Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/196

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You exaggerate, Severus!

And was it not with this undisciplined rabble that you took the field against the Alemanni? Did you not win battle after battle with these levies, till your victories transformed them into an invincible host? Did you not retake Colonia Agrippina?

Come come, you see with the eye of friendship, my Florentius!—Or is it really so? Is it a fact, that I drove the barbarians out of the islands of the Rhine! That I placed the ruined Tres Tabernae in a posture of defence, making it a bulwark of the empire? Is it really so?

What, my lord! Can you be in doubt as to so great deeds?

No, I cannot but thinkAnd the battle of Argentoratum? Was I not there? I cannot but fancy that I defeated Knodomar. And after the victory; Florentius, have I dreamt it, or did I rebuild Trajan's fortress, when we marched into German territory?

Noble Caesar, is there any man so mad as to deny you the honour of these exploits?

[To .] I praise the destiny that has vouchsafed to my old age so victorious a leader.