Eager for Glory

by Philip Lindsay Powell

  As soon as he could he departed for Lugdunum. There was much to discuss with members of his officium. Having dealt with business there, he then set off for the Rhine. En route he stopped at Andemantunnum in Gallia Belgica where he dedicated a temple to Caesar Augustus.20 The event demonstrates how Drusus was increasingly playing a prominent role as a promoter of the imperial cult, binding the civilian and military communities of the three Gallic provinces closer together – and to the stepfather of their military governor.

  Some time in the first months of 9 BCE he arrived with his escort, including his full complement of twelve hand picked lictors, at Mogontiacum. Over the next few weeks he studied the plans for the coming campaign season and reviewed intelligence reports from his deputies stationed at the camps along the Rhine and Lippe Rivers. The region was, by all extant accounts, calm. “At length such peace was made throughout Germania that the inhabitants seemed changed, the ground different from what it was, and the air milder and softer than it was wont to be,” wrote Florus with poetic hyperbole.21 Finally, on a fresh spring morning, consul Drusus marched out from Mogontiacum with his legions – perhaps just the XIIII and XVI as the others were committed on the Lippe River – determined to reach the Elbe that year (map 11). In Dio’s account there is a sense of Drusus’ growing impatience and frustration with progress. There was an urgency to his campaigning this year. Perhaps the weighty responsibility or prestige of the consulship spurred him to strive further and demonstrate to the princeps that he was worthy? Drusus force-marched his men single-mindedly to achieve his long-standing mission. Picking up supplies at the depot at Rödgen, they drove deeper into Germania, slashing and burning as they went.22 The Chatti were attacked again and after a series of brutal and bloody engagements, Drusus’ forces beat them back.23 Nevertheless the Chatti successfully resisted all Roman attempts to completely subjugate them.

  They were now entering unchartered territory in lands shrouded in myth and legend. It was an achievement commentators at home later reported on with awe. “He opened a way through the Hercynius saltus”, writes Florus, “which, till that time, had been unpenetrated and unattempted”.24 The Hercynian Forest was made notorious by Iulius Caesar.25 It was widely believed to be an immense and impenetrable trackless wood and swamp.26 Caesar had written that there was no one in Germania he was personally acquainted with in his day who had seen the northern most edge of the forest, despite having travelled for sixty days.27 Botanical surveys have confirmed that the region at this time was heavily forested and thick with beech, fir and spruce.28 Hercynius saltus extended along the Danube as far as the foothills of the western Alps and included the modern Black Forest on its western side, and reached as far eastwards as Dacia and Pannonia. It divided the civilised world from barbaricum, that strange and mysterious region where its peoples did not speak Latin or Greek. It was as bleak and forbidding a place as the vivid Roman imagination could conjure up, complete with strange beasts such as the ox shaped like a stag; the single-horned reindeer, the elk – up to Caesar’s time unknown to the Romans – without legjoints which leaned against the forest’s gigantic oak trees in order to sleep; and a bird with plumage that glowed like fire in the night.29 It was as though Drusus had taken his men to the moon. Fascinating as these discoveries were, they were not there on a scientific mission this time, however, but on one of resolute conquest.

  The army marched on as far as the territory of the much-feared Suebi, but it seems Drusus decided against picking a fight with them. Instead, he turned north and crossed the Weser River into the country of the Marsi and Cherusci, by now familiar adversaries.30 Then he struck out in a northeasterly direction and after a long march through central Germania finally reached the left bank of the Elbe River (plate 30).31 What must he have felt as he stood on the bank of the river, reflecting on the significance of the achievement? The sources do not say, but one suspects an admixture of elation, relief and frustration. By courier news of Drusus’ arrival at the Albis reached Rome where it was greeted with great excitement. Not since Drusus’ fleet had attempted to sail the northern ocean had there been such wonderment. In recognition of it, a pompa triumphalis was granted to Drusus to be held on his return to the city and, unusually, it was also agreed that a public holiday (feriae) that had already been marked would be repeated so that Drusus’ procession could be held on that auspicious day amid jubilant celebration and feasting.32

  Drusus’s subjugation of the Germani now became the topical subject of dinner party conversations of wealthy Romans and silversmiths were only too pleased to satisfy the demand for suitable tableware. One of the so-called Boscoreale Cups is believed to depict Drusus in commander’s uniform with his paludamentum draped over his left arm standing beside bowing ‘barbarians’ (plate 42). He is shown in the rôle of sponsor presenting a group of cheerful Germanic children to the princeps, who is dressed as a magistrate and seated upon a curule chair and surrounded by his lictores, and into whose care they will be taken to Rome to be raised and permitted to return home when adults.33

  Meanwhile, back in Rome it was business as usual. A no-expenses spared festival was held in Drusus’ name in absentia according to the obligations of his senior office; and Augustus’ birthday was celebrated with lavish games in the Circus Maximus and elsewhere in the city in which the star attractions were wild beasts imported from far and wide at great cost, and slaughtered in staged hunts (venationes) for the entertainment of the crowd.34 Tiberius had finally enjoyed a lesser ovatio of his own honouring his victories in Illyricum and Pannonia – albeit two years after his younger brother. The status of the brothers Claudii Nerones had never been so high.35

  Rome must have seemed a world away to the troops of Drusus’ expeditionary force standing on the left bank of the Elbe River. The river is wide and slow moving and would have posed a considerable challenge to further advance. It would not be easy to cross without a fleet of rivercraft or erecting a pontoon bridge, for which Drusus would still need boats. Dio writes that he did in fact attempt to cross the river by some means, but failed.36 Drusus’ old enemy time was pressing and again the imminent changing of the seasons would soon mark the end of the campaigning. His army had now covered almost double the distance of the previous two campaigns. Mogontiacum lay some 500 kilometres (310.7 miles) away to the southwest and the route home took them straight through hostile territory. What he decided to do next would determine the outcome of the war – and the future of Rome’s ambitions for Germania Magna.

  Turning Point

  One night inside the large leather praetorium tent Drusus was lying asleep in his cot. As told by Dio in matter of fact terms, Drusus was met by a Suebian woman of “superhuman size” (plate 43). In Latin she asked

  “Whither, pray, art thou hastening, insatiable Drusus? It is not fated that thou shalt look upon all these lands. But depart; for the end alike of thy labours and of thy life is already at hand”.37

  Recounting the same event Suetonius uses the word specie – “apparition” – to describe the intruder.38 The Romans accepted without question the existence of otherworldly creatures and things that go bump in the night.39 Among them were the she-monster or hag Lamia who attacked her victims at night and the spirit incubus who pressed upon or crushed a person’s chest while sleeping.40 Significantly incubus was identified with gods and demons of forests and woodlands, such as Faunus, Pan or Diana.41 Most ancient and even modern cultures feature night spirits or monsters. Indeed, the word ‘nightmare’ derives from the proto-Germanic word mar ō n or Old English mære meaning an evil female spirit that was believed to lie upon and suffocate sleepers. However there may actually be a rational medical explanation for it. The condition known as ‘sleep paralysis’ leaves a person fully conscious but unable to move. Research shows it occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, but in this case the brain wakes up, yet the body remains effectively paralysed. This state can be accompanied by vivid hypnagogic hallucinations and subjects may feel an acute se
nse of danger or terror, even perceiving the presence of demonic or ghost-like objects with them in the room.42 The causes of the condition include sleeping with the face up, sleeping irregularly or insufficiently (narcolepsy), increased stress, dramatic or sudden changes in environment or lifestyle and a vivid dream that occurs before the experience.43 Thus the tale of the dream may actually reveal that Drusus was suffering from sleep deprivation brought on by combat stress from four years of war. The message, if faithfully recorded, may even reveal his deep-seated anxiety about its outcome. Fanciful as this ghoulish tale is Dio may have unwittingly preserved a glimpse into Drusus’ state of mind at this stage of the campaign.

  Whether Drusus had a nightmare or suffered a bout of sleep paralysis, as reported in the historical accounts he evidently believed he had been visited by a supernatural spirit.44 The episode was certainly unsettling to the young commander who had been brought up to respect the mos maiorum and he probably consulted the soothsayers for advice. While he considered what to do, he gave the order for the men to erect a tropaeum – “of the remarkable spoils of the Marcomanni he raised a high mound, by way of a trophy” writes Florus – on the left bank of the river to mark their arrival at this place.45 The location of the Tropaeum Drusi was recorded by Ptolemy in his Geographia written over a hundred years later as located at the co-ordinates latitude 33˚ 45’, longitude 52˚ 45’.46 Various modern attempts have been made to identify its precise location, with Dresden or Magdeburg being the leading contenders.47 Wherever it was, it was the furthest into Germania that a Roman army had ever gone.48 In the eyes of the Romans it was seen as a highly significant landmark, a beacon marking the reach of Roman ambition and achievement into barbaricum. However they would go no further this year. Drusus heeded the phantasm’s warning. He ordered his army to pack up and head back to the Rhine.

  Whether the troops were told of Drusus’ strange encounter with the Suebian woman or not is not clear from the ancient sources, but what is recorded is a certain hysteria which began to permeate the army. Otherwise normal sights and sounds now took on a sinister meaning. The troops began reporting strange happenings that hinted at something being not quite right with the world. Wolves were seen prowling around the marching camp, as though circling prey, and they heard howling.49 Two young boys were seen riding through the camp – odd since children were not permitted within the ramparts. Women were heard wailing as though mourning a lost child, though none could be found among the camp followers. Even the heavens seemed to be communicating that an important event would soon occur when shooting stars were seen overhead. For this last omen there might be a scientific explanation. These messengers of the heavens could in fact be the Perseids, a meteor shower that has been part of the night sky for over 2,000 years.50 Crucially, this reference may also provide a date for the route march back to the Rhine. The Perseid meteor shower, which is associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, is visible in the northern hemisphere from mid-July, rising to a peak around 9–14 August. During peak activity 70 to 80 meteors strike the Earth’s atmosphere each hour. Around 25 August the Earth has passed out of the cloud of debris trailing off the comet and the spectacle ends. If true, these ominous events were occurring around mid-August 9 BCE.

  In this disturbed frame of mind, the army and its commander continued its march to the Rhine following as best it could its outbound route. Traversing forests and fields, skirting swamps and fording streams, they stomped their way forward with grim determination (plate 30). Then the unthinkable happened. Somewhere between the Salas (Saal) and Weser rivers, Drusus was wounded in an accident.51 What exactly happened is unclear. Velleius Paterculus blandly records Drusus was the victim of “an unkind fate”.52 Dio mentions that he succumbed to a disease, but does not reveal which kind.53 Livy, however, gives us a critical detail revealing that Drusus sustained a “fracture caused by the fall of his horse on his leg”.54

  Even today injuries from falls are common among riders. Horseback riding actually carries a higher injury rate than motorcycle riding. An equestrian may suffer a serious injury once every 350 hours on average, while a motorcyclist may have a serious accident only once every 7,000 hours of riding.55 Most riders involved in a fall from a horse today suffer injuries to the ankle, elbow, foot, knee, shoulder or wrist, and it usually results in bruises, sprains and strains, with injuries to the head being the primary cause of death.56 Exacerbating Drusus’ trauma, however, was the fall of the horse on his leg. Horses are certainly heavy animals. A horse with a heart girth of 1.57 metres (62 inches) can weigh 301.2 kilogrammes (664 pounds) and one of 1.78 metres (70 inches) 446.8 kilogrammes (985 pounds) and the impact of a falling horse on a human leg can be devastating.57 The human leg comprises 4 bones (the femur, the patella, the tibia, and the fibula) and bends at the hip, the knee, and the ankle. The femur, or thighbone, forms the upper part of the leg and is the strongest and longest bone in the whole body. The lower leg consists of two bones, the tibia, or shinbone, and fibula. The tibia is located on the inside part of the leg and supports the weight of the body. The shin is the most frequently broken long bone. Located on the outside of the leg, next to the tibia is the smaller fibula. During an accident or trauma, these bones may break or fracture into two or more pieces. Human bones are remarkably strong and the amount of pressure required to break or crush bone is in the range 150–170 megapascals (MPa).58 The force generated by the impact from falling off the back of a horse and hitting the ground alone is actually sufficient to break the femur.59 Unfortunately for Drusus, even if he had not broken his leg during the initial fall, the impact of the full weight of the horse on his limb would certainly have done so.

  The doctor (medicus) was immediately called for. As consul and commander, Drusus likely had a personal physician who attended to his needs, unlike the regular soldier at this time who received care when sick or wounded from the army doctor (medicus ordinarius).60 Trained physicians for the rank and file were rare but as an aristocrat Drusus could afford to pay for the services of one.61 Often a Greek by birth, he would have been familiar with the works of Hippokrates of Kos, which have come down to us and give us an insight into medical science of the time.

  In particular, Hippokrates wrote about fractures and, based on meticulous observation, distinguished between closed and open wounds.62 A medicus trained in his method recognised different kinds of fractures, such as what doctors today would call complete and incomplete fractures, as well as displaced and comminuted fractures. The medicus would also know to look for displacement or fracture gap and angulation in making his diagnosis. From Hippokrates he would know how to clean the wound by douching it with warm water; how to reset broken bones using the palms of the hands to apply pressure; how to anoint the wound with cerate, construct a splint, and finally how to apply bandages.63 The medicus would be assisted by orderlies called capsarii after the first aid box (capsarius) they carried, and who were expert in bandaging. Trajan’s column shows such a capsarius attending to a soldier with a thigh wound, applying a therapeutic ointment, and wrapping the limb with bandages, holding the roll of linen in the right hand and carefully unrolling it as he works from left to right.64 The first century CE writer A. Cornelius Celsus tells us more about the methods Roman military doctors used to treat fractures, dislocations and wounds borne of first-hand experience in field hospitals. He cautioned doctors to watch for bleeding (haemorrhaging) and inflammation, which could cause death. He knew that open injuries carried a higher risk of infection than closed. They required removal of all dirt and contamination. After cleaning the wound, the Roman doctor had several medicaments available to him. Celsus noted that vinegar could be used to staunch the flow of blood by pouring it directly into the wound.65 He recommended for a severe wound, placing wool soaked in vinegar and oil over it. He also wrote how, if a wound could not be stitched, the skin could be pinned together with a suture or a brooch (fibula).66

  With its commander wounded, the expeditionary force set up a summer camp (in aestivis c
astris).67 The injury was serious and the princeps had to be told. A messenger was dispatched. It is a testament to how good military communications were that the news reached Augustus, who was now in Ticinum (Pavia), in only a few days.68 It happened that Tiberius was there visiting his parents, having just returned from a successful season campaigning in Illyricum.69 He immediately set off to be at his brother’s side.70 On the journey he was accompanied by one Namantabagius, a “conquered barbarian”, but to judge by his name he was probably by nationality a Raetian or Norican or German.71 Dio says that Tiberius was “not far” from Drusus: but this raises the question of how far is ‘not far’?72 Maximus writes that from Ticinum they took the route over the Alps to the Rhine, covering a distance of 200 Roman miles (296.2 kilometres, 183.9 miles) “in a single day and night”, and changing horses from time to time.73 So incredible a feat it was to the ancients that their journey was to become the enduring land speed record of the Roman epoch.74 Pliny the Elder even recorded it in his encyclopaedic Natural History, including the important detail that Tiberius accomplished the great distance at high speed in a carriage (vehiculis).75 The references to the journey of 200 miles cannot be for the entire distance: surely they must understate the truth? The actual distance, of course, depends on the whereabouts of Drusus’ summer camp in Germania – over which historians have argued since the 19th Century – as well as Tiberius’ route to get there.76 Roman milestones state the distance from Altinum on the Po River to the Danube alone was 350 miles (see Ancient Sources). Even today, taking the most direct modern roads, the distance between Pavia, Italy and, say, Göttingen, Germany is 1,065 kilometres (661.8 miles). Yet the Roman authors do not actually state that Tiberius reached Drusus after a 200-mile long journey: rather they are commenting on the astonishing speed achieved by the intrepid travellers. Perhaps the best we can deduce is that Tiberius and his companion took a fast cart over a metalled road travelling at breakneck speed as far as the Rhine, and having crossed it, they traced the route on horseback until they reached Drusus’ summer camp.