Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/366

Rh 348 ARMINIUS. It was in the upper Valley of the Lippe, and then covered Avith the deep wood of the Teutoburger Wald. Here Arminius met him, as he had pro- mised, but with a furious assault. (Dion Cass, Ivi. 19.) The legions were in disorder, making their way through the forest, and encumbered with a heavy baggage train, when the Gei-mans charged on afl sides upon them. Night put an end to the fight, which was renewed at daybreak. But the country was almost impassable — a violent storm of wind and rain rendered it still more so — and the legions were unable to advance or retreat. Varus fell on his own sword. (Tac. A?/n. i. 61.) Those who were taken alive were sacrificed at altars in the forest to the gods of the country, and the le- gions were cut to pieces, with the exception of a very small body, who broke through the Gennans, and made their way to the Rhine. The consternation felt at Rome is well known. (Suet. Au(j. 23.) Tiberius was despatched (a. n. 10) with a veteran army to the Rhine. But Ar- minius had manifestly succeeded in making that river again the barrier of the Roman power. In the year a. d. 14, Germanicus took the com- mand of the legions, and collected his forces on the Ems to penetrate along that river into Ger- many. But the party of Arminius had rapidly gathered strength. He had been joined by his uncle, Inguiomer, a powerful chief who had hitherto fought for the invaders ; and the popular feeling was so strong against his father-in-law, Segcstes, still a partizan of the Romans, that he had been rescued only by the legions of Germanicus from a place in which he had been beset by his own tribe. It was on this occasion that the wife of Arminius fell into the hands of the Romans, and was reserved, with the infant boy to whom she soon after gave birth in her captivity, to swell the triumph of Germanicus at Rome. (Strabo, vii. p. 291 ; Tac. Ann. i. 67.) As Germanicus advanced, Arminius retired before him into the forests. He at last halted on some open ground, and allowed the Romans to attack. He then gradually with- drew his men towards a wood, on the skirts of which he had concealed strong bodies of men, whose unexpected charge threw the Romans into confusion. After an obstinate struggle, Anninius remained master of the field, and Germanicus with- drew towards the Rhine. (Tac. Ann. i. 63.) One division of the Roman army imdcr Caecina was ordered to retire by a causeway raised over an extensive marsh, and called the Long Bridges. Ar- minius occupied the woody heights about the place where the bridges began ; and as Caecina halted to repair them, Arminius charged down from the hills, and the Romans were giving way when night ended the contest. The next morning, the Romans endeavoured to make their way round the border of the marsh, and when their long-extended line of march had already got into confusion, Ar- minius rushed down from the woods, broke the Roman line, and nearly made Caecina prisoner; and nothing but the eagerness of the Germans for phnuler, and the approach of night, saved the Jiomans from destruction. In the morning, Armi- nius urged, that the enemy, who had formed an entrenclied camp during the night, should be al- lowed to teave their lines before they were attack- ed. But he was overruled by Inguiomer, who led tlie impatient Germans to the assault. The result was what Arminius expected. As they were ARNOBIUS. mounting the ramparts, they were suddenly met by a vigorous and steady charge along the whole line. The}-^ were routed and pursued with great slaughter, and the Romans made good their retreat to the Rhine. (Tac. Arm. i. 68.) The next year the Romans made no attempt on Germany ; but on the following year, a. d. 16, they appeared on the left bank of the Weser. Arminius collected his own and the neighbouring tribes on the plain of Idistavisus, and there resolved to await Germanicus. (Tac. Ann. ii. 16.) It was a winding plain between the river and the neighbouring hills. A forest clear of underwood was in the rear of the main body of the Germans. Arminius with his tribe occupied some rising ground on the flank ; and he seems to have chosen his ground and disposed his men with ability. But the generalship of Ger- manicus and the discipline of the veterans prevailed. Arminius and his tribe were surrounded. He him- self was badly wounded, and after making every exertion to maintain the fight, he broke through the enemy, and saved himself by the fleetness of his horse. (Tac. A7in. ii. 17.) Germany again seemed at the mercy of the Romans. Arminius could not meet them in the field ; but he had maintained the struggle long enough to save his country from subjection, till the jealousy of Tiberius recalled Germanicus, A. D. 17, and left Germany to secure the independence for which her gallant chief had so nobly struggled. The same year that the Romans retired, Armi- nius was engaged with another enemy in Maro- boduus (or Marbod), the king of the Suevi. He was deserted by his uncle, Inguiomer, who was jealous of his glory, .ind joined his enemy. But he had attached to himself, as the champion of German liberty, the powerful tribes of the Semnones and Longobardi, and a battle was fought in which he was victorious. (Tac. A7in. ii. 45.) These successes, however, suggested to him other objects than his country's liberty. Not con- tented with being the chief of a free tribe, he aimed at absolute power. His countrymen rose in arms against him, and the stmggle was luidecided when he fell by the hands of his own relations in the 37th year of his age, a. d. 19. (Tac. Ann. ii. 88.) [A. G.] ARNAEUS. [Irus and Megamede.] ARNE {^ApvT]). 1. A daughter of Aeolus, from whom the Boeotian town Arne (afterwards called Chaeroneia), as well as the Thessalian Arne, were believed to have derived their name. (Time, i. 12 ; Pans. ix. 40. § 3 ; MuUer, Ore/torn. p. 392 ; Aeolus.) 2. A woman who betraj-ed her native country for gold, and was therefore metamorphosed into a jackdaw. (Ov. Met. vii. 465.) [L. S.] ARNO'BlUS, a native of Africa, and sometimes called the Elder, to distinguish hira from a later writer of the same name, lived about the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century of our era, in the reign of Diocletian. He was at first a teacher of rhetoric at Sicca in Africa, but afterwards, according to Jerome (C/iron. cut ann. Const. M. XX. ; de Vir. lUustr. 79), he was called upon in his dreams to embrace Christianity, of which he had been a zealous opponent. (Arnob. adv. Gent. i. 39.) He accordingly became a con- vert, but was not admitted to baptism until he had proved his sincerity as a Christian. To remove all doubts as to the reality of his conversion, he wrote,