Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/273

Rh GERMANICUS. manicus sent word to Caecina, that he was coming with a strong force, and would slaughter them in- discriminately, unless they anticipated his purpose by themselves punishing the guilty. This object was accomplished in an effectual, but revolting manner, by a secret nocturnal massacre of the dis- affected ringleaders. Germanicus entered the camp while it was still reeking with carnage, ordered the corpses to be buried, and shed many tears on witnessing the sad spectacle. His emotion at sight of the result was accompanied by disapprobation of the means, which he designated as more befitting the rudeness of the butcher than the skiU of the physician. (Tac. Ann. i. 49.) The soldiers were now anxious to be led to the field, that by the wounds they received in battle they might appease the manes of their brethren in arms ; and their general was not unwilling to satisf}^ this desire. He crossed the Rhine, and fell upon the villages of the Marsi, whom he surprised and slaughtered by night, during a festive cele- bration. He then laid waste the country for fifty miles round, sparing neither age nor sex, levelled to the ground the celebrated temple of Tanfana, and, on his way back to winter quarters, pushed liis troops successfully through the opposing tribes ( Bructeri, Tubantes, Usipetes,) between the Marsi and the Rhine. (Tac. A7m. i. 48 — 51 ; Dion Cass. Ivii. 3—6 ; Suet. Tib. 25 ; Veil. Pat, ii. 125.) The intelligence of these proceedings affected Tiberius with mingled feelings — pleasure at the suppression of the mutiny among the German legions, anxiety on account of the indulgences by which it was bought, and the glory and popularity acquired by Germanicus. While he regarded his nephew and adopted son with suspicion and dis- like, he commemorated his services in the senate in terms of elaborate, but manifestly insincere praise. Tiie senate, in the absence of Germanicus, and during the continuance of the war, voted that he should have a triumph. In the beginning of spring, a. d. 15, he fell upon the Catti, burnt their chief town Mattium (Maden near Gudensberg), devastated the country, slaugh- tered the inhabitants, sparing neither woman nor child, and then returned to the Rhine. Soon afterwards a deputation arrived from Segestes applying for the assistance of the Roman general. Segestes had always espoused the cause of the Romans, and had quarrelled with his son-in-law, Arminius, the conqueror of Varus. He was now blockaded by his own people, who despised him for his servile truckling to foreign domination. Germanicus hastened to his rescue, overcame the be- siegers, and not only liberated Segestes, but gained possession of his daughter, Thusnelda (Strab. vii. p. 292), a woman of lofty spirit, who sym- pathised with the patriotic feelings of her husband Arminius. Again Germanicus conducted the army victoriously back to its quarters, and, at the direc- tion of Tiberius, took the title of Imperator. Arminius, enraged beyond endurance at the cap- tivity of his wife, who was then pregnant, roused to war not only the Cherusci, but all the adjoining tribes. Germanicus made a division of his forces, in order to divide the force of the enemy. The infantry were conducted by Caecina through the Bructeri, the cavalry by Pedo through the borders of Friesland, while Germanicus himself, with four legions, embarked in a flotilla, and sailed by the Lacub Flcvus (the Zuydersee) to the Ocean, and GERMANICUS. 259 thence up the Ems. In the vicinity of this river the three divisions formed a junction. Gennani- cus ravaged the country between the Ems and the Lippe, and penetrated to the Saltus Teuto- bergiensis, which was situate between the sources of those two rivers. In this forest the unburied remains of Varus and his legions had lain for six years bleaching in the air. With feelings of sorrow and resentment, the Roman army gathered up the bones of their ill-fated comrades, and paid the last honours to their memory. Ger- manicus took part in the melancholy solemnity, and laid the first sod of the funeral mound. (Tac. Ann. i. 57 — 62 ; Dion Cass. Ivii. 18.) Arminius, in the mean time, had assembled his forces, and retiring into a difficult country, turned upon the pursuing troops of the Romans, who would have sustained a complete defeat had not the legions of Germanicus checked the rout of the cavalry and subsidiary cohorts. As it was, the general thought it prudent to retreat ni the same three-fold division in which he had advanced. Pedo, with the cavahry, was ordered to keep the coast, and Caecina, with all speed, to get across the Pontes Longi, a mounded causeway leading over the marshes between Cosfeld and Velen, and along the banks of the Yssel (Ledebur, Land und Folk der Bructerer, Berlin, 1827). Caecina, in whose division Agrippina tra- velled, was obliged to fight his way hardly [Agrip- pina]. Germanicus himself returned to the sta- tion on the Rhine by water, and, in a gusty night, was well nigh losing the 2nd and 14th legions, who, under the command of P. Vitellius, marched along a dangerous shore, exposed to the wind and tide, for the sake of lightening the burden of the transport vessels. The greater part, nevertheless, after many difficulties and adventures, succeeded in making their way to the river Unsingis (Hunse), where they rejoined the flotilla, and were taken on board. When the army arrived at its destination, Germanicus visited the sick and wounded, and contributed from his own purse to the wants of the soldiers. In the next year (a. d. 16), warned by the losses he had recently sustained from the deficiency of his fleet, he gave orders for the building of a thousand vessels, and appointed as the place of rendezvous that part of the Batavian island where the Vahalis (Waal) diverges from the Rhine. With such aid, he hoped to facilitate the transport of men and provisions, and to avoid the dangerous necessity of marching through bogs and forests. In the meantime, hearing that Aliso, a castle on the Lippe, was besieged, he hastened to its de- fence ; but on his arrival, found that the besiegers had dispersed. However, he was not left without employment. The mound erected to the memory of the legions of Varus had been thrown down by the Germans ; and an ancient aitar, built in honour of his father, was in a state of dilapidation. Thes-e he restored and repaired. The causeways between Aliso and the Rhine were in want of new moats and landmarks. These works he completed. The fleet being now ready, he entered the canal of his father, Drusus, whom he invoked to favour his enterprise ; and after sailing through the Zuy- dersee to the ocean, landed at Amisia, a place near the mouth of the river Amisia (Ems), on the left bank. He then marched upward along the course of the river, leaving his fleet behind. Arminius was on the further side of tiie Weser, in conmiand of the s2