie of an oath by this he meant to force the assent of the rest of the senate there remained even then some faint traces of expiring liberty hence Seneus Piso asked him this Caesar will you choose to give your opinion if first I shall have your example to follow if last I fear I may ignorantly dissent from you the words pierced him but he bore them the rather as he was ashamed of his unwary transport and he suffered the accused to be acquitted of the high treason to try him for the public money was referred to the proper judges nor sufficed it Tiberius to assist in the deliberations of the senate only he likewise sat in the seats of justice but always on one side because he would not dispossess the praetor of his chair and by his presence there many ordinances were established against the intrigues and solicitations of the grandees but while private justice was thus promoted public liberty was likewise overthrown about this time Pius Aurelius the senator whose house yielding to the pressure of the public road and aqueducts had fallen complained to the senate and prayed relief a suit opposed by the praetors to manage the treasury but he was relieved by Tiberius who ordered him the price of his house for he was fond of being liberal upon honest occasions a virtue which he long retained even after he had utterly abandoned all other virtues upon perpersious seller once praetor but now desiring leave to resign the dignity of senator as a burden to his poverty he bestowed a thousand great cesteries upon ample information that seller's necessities were derived from his father others who attempted the same thing he ordered to lay their condition before the senate and from an affectation of severity was thus austere even where he acted with uprightness hence the rest preferred poverty and silence to begging and relief the same year the Tiber being swelled with continual reigns overflowed the level parts of the city and the common destruction of men and houses followed the returning flood hence a sinious gallus moved that the sibling books might be consulted Tiberius opposed it equally smothering all inquiries whatsoever whether into matters human or divine to Ateas Capito however and Lucius Aruntius was committed the care of restraining the river within its banks the provinces of Achaea and Macedon praying relief from their public burdens were for the present discharge of their proconsular government and subjected to the emperor's lieutenants in the entertainment of gladiators at Rome Drusus presided it was exhibited in the name of Germanicus and at it he manifested too much lust of blood even of the blood of slaves a quality terrible to the populace and hence his father was said to have reproved him his own absence from these shows was variously construed by some ascribed to his impatience of a crowd by others to his reserved and solitary genius and his fear of an unequal comparison with Augustus who was want to be a cheerful spectator there but that he thus purposely furnished matter for exposing the cruelty of his son there and for raising him popular hate is what I would not believe though this too was asserted the dissensions of the theater began last year broke out now more violently with the slaughter of several not of the people only but of the soldiers with that of a centurion nay a tribune of the Praetorian cohort was wounded whilst they were securing the magistrates from insults and quelling the licentiousness of the rabble this riot was canvassed in the senate and votes were passed for empowering the praetors to whip the players Haterius Agrippa, tribune of the people, opposed it and was sharply reprimanded by a speech of a sinious gallus Tiberius was silent and to the senate allowed these empty apparitions of liberty the opposition however prevailed in reverence to the authority of Augustus who, upon a certain occasion, had given his judgment that players were exempt from stripes nor would Tiberius assume to violate any words of his to limit the wages of players and restrain the licentiousness of their partisans many decrees were made the most remarkable were that no senators should enter the house of a pantomime no Roman knight attend them abroad they should show nowhere but in the theater and the praetors should have power to punish with exile any insolence in the spectators the Spaniards were, upon their petition permitted to build a temple to Augustus in the colony of Tarragon an example for all the provinces to follow in answer to the people who prayed to be relieved from the centissima attacks of one in the hundred established at the end of the civil wars upon all vendible commodities Tiberius by an edict declared that upon this tax depended the fund for maintaining the army nor even thus was the commonwealth equal to the expense if the veterans were dismissed before their 20th year so that the concessions made them during the late sedition to discharge them finally at the end of 16 years as they were made through necessity were for the future abolished it was next proposed to the senate Tiberius whether, in order to restrain the overflowing of the Tiber the channels of several rivers and lakes by which it was swelled must not be diverted upon this question the deputies of several cities and colonies were heard the Florentines besought that the bed of the Clannis might not be turned into their river Arnus for that the same would prove their utter ruin the like plea was urged by the interamnites since the most fruitful planes in Italy would be lost if according to the project the gnar branched out into rivulets overflowed them nor were the Reotinians less earnest against stopping the outlets of the lake Valinus into the gnar otherwise they said it would break over its banks and stagnate all the adjacent country the direction of nature was best in all natural things it was she that had appointed to rivers their courses and discharge and set their limits as well as their sources regard too was to be paid to the religion of our latin allies who esteeming the rivers of their country sacred had to them dedicated priests and altars and groves nay the Tiber himself when bereft of his auxiliary streams would flow with diminished grandeur now whether it were that the prayers of the colonies or the difficulty of the work or the influence of superstition prevailed it is certain the opinion of Pisa was followed that nothing should be altered to Popeus subinus was continued his province of Mosia and to it was added that of Ikea and Macedon this too was part of the politics of Tiberius to prolong governments and maintain the same men in the same armies or civil employment for the most part to the end of their lives with what view is not agreed some think that from an impatience of returning cares he was for making whatever he once liked perpetual others that from the malignity of his invidious nature he regretted the preferring of many there are some who believe that as he had a crafty penetrating spirit so he had an understanding ever irresolute and perplexed so much is certain that he never courted any eminent virtue yet hated vice from the best men he dreaded danger to himself and disgraced to the public from the worst this hesitation mastered him so much at last that he committed foreign governments to some whom he meant never to suffer to leave Rome concerning the management of consular elections either then or afterwards under Tiberius I can affirm scarce anything such as the variants about it but even in his own species sometimes not naming the candidates he described them by their family by their life and manners and by the number of their campaigns so as it might be apparent whom he meant again avoiding even to describe them he exhorted the candidates not to disturb the election by their intrigues and promised himself to take care of their interests but chiefly he used to declare that to him none had signified their pretensions but such whose names he had delivered to the consuls others too were at liberty to offer the like pretensions if they trusted to the favor of the senate or their own merits specious words but entirely empty or full of fraud and by how much they were covered with the greater guise of liberty by so much threatening a more hasty and devouring bondage end of 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