GERMANY FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD

 

PART II

THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS

 

XXVII.The Romans

 

IN the eighth century before Christ, Rome was peopled by fugitives from different parts of the country. The city was at first governed by kings, who might almost be termed robber kings, on account of the depredations they committed against neighbouring nations. The Romans, however, strengthened by petty conquests, and rendered hardy and independent by continual warfare, soon drove out their kings, and founded a republic on the plan of the more ancient ones of Greece, whence they subsequently drew their refinement and arts, while from the brave Alpine nations, with whom they early came in collision, they acquired that heroic spirit which, at a later period, rendered them as for­midable to the Greeks as their superior science and knowledge became to the Germans.

Rome was yet in her infancy when, four centuries B.C., two immense German hordes, the Senones and Boii, crossed the Alps, and settled in the fertile plains of Italy. Rome was taken and burned, but quickly recovered from this first attack, and the watchful cunning and steady courage of her inhabitants soon proved fatal to the warriors of the north, whose hardy habits had gradually degenerated in that luxurious climate. Their impolitic division into small and independent tribes was another cause of their ruin, and, after a long and bloody struggle, part of them were, one after the other, exterminated, and the rest incorporated with the now aggrandized republic, whose warriors had exercised their martial spirit, and improved their military tactics, during this long and difficult war. In the second century BC, when Rome bore sway over the whole of Italy as far as the Alps, and had even subdued the southern provinces of Gaul on the Rhone, fresh hordes of barbarians, the Cimbri and Teutones, crossed the Alps, and again threatened the Roman power with destruction; but when, in their proud contempt of Rome, they again imprudently divided, they fell a prey to the sagacity and prodigious efforts of the Romans, who, compelled by necessity, reformed the ancient republic, and by conferring on the plebeians the privileges until now monopolized by the ancient and haughty patricians, gave an impulse to, and united the efforts of, every class; a measure by which the safety of the mass could alone be secured, and which added more citizens to Rome (for the inhabitants of neighbouring states became ambitious to gain that honourable distinction) than she gained by the fame of her victories over the Cimbri.

Thus Rome a second time owed the increase of her power to German influence. Her insatiable ambition fed by conquest, she grasped at universal dominion, and after subduing all the countries in her immediate vicinity, boldly planned the reduction of the whole world. Greece, Asia Minor, the northern coasts of Africa, the whole of southern and western Europe, every Gallic and Celtic country, as far as Britain, submitted to the Roman eagle, which was alone defied by our elder brethren, the Persians, in the fastnesses of Asia, and by the Germans beyond the Danube and the Rhine. The fearful struggle between the Romans and the Germans, which lasted, almost unbroken, for nearly five centuries after the war with the Cimbri, extended along the shores of the Black Sea, and followed the course of the Danube, and of the Rhine as far as the Baltic. At one time, the Germans, quitting their wild forests, would lay waste the Roman frontier; or at another, the Romans would march their well-disciplined and ironclad legions to the Weser and the Elbe; and in this manner the war was carried on, with various fortune, throughout whole centuries, until Rome, sated with the spoils of countless nations, sank into the lap of luxury, and her citizens, raised by unjust wars to unjust dominion, lost their ancient love of honour and liberty.

The legions, flushed with victory, ruled despotically over the helpless citizens, destroyed the ancient republic, and raised their generals to the throne, who, during successive centuries, turned the whole force of the mighty Roman empire against Germany. Millions of ironclad men, picked from every part of the world, well-disciplined and practiced in every species of warfare, flexible and obedient to the will of their skilful leaders, thirsting for glory, or maddened by jealousy and revenge, besieged Germany on every side, and fell upon the poor half-naked native, whose only defense lay in the dark forest depths and the untaught strength of his arm. The event speaks for itself. These half-naked tribes, after the longest and most glorious struggle for liberty recorded in the annals of mankind, after crushing the masters of the world, and shattering their boundless empire, now form a great and powerful nation, while the very name of Roman is vanishing from the earth.

 

XXVIII. The Senones and the Boii in Italy

 

On the upper Danube, in modem Swabia, dwelt the Senones, and in modern Bavaria, their neighbours, the Boii. In the fourth century BC, Helico, a carpenter, came to them, bringing with him the juicy grapes and golden fruit of Italy, which they beheld for the first time, and greedily desiring to possess a land that produced such luscious fruit, they migrated in immense hordes, under a leader named Brennus, and climbing the snow-topped Alps, descended into the smiling valleys of the Po, whence they gradually reached Rome, whose inhabitants, at that period, still weak, and depending more on their cunning than their strength, begged for peace, which was granted; but when, breaking their oath, they suddenly fell upon the unsuspecting strangers, Brennus, justly enraged, severely chastised their perfidy, and after totally defeating them, took the city [BC 389] and burned it to the ground. The aged senators, unwilling to survive the destruction of the city, had remained in the senate house, seated in state in their white and purple robes, with sceptres in their hands; and when the Germans, armed with sword and brand, rushed tumultuously into the hall, they were seized with awe on beholding these venerable and motionless figures, which they imagined to be spirits or statues, until one of them, wishing to discover whether they were alive, took hold of the beard of one of the senators, who, resenting the insult, struck him to the ground with his sceptre. The illusion was instantly dispelled, and the senators were murdered. The Capitol, which was commanded by Manlius, and still held out, narrowly escaped being surprised by the Germans, who, during the night, had scaled the rock on which it was built, when the sleeping garrison was aroused by the cackling of the geese, disturbed by their approach. One thousand pounds of gold purchased the departure of Brennus, who, with the insolence of a conqueror, threw his sword into the scales, and bade them add its weight to the ransom.

The Senones and Boii afterward settled in the north of Italy, but did not long remain at peace with the Romans, with whom they were so continually at war that every year produced a fresh list of battles, victories, and defeats. In these perpetual struggles with their belligerent neighbours, the Romans quickly acquired the military skill and discipline which in course of time rendered them so formidable, and so superior to their once-dreaded opponents, who, had they united in the pursuance of one settled plan of warfare, might have crushed the Roman empire in the bud.

 

XXIX. The Senones and the Boii in Greece and Asia Minor

 

In the third century before Christ, the same nations, uniting with several others, migrated from the interior of Germany into Greece. They consisted of Senones, Boii, Cimbri, Teutobodiaci, etc., and had several leaders, among whom was another Brennus. Flushed with success, and greedy of plunder, they attempted to seize the treasures in the sacred temple at Delphi. Their impious daring was speedily chastised. A fearful whirlwind and storm suddenly arose; the earth quaked, the rocks fell, and, struck with horror and dismay, the barbarians fled. Vast numbers fell by the hands of the Greeks. Brennus was wounded, and the remainder of his army, being weakened by pestilence, and in danger of being captured, voluntarily burned themselves alive, to the number of 20,000 men, together with their booty, in their encampment. The soothsayers foretelling disaster to another horde when on the point of giving battle, they resolved to die like warriors, and after killing their wives and children, rushed into the midst of the enemy, and fell at the point of the sword. A third horde had, meanwhile, crossed to Asia Minor; the land pleased them, and settling there, they founded a nation, named, by the Greeks and Romans, Gallo-Graecians, or Galatians; the same to which St. Paul addressed one of his Epistles. They were distinguished by different names among themselves, and were divided into no less than 195 petty tribes, which were comprised under three heads within twelve districts, and had a general place of assembly, called Drynaimet. The twelve representatives of the districts, who formed the supreme council, were assisted by three hundred men; a hundred being chosen from each of the three heads or chief tribes; a form of government perfectly similar to those met with, at a later period, in Germany. In course of time, however, some men contrived to get themselves elected perpetual dukes of Galatia, and, at the time of the birth of Christ, this nation had shared the fate of its Asiatic neighbours, and had fallen under the Roman rule; but it always retained its original language, which, according to St. Hieronymus, was similar to the dialect spoken in the country round Treves. Fourteen hundred years after the settlement of these people in Asia, when the German crusaders passed through Galatia, they were astonished to find that the inhabitants spoke with the Bavarian accent. The greater part of the settlers were originally Boii.

 

XXX. The Romans in the Alps

 

Rome gradually increased in power, and ere long threatened destruction to the Senones and Boii in Upper Italy, who consequently besought the assistance of their brethren on the other side of the Alps. Accordingly, 200,000 German warriors, named Gaesatae (guests, or geeiseten, iron­clad), marched thence toward Rome; their leader, Britomar, a Boii, vowing not to loosen his girdle until he had taken the Capitol. The Romans twice suffered defeat, but the whole of Italy rising in the common cause, an army, consisting of 700,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry, was raised, and, commanded by the brave Aemilius, made head against the invading host, which it succeeded in surrounding near the River Telamon, where, after a desperate conflict, victory sided with the Romans; 40,000 of the barbarians were slain, and their chief, Britomar, was taken prisoner [BC 325]. Another chief and all bis followers killed themselves in despair; and a third, Ariovistus, took shelter in the mountains, where for two years he was supported by 30,000 Cenomanni and Heneti, but was finally overcome by the Romans [BC 223]. In the following year [BC 222], Wiridomar led 30,000 Germans from the Rhine, who were also defeated by the Romans. Wiridomar fell by the hand of the consul, Marcellus. Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, who, with his gigantic elephants and dark Africans, traversed Spain, Gaul, and the Alps, with the design of crushing the ambition of Rome, already threatening to enslave the world, was received with open arms by the Alpine tribes. Some of the Senones and Boii fought under his command at Ticinum, where Cryxus, a descendant of Brennus, lost his life. Ducarius, the leader of the Boii, avenged the death of Wiridomar, by killing the consul Flaminius in single combat at the battle of Trasimene [BC 217], on which occasion the Boii buried 25,000 Romans in a wood, and used the skull of the consul Posthumus as a sacrificial cup. Hannibal was, however, no sooner called to Carthage, on account of the invasion of Africa by the Romans, than fortune again sided with the latter, and after several desperate and bloody battles, in one of which 35,000, and in another 40,000, of their number fell, the Germans were forced to retreat. The Boii long and obstinately defended the fortresses raised by them beyond the Lake of Como, but were finally obliged to cede them, together with their strongest fort, Felsina, to the Romans, and to take refuge in the mountains, whence they carried on a desultory and destruct­ive warfare, until betrayed by their allies, the Cenomanni and Heneti, whose knowledge of the country and of mountain warfare proved of infinite service to the Romans; and at length, weakened by repeated losses, they were utterly annihilated in a battle, in which 33,000 of them were slain [BC 191]. This victory placed the whole of the southern side of the Alps in the hands of the Romans, who by skilfully exciting the mutual jealousies of the petty mountain tribes, some of which they took into their alliance and raised to the rank of Roman citizens, and by systematically exterminating others that offered resistance, quickly opened a route to the western side of the Alps, and, taking possession of Gaul, made the beautiful country on the Rhone into a Roman province, whence is derived its present name— Provence.

 

XXXI. The Getae and Bastarnae

 

It is uncertain whether the Budini, mentioned by Herodotus, inhabited the west or the north of Russia. Their name, blue eyes, light hair, and sacred forest lakes, indicate an affinity with the Goths of later times [BC 500]. The Getae dwelt near the mouths of the Danube, behind them, further up the river, the Daci, and beyond them the Pannonians, at the time of the invasion of Darius, king of Persia, who, crossing the river, narrowly escaped total destruction on the steppes lying northward. His alliance was sought by the Pannonians, who sent to him a tall and beautiful girl, bearing on her head a vessel filled with water, and spinning while she led a horse by a bridle on her arm; on observing his surprise, they informed him that they were descended from the Teucri of Troy, and that all their women were as industrious and as useful as the maiden he beheld. On his penetrating deeper into the steppe, the Scythians (probably of Thracian or German, Tartarian or Slavonian origin) mockingly presented him with a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows, signs that implied, "Unless you can hide yourself in the air like a bird, or underground like a mouse, or in the water like a frog, our arrows will slay you before you reach our frontiers"; a threat they almost succeeded in executing, for, enticing the Persian army further up the country, it was surrounded, and only rescued from destruction by a successful stratagem. We learn from the Greeks that the wise Zamolxis taught the doctrine of the immortality of the soul to the Getae, whose king, Diceneus, made him their legislator. Long after the disastrous expedition of Darius, toward the close of the fourth century before Christ, Alexander the Great, when attempting to extend his Grecian boundary as far as the Danube, overthrew the Getae, and drove the Triballi, one of their tribes, from the island of Peuce, which was probably held sacred by them. Pliny names all the German tribes of the Danube, Peucini, from this island.

The Romans had no sooner gained possession of the Alps, than they sought to extend their dominion further eastward, over Illyria, and to bring the German tribes of the Danube, as well as the Greeks, into submission. The Illyrian queen, the brave Teuta, whose ships spread terror and desolation along the coasts of Italy, cut off the heads of their ambassadors and long bade them defiance, but being at length defeated, died of grief [BC 239], Gentius, her third successor, struggled valiantly against them, and besought the assistance of Perseus, the Grecian king, who, influenced by avarice and indolence, left him to his fate, and he was forced to yield [BC 167]. The ambassadors sent on this occasion to negotiate peace with the Romans were named Teuticus and Bellus. The wretched Perseus, when too late, sought to repair the consequences of his procrastination, and assembled the Getae and their northern neighbours, the Bastarnae, in order to make head against the Romans. One of their leaders was called Teutagonus. The avarice of the king, however, proved stronger than his apprehensions, and he refused the sum demanded by his allies; one of whom, Olondicus, king of the Bastarnae, indignant at this baseness, devastated Thrace and returned to his own country, without offering any opposition to the Romans, who gradually subdued all the mountain tribes of Dalmatia and Croatia, one of which, the Stoeni, rendered desperate by defeat, preferred death to slavery.

 

XXXII. Irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones [BC 113]

 

In the beginning of the second century before Christ, a torrent of wandering hordes, the Cimbri and Teutones, descended from the Danube to the Styrian Alps, giving out that a flood had driven them from the North Sea, and that they were in search of a country wherein to settle. During their advance, they were joined by several of the southern German tribes, among others, by the Boii, one of whose leaders was named Bojorix. Their progress was extremely slow, owing to their being accompanied by women and children, cattle, and an immense number of wagons laden with booty. The armed men alone mustered 300,000. The Cimbri had 15,000 horsemen, clad in polished steel armour, and armed with broad swords and long lances, their helmets ornamented with the horns of wild beasts, wings, and plumes of feathers. These people were of gigantic stature, and their long flowing golden hair, and fierce blue eyes, increased the majesty of their appearance. The Romans, panicstruck at their approach, dispatched an army to oppose the passage of the strangers through the Alps, and to secure the allegiance of their newly-acquired Alpine subjects. The wanderers received the Roman deputation peacefully, and said that they were only going into Gaul. But being treacherously misled by Carbo, the Roman general, who suddenly fell upon them during the night, while they were engaged in a narrow mountain pass, not far from the city of Noreja, a dreadful conflict took place, which terminated in the total discomfiture of the whole Roman army; the few who escaped with the general owing their safety to a storm, which suddenly arose and rendered pursuit impossible. After this event, the wanderers remained for several years in the Alps, slowly advancing toward Gaul; the sturdy mountaineers everywhere swelling their ranks. On reaching Helvetia they were joined by the inhabitants of two districts, the Tigurini (Zurichers) and the Toygeni (Toggenburgers), headed by the youthful Divico. The whole swarm now poured from the mountains into Gaul, and took possession of the country as far as the seacoast, the inhabitants flying for shelter within the walls of their fortified cities, which were fruitlessly besieged. Their attempts to subdue the German tribes, or Belgas, inhabiting the Netherlands, proved equally futile. The Cimbri, either wearied by the protracted defense made by the cities, or perhaps merely incited by their roving and warlike habits, and attracted by the fertility of the southern countries, forgot their first intention, and, while the Teutones were busily engaged with the Belgae, resolved to quit Gaul. On reaching the country near Marseilles, they fell in with a Roman army guarding the frontier, and commanded by Silanus, from whom they demanded permission to settle in Italy, which being refused, a battle took place, in which the Romans were worsted. Another frontier army, stationed near the Lake of Geneva, was attacked by Divico at the head of the Helvetians, and so completely defeated that all the Romans who escaped the slaughter were taken prisoners and forced to crawl ignominiously under a lance, placed horizontally on two low posts.

Another army, under Scaurus, sent to oppose them, was also defeated, and the general taken prisoner. He was afterward slain by Bojorix, the youthful German chief, in a fit of passion, excited by hearing the captive Roman proudly foretell that Italy would never become the prey of the German invader.

Shortly after these successes, they were rejoined by the Teutones, and the Romans were only able to dispatch against their now almost irresistible force a single and dispirited army, commanded by two generals, Manlius and Osepio, who hated and finally abandoned each other. Caepio, by plundering Gaul, imbittered the inhabitants against him, and venturing unaided an engagement with the Germans, was completely beaten [BC 105], and Manlius, who hastened to his succour when too late, shared the same fate. In this conflict, that took place on the banks of the Rhone, no quarter was given; every Roman was put to the sword, and the immense booty that fell into the hands of the victors was consecrated to the gods and cast into the river. The province now lay open and defenseless; victory had abandoned the Roman eagle, and Rome, amazed and helpless, saw herself doomed to certain destruction; one step more, and all Italy lay at the feet of the Germans, when, suddenly renouncing their project, they poured across the Pyrenees into Spain, then inhabited by the warlike Celtiberi, with whom they waged a futile war of three years' duration, while the Romans seized the unlooked-for opportunity to make fresh preparations for defense.

Marius, a renowned general, by birth a peasant, intrusted with the sole command, and armed with unlimited authority, raised, as if by magic, a fresh and immense army from the dregs of the populace, the slaves, and foreigners, which he daily exercised in military tactics, and accustomed to the endurance of the severest hardships, in which he set them an example. On the return of the Cimbri and Teutones from Spain [BC 103], he was strongly intrenched on the Rhone, and firmly resolved to dispute the passage into Italy, which three years before lay free and open before them. The two hordes now judged it politic to separate, and while the Teutones attacked Marius, the Cimbri entered the Tyrol, by which country they intended to enter Italy.

 

XXXIII. The Destruction of the Teutones

 

The Teutones, presenting themselves before the camp of Marius, demanded land on which to settle in Italy, which was contemptuously refused; and, after vainly challenging him to battle on the open field, they made a furious but ineffectual attack upon the camp, whose strong walls and ditches withstood their irregular mode of assault, and the Romans soon became accustomed to the sight of their formidable opponents, who ere long, weary of the protracted siege, resolved to leave the camp in their rear, and to continue their route toward Italy. Their column was six days in defiling, nor did Marius obstruct their passage, although mockingly asked whether he had any message for Rome. As soon as their last ranks had disappeared, he broke up his camp, in the hope, by making forced marches along bypaths, of overtaking and surprising them in some favourable spot. The Teutones, meanwhile, followed the course of an Alpine torrent, and marched up the country to Aix, already celebrated for its medicinal waters, where they encamped in the valley, and were amusing themselves with bathing, feasting, drinking, and singing, when Marius suddenly appeared on the neighbouring heights. His soldiers, although fatigued with a long march, were instantly ordered to erect a fortified camp. Evening had already fallen, and Marius, anxious to avoid a night attack, which might prove disastrous to him­self, strictly prohibited any one to go down to the river to slake his thirst, lest, by that means, an engagement with the Teutones should be brought on; but some of the men, unable any longer to endure the thirst occasioned by a long day's march, disobeyed, and, descending to the river, were attacked by the Germans who were bathing. The alarm was instantly given, and Germans and Romans rushed eagerly to the spot. The Romans, dashing across the stream, attacked the wagoned encampment, which was bravely defended by the women, while the men rapidly assembled from the more distant parts of the camp, and almost succeeded in obstructing the retreat of Marius, who at length, though with great difficulty, regained the opposite bank. The Germans spent the night in drinking and gambling, and Marius, filled with horror as he listened to their wild shouts re-echoing along the mountains, vowed to sacrifice his daughter to the gods, if they granted him victory. The following day was passed on both sides in tranquillity, the Germans remaining peaceably in the valley, and Marius awaiting more favourable omens from the gods, which no sooner appeared than he prepared to attack the enemy on the following morning, and sent, under cover of night, a small chosen troop, commanded by his lieutenant, Marcellus, to take up a position to the rear of the barbarians. At sunrise Marius issued from the camp, and drew up his army in battle array, which was no sooner perceived by the enemy than, eager for the fight, they crossed the stream and stormed the hillside. The exertion of running so far, and their repeated slips on the steep, smooth surface of the hill, speedily rendered them weary and breathless, while the Romans, stationed in impenetrable massest on the edge of the cliff, easily repelled every attempt made to dislodge them. The immense numbers of the Germans now proved an additional source of disaster. Pressed upon from behind, unable to find a firm footing on the slippery ground, or to use their long lances and swords in the throng, their gigantic frames exposed to the short keen weapons of the Romans, who now pressed steadily downhill, while Marcellus fell upon their rear and fearfully redoubled the massacre, as many dying of suffocation as fell by the sword, they sought to extricate themselves from the fatal position into which their reckless daring and ignorance had hurried them, by flight.

The Teuton women defended the wagons to the last, when they offered to capitulate on condition of their honour being respected, which being refused, they murdered all their children, and then killed themselves. Marius preserved the most valuable of the spoils to grace his triumph, and collecting the remainder into an enormous pile, burned it in honour of the gods. The spot on which this battle took place, enriched by torrents of human blood and heaps of slain, in the following year produced wines, which afterward became celebrated, and the gigantic bones of the Teutones were long used for fencing in the vineyards. The greater part of the fugitives were taken by the Gauls and delivered to the Romans. Teutobach, the Teuton king, who was discovered and taken prisoner in a neighbouring forest, was of such gigantic stature as to overtop all the other trophies in the triumphal procession. He was the same who is said to have leaped over six horses.

 

XXXIV.The Destruction of the Cimbri

 

The Cimbri, meanwhile, traversed the narrow passes leading from the Tyrol into Italy, and viewed with delight the snow-capped mountains, which recalled to mind the winters of their northern home. Half-naked and seated on their large shields, they slid down the glaciers, in those ancient times one of the favourite amusements of the Scandinavian mountaineers. The fertile vales of Italy, where they expected to meet their brethren, the Teutones, at length burst upon their view, and were greeted with shouts of joy. An army under Catulus, who had not ventured to oppose their passage through the Alps, fled, on their approach, as far as the river Adige, where, throwing up intrenchments on both banks of the stream, they awaited the enemy, who, encamping opposite the fortifications, tore up trees and built enormous rafts, which they loaded with pieces of rock, and floated down stream in such huge masses, and so quickly one after the other, as to cause the bridge connecting the two embankments to give way, and the river to overflow; whereupon they raised such a fearful war-cry that the Romans intrenched on the further bank of the river, deaf to the entreaties of their commander, fled panicstruck; while their countrymen on the opposite bank, imprisoned within their fortifications, defended themselves with such persevering bravery that the Cimbri, struck with admiration, gave them, unasked, peace and liberty. The wandering hordes, intoxicated with success, now spread themselves over the rich country around Verona, and madly revelling in the luxuries of the South, carelessly awaited the arrival of the Teutones, instead of whom Marius appeared at the head of his victorious army, strengthened by that of Catulus. The Cimbri, unsuspicious of the truth, sent a deputation to demand land for themselves and the Teutones, to whom Marius replied, "that their brethren had already land enough to rest upon," and, in explanation of his words, showed them the Teuton king in chains. In silent wrath, the Cimbrian ambassadors returned to their encampment, and on the follow­ing day the youthful Bojorix, seated proudly on horseback, appeared as a herald before the camp of Marius, according to German custom, to challenge him to fix the time and place for battle. With a sneer at their frank and loyal chivalry, Marius named the third day, and the dusty plain of Vercelli.

The morning of the thirtieth of July, one hundred and one years before Christ, broke. A thick fog covered the whole country. The Cimbri were drawn up in a solid square, each side of which measured 7,500 paces. The foremost ranks were fastened together with chains, in order to render it more difficult for the enemy to break through them; and as each man bore a shield that covered his body, the whole mass resembled a wooden wall. Marius on his side provided the long spears of his soldiers with grappling hooks, with which to drag away the shields, the only defense of the Germans against the Roman short sword. The battle commenced, and the Roman cavalry, deceived by the feigned flight of the Cimbrian horse, and blinded by the fog, were drawn between them and the mass of infantry. In this moment of danger, Marius entreated the gods for assistance, and the sun suddenly beaming through the fog, which a high wind began to dissipate, the Romans discovered their perilous situation and retired, while Marius, joyfully exclaiming "The victory is ours!" made a vigorous charge upon the infantry, who, dazzled by the bright sun­beams which shone full in their faces, and suffocated by the clouds of dust, were speedily deprived of their shields, and a terrible carnage ensued. Unable to extricate themselves from the chain that bound them together, and fainting beneath the excessive heat and pressure, the living were dragged down by the dead. In this desperate situation, however, some contrived to stand their ground, and with impotent rage continued the struggle, until the shades of night veiled the scene of horror. Bojorix fell, sword in hand, with 90,000 of his followers; 60,000 were taken prisoners, and numbers killed themselves in despair. The women, dressed in black, with their golden locks in disarray, long defended the wagons, and slew every Teuton who fled from the enemy. When all was lost, they killed their children and then destroyed themselves. The Romans even then did not gain possession of the booty without a third battle with the dogs that guarded the baggage. The Helvetii, who had not quitted the narrow passes of the Alps, returned quietly to their own country on learning the disastrous fate of their allies.

The bravery evinced by the Germans so deeply impressed the Romans that the terror they had inspired became proverbial, and created a dim foreboding that their empire was destined to fall by the hands of the sons of the North. From this time, the Romans considered the Germans as, next to themselves, the bravest people in the world; a belief that was considerably strengthened during the subsequent wars, and rendered the Romans less confident in their own power. The wars with the Cimbri were also one of the primary causes of the gradual decay of the Roman empire, on account of the opportunity they afforded for the usurpation of the chief authority by plebeians, foreigners, and soldiers. The Cimbri and Teutones may thus be said to have con­quered even in death, and although without the participation of the rest of the Germans, and on a foreign soil, not to have fallen in vain for their country.

 

XXXV. Mithridates—The Insurrection of the Cimbrian Slaves—The Suevic Confederation

 

The Alps remained long undisturbed after the occurrence of these memorable events. Rome, meanwhile, became a prey to anarchy. Marius, supported by the soldiery, attempted to seize the government, but after a furious struggle was at length forced to yield to the young and haughty Sylla. When imprisoned in the city of Minturnae, whither ha had fled for safety, a Cimbrian slave, who was sent to cut off his head, was so struck by the countenance of the unarmed old man that the sword dropped from his hand, and the citizens, moved by the incident, restored the aged general to liberty. About the same period the Romans waged war with Mithridates, king of Pontus, who had boldly planned the deliverance of the nations subject to Rome. His youth had been spent among the Germans beyond the Danube, with whom he afterward connected himself by marrying his daughters to their chiefs, who assisted him in his enterprise against the Romans, and formed the chief strength of his army. But his brave and heroic spirit was destined to sink before the Roman eagle, and after los­ing three battles, being forced to seek safety by flight, a German, according to the custom of his nation, yielded to his desire, and deprived him of life [BC 63]. At the same time a war of a far more fearful character was occasioned in Italy by the insurrection of the slaves (who were prisoners, for the most part Germans taken in war), under their leader, Spartacus. Gannicus commanded the Cimbri. For three years they successfully repelled the veterans of Rome, filled Italy with terror, and even threatened the imperial city. But at length, rendered incautious by their rapacity and rashness, and becoming disobedient to their sagacious leader, they were all destroyed before they could succeed in crossing the Alps [BC 71].

The migration of the Cimbri and Teutones, which was doubtless caused by pressure from the North, had occasioned great disturbances throughout Germany, where a new power had probably either formed in their rear, or after their departure, as may be inferred from the fact that, shortly after the Cimbrian wars, the Suevic confederation, which devastated every country in its vicinity, and annually sent forth a thousand warlike adventurers from each of its hundred districts, is, for the first time, mentioned. While yet buried in the depths of their wild forests, their name spread terror through the Rhenish provinces and even reached the ears of the Romans. The Rhenish Germans also owned their inferiority to the Suevi, whom they considered superior to the rest of mankind, and only comparable to the immortal gods. Their separation from the western tribes, whom instead of succouring they attacked, and drove into the hands of the Romans, proved calamitous to Germany. Hemmed in on every side, they vainly sought to defend their liberty; and the tribes on the Upper Rhine that had united under Ariovistus, with those on the Lower Rhine under Ambiorix, were forced to yield to the victorious legions of the great Caesar. 

 

XXXVI. Ariovistus

 

Two Gallic nations, the Aedui and Sequani, dwelling on either side of the river Saone, quarrelled for supremacy, instead of uniting against the Romans, who had already taken possession of Provence, and were only watching for an opportunity to seize the whole of Gaul. The Sequani, being worsted, called their neighbours from the Upper Rhine to their assistance, the Tribocci from Strasburgh, the Nemeti from Spires, the Vangiones from Worms, the Rauraci from Basil, the Tulingi from Tuttlingen, the Latobrigi from Breisgau, the Marcomanni from the Danube, the Sedusii, Harudi and Narisci from between the Neckar and the Maine, in all 15,000 men, under the command of Ariovistus [BC 72], who uniting with the Sequani, at the first onset completely defeated the Aedui, when, instead of returning whence they came, they resolved to settle in Gaul, and inviting multitudes of their countrymen over the Rhine, ordered the Sequani to cede to them the third part of their land. The Gauls, alarmed at this demand, sought assistance from the Romans. Julius Caesar, the celebrated general, whose name descended to a long line of emperors, was at that period com­manding in Provence, and delighted at the opportunity thus afforded for war and conquest, promised his aid and ordered Ariovistus instantly to quit Gaul; to which the German merely replied, "that the Romans were not concerned in his affairs." On marching up the country, Caesar was informed by his spies that the German women having prog­nosticated evil to their nation on a certain day, the Germans would, on that day, either refuse to fight, or, if forced to do so, would be spiritless. Taking advantage of this circumstance, he attacked them on the day predicted, and they, imagining their gods to be against them, were easily put to the rout, and Ariovistus, whose two wives fell into the hands of the Romans, escaped across the Rhine [BC 58].

 

XXXVII. Caesar on the Rhine

 

Ariovistus was no sooner driven away than the Gauls discovered their error and found that they had only changed masters. Caesar, after subduing the Helvetii, made the whole of Gaul, notwithstanding the rebellious spirit of the inhabitants, into a Roman province, and taking advantage of an interval of peace, attempted to extend the Roman dominion as far as the Rhine, the left bank of which had, for a considerable period, been peopled by a multitude of German tribes of greater or less importance. On the Moselle dwelt the Treveri at Treves; further down the Rhine the Eburoni and Tungri at Tungem; the Gugemi between the Maes and the Rhine; the Menapii to the south, and the Batavi to the north, of the mouth of the Rhine; the Caninefati on the islands. Joining these, to the west were the Toxandri and Marini on the coast of the North Sea at Dunkirk; to the south, the Atrebati, Atuatici (fugitive Cimbri); the Condrusi, Coeresii, Poemones, the Nervii (a powerful people in Hainault), the Veromandui at Vermandois, the Ambiani at Amiens, the Bellovaci at Beauvais, the Suessiones at Soissons, the Velocassi, Caleti, etc. Although all these people were generally denominated Belgae, each was distinct from and independent of the other, nor were they even in alliance. They did not all belong to the Frankish nation, several of them having migrated from different parts of Germany. Continually at feud with. each other, they had only momentarily united in opposition to the Teutones. Fighting thus singly, their valour was powerless against so formidable an antagonist as Caesar, who gradually subdued them, and easily suppressed their subsequent attempts to shake off the yoke [BC 57].

Shortly after this [BC 53] two nations, the Teucteri and Usipetes, who had been driven out of their country by the Suevi, crossed the Rhine, and demanded land from Caesar, who, unwilling to tolerate so many warlike German tribes in Gaul, resolved to make a fearful example of them, in order to deter others from crossing the frontier, and treacherously seizing the German leader, who had come into his camp for the purpose of negotiating with him, suddenly attacked his unsuspecting followers, and drove them into the narrow tongue of land at the conflux of the Maes and the Rhine, where the greater part were either slaughtered, drowned, or taken prisoners. The remainder escaped to their native country. Throughout the Roman empire, there was but one man bold and honest enough to require that Caesar should, for this scandalous breach of faith, be delivered up to the Germans. This man was Cato. Not long after this, Caesar threw a bridge across the Rhine at Andernach, and marched into the country of the Sicambri, who had refused to deliver up the fugitive Teucteri and Usipetes. Unable to oppose him by force, the Sicambri laid their own country waste, and fled with their wives, children and property to the Wetterau, whence they watched the movements of the enemy. The great Suevian confederacy, meanwhile, flew to arms, and Caesar, after an eighteen days' march through the silent forests, regained the Rhine without having seen a single enemy.

 

XXXVIII. Ambiorix

 

During the winter preceding the year BC 54, a dangerous conspiracy was set on foot by the conquered Belgae, who hoped to regain their freedom by simultaneously murdering every Roman throughout the country. The plot was headed by an old man from Treves named Induziomar, and by the Eburoni, Ambiorix, and Cativolcus. The Romans had four well-fortified winter camps in the different districts, which it was resolved to attack on the self-same day. The stratagem, however, was only partially successful, but one of the camps falling into the hands of the insurgents, and the brave Induziomar was killed during the assault. The increased vigilance of the Romans rendered any other attempt abortive, and early in the spring [BC 54] Caesar appeared, his ranks swelled by the Gallic tribes. The Ubii, a German tribe, dwelling among the hills on the right bank of the Rhine, being harassed by the Suevi, also joined him, and eventually proved themselves the firmest and trustiest allies of Rome, and the bitterest foes of their kindred tribes. It was a common event for the Germans to be at feud, but for a German tribe to shelter itself behind a more powerful ally was deemed so deep a disgrace that the name of Ubii became a term of reproach. Among the Treveri there were also several men belonging to wealthy families, who, in the hope of being able to usurp the supreme authority in their country by the aid of Caesar, and of being created Roman governors or prefects, enrolled themselves beneath his standard, headed by the unworthy nephew of the patriotic Induziomar. The Belgae no sooner came in sight of the immense army of the Romans, led by their victorious general, than many of the tribes, panicstruck, quitted the confederacy, and laid down their arms; but Caesar, fearing lest the more powerful German tribes on the Upper Rhine might join the Belgae, unexpectedly crossed the river, and made an inroad up the country, which was again unsuccessful, and after traversing uninhabited wilds, he hurried back to the forest of Ardennes, in order to destroy Ambiorix, who, unaware of his approach, was peacefully seated with his friends in front of his solitary dwelling, when they were suddenly attacked by the Romans. With desperate fury, he fought his way through the forest, and the Belgae, believing him to be dead, and despairing of success, dispersed. His friend, Cativolcus, unable to survive his loss, killed himself. The whole country was laid waste by fire and sword. The Sicambri, allured by the prospect of booty, now took advantage of the general confusion and fell upon the Romans, whom they stripped of some of their ill-gotten wealth. Ambiorix also reappeared at the head of a small troop of patriots, which he had collected in the thickets of the Ardennes, and daily harassed and plundered the invaders. In the following year [BC 53] success at first attended the arms of the Belgian patriots, and the whole of Gaul rose against the Romans; but Caesar was again victorious, Gaul was reduced into a Roman province, and the Belgae were rendered tributary, and obliged to furnish a contingent to Rome.

 

XXXIX. Boirebistas

 

The intestine feuds of the warlike tribes to the north of Mount Haemus, the Getse, Bastarnae, and Daci, were of infinite service to the Romans while engaged in subduing the Alpine tribes, Illyria, and Greece. King Boirebistas, crossing the Haemus at the head of the chief tribes of the Getae, devastated Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria; but, instead of turning his arms against the Romans, attacked the Boii, and Taurisci, remaining on the frontiers of Austria and Hungary, and, after a bloody battle, defeated their king Critasiros and laid the country waste. The mountain tribes of Illyria and Dalmatia, taking advantage of the quarrels that broke out between Caesar and Pompey, Antony and Augustus, rose en masse, but, after a desperate struggle, were again reduced to submission. Teutimus, the Dalmatian chief, long defended the mountain fastnesses; and the Taurisci, taking possession of the narrow passes of the Tyrol, slew every Roman who attempted to pass into Switzerland, at that time a Roman province. At length, after a dreadful slaughter on both sides, the Romans advanced from the Lake of Constance into the mountains, and systematically exterminated the inhabitants. Every man fell sword in hand, and the women, maddened by despair, flung their children into the faces of the enemy. The Roman historian turns with horror from the monstrous crimes that blacken the page in which the destruction of the ancient inhabitants of the Tyrol by Tiberius, afterward emperor of Rome, is recorded.—About the period when Rome was erected into an empire under Augustus—at the time of the birth of Christ —all the countries to the south of the Danube, and westward of the Rhine, were incorporated with it. The petty German tribes of Frankish descent, on the Rhine, allured by the prospect of gaining wealth and distinction, enrolled themselves beneath the Roman standard. The Alpine tribes preferred death to bondage, while others awaited, in feigned subjection, an opportunity for revolt. As a means of preserving subordination, Caesar loaded the Germans, who entered his army, with favours, and raised them to the highest honours. It was to the bravery of his German mercenaries that he owed his most brilliant victories over his rival Pompey. From this period, Germans were always employed in the Roman armies. The sons of the German nobility were also sent as hostages to Rome, where they were educated, and becoming enervated by luxury, caused these frontier tribes gradually to relax from the hardy manners of their forefathers. For still greater security, Roman colonies were planted along the frontier, who raised cities and fortresses, and introduced their religious rites, their markets, their laws, and their luxuries among the inhabitants; so that within a very short time all the countries, whose inhabitants were at first merely tributary to or in alliance with Rome, were com­pletely transformed into Roman provinces, with a new language, new customs, and a new form of government.

 

XL. Drusus

 

Augustus, the first Roman emperor, dissatisfied with the limits of the Gallic frontier, and ambitious of extending his dominion beyond the wild forests on the right bank of the Rhine, which had offered an invincible obstacle to Sigovesus, the ancient Celtic king, and to the legions of Caesar, sent Drusus, his valiant stepson, at the head of a powerful army, to conquer Germany. Between the Lower Rhine and the Maine dwelt several petty tribes. The Mattiaci, north of the Maine, on the Taunus Mountains; further north, down the right bank of the Rhine, the Teucteri, Usipetes, Cattuanes, and Chamavi; behind them, toward the interior of Germany, the Catti (Hessians); the Sicambri, who traced their descent from the gods, in Sauerland, between the Lahn, the Lippe, the Weser, and the Rhine; the Bructeri, in Munsterland (not the Friesland Brockmen); the Marsi, in Osnabruck; the Fosi, on the Fuhse in Hildesheim; the Tulgibini, in the Duhlawald; the Ampsibari, on the Ems; the Angrivarii, in Enger; the Casuarii, in ancient Hasegau; the Tubantes, around Twenter, in ancient Twentegau; the Chemsci, in Harzgau, whose name belonged to a confederacy of several (gauen) districts, at the time of the Roman invasion, and who were bounded to the east by the Hermimduri, on the Saal; the Longobardi, on the Elbe; the Angli, Varini, etc., on the coasts of the Northern Ocean; beyond the Belgae, the Frisii; in the country of the Dithmarsi, the Chauci; in Holstein, the Cimbri: all of which tribes were now attacked by Drusus, who, invading the country of the Frankish Usipetes, Teucteri, Mattiaci, and Sicambri [BC 12], laid them waste by fire and sword. The Catti, who, shortly anterior to these events, had separated from the Suevian confederacy, refused to assist their suffering brethren, who found equally powerful allies in the Saxon Bructeri and Chauci; and Drusus, alarmed at their immense numbers, prudently withdrawing from their neighbourhood, took ship and sailed to the country of the Frisii, who entered into alliance with him, and agreed to attack their neighbours the Chauci, with whom they were at feud, and saved the Roman fleet, which had stranded on the low coast. The autumnal fogs and rains, however, caused the Romans to accelerate their return southward, and the only advantage gained by both these expeditions was the erection of a fort on the Taunus, and of another at the mouth of the Ems. In the following year [BC 11] the six allied tribes making an irruption into the country of the Catti, who had refused to assist them, Drusus seized the opportunity, and again devastated their now defenseless districts as far as the Weser, where, meeting with the Cherusci, the most warlike of the tribes of Lower Germany, whose impenetrable forests barred his further advance, he again retired, harassed by the tribes which had returned victorious from their expedition against the Catti. A great battle finally took place on the Lippe, in which the extraordinary discipline and courage of the Romans alone enabled them to keep the field. On the bank of this river, at the confluence of the Liese and the Gleene with the Lippe, Drusus erected the important fortress of Aliso (Liesborn), and extending thence a strong earthen wall across the morasses as far as the Rhine, secured a military road into the interior of Germany; after which he recrossed the Rhine, and built about fifty fortresses and towers along its banks.

The ensuing campaign was carried on in the country of the Catti [BC 10], where he succeeded in building some roads and bridges, which proved serviceable in his next expedition against this people, whose land he laid waste as far as the Suevian boundary; when, fearing to offend that powerful state, he turned northward, and pushed through the Cheruscian forests as far as the Elbe, on whose opposite bank he beheld a prophetess of gigantic stature, who, with a threatening gesture, exclaimed, "Ah! insatiable Drusus! to what do you aspire? Fate has forbidden your advance through our unknown regions! Fly hence!''. Terror-struck at the omen, Drusus again retreated, but, before reaching Aliso, his horse fell, and he was killed on the spot. He was buried at Mayence, beneath the Eichelstein (from the Roman eagle, aquila). To the present day the peasants of Lower Germany curse in the name of Drus, whom they imagine to be something worse than the devil. After his death his brother, Tiberius [BC 8], invaded the country of the Usipetes and Teucteri, whom he subdued and threatened with extermination, unless they persuaded the Sicambri to yield. Upon this the chiefs of the Sicambri were sent to negotiate conditions, but were treacherously seized by Tiberius, who suddenly attacked and subdued the whole nation, whose imprisoned chiefs killed themselves, according to the custom of their country. After committing this act of violence and fraud, Tiberius sought to gain the hearts of the Germans by peaceable means, and by deceptive arts. For this purpose, he invited the most influential men from the neighbouring districts, and giving them posts of honour in his army, loaded them with gifts, and incited them to usurp the chief authority in their several districts, and to rule despotically over their fellow citizens. Few, however, attached themselves to him. Domitius, another Roman general, who shortly afterward [BC 6] undertook an expedition to the Elbe, which he reached, rendered the Roman name feared by his boldness, and himself beloved by his gentleness and generosity. The Belgae, on the coast, soon after revolted [AD 3], but were again subdued, and, in the following year, Tiberius sailed with a numerous fleet from the Northern Ocean up the Elbe, on whose banks a sharp conflict took place with the Longobardi, Senones, and Hermunduri [AD 4], in which he was victorious. On this occasion, an aged warrior of the Senones, approaching Tiberius, cordially offered him his hand, rejoicing that in his old age he had beheld such a warlike people as the Romans, a worthy opponent being the German's greatest glory. Sentius, who was afterward prefect of the Rhine, treated the people with such humanity that they voluntarily adopted the customs and acquired the useful arts of the Romans.

 

XLI. Varus in Germany

 

Sentius was succeeded by Varus, a confidential friend of the emperor Augustus; a man of high talent, and well acquainted with the systematic government of the subdued provinces. The remains of his magnificent villa, not far from those of his celebrated friends, Horace and Maecenas, the favourites of the great Augustus, may still be seen in the beautiful vale of Tivoli. This able and learned man, blinded by his enthusiastic desire for the introduction of the customs of Rome among the barbarous Germans, imagined that civilization must be welcomed with joy and gratitude, and forgot that liberty is beyond price. As long as lie remained peaceably in his headquarters, which extended from the left to the right bank of the Rhine, enriched the natives with gifts, made them acquainted with the costly and luxurious articles of the South, erected markets, and took their sons into the imperial army, they loved and treated him as a guest; but when, emboldened by success, he extended his forces across the Weser into the land of the Cherusci, and supported by Segestus, a treacherous chief of that nation, began to tyrannize over them, by rigorously enforcing the Roman laws, and chastising and executing the freeborn Germans, their goodwill changed into inveterate hatred, and they determined to rid themselves of the despotic stranger. Awed by the Roman army, which consisted of more than 30,000 picked men, encamped in impregnable intrenchments, they long brooded in silence over their wrongs; until a handsome athletic youth, named Armin, of the nation of the Cherusci, of noble descent and irreproachable life, skilled in the art of war, which he had learned from the Romans, in whose armies he had served with such distinction as to gain the honours of knighthood, gifted with eloquence and inspired by an enthusiastic love of liberty, appeared among his dispirited countrymen, whose courage he quickly roused, and a general conspiracy was set on foot in Lower Germany against the Romans, whose destruction was planned in midnight meetings in the silent depths of the forests, and Armin, whose brother and nearest relatives favoured the Romans, became the leader and the soul of the confederacy. Notwithstanding the secrecy with which these meetings were held, they were discovered by Segestus, who, in the hope of increasing his power, and of avenging himself upon Armin, who had deprived him of his beautiful and patriotic daughter, Thusnelda, instantly betrayed the designs of his countrymen to Varus, who, confiding in his own power, and despis­ing that of the Germans, treated the matter with contempt and incredulity. 

 

XLII. The Battle in the Teutoburg Forest

 

Autumn had fallen [AD 9], bringing the long rainy season characteristic of the North, when Armin began to carry his long-cherished plan into execution. According to Dio Cassius, he first induced Varus to send a considerable number of troops into different parts of the country, in order to procure a winter supply of provisions, or to keep watch over the neighbouring tribes, which had not submitted to the Romans, and then succeeded in drawing him with his whole force out of the fortifications, by secretly inciting a somewhat distant tribe, whose name is not mentioned, to revolt. Dio Cassius, whose account is by far the most precise, particularly mentions that Varus' road lay through the midst of apparently friendly tribes, who, by Armin's advice, joined him, in order to avert suspicion; and as there were no tribes lying toward the interior of Germany who had yet been subjected by the Romans, Varus could not therefore have marched in that direction, nor was it likely that he would undertake an expedition into those unknown regions at the commencement of the winter season; it is, consequently, far more probable that the revolt broke out in the opposite direction, and obliged him to advance toward the Rhine. It was also evidently the Catti who attacked him on his march thither, while Armin fell upon his rear; a supposition confirmed by the circumstance of his having quitted the camp at the head of the whole of his troops, accompanied by all the baggage, women, and children, which would not have been the case had he intended to maintain his headquarters on the Weser, while making an expedition against a distant tribe. According to Clostermeier and Ledebur, the summer quarters of the Romans lay below Minden in Prussia, in the vicinity of Reme, at the confluence of the Weser and the Werra, in the widest part of the valley of the Weser. While marching thence straight upon Aliso, Varus was accompanied some distance by Armin, who, under pretense of taking a shorter path, beguiled him into the narrow mountain passes between the Weser and the cities of Herford and Salzufeln, and, the instant the vanguard entered the forest, gave the signal for the general insurrection. The Roman soldiers, who had been distributed among the various districts, were simultaneously murdered. The ambushed Germans poured in thousands from the surrounding forests, breathing death and vengeance on their foes, against whom heaven itself seemed to conspire. A dreadful storm arose; the mountain torrents, swollen by the heavy rains, overflowed their banks; and while the Romans, encumbered with baggage, and wearied by the toilsome march, passed in long and irregular columns through the narrow valleys, the fearful war-cry of the Germans was suddenly heard above the roaring of the wind and waters. They halted, panicstruck, and were in a moment assailed with stones, arrows, and lances, while the Germans rushed like a torrent from the heights, spreading terror and destruction around. The well-disciplined Romans, quickly recovering from their surprise, formed into larger masses, and offered a determined resistance. The battle continued until nightfall, when they gained a more open spot, where they intrenched themselves; but surrounded by the enemy, and entirely without provisions, defense was useless, and their only safety lay in flight. Accordingly, at sunrise, after burning all their baggage, they commenced their retreat, and after passing through an open plain on the Werra in tolerable order, though not without considerable loss, re-entered the forest-clad mountains at Detmold, where, bewildered in an impassable valley, an immense slaughter took place; according to Tacitus, in the Teutoburg forest, "in saltu Teutoburgiensi," probably in the valley where the Berlebeche flows beneath the Groteberg or Teut, whose summit is surrounded with a double Hunnish ring of stones, and at whose feet lies the Teutehof, the owner of which is named the Teutemaier. The survivors again succeeded in reaching an open spot, where a small encampment was hastily thrown up for defense during the night. On the following morning, when not far from Aliso, fresh tribes, probably the Oatti, stopped their further progress, and they were completely surrounded and annihilated between Osterholz, Schlangen, and Haustenbeck. Varus threw himself upon his sword. A few of the Romans escaped to Aliso, but afterward secretly abandoned that fort under the command of Lucius Oseditius, and fought their way to the Rhine.

Armin now offered sacrifices to the gods, to whom he consecrated the booty, the slain, and the chief prisoners. He took bloody reprisals on the judges and lawyers, the chief objects of his hatred: "Viper, speak!" was said to one of them, as his tongue was being pierced. The rest of the prisoners were made slaves. The news of this defeat quickly spread, and the Romans, fearful lest the enemy, pursuing their victory, might cross the Rhine, hastily intrenched themselves, and sent to Rome for assistance. The terror formerly inspired by the German name, by the memory of the wars of the Cimbri and Teutones, and of the revolt of the slaves, awoke afresh. The imperial German bodyguard, and the Germans employed in the Roman service, were instantly sent into distant provinces, and recruits were raised in every part of the country for the formation of an immense army destined for the protection of Gaul; but so great was the universal terror that the Romans refused to serve, until forced under pain of death. These preparations proved, however, unnecessary; the Germans—satisfied with effacing every trace of the Romans, by the destruction of the forts and the military roads as far as the Rhine, which again became the boundary of the Roman empire—remaining peaceably within their frontiers.

 

XLIII. Germanicus on the Rhine

 

Peace reigned a while. Tiberius was raised to the imperial throne [AD 14], and the son of Drusus, who afterward received the surname of Germanicus, was placed at the head of the forces on the Rhine, in the hope of revenging the discomfiture of the Roman arms, and of reconquering Germany. In the course of the year he suddenly fell upon the Marsi, while they were holding a sacred feast, and lying around the temple of Tanfana, intoxicated and asleep. Im­mense numbers were slain, but the neighbouring tribes coming to their assistance forced him to recross the Rhine.

The following year [AD 15], when he was setting out on a campaign against the Catti, Sigismund, the son of Segestus, came to implore his aid against Armin, who was closely besieging his father, into whose hands Thusnelda had fallen, and Germanicus, suddenly entering the country of the Cherusci, freed Segestus and took possession of his daughter. The youthful wife of Armin was far advanced in pregnancy when led in the triumphal procession, and bore her miserable fate without a tear; her own father, whose treason had been rewarded, and whose avarice had been gratified by a gift of lands in Gaul, his life being no longer secure in his own country, gazing unmoved on the wretchedness of his child. The news of this disaster soon reached Armin, who flew throughout Germany, rousing his countrymen to vengeance. Engaged at this insult to Thusnelda, the Germans rose to a man, and even Inguiomar, the ancient friend of the Romans, joined Armin, who soon again found himself at the head of a formidable army. Germanicus, meanwhile, had prepared for war, and sailed with a numerous fleet from the Northern Ocean to the Ems, while an army was dispatched to the coasts, and a third, commanded by Cecinna, advanced through the country of the Marsi. Armin and his Germans now retreated with their families and property, and the whole country was laid waste by the Romans, who advanced unopposed as far as the recent scene of slaughter, where, with lamentations and cries for vengeance, Germanicus caused the bones of the legions of Varus to be buried. Meanwhile, the Germans watched him from the mountains, intent upon destroying him in the same defiles in which Varus had fallen; and when he entered the narrow valleys, whose surrounding heights afforded ambush for the enemy, Armin at the head of a small troop retreated before him, until the whole army had entered the pass and was hemmed in on every side. The signal was given, and a dreadful slaughter ensued [AD 16], but the cautious Romans, though defeated, escaped annihilation by making an orderly retreat to the ships. A part of the army that had been dispatched to the coasts of Friesland was carried away by a flood on its march, and the whole narrowly escaped destruction. Cecinna fared still worse, being overtaken by Armin while retreating through the country by the long bridges leading across the deep morasses of Munsterland, which were fast falling to decay; and yet, although surrounded by dangers and apparently insurmountable difficulties, shut up in a narrow dell' through which the Germans had turned the course of a mountain torrent, and defending their camp while the water rose to their knees and the tempest burst furiously over their heads, the valiant Romans succeeded in cutting their way through the enemy, and in escaping, though with considerable loss, to the Rhine. The winter months were employed by the Germans in besieging the fort of Aliso, but without success; and in the following year [AD 17] Germanicus sailed with a thousand ships up the Ems, and landing his army marched to the Weser, whose opposite banks were defended by the Germans. On reaching the river, Flavius, the brother of Armin, a Roman mercenary, stepping from the ranks, advanced to the riverside, and addressing his brother, described in glowing terms the advantage of being a Roman citizen, in the hope of inducing him to desert his people; but Armin, cursing him for a traitor, attempted to cross the stream with the intention of killing him, but was withheld by his followers. The Romans now prepared for battle, and Armin, again retreating, succeeded in surrounding and cutting to pieces the Batavian horsemen in the Roman service, who had ventured too far in pursuit. The next day the whole army advanced, but, on reaching the pass, Germanicus separated the troops and pressed forward at the head of one division, leaving the other at some distance to the rear, and the Germans, rushing from their ambuscade, were consequently surrounded, and, after a desperate conflict, entirely routed. This victory was recorded by Germanicus on a magnificent monument raised on the spot, although his loss was so considerable as to oblige him to fall back on the Ems. Roused to frenzy at the sight of this monument, and resolved to wipe off their shame, the Germans quickly rallied in pursuit, and another battle ensued, so obstinately contested that night alone separated the combatants, and the slaughter had been so terrible that when day broke neither army was able to renew the fight, and Germanicus, hastily retreating to his ships, set sail. Disaster still pursued this ill-fated expedition; a storm arose in which most of the vessels were wrecked, and when, shortly after this, Germanicus returned to Rome, the fort on the Taunus was the only one throughout Germany in the possession of the Romans.

 

XLIV. Marbod

 

While these great events were taking place in the north of Germany, the south did not remain quiet. The tribes in the lower valleys of the Danube were continually at feud, thus rendering it easy for the Romans to subdue, one by one, those belonging to the Peucini, in the same manner that Deldo, king of the Bastarnae, was overcome by Crassus; and Boirebistas, the exterminator of the Boii, the powerful ruler of the Getae and Daci, was defeated by Tiberius and Piso; on which account he was murdered by his subjects, the Getae, by whom he had made himself hated; but who, after this event, quarrelling among themselves, and being without a leader, fell an easy prey to the Romans. It was about this time, when Augustus was still emperor of Rome, that the Suevian confederacy, from which the Catti first separated themselves, was dissolved. Armin had, it is true, united the Frankish and Saxon tribes of Northern Germany in a temporary defensive alliance, and they carefully guarded the Rhine; but when the kingdom of the Getae fell, as well as the Suevian confederacy, the Danube seemed no longer tenable. It naturally followed that the inhabitants of the exposed districts on the southern frontier voluntarily united under one leader, who was intrusted with great authority, in order to give unity and strength to their councils, the Romans having taught them of what importance it was to keep together in the fight, and to obey one commander. Marbod, who, like Armin, had passed his youth among the Romans, united the remaining Suevi of Upper Germany, the Boii, and all the petty southern frontier tribes, and led them far from the vicinity of the Romans into Bohemia, a beautiful, fertile country, surrounded by a natural rampart of mountains, where he was joined by the Getae who had fled from the East, and who aided him to subdue his Suevian neighbours on the Maine and the Saal, who had refused to league either with him or Armin. His people, collected from so many different Suevic and Gothic tribes, received the appellation of Marcomanni (mark or boundary), and he possessed the same power over them that was enjoyed by the Margraves of later times, that of commander-in-chief, with unlimited authority. He maintained a standing army of 70,000 foot and 4,000 horse, exclusive of the armed population. He had also a fortified castle in the interior of the country. The Romans beheld this newly-erected power with apprehension, and Tiberius marched against it at the head of a formidable army; but on his way, hearing of the revolt of the Pannonians, he hastily concluded peace with Marbod, who, more intent on his own aggrandizement than concerned for the liberties of the people, abandoned his neighbours. Commanded by Pinnes and Bato, they defended themselves, with the courage of despair, against 200,000 Roman troops, until Bato, seduced by Tiberius, betrayed Pinnes, but not long after again opposed the Romans, and a second time, yielding, the people shared the fate of the Taurisci, in the Tyrol. At Arduba, the women flung themselves and their children into the burning houses, and into the river, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. These horrors, and the heroic struggles of Armin, were beheld unmoved by Marbod, who now openly manifested his intention of allying himself with the Romans, by whose assistance he hoped to usurp supreme authority in Germany. In order to remind him of his duty, Armin had presented him with the head of Varus, as a mark of honour, but Marbod sent it with a condoling message to the emperor Augustus. The Lower Germans were imbittered against him by his want of sympathy in the cause of liberty, while his very name was detested by the other tribes, over whom, not content with ruling despotically over the Marcomanni, he attempted to extend his dominion, and, consequently, he no sooner attacked the Senones and Longobardi, than the tribes of Lower Germany flew to their aid, and a powerful league, headed by Armin, was formed against him. Both sides assembled all their forces, and a great battle ensued, in which almost all the German tribes took part. Armin gained a complete victory, and Marbod, retreating to Bohemia, sent to Rome for assistance; but becoming intolerable to his own subjects, who elected the Goth, Catualda, for their king, he escaped across the Danube, and lived for eighteen years on the bounty of the Romans. 

 

XLV. The Death of Armin

 

Thus Armin had saved his country from internal as well as external danger. For ten years he had been general-in-chief of the people, and his fame had spread throughout the whole of Germany; but as actions like his, before him unknown among the Germans, were the offspring of extraordinary circumstances, his fame naturally decreased in time of peace, and it became easy for those who envied his honours to instil the suspicion that he aimed at sovereignty into the minds of a people so jealous of its freedom, a suspicion strengthened by the example of Marbod, which served as a pretext to his enemies; and, at length, his own relations, who were most strongly influenced by envy, conspired against and murdered him, AD 21. From this moment the Germans no longer acted with unity, a circumstance of which the Romans, anxious to preserve peace on their northern frontier, did not take advantage. In the same year in which Armin was murdered, the Treveri, headed by Florus, revolted; but the attempt failed, owing to their want of unity. Some years later, AD 28, the Frisii shook off the Roman yoke. The friendly manner in which this simple-minded people had received the Romans had been ill-requited; they were treated as a conquered nation, and a tribute of ox-hides imposed upon them, which was endured until Olennius became prefect of the Rhine, and in the insolence of power demanded not only common hides, but also those of the buffalo, rare in Friesland, and moreover placed a strong garrison in the country, in order to enforce payment. The wretched people were consequently forced to sell all they possessed—houses, slaves, cattle, and even their children, in order to procure the hides in sufficient quantities from the neighbouring nations. At length, rendered desperate by necessity and suffering, they suddenly rose en masse, and drove the Romans out of their country, an exploit which, for the first time, made their name famous in history. Their country retained its freedom, the Romans taking no revenge, probably because the conquest of these poor people would not have repaid the expense and danger of the war. Not long after this, the Caninefati revolted, bat without success. The Cherusci were ruined by internal dissensions. The faithless relations of Armin attempted to introduce the Roman customs, and to usurp the whole authority, but were resisted by the people, AD 47. The son of Flavius, surnamed Italicus, on account of his having been born and bred in Italy, was chosen king, but made himself so disliked by his Roman manners that he was deposed; but, aided by the Longobardi, he regained his throne, and the people gradually lost their ancient power and love of honour. The Catti made continual excursions across the Rhine, AD 60, until, rendered careless by sccess, they were attacked and cut to pieces by the Romans, when in a state of intoxication. In the same year, Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, led a great Roman colony to the Rhine, and erected an important fortress on the frontier, called, after her, Colonia Agrippina—now Cologne.

On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Roman and German frontier, was a narrow tract of country, which had long remained uninhabited, partly on account of the migrations, and partly on account of the wars. The Friedlanders, whose population, as has ever been the case in Germany, was too redundant for the land, coveted the possession of this empty tract, and, in order to negotiate the matter, sent Veritus and Malorix, two of their chief men, to Rome, where they were well received. The magnificence of the capital of the world did not tame the free and haughty spirit inspired by their forest homes. When, in the theatre, the seat of honour was not assigned to them, they took possession of it, saying, "The German nation is the bravest in the world, and therefore the highest honours are its due." Their request was refused.

The petty tribe of the Ampsibari, driven out by the Catti (who gradually sought to extend their limits), wandered along the Rhine, and begged land of the Romans. Their request met with a haughty refusal; and when rich possessions were offered to Boiocal, their chief, who had served in the imperial army, he nobly refused them, and, swearing to remain true to his people, exclaimed, "We may want land on which to live, but it is never wanting for those who die." He returned with his tribe to Germany, where, being everywhere rejected, part of it dispersed among different nations, and the rest fell victims to hunger and misery. Soon after this, a great war broke out between the Catti and the Hermunduri, who disputed the possession of the salt-springs of the Saal, even at that period held in great estimation. The Hermunduri were victorious in a pitched battle, and sacrificed all their prisoners to the gods. During this year, AD 58, a great subterranean fire broke out in the banks of the Rhine, with which the layers of peat found there may perhaps have some connection. After the death of Nero, the Roman tyrant, who paid very little attention to Germany, several Roman generals strove for empire. Vitellius, who commanded in Cologne, was the first who made use of the Germans when attempting to seize the imperial crown. He favoured them so much as to allow them, when enrolled beneath his standard, to wear the costume of their country. After causing himself to be proclaimed emperor in Cologne, he marched to Rome, where the appearance of his warriors created great astonishment. He always carried about with him a German prophetess, whose predictions were to warn him of future events. An unsuccessful speculation, as he was murdered. Vespasian became emperor. His son, Titus, when subduing Judea, had also Germans in his army, whom he praised highly, saying "that their souls were even greater than their bodies." But there still were noble hearts that throbbed with indignation at the baseness of their free-born countrymen, in thus "selling themselves to the destroyers of their fatherland.

 

XLVI. Civilis and Velleda

 

There lived a young man among the Batavians who was called by the Romans Civilis, or the friend of the people, and who had lost an eye in their service. Becoming suspected on account of his love of freedom, he was thrown into prison, together with his brothers, who were shortly afterward beheaded. On his restoration to liberty, he swore eternal enmity against his oppressors, and vowed, according to the custom of his country, not to trim his beard or head until he had taken ample vengeance on them. Finding that his fellow countrymen groaned secretly beneath the Roman yoke, which unity and energy on their part might easily cast off, he appeared among them during a sacred feast at midnight in a forest, and with enthusiastic eloquence excited them to open revolt. The standard of rebellion was raised, and the Romans were simultaneously murdered throughout the country; an example that was quickly followed by the Caninefati and Frisii. Victory followed victory, and one by one every Belgian tribe, even the Treviri, encouraged by the success of their neighbours, joined in driving out the common enemy, or in besieging him in his strongholds. The Germans also in the imperial service deserted in troops to the friends of liberty. The country of the Ubii was completely laid waste, and the most fearful vengeance was wreaked upon all who had been faithless to their fatherland; the city of Cologne, which submitted to the conquerors, being alone spared, AD 69.

At this period, Vitellius and Vespasian were battling for empire, and consequently the whole strength of the Romans could not be poured upon Belgium, where the cause of freedom speedily progressed; and although the fortress of Vetera (Zante) was unsuccessfully besieged during the whole of the winter, the affairs of the allies prospered, and several other German tribes evinced a disposition to make common cause with Civilis, while Velleda, a maiden prophetess who dwelt in a lonely tower in the Bructerian forest, and was regarded with veneration throughout Germany, announced victory to her people and destruction to the Romans. The most valuable part of the booty was always sent to her in sign of honour, and she became as it were the inspiring genius of the Germans in their struggle for freedom. The Gauls also seized this opportunity to cast off the chain, and united their forces with those of the Belgas, who, unluckily for their cause, were persuaded by their new confederates to found a great Gallic empire, which excited the jealousy of the Germans on the other side of the Rhine, and cooled their zeal, while the steady alliance of the Gauls could not be counted upon, although for the present everything pros­pered, and the flag of liberty ere long floated on the Alps, and the Roman arms again suffered defeat in Helvetia.

The following year, AD 70, affairs took a different turn, Vespasian overcame Vitellius, and civil dissension ceased. Cerealis, a veteran general, whose name struck the Germans with terror, was dispatched into Gaul at the head of a powerful army, and, on reaching Treves, easily subdued the Gauls, who abandoned Civilis; while the people of Cologne murdered all the Germans who were in their city, and delivered up to him the wife and child of Civilis, who had been intrusted to their care. Notwithstanding these disasters, the Belgae were not yet disheartened, and in the first battle drove the enemy from the field. Another followed, in which so many of the Germans went over to the Romans that Civilis was forced to retreat, and throwing himself into the Batavian islands, opened the canals, and caused a great inundation, by means of which he long bade defiance to the enemy; but finding opposition unavailing, and honourable conditions being offered, he at length concluded peace. His name was honoured by both friends and enemies. According to a short account by Statius, Velleda was taken prisoner by the Romans.

 

XLVII. Internal Dissensions Among the Germans

 

These disturbances were followed by a long peace on the frontier. In the interior of Germany feuds broke out between the brother tribes, which afforded a delectable spectacle to the Romans. The Catti fell upon the Cherusci, and drove king Chariomer from the throne. There were also disturbances among the Suevi, and Masyus, a king of the Semnones, and the prophetess Ganna, who was almost as famous as Velleda, fled to Rome, where they were honourably received. Tacitus mentions the extermination of 60,000 Bructeri by their neighbours the Chamavri and the Angrivarii, while the rest of the Germans looked on with indifference, as a late and very remarkable event, and concludes his account with this exclamation, "May dissension ever reign among the Germans, and thus prevent the danger with, which they threaten Rome". Similar disturbances, occasioned by military despotism and the discordant Gothic and Suevic tribes who composed the nation, prevailed in the kingdom of the Marcomanni. The Goths, tinder Catualda, the successor of Marbod, oppressed the Suevi, who, rebelling, drove them out and elected Vibilius, one of the Hermunduri, for their king. Catualda went over to the Romans, and assembled a great number of his adherents, to whom the Quadi, dwelling in Moravia behind the Daci, associated themselves, who were allowed to settle in Pannonia, which lay waste and iminhabited, on condition of aiding the Romans against their countrymen. Thus the new kingdom of the Quadi, on the right bank of the Danube, served as a guard against that of the Marcomanni, on the opposite bank. Catualda was succeeded by Vannius, who, evincing an inclination to make terms with the Marcomanni, was, at the instigation of the Romans, seized by his own nephews, Sido and Wangio, who were assisted by the Jazyges, the first Slavonian tribe that crossed the Danube. Roman policy triumphed. The united Marcomanni and Quadi were beaten, Sido was rewarded with the throne of Vibilius, and Wangio with that of Vannius, for their devotion to the interests of Rome. But the hatred of the Roman rule was deeply rooted among the Germans, and their friendship was more apparent than permanent. No sooner was one nation subdued, or gained over by the enemy, than another instantly rose to renew the struggle for the glory and liberty of their fatherland.

 

XLVIII. Dezebal

 

The ancient Dacian-Getic kingdom, which had been dissolved after the murder of Boirebistas, again rose. The king, Durias, voluntarily abdicated in favour of Dezebal, a brave and intelligent man, his superior in the art of government, who speedily united all the tribes, known earlier under the general name of the Peucini, beneath his command. Apprehensive of the event, the emperor Domitian sent Sabinus with a numerous army across the Danube, which was annihilated by Dezebal, and the emperor, marching against him in person, was also beaten, AD 89. The Marcomanni and Quadi, ashamed of assisting the Romans against their brethren, had, meanwhile, preserved a strict neutrality, and Domitian, imagining that he could subdue them more easily than the Daci, put their ambassadors to death, and invaded their country; but, emboldened by the example of Dezebal, they offered him battle. A complete victory was gained, which at once put an end to their base alliance with the Romans, and, uniting their forces to those of the Daci, they became so formidable that Domitian sued for peace, and agreed to pay Dezebal a heavy annual tribute, AD 90. The weak Nerva succeeded Domitian, and Dezebal remained in undisturbed tranquillity until the accession of the warlike Trajan, when war once more broke out. Trajan, judging it to be as dishonourable to allow the discomfiture of the Roman arms in Dacia to remain unrevenged as it was impolitic to tolerate so enterprising a neighbor, refused to pay the tribute, AD 100, and marching at the head of a strong army against the Dacians, conducted the war with such skill and energy that Dezebal was finally overcome and forced to conclude a shameful peace, AD 103. Filled with mortification at his defeat, and with fears for his country, he once more attempted to arm the neighbouring tribes against Rome, setting before them the danger to which they were exposed, unless they united against their common enemy. His entreaties were vain, and he was forced to stem the torrent unassisted and alone, AD 106. A long and obstinate strug­gle ensued, and at length, completely defeated and driven to desperation, he killed himself, after making a vain attempt to poison the emperor. His treasures, which had been secretly buried in the bed of the river Sargetia, were betrayed to Trajan, who took possession of them, and Dacia became a Roman province. A stone bridge, the wonder of the times, was thrown across the Danube, in this part of immense width, and records, together with the bas-reliefs of the beautiful column still preserved at Rome, the name and warlike deeds of Trajan.

 

XLIX. Roman Provinces on the Rhine and Danube

 

Hadrian, the prudent and pacific successor of the war­like Trajan, followed the plan commenced by Caesar, and continued to Romanize the provinces lying on the frontiers of Germany, besides completing their defense, by erecting fortifications along the left bank of the Rhine, and the right bank of the Danube, virtually surrounding that frontier of the empire with a chain of castles. At the most important points, strongly fortified encampments, garrisoned by Roman legions, connected by straight, high, damlike roads, and provided with watchtowers overlooking the distant country, were constructed. The Rhine and the Danube generally marked the boundary. Their banks were thickly studded with castles and fortified towns, and their streams were traversed by bridges, the remains of which may still be seen at Cologne and Mayence, besides the ruins of the one already mentioned, built by Trajan over the Danube.

The Romans had thus already crossed both rivers, and had built two gigantic têtes-de-pont to bar the further prog­ress of the Germans. After the expulsion of the Dacians, Trajan and Hadrian led powerful colonies into Moesia (mod­ern Moldavia and Wallachia), in order to repeople that country with Romans, and to prevent the Germans from crossing at the point where the Danube falls into the Black Sea. The comer where the Black Forest penetrates into Basil was a still more important position, on account of the obstinacy with which the Germans defended the mountains between the Danube and the Rhine, which at once hindered the junction of the Romans, and rendered them liable to surprise on either side. Neither labour nor expense were therefore spared in erecting the fortifications of the Black Forest, which were completed by Hadrian, who built a great wall that extended from Pfarring on the Danube to Mittenberg on the Maine, and is now known as the Teufelsmauer, the Heidenmauer, or the Pfahlgraben. It appears to have been completely fortified, and to have defended the whole of the country lying to its rear. The roads of communication between the forts were carried along the edge of the mountains, instead of running through the valleys, in order to secure the garrisons against ambush or sudden attacks in their route through the forests. Modern tacticians have been struck by the astonishing science displayed by the Romans in their choice of positions for encampments, and lines for mountain military roads, etc. German liberty could not possibly exist within reach of these fortresses, and the whole frontier lay waste and desolate, until by slow degrees repeopled and cultivated by Roman colonists, or by poor German fugitives and deserters. These lands were called agri decumates; it is uncertain whether on account of a tenth paid by the cultivator, or from a Roman measure for marking out the fields, or from the usual plan of recruiting among the peasantry. When the emperor Henry the  First raised the first fortresses in Germany, one out of every ten peasants was chosen to form the garrison of the fort, whom the rest were obliged to maintain by their labour; and it seems probable that these agri were, in like manner, intended for the maintenance of the Roman garrisons.

As countless legions were continually quartered on the frontiers, the conquered tribes soon adopted the language, customs, and luxurious manners of their masters, and a number of Roman towns were either built behind the forts, or the latter gradually swelled into cities. All the large cities on both sides of the Rhine and the Danube were originally Roman; the most considerable of which was Treves, the capital of the whole of the northern province, celebrated for its magnificent temples, palaces, amphitheatres, etc., the ruins of which still exist. The remains of an immense aqueduct are still to be seen at Mayence. Besides these, but few traces of the ancient splendour of the Roman cities are now visible above ground, but enormous foundations of walls, mosaics, single statues, and quantities of coins have been discovered beneath its surface. Numbers of old Roman towers, easily distinguishable by their stones, which exactly measure a Roman foot, still remain, and possibly owe their preservation to their inutility. They were formerly single watch towers, around which, in later times, towns and cities sprang up.

The whole of the conquered country was placed under the Roman form of government. The proconsul had unlimited power and authority in the province, and was ordinarily a general, on account of the continual war with the Germans. The government was, consequently, completely military, and as the regulations merely referred to the maintenance and recruiting of the legions, the civilization introduced by the Romans simply extended to the economy of the barracks and markets. During peace, the levying continued; the feuds between the German tribes, idleness, and curiosity, always sending a crowd of fugitives or adventurers to the frontiers, who entered into the Roman service and formed its bravest legions. Many of these deserters were attracted by the vanity of affecting Roman customs, which led them to despise their native simplicity; others, by the hope of revenging themselves on their former foes in Germany; but by far the greater number were instigated by mere love of fighting, while all seemed alike unaware of the guilt they incurred by aiding the stranger to lay their country desolate. The division of the Roman frontier provinces was as follows:

The right bank of the Danube was divided into four provinces: First, Rhaetia, which extended from the sources of the Rhine and the Danube to Salzburg and Ratisbon. The capital of this great province, which was connected with Italy by the Alpine passes, and with Helvetia and Gaul by military roads, was Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg. The other considerable towns were, Brigantium, now Bregenz, on the Bodenese; Campodunum, now Kempten; Regina Castra, now Ratisbon, etc. At a later period, this province was divided into Upper Rhaetia, the Alps, and Vindelicia, the country of the Lower Danube. Second, Noricum, to the east of Rhaetia, with the cities Juyavia, Salzburg; Lintia, Linz; Celeja, Cilly, etc. Third, Pannonia, which extended from the Ems in the direction of Hungary, where lay Vindobona or Juliobona, Vienna. Fourth, Moesia, which stretched as far as the mouths of the Danube, and formed throughout its whole extent the line of boundary between the Roman empire and Germany.

The left bank of the Rhine was also divided into four provinces: First, Helvetia, now Switzerland. Here were built two magnificent cities, Vindonissa (the bridge on the Aar) and Aventicum, Wiflisburg, or Avenche; Augusta Rauracorum, Basil. Second, Germania Prima, on the Upper Rhine, with its capital Moguntia, Mayence; Argentoratum, Strasburg; Tabernae, Rheinzabern; Nojomagus, Spires; Borbetomagus, Worms, etc. Third, Germania Secunda, on the Lower Rhine, with its capital, Colonia Agrippinae, Cologne; and Confluentia, Coblentz; Bonna, Bonn; Juhacum, Juliers; Aquae, Aix-la-Chapelle, etc.; Bacharach has been derived from Bacchi ara, a stone used as an altar to the Rhenish Bacchus. Fourth, Belgica, with its capital, Augusta Trevirorum, Treves; and many cities whose French names still betray their Latin origin, viz., Soissons, Augusta Suessionum; Vermandois, Augusta Verumanduorum; Cambray, Cameracum, etc. A catalogue of the roads raised by the Romans in Germany during the earlier part of the third century, now known as the Peutinger Table, has been discovered.