Arminius

by Robert Fabbri

  ‘“For your father’s life?” he said, guessing my purpose; his look was intense but at that time I didn’t know, nor did I even dare to hope, that this was because he felt the exact same way as me.

  ‘“Indeed, my lord,” I replied. “I know that he has tried to betray you and—”

  ‘He interrupted again, surprising me. “You may have it, take him with you.”

  ‘I stared at him, astounded for a moment.

  ‘He laughed and the sound of it blocked out the screams of the men being sacrificed; it was not an unkind laugh but, rather, a joyful one: a laugh that quickened my already racing heart and made me want to sing and dance, even in that place of death. It was music to me and I knew that he would always make me happy if I could only have him and not Adgandestrius to whom I was betrothed. “But you must do something for me in return, Thusnelda,” he added.

  ‘“Anything,” I replied, meaning it.

  ‘Again he laughed. “Be careful what you promise, Thusnelda.”

  ‘I smiled. “I always am.”

  ‘“Then this is what I wish .” But no, it would be best to hear this from Erminatz’s side; carry on, Aius.’

  ‘I always am,’ she said.

  It was at that moment that I knew she felt the same way and after so much death my whole being was light. ‘Then, Thusnelda, promise me this: keep with your plans until I ask you to change them.’ I stared deep into the wells of blue that had so captivated me and for a moment we shared a conspiratorial smile: she had understood and had made me the happiest of men. I turned and, finding Vulferam, said: ‘Release the traitor, Segestes, into the hands of his daughter.’

  Walking away, past the oak at the centre of the clearing, I descended the hill back to the scene of the slaughter for I had one last thing to do as I awaited news from Aldhard. Taking my helmet, I detached the mask and dug a hole in the blood-soaked ground; I would never again hide my barbarian features, as Lucius had joked when he had given it to me. I was now free of Rome and no longer needed to conceal my true feelings for her. I buried Lucius’ gift in the field of Rome’s defeat in order to sever, finally, all ties with the hated invader. I had not avenged my murdered friend and I knew that I would never be able to do so and I prayed to his shade that he would forgive my failing as I covered over the mask. A warmth, growing within me, told me that he understood and I knew that although he did not approve of my achievement he could not but admire the grandness of the gesture.

  I smiled to myself at the memory of Lucius as I saw Aldhard approach with four warriors carrying a body between them; my happiness increased because I knew that he had been successful in the task that I had given him. ‘Where did you find him?’

  Aldhard looked down at the body, hawked and spat at it. ‘They had tried to bury it under the carcass of a mule.’

  ‘Kneel it down and pull its arms back,’ I ordered the warriors carrying it as I drew my sword. They let the legs slump to the ground and then pulled the wrists, dragging the arms back so that the corpse knelt with its chest on its knees and its head hanging forward.

  With the ingrained anger of years of enforced exile I swung my sword and it sang through the air to sever the head of Publius Quinctilius Varus, the first and last Roman Governor of Germania Magna, the man whose life I had saved. ‘Have it preserved in cedar sap, Aldhard, and then I want you to take it personally to Maroboduus of the Marcomanni; tell him that I sent this in token of good faith. If he will watch over the Danuvius frontier while I do the same with the Rhenus frontier then together we shall keep Germania free; but to stay free we must be united. If we fight amongst ourselves then Rome will take advantage of our disunity and force herself upon us again. Tell him, Aldhard, that what I desire is a united Greater Germania.’

  ‘With you as its king,’ a scornful voice said from behind me before Aldhard could reply.

  ‘No, Adgandestrius,’ I responded, turning to face the Chatti king, ‘with whomever we decide to set up over us all as king.’

  ‘There was no talk of this before; you specifically said that you were not trying to rule over us.’

  ‘I am not trying to do that, Adgandestrius; what I’m trying to achieve is to keep Germania safe, its culture, its language, its law, its gods, all of it so that there is a Germanic future in conjunction with the Latin one.’

  ‘But if you were asked to be king of a united Germania you would accept, wouldn’t you?’

  I could not deny it and yet I could not admit it; I turned to Aldhard. ‘Go! And meet me in the Harzland in two moons with his answer.’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’

  ‘You see, Erminatz, you have already got people calling you “my lord”,’ Adgandestrius observed as Aldhard went off, carrying Varus’ head by an ear. ‘And when they start doing that it’s just a small step to you actually becoming their lord and that is something that I cannot and will not countenance. We have done our share of the fighting and therefore I’m now taking my warriors home before any of them get the impression that you’re their lord and not me.’ He stared at me with a burning hatred that I returned in full, despising him for his obvious willingness to put personal ambition before the good of our Fatherland and yet understanding it as it was the way of our people and had always been thus.

  We held each other’s gaze with such intensity that I almost started when Engilram came up unnoticed and said: ‘Erminatz, there’s news from my people to the south of the Teutoburg Wald: they’ve failed to destroy the Roman garrison at Aliso.’

  ‘Aliso,’ Thumelicatz mused, staring up at the ceiling and stretching his legs before him. ‘What a double-edged sword that was.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ the elder brother scoffed. ‘Aliso was the one thing that gave us a modicum of pride during the whole calamity. Lucius Caedicius, the primus pilus of the Eighteenth Legion who had been put in command of the garrison of Aliso on the River Lupia, defied your father and eventually got his people out of Germania. That is surely a single-edged sword, one that cuts only Arminius.’

  Thumelicatz muttered something to his slaves before turning back to his Roman guests. ‘You’re right on the face of it, Roman: Caedicius did save his garrison as well as many of the Roman civilians who had sought shelter with it. And yes, it could be seen to be a blow for my father’s prestige, but it was one that he was actually quite grateful for because it bought him time and gave him an excuse that politically he desperately needed.’

  ‘An excuse?’ the younger brother exclaimed. ‘What did he need an excuse for as far as his countrymen were concerned?’

  ‘That is what we shall see in this next passage. Tiburtius, from where I just told you.’

  It was exactly one whole moon since I had struck Varus’ head from his shoulders and my Cherusci and the Bructeri had been encamped around the wooden walls of Aliso for twenty of those days. Despite my pleading with them to stay and finish completely what we had started, the other tribes had dispersed to their homelands taking with them the plunder they had earned and the trophies that we had captured, amongst them the three Eagles and the three legion emblems that I had allotted to the tribes in secret, along with the cohort standards, so that none knew what the others had received.

  The weather had relented and grown milder but there were still enough rain bursts to make our billets less than comfortable. The total strength of the two tribes was less than four thousand, for many of the warriors had returned to their families, content with the victory they had achieved and ready to boast of their part in it around the fires as the nights drew in.

  With such depleted numbers we had tried many assaults on the walls but each had been as unsuccessful as the last. It was as I was contemplating the reason for the failure of the latest attack that screaming erupted from within the fortress, before, a few moments later, the gates opened and a group of thirty or so warriors were herded out, wailing and holding their arms in the air showing the pitch-daubed stumps that now adorned them in place of hands. On they ran, past the lines of Rom
an heads impaled on stakes, reminders to the besieged of what awaited them, and into our camp, staring in horror at the mutilations that would blight the remainder of their lives.

  After their stumps had been bound and the trauma they had endured had diminished enough so that they were capable of coherent speech my father and I questioned them as to the state of things within the Roman garrison.

  ‘They have food enough to hold out until the relief force arrives,’ the eldest of the group told me, unable to tear his eyes from the horror at the end of his arms. ‘Caedicius, the commander, took us around the storerooms to show us how well stocked they were with grain, salted pork and cabbage in addition to a well that produces plenty of fresh water.’

  ‘How’s their morale?’ I asked.

  ‘Good; they aren’t hungry, they have women and they’ve kept their discipline. Their talk is of the relief force, which they say is imminent; no one is despairing or planning for death and even the score or so of fugitives that made it out of the Teutoburg Wald are in reasonable spirits, especially after Caedicius allowed them to wield the cleavers that took our hands in vengeance for their fallen comrades.’

  My father looked at me, concerned. ‘If they get help then they’d have a fair chance of making it back to the Rhenus.’

  I contemplated the point for a few moments. ‘Would that be such a bad thing?’

  ‘It would give them a small measure of victory after such a heavy defeat.’

  ‘I know; would that be such a bad thing?’

  He frowned, not understanding my train of thought.

  ‘I mean, if they feel that they have salvaged some honour, however small, they may be less inclined to come straight back to try to avenge Varus, especially after the survivors start telling their tales of defeat in the Teutoburg Wald. They’re very superstitious, the Romans, and they are not enamoured of forests; the fear of them will grow as the tales of our savagery get exaggerated in the retelling. It may well buy us some time before the inevitable attempt at retribution; time to unite and organise ourselves.’

  ‘Are you suggesting that we let them go?’

  ‘I’m suggesting that when the relief force arrives we use it to our advantage for that reason and for another: they will probably come in sufficient strength to fend us and the Bructeri off, so why waste good men’s lives trying to stop the inevitable? If I had been able to keep the alliance together then it would be a different story: we could have withdrawn and then fallen upon them on their way back to the Rhenus just as we did with Varus; but now I can use this reverse as an example of what happens if every tribe just thinks about its own interests. This could be good for us, Father, very good indeed.’

  And so we left a token force besieging the fortress and withdrew a mile or so west and waited for the Romans to make their move.

  It was not a long wait. The weather once again played its part in my story in the form of another display of the Thunderer’s power. The night sky cracked with the beating of Donar’s hammer and rain fell in a curtain thicker than at any time in the previous month. Men hunkered down under whatever shelter they could find and waited for the God’s wrath to abate. Such was the intensity of the storm that it was not until the third outpost was passed that the Roman escape was noticed; they had crept out under the cover of the weather. I offered a prayer of thanks to the Thunderer and the promise of some Roman blood for providing me with a way of letting the garrison go without their suspecting it. I roused my warriors and they began to work themselves up into a battle frenzy as the ranks of legionaries marched on, with the civilians in their midst, covered by the filthy night. And then we heard horns in the distance sounding the signal for a double-quick march, the sound of the relief force approaching. As the end of the escaping column left the fortress I allowed my men to tear at it but only enough for Caedicius to think that he’d had a narrow escape and that had it not been for the relief force’s timely arrival he would not have made it out at all. After we had reaped a hundred lives or so I slowly pulled my men back so that we lost contact and the Romans disappeared west into the downpour. That the horns sounding the relief force’s arrival were in fact the garrison’s own horns playing a clever ruse was something that I didn’t find out until later and it added to my enjoyment of the trick, as Caedicius would have genuinely felt that he had outwitted me and so never for one moment would he have thought that it was him who had been made a fool of.

  With the departure of Caedicius and his garrison, the last living free Roman left our land and it was time for me to prepare for what I knew would come; I hadn’t spent all those years amongst the Romans without getting to know them: vengeance would come as sure as death follows life. The questions were: how long would we have to wait and, when it did come, how would we resist it?

  It was time for us to decide how we would use our freedom: fighting amongst ourselves or preparing to repulse Rome when she came for revenge. It was with these questions going through my mind that I disbanded my army and returned to the Harzland to await Aldhard and his message from Maroboduus; he arrived two days after my return and his news did not bode well for the future of Germania.

  ‘Maroboduus seems to think that he can use Varus’ defeat to gain a better deal with Rome,’ Aldhard told me as we sat, shortly after his arrival, at board in my longhouse, next to a blazing fire; he drained his horn of ale and refilled it. Covered in the dirt of travel he had come direct from the lands of the Marcomanni and had refused a chance to clean himself up before imparting his news.

  I cut a hunk from a smoked cheese and passed it to him. ‘By promising not to raid across the Danuvius whilst Rome strikes over the Rhenus?’

  Aldhard bit into his cheese and asked through a full mouth: ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Because it’s what I would’ve done if I were him and were thinking just about my position and not about Germania as a whole. Rome would very happily sign a peace treaty with him now on extremely good terms – he probably won’t even have to pay any tribute at all – in order that they can release a couple of legions from the Danuvius garrison to come north to join the Rhenus legions when they come for their revenge.’

  ‘That’s exactly what he’s negotiating at the moment with Tiberius; he’s sent Varus’ head on to Augustus in Rome to show his good faith and his disapproval of your actions. I was surprised to be allowed to live, so keen he seems to be at becoming Rome’s best friend.’

  ‘For the time being. As soon as Rome’s attention is on us here in the north he’ll allow his people to raid for cattle and slaves across the river. I was expecting better of him: I was hoping for an alliance or at the very least a promise to keep the Danuvius legions busy for the next few years.’ I slammed the palm of my hand down onto the table. ‘The conniving bastard!’

  ‘You said it was what you would have done in the circumstances.’

  ‘Would have done; it’s what any of the kings of any of the tribes would have done before we’d had such a total victory; but now with the Fatherland free of the invader surely it would be better to ensure that it stays free, rather than making it easier for Rome to come back in. It’s the short-sightedness of Maroboduus’ policy that angers me: if Rome can retake the lands up to the Albis then his lands in Bojohaemum will also be threatened.’

  ‘So what do we do? Send an embassy to him and hope to change his mind?’

  ‘It’ll be too late for that; the treaty would have been negotiated by now and will probably be signed in the spring.’ I paused for thought, pouring myself and Aldhard more ale from the jug. ‘I suppose that what this does tell us is there will be no punitive raid next year.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘If the treaty isn’t signed until next spring at the earliest, then they won’t be able to risk moving any of the garrison legions until the summer, which would mean that they wouldn’t be on the Rhenus until autumn; too late for a campaign next year. Perhaps Maroboduus has done us a favour after all by allowing Rome to gather her s
trength before she attacks us; gathering takes time and that time we can use to prepare ourselves. Have messages sent to all the kings of the north inviting them to the Kalk Riese on midsummer’s day next year; there we shall decide our fate.’

  But before I met with the kings I had some …

  ‘The perennial problem of the Germanic peoples,’ Thumelicatz said, cutting Tiburtius off. ‘The inability to cooperate. Your capacity to do so is what makes you Romans so formidable. It’s worth remembering that you are made up of Romans, Etruscans, Campanians, Samnites …’

  ‘Sabines,’ the younger brother added.

  ‘Indeed. And many more tribes from Italia and yet the world sees only Romans.’

  ‘We fought many wars to enable that to come about,’ the elder brother pointed out.

  ‘True, but one hundred and thirty years ago your Latin allies fought a war against you for the right to have your citizenship, to be like you; imagine: fighting your enemy in order to be assimilated by him! I can’t picture the Chatti fighting the Cherusci for the honour of becoming a part of our tribe. To unite the tribes, so that we would think of ourselves as All Men, was my father’s dream and he died knowing that was an impossible goal; and I have learnt from him the sad truth of the matter and do not share that dream.’ He turned to Thusnelda. ‘But I’ve interrupted just before your part of the story, Mother; I apologise. Tiburtius, continue from where you left off.’

  But before I met with the kings I had some unfinished business to take care of.

  It was only natural, as kin to Segestes, that my father and I should be present at the wedding ceremony of his daughter, no matter what had passed between us; so when Adgandestrius came to the Harzland to claim his bride, the following spring, just before the time of the Ice Gods, I made sure that I was there. What I planned was audacious in the extreme, another grand gesture that Lucius would have been proud of and it would confirm Adgandestrius and Segestes as my enemies for ever.