Eager for Glory

by Philip Lindsay Powell

  Relying on others’ accounts, Tacitus preferred to see the Chauci as independent, principled and proud:

  The noblest of the Germans, they desire to preserve their high place by righteous dealing. Neither greedy nor violent, they live quietly by themselves, provoking no wars and making no raids and forays in quest of plunder. Of their strength and valour there can be no better proof than the fact that they do not resort to wrong in order to maintain their superiority. But every man of them has his arms ready, and, if occasion demands, they can put an army in the field and march with very many men and very many horses. Thus they succeed in combining peace with honour.70

  What their initial impression of the Romans was, with their vast fleet of ships and huge numbers of men and animals arriving en masse, is not recorded. The Chauci remained loyal treaty allies of the Romans for many years and, having established contact with them, engaged in commercial activities. The community at Feddersen Wierde grew through trade with the Roman Rhineland over the first two centuries CE and at its peak the stall capacity had risen to 443. The occupants enjoyed Roman imports of the Gallic terra sigillata pottery, decorated brooches, glassware, and even an ivory handled fan has been found.71

  Supported by the fleet, and its new Germanic allies, the army continued its march deep into Germania following the course of the Ems River (Amisia or Amisius fluvius). Today the Ems River is 371 kilometres (231 miles) long. Its source is a spring in the Teutoburg Forest at Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock in North Rhine-Westphalia. Though it is not navigable for modern ships beyond about half way upstream, the smaller oared Roman vessels could penetrate probably much further (plate 21). In the southern Emsland region today, the riverside landscape is dominated by green meadows but sweeping stretches of bogs, marshes, moorland and heath were more widespread in ancient times, limiting where the Romans could land. Out of this peaceful idyll sprung a trap. Somewhere along its meandering length Drusus’ fleet was attacked on the river by warriors of the Bructeri nation.72 The Bructeri were a belligerent people, who, by Tacitus’ account, were resented by their neighbours on account of “their overbearingness”.73 The character of the Bructerian attack is not detailed but we may deduce that the Germanic opponent could take to the river in skiffs or canoes to try and board the Roman ships. They could also launch missiles and throw flaming torches from the safety of the riverbank to set the Roman vessels alight; and cut down trees and float them in the water to block the Romans’ southward advance or their retreat downstream. The supply vessels were particularly vulnerable, being filled with flammable cargo and dry goods. The deck-mounted artillery weapons on the Roman ships were pressed into action to pick off the Bructeri attackers. Superior Roman arms and discipline prevailed and in Strabo’s concise but grand phrase “Drusus won a naval victory over the Bructeri”.74

  It was now late in the campaign season. During this first phase of the German War no Roman troops would be encamped beyond the Rhenus River. Probably at the urging of his deputies, Drusus gave the order to head home. This meant retracing the route along the Amisia River to the estuary where the bulk of the fleet had likely remained. Unfamiliar with the tides of the North Sea, Drusus and his naval advisors miscalculated the timing of their departure. Off the coast of Frisia “he ran into danger, as his ships were left high and dry by the ebb of the ocean”.75 With ships marooned on the wet sand the situation could have quickly turned desperate. Luckily he could call on his local allies for help. He was saved on this occasion by the Frisians “who had joined his expedition with their infantry, and withdrew, since it was now winter”.76 The reference to winter suggests Drusus had overextended the campaign. It would not be the first time. His eagerness for glory was perhaps sometimes too powerful a drive in him. Chastened – but not undaunted – by the experience the Roman commander and his fleet made their way back to the winter camps along the Rhenus River.

  Drusus did not remain in camp but made his way by road back to Rome where he spent the winter with his wife and family, no doubt to be fully debriefed by Augustus and his brother Tiberius. Augustus was evidently pleased by his stepson’s achievements. He was rewarded with the office of praetor urbanus.77 Although Drusus was already of praetorian rank with his own province, the title was still considered an honour because it was once the chief magistrate for the administration of civil justice between Roman citizens. The praetor urbanus was also responsible for the Apollinarian Games (ludi Apollinares) held annually on 13 July in the Circus Maximus in honour of Apollo, Augustus’ patron god.78 More significantly it paved the political way for Drusus to be elected consul.79

  Drusus’ voyage into the unknown and his campaign in Germania was the talk of Rome. The moneyer L. Caninius Gallus captured the mood of celebration in a shiny new silver denarius.80 It showed an unmistakably Germanic man with a pointed beard and long shaggy hair, naked save for a rough cloak on his back. He is shown kneeling, offering up a vexillum standard in a mark of humility (plate 24). Not since Iulius Caesar had taken a fleet and landed in Britannia in 55 BCE had there been such excitement. “Drusus was the first of all the Roman generals who navigated the Northern Ocean”, wrote Suetonius proudly, and to be first to do so made the achievement all the more notable.81 At the end of the first campaign season Drusus could also count among his achievements the exposure and suppression of a revolt, the neutralization of the Rhineland Germanic nations, the recruitment of new allies bound by treaty, a successful amphibious invasion, a naval victory and penetration deep into Germania. Just as Alexander the Great had pushed the frontier of the known world further east than any Greek speaker before him, so it could now be said that Drusus had extended Rome’s reach further north and northeast than any of his countrymen before. It was an achievement Augustus celebrated in his own account of his lifetime’s accomplishments, the Res Gestae, in which he writes

  I sailed my ships on the ocean from the mouth of the Rhine to the east region up to the borders of the Cimbri, where no Roman had gone before that time by land or sea, and the Cimbri and the Charydes and the Semnones and the other Germans of the same territory sought by envoys the friendship of me and of the Roman people.82

  In triumphant terms, Pliny the Elder writes seventy or so years after the voyage,

  The whole of the western ocean is now navigated, from Gades and the Pillars of Hercules, round Hispania and Gallia. The greater part of the northern ocean has also been navigated, under the auspices of Augustus, his fleet having been carried round Germania to the promontory of the Cimbri; from which spot they descried an immense sea, or became acquainted with it by report, which extends to the country of the Scythians, and the districts that are chilled by excessive moisture.83

  Echoing these lofty sentiments, Tacitus writes in almost mystical terms:

  Our vessels have ventured far even on the Oceans of the North, and rumour brings a tale of Pillars of Hercules that stand there unto this day; whether it be true that Hercules ever visited the spot, or that we by common consent attach his name to imposing objects everywhere. There was no lack of daring in Drusus Germanicus, but Ocean barred his way; the secrets of Ocean and Hercules were not pried into. After him no one made the attempt; and it has been deemed more pious and reverent to believe than to know, when the doings of the gods are in question.84

  The names of Drusus and Hercules are subtly but intentionally associated. The same connection had been made for Alexander.85 When the year 12 BCE drew to a close, Drusus was only 26 years old – the same age the Macedonian had been when he reached the Persian capital Persepolis.

  The year was tinged with sadness, however. M. Vipsanius Agrippa had died before reaching Rome. He was just 51. Augustus was devastated by the loss of his best friend upon whom he had relied for so much of the day-to-day running of the state for so long. After the state funeral, he needed a new fixer, someone he could rely on to see his wishes through. Tiberius now became his right-hand man. His friend’s death also left Iulia a widow, but she would not be alone for long. Augustus insisted
that Tiberius divorce his present wife, Vipsania Agrippina, with whom he was very much in love, and marry his daughter instead. Tiberius’ protestations came to nought and they settled down to an unhappy marriage.86 Watching his brother’s life being turned inside out Drusus must have wondered what plans Augustus had for him.

  Chapter 5

  Drusus the Commander

  11–10 BCE

  Once More Unto the Breach

  In the spring of 11 BCE, with the western coastal region nominally under – or at least not hostile to – Roman control, Drusus turned his attention to the interior lands (map 7). From Vetera, he crossed the Rhine taking with him all or parts of Legiones I Germanica, V Alaudae and XVII, XVIII and XIX plus cohorts of auxilia.1 They followed the meandering course of the 220 kilometre (136.7 mile) long Lippe River (Lupia) and immediately engaged the Tencteri and Usipetes.2 The Usipetes – or Usipii – were close allies of the Tencteri to the south, and not much else is known about them.3 They lived between the Rhine and Lippe Rivers and became known to Iulius Caesar during his campaigns in Gallia. In 55 BCE news of Caesar’s defeat of the Eburones reached the people across the Rhine.4 Seeking their share of the plunder and corn the Tencteri and Usipetes united and crossed the Meuse River, and instantly became a problem for Caesar.5 He engaged them and in the ensuing rout, the Germanic tribes retreated upriver. In the opening weeks of Drusus’ invasion the Usipetes were overcome just as easily as four decades before.

  Drusus had paid very particular attention to building out military infrastructure on the left bank of the Rhine prior to the invasion and, having landed on the right bank, immediately began to install the supply depots and accommodations that would support the forward advance. The temporary fortress established on the right bank of the Rhine at Dorsten-Holsterhausen, 36 kilometres (22.4 miles) east of Vetera, and which was large enough for two legions, may date from this time.6 Marching further inland Drusus ordered a bridge to be constructed over the Lupia and promptly marched his men across it.7 They were now in the country of the Sugambri nation, modern Sauerland.8 The Sugambri – or Sicambri or Sygambri – were a tough, proud people who let no obstacles stand in their way. “Neither morass nor forest obstructs these men, born amidst war and depredations,” noted Caesar.9 They appear to have been related to the Belgae, based on a study of their names, many of which end in –ix, such as Baetorix and his son Deudorix. Baetorix was the brother of Maelo who, as war chief, led the alliance of Sugambri, Tencteri and Usipetes in the raid into Gallia in 17 BCE leading to the clades Lolliana which gave Augustus his reason to launch a war.10 Maelo was still war chief of the Sugambri at the time of Drusus’ invasion.

  The Sugambri first enter the written record in the account of Iulius Caesar’s Gallic War. It was to the sanctuary of the Sugambri nation that the Tencteri and Usipetes had fled in 55 BCE when pursued by the Romans. Caesar sent an emissary to demand the hand-over of the men who had invaded Gaul. The Sugambri refused, insisting that the Rhine River marked the limit of Roman power. Shortly after that episode Caesar decided to build his famous bridge and to take the war to the Germanic nations. Ten days later, his bridge having been built, he marched his men into Sugambri territory.11 He found the people had disappeared – the Sugambri had been tipped off and retreated into the forest. He burned their villages and buildings and cut down their corn crop as punishment for their intransigence.12 It was not a happy start to the relationship between these peoples. Two years later, Caesar was back in the territory of the Eburones and, lured by the promise of loot, the Sugambri saw a chance to stake their own claim on the defeated tribe’s possessions. Gathering up 2,000 cavalry they took to boats and crossed the river thirty miles downstream from the site of Caesar’s bridge and garrisons so that they could move unobserved.13 They gathered up all the roaming cattle they could find and planned to move further inland in search of loot. They headed south towards Atuatuca (Tongeren), but were repulsed and crossed back to their homeland with their prizes.

  The Sugambri did not take defeat lightly and neither did they tolerate those who would not ally themselves with them in pursuit of a common foe. Dio records that they were angry at the Chatti for not having stood with them on their raid into Gaul in 17 BCE.14 Six years later the men of the Sugambri massed for a punitive raid on their neighbours and abandoned their homesteads for the season. The Chatti – or Catti or Catthi – were one of the Germanic nations not mentioned in Caesar’s Gallic War and were possibly not well known at the start of Drusus’ campaign. The earliest written source we have is that of Strabo who located them in the mountains and valleys of the Elder, Fulda and upper reaches of the Weser River, in what is now modern Hessen.15 The best account of them, however, is preserved in Tacitus who calls the Chatti “the children of the Hercynian Forest”.16 He describes them as “distinguished beyond their fellows by their singularly hardy frames, well-knit limbs, resolute eyes and by a remarkable energy of spirit”.17 In contrast to most Germanic communities which eschewed urban living, the capital city of the Chatti was called Mattium (near modern Kassel) and located in the defensible Taunus mountains.18 Tacitus was struck by their similarities between the Chatti and his own countrymen. “Their whole strength is in foot soldiers,” he writes, “who, besides carrying their arms, are loaded with tools and supplies” (just as legionaries did).19 They posted pickets by day and dug ditches around their camps at night (in the same way legions did). They also followed the orders of their leaders, whom they elected, and they fought in formations which they kept in the heat of battle (exactly like the legions following their praetors or consuls). Unlike their barbarian neighbours who “came out for a single battle” the Chatti engaged in campaigns, and

  seldom make mere raids or allow themselves to be drawn into a casual encounter: it is cavalry, to be sure, from which one expects a quick success or a quick retreat; speed goes with timidity, slowness is more allied to steadiness.20

  Pitted against such an opponent the Sugambri were in for a hard fight. Where the Sugambri made war with their hearts, the Chatti campaigned with their heads.

  Their decision to wage war on each other was a tremendous stroke of good luck for Drusus. He apparently encountered no resistance and was able to move his expeditionary force freely through Sugambri territory unimpeded.21

  By following the twisting and turning course of the Lippe River in an easterly direction Drusus would have ultimately reached its source at Bad Lippspringe on the edge of the Teutoburg Forest (plate 25). This was the homeland of the Cherusci nation. The Cherusci have gone down in history as the tribe that produced Arminius, or Hermann the German, who defeated Roman ambitions at Teutoburg in 9 CE. In 11 BCE he was just six years old, but his father Segimer and uncle Inguiomer were already accomplished warriors.22 The Cherusci first appear in the Roman literature with Iulius Caesar where they are mentioned as neighbours of the hostile Suebi and separated by a forest called Bacenis which provided them protection from raids and attacks.23 Tacitus mentions their other neighbouring tribes as the Chauci and Chatti.24 Pliny the Elder places them as members of the Hermunduri community comprising the Suebi, Hermunduri and Chatti.25 On the outbound march Drusus may have avoided the Cherusci, but they would not remain strangers for long.

  Beyond where Anreppen now stands the Lippe River eventually becomes difficult for boats to navigate. The course of the Lippe has changed over the last two millennia but at some point along this stretch of the river the expeditionary force struck out across country towards the Weser River (Visurgis) east-northeast in the general direction of modern Minden or southeast towards Göttingen – the extant sources are unclear on this point. Eventually the Romans reached its right tributary source, the Werra River. The army would have struck temporary camps each night but these leave only faint traces and most have been lost or not yet identified. It must have been with great disappointment that Drusus listened to the advice of his legates and camp prefects. Supplies, or the dwindling level of them, would not permit Drusus to cross the Weser Riv
er this campaign season without endangering the mission.26 He was still in hostile territory, the summer was over and winter was in prospect. Tactically he had no choice but to turn back and head for Vetera.

  Another event is recorded that likely tipped the balance for Drusus. In his marching camp an unusual – and to the Romans’ sensibilities a very disturbing – event took place. Outside the tent of praefectus castrorum Hostilius Rufus bees were seen swarming.27 Specifically they swarmed one of the poles and guy ropes holding up the tent.28 The ancients paid particular attention to the behaviour of bees, which were seen as winged messengers of the gods.29 The augurs were called without delay to interpret the meaning of the swarming insects.30 Their reading of the omens was treated with utmost gravity and respect and in hushed silence they studied the buzzing creatures for signs of divine intent. Finally they pronounced that the auguries appeared to signal danger, possibly even a defeat ahead for the Romans.31 Drusus, they said, should tread carefully through Germania. It was enough to convince him. The campaign was suspended for the year and Drusus gave the order to begin the 300 kilometre (186.4 mile) journey that lay between them and home to the west.

  Germanic Warfare

  What we know of the Germanic warrior comes mainly from Greek- and Latin-speaking Roman authors. At this time, the Germans wrote nothing down. Some evidence survives in the archaeological record to give us a material picture of his arms and armour. Yet his reputation has survived the ages: fierce to the point of being savage, fearless bordering on the reckless, cunning like the fox. Unlike his Roman opponent, the Germanic war fighter was remarkably underequipped (plate 25). In large part this was due to the paucity of basic materials. “Even iron is by no means abundant with them”, Tacitus noted, “as we may gather from the character of their weapons”.32 About one in ten warriors had a single-edged knife (measuring 7–12 centimetres, 2.8–4.7 inches long).33 Others carried a sword for cutting and thrusting; or a machete-like sax (measuring about 46 centimetres – 18.1 inches – long) for slashing and chopping.34 Some might bear a double-edged sword similar to the Celtic long sword of the Raeti and Norici or Roman spatha. However, Germanic weapons were made of a form of iron called ‘steely iron’ which has a much lower content of carbon, typically 0.5 to 1.5 per cent of its weight, making it softer and more likely to bend when struck with force. To compensate for this weakness, Germanic swordsmiths made the sax with a thicker upper edge, but notwithstanding this measure, against the harder steel weapons used by the Romans, Germanic swordsmen were at a material disadvantage.