Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus

by Velleius Paterculus

  CVIII

  Nothing now remained to be conquered in Germany, except the nation of the Marcomanni, who, under the command of Maroboduus, had forsaken their original abode, and having retired into the interior parts of the country, now dwelt in plains surrounded by the Hercynian forest. No haste could be an excuse for passing this chieftain without notice. Maroboduus was of distinguished birth, of great bodily strength, of a bold, daring spirit, and though a barbarian by birth, was no barbarian in understanding. He held a sovereignty over his nation, not gained by party struggles or by chance, nor variable at the will of his subjects, but steady and firmly established; and animated by a kingly spirit, he determined to lead away his people far from the Romans, and to proceed to some place, where, being beyond the reach of more powerful arms, he might render his own supreme.

  CIX

  Accordingly, having taken possession of the country above mentioned, he brought all the neighbouring tribes under his dominion, either by force, or on terms of agreement. He had a guard for the protection of his person; and his army being brought, by continual practice, to a close resemblance to the discipline of the Romans, he advanced his power to such a height as to become formidable even to our empire. Towards the Romans he so conducted himself, that, though he did not attack us, he plainly showed, that if he should be attacked, he had abundance of strength and inclination to make resistance. The ambassadors, whom he sent to the Cæsars, sometimes presented his respects, as if he were their humble suppliant, and sometimes spoke for him as their equal. For nations and individuals revolting from us, there was with him a safe refuge; and he acted the part, wholly or with but little dissimulation, of a rival. His army, which he had raised to seventy thousand foot, and four thousand horse, he prepared, by constant exercise in warfare against his neighbours, for more important business than he had then in hand. He was formidable likewise on this account, that having Germany on his left and front, Pannonia on the right, and Noricum at the back of his territory, he was dreaded by them all, as being always ready to attack them. Nor did he allow Italy to be unconcerned at the growth of his power; for the frontier of his dominions was distant little more than two hundred miles from the summit of the Alps, which form the boundary of Italy. This man and his country, Tiberius Cæsar resolved to attack in the following year, on different sides. Sentius Saturninus was accordingly directed, after cutting a passage through the Hercynian forest, to march his legions through the Catti to Boiohœmum, (so the country of Maroboduus is called,) and Cæsar himself proceeded to lead the army, which was then serving in Illyricum against the Marcomanni, by the way of Carnuntum, the nearest place in the kingdom of Noricum on that side.

  CX

  Fortune sometimes frustrates, sometimes retards, the purposes of men. Cæsar had already prepared winter quarters on the Danube, had brought his army within five days’ march of the enemy’s frontier, and had ordered Saturninus to bring up his forces, (which were at nearly an equal distance from the enemy, and were ready to form a junction with Cæsar in a few days, at the place already mentioned79,) when the whole of Pannonia, which had become impatient of control from long enjoyment of peace, and Dalmatia, now grown up to full strength, having drawn into a confederacy all the nations of that region, took up arms in concert. The commands of necessity were consequently preferred to the call of glory; for it was not thought safe to keep the army at such a distance in the interior country, and leave Italy open to an enemy so near it. Of the states and nations which rose in insurrection, the number of men amounted to more than eight hundred thousand; two hundred thousand foot were assembled, well appointed with arms, and nine thousand horse. Of this immense multitude, commanded by very active and able leaders, one part was intended to march against Italy, which joins their country at the confines of Nauportum and Tergeste; another part had already made an irruption into Macedonia, and a third was appointed to guard their own countries. The chief command was vested in three leaders, the two Batones and Pinnes. With regard to the Pannonians, they had all some knowledge, not only of the discipline, but also of the language of the Romans; and most of them understood something of letters, and were no strangers to exercises of the mind. No other nation ever entered on war so soon after resolving on it, or so speedily put its determinations in execution. Roman citizens were murdered, traders slain, and, in that quarter of the country most remote from the general, a vast number of soldiers80 cut off. All Macedonia was reduced by their arms, and everything in every part wasted with fire and sword. So powerful, indeed, were the apprehensions excited by this war, that they shook and alarmed even the steady mind of Augustus Cæsar, strengthened as it was by experience in wars of such magnitude.

  CXI

  Troops were accordingly levied; all the veterans were everywhere called out; and not only men, but women, were compelled to furnish freedmen for soldiers, in proportion to their income. The prince was heard to say in the senate, that, unless they were on their guard, the enemy might in ten days come within sight of the city of Rome. The services of Roman senators and knights were required, according to their promises, in support of the war. But all these preparations we should have made in vain, had there been no one to direct. The Commonwealth, therefore, requested of Augustus to give the command in that war to Tiberius, as their best defender.

  In this war, likewise, my humble ability found a post of honourable employment. After completing my service in the cavalry, and being appointed quæstor, and, though not yet a senator, set on an equal footing with senators, and with the tribunes of the people elect81, I led from the city a detachment of the army, intrusted to me by Augustus, to join his son. Then, in my quæstorship82, having given up my chance of a province, I was sent by Augustus as his legate to his son; and what prodigious armies of the enemy did we behold83 in that first year! What opportunities did we improve, through the wisdom of our leader, so as to exhaust the fury of their whole force by dividing it! With what attention84 to the convenience of the men did we see business managed, under the orders of the commander! With what wisdom were the winter quarters regulated! How laboriously was the enemy surrounded with guards of our troops, so that they might not make their way out, but, destitute of provisions, and raging in their confinement, might waste their spirit and their strength!

  CXII

  An exploit of Messalinus, in the first campaign of this war, happy in the issue, as well as resolute in the effort, deserves to be recorded. This man, more noble in spirit than even in birth, most worthy of having Corvinus for his father, and of leaving his surname to his brother Cotta, being appointed to command in Illyricum, and, in a sudden insurrection, being surrounded by an army of the enemy, and having with him only the twentieth legion, which had then but half its complement of men, routed and put to flight a force of twenty thousand; an achievement for which he was honoured with triumphal decorations.

  So little confidence had the barbarians in their numbers, and so little reliance on their strength, that wherever Cæsar appeared, they could not be sure of making any effectual effort against him. The division of their army opposed to him, being cut off from provisions at our pleasure or convenience, and reduced to mortal famine, and neither daring to withstand us when we assailed them, nor to engage with us when we offered battle and drew up in line before them, took post at last on mount Claudius, and protected themselves with a fortification. But another division, which had poured out to meet an army brought from the transmarine provinces by Aulus Cæcina and Plautius Silvanus, both of whom had been consuls, surrounding five of our legions, with the auxiliary troops and royal cavalry, (for Rhæmetalces, king of Thrace, had joined these two generals, bringing a large body of Thracians to assist in the war,) gave them such a blow as had nearly proved fatal to them all. The king’s cavalry was routed; the horse of the allies put to flight; the cohorts were forced to retreat; and even at the standards of the legions85 some confusion took place. But the courage of the Roman soldiers, on that occasion, gained them more honour than they left to
their officers, who, widely differing from the practice of the commander-in-chief, found themselves in the midst of the enemy, before they had ascertained from their scouts in which direction they lay. In this perilous emergency, (when some of the military tribunes were slain, with one prefect of the camp, and some prefects of the cohorts, the centurions, also, not having escaped, for some of the first rank were killed,) the legions, encouraging one another, made a charge upon the enemy, and, not content with standing their ground against them, broke their line, and gained an unexpected victory.

  About this time, Agrippa86, who had been adopted by his natural grandfather, on the same day with Tiberius, and had in the two last years begun to discover his real character, plunging into profligacy with extraordinary depravity of mind and feeling, alienated from himself the affection of his father by adoption, who was also his grandfather87; and soon after, sinking every day deeper into vice, he met an end suitable to the madness of his conduct.

  CXIII

  You may now, Marcus Vinicius, conceive Cæsar as great in the character of a leader in war, as you see him in that of a prince in peace. When he had united his forces, those under his immediate command, and those who had joined him as auxiliaries, and had brought into one camp ten legions, more than seventy auxiliary cohorts, fourteen squadrons of horse, more than ten thousand veterans, a great number of volunteers, and the numerous cavalry of the king, (in short, so great an army, as had never been seen in one place since in the civil wars,) every one was rejoiced at the sight, feeling the utmost confidence of success from their numbers. But the general, the best judge of his own proceedings, preferring the advantageous to the showy, and, as I always saw him act in every war, pursuing what was eligible in itself, not what was generally recommended, having allowed the army that had joined him to rest a few days, to recruit the strength of the men after their march, and having decided that it rendered his force too large to be kept in order, and too unwieldly to be properly managed, he resolved to send it away; and, after accompanying it through a long and most fatiguing march, the difficulty of which can hardly be described, (in order that as none would venture to attack the whole, so the whole, each nation from apprehension for its own territories, might abstain from attacking either of the parties on their separation,) he sent it back to the parts from which it came, and returning himself to Siscia88, in the beginning of a very severe winter, appointed lieutenant-generals, of whom I was one, to command the several divisions in winter quarters.

  CXIV

  His conduct was truly amazing, not ostentatious, but distinguished by real and solid virtue and usefulness, most delightful to experience, most exemplary in its humanity. During the whole time of the German and Pannonian wars, not one of us, or of those who preceded or followed our steps, was at any time sick, but his recovery and health were promoted by Cæsar with as much care, as if his thoughts, which were obliged to attend to such an infinite variety of laborious business, had no employment but this alone. There was a carriage kept always in readiness for such as wanted it, and a litter for general use, of which I, as well as others, experienced the benefit. Physicians, too, proper kinds of food, and the warm bath, introduced for that sole purpose, contributed to the health of all. Houses and domestics, indeed, were wanting, but no accommodation that could either be afforded or desired in them. To this I shall add what every one, who was present on the occasions, will readily acknowledge to be true, as well as the other circumstances that I have mentioned. The general alone always travelled on horseback89; he alone, with those whom he invited during the greater part of the summer campaigns, sat at meals90. To such as forbore to follow this strict mode of living, he was very indulgent, provided they did no harm by their example; he frequently admonished and reproved, very rarely punished; acting a middle part, dissembling his knowledge of most faults, and preventing the commission of others. The winter contributed much to bring the war to a conclusion. In the following summer, all Pannonia begged for peace; so that the remains of war were confined to Dalmatia. So many thousands of brave men who had lately threatened Italy with slavery, surrendering their arms, (which they had employed at the knees of Cæsar, together with Bato and Pines, leaders of high reputation, one captive, the other submitting, formed a scene which I hope to describe at large in my regular history. In autumn, the victorious army was led back into winter quarters; and the command in chief of all the troops was given by Cæsar to Marcus Lepidus, a man in fame and fortune nearest to the Cæsars; and every one, the longer and better he knows and becomes acquainted with him, the more he loves and admires him, and acknowledges him to be a credit to the great names from which he is descended.

  CXV

  Cæsar now turned his thoughts and arms to the remaining part of the war in Dalmatia; in which country, how useful an assistant and lieutenant-general he found in my brother, Magius Celer Velleianus, is testified by his own and his father’s declaration; and the record of the high honours conferred on him by Cæsar at his triumph, confirms it. In the beginning of the summer, Lepidus, having drawn out the army from winter quarters, and making his way to join his general Tiberius, through nations unimpaired in strength, still free from the calamities of war, and, in consequence, daring and ferocious, he succeeded, after struggling with the difficulty of the passes, and the force of the enemy, and making great havoc of those who opposed him, cutting down their corn, burning their houses, and slaughtering their men, in reaching the quarters of Cæsar, before whom he appeared exulting with victory and laden with spoil. In reward for these services, which, if performed on his own account, would have entitled him to a triumph, he was honoured with the judgment of the princes. That summer brought this important war to a conclusion, for the Perustæ and Desitiates of Dalmatia, notwithstanding that they were almost impregnably secured by their mountainous countries, by the fierceness of their temper, by their surprising military skill, and more especially by the narrow passes of their forests, were at length, after being brought to the utmost extremities, reduced to quiet, not by the orders, but by the arms and personal exertions, of Cæsar himself. In all this great war in Germany, I could observe nothing more noble, nothing more deserving of admiration, than that the general never thought any opportunity of success so attractive as to justify a squandering of the lives of his soldiers; he ever judged the safest means the most honourable, and preferred the approbation of his conscience to the acquisition of fame; nor were the counsels of the general ever swayed by the feelings of the army, but the army was always guided by the wisdom of the general.

  CXVI

  In the Dalmatian war, Germanicus, being sent forward into various places with difficulty and danger, exhibited great proofs of courage; and Vibius Postumius, who had been consul, and was governor of Dalmatia, obtained, by his activity and diligence in the service, the distinction of triumphal decorations; which honour, a few years before, Passienus and Cossus, men celebrated for certain virtues of opposite kinds, had attained in Africa. But Cossus converted this testimony of his success into a surname for his son91, a youth formed by nature as a pattern of every virtue. Lucius Apronius, who shared in the actions of Postumus, merited, by his excellent conduct in that service, those honours which he afterwards obtained. I wish that it were not proved by more remarkable instances how much Fortune rules in everything; but in cases of this kind her power may be abundantly recognised; for Ælius Lamia, a man of primitive manners, who always tempered with humanity the severity of old times, failed, after discharging the most honourable employments in Germany, Illyricum, and Africa, not of deserving, but of an opportunity of obtaining triumphal honours. Aulus Licinius Nerva Silanus, too, son of Publius Silius, a man whom not even those who knew him could sufficiently admire, was prematurely snatched away by fate, (all the hopes of an excellent citizen and most upright commander being cut off,) and prevented from enjoying the fruit of the prince’s distinguished friendship, and from attaining a height of exultation as lofty as that of his father. If any one shall say that I loo
ked for a place for mentioning these men, he will but charge me with what I readily admit; for candidly to do justice, without exceeding the truth, is no subject of accusation in the eyes of the right-minded.

  CXVII

  Cæsar had but just concluded the war in Pannonia and Dalmatia, when, within five days after the final termination of it, mournful news [arrived92] from Germany; that Varus was killed, three legions cut to pieces, as many troops of cavalry, and six cohorts; the only favour allowed to us by Fortune being, that [this calamity did not happen] while the commander-in-chief was still engaged [in the Dalmatic war, when the rebellious Germans might have formed a junction with the enemy in that country.] But the occasion, and the character of the leader, demand some attention. Quintilius Varus was born of a noble rather than illustrious family, was of a mild disposition, of sedate manners, and, being somewhat indolent as well in body as in mind, was more accustomed to ease in a camp than to action in the field. How far he was from despising money, Syria, of which he had been governor, afforded proof; for, going a poor man into that rich province, he became a rich man, and left it a poor province. Being appointed commander of the army in Germany, he imagined that the inhabitants had nothing human but the voice93 and limbs, and that men who could not be tamed by the sword, might be civilised by law. With this notion, having marched into the heart of Germany, as if among people who delighted in the sweets of peace, he spent the summer in deciding controversies, and ordering the pleadings before a tribunal.

  CXVIII

  But those people, though a person unacquainted with them would hardly believe it, are, while extremely savage, exquisitely artful, a race, indeed, formed by nature for deceit; and, accordingly, by sometimes prosecuting each other for pretended injuries, and then returning thanks for the decision of these suits by Roman equity, for the civilisation of their barbarous state by this new system, and for the termination by law of disputes which used to be decided by arms, they at length lulled Quintilius into such a perfect feeling of security, that he fancied himself a city prætor dispensing justice in the forum, instead of the commander of an army in the middle of Germany. It was at this time that a youth of illustrious birth, the son of Segimer, prince of that nation, named Arminius, brave in action, quick in apprehension, and of activity of mind far beyond the state of barbarism, showing in his eyes and countenance the ardour of his feelings, (a youth who had constantly accompanied our army in the former war, and had obtained the privileges of a Roman citizen, and the rank of a knight,) took advantage of the general’s indolence to perpetrate an act of atrocity, not unwisely judging that no man is more easily cut off than he who feels no fear, and that security is very frequently the commencement of calamity. He communicated his thoughts at first to a few, and afterwards to more, stating to them, and assuring them, that the Romans might be cut off by surprise; he then proceeded to add action to resolution, and fixed a time for carrying a plot into effect. Notice of his intention was given to Varus by Segestes, a man of that nation, worthy of credit, and of high rank; but fate was not to be opposed by warnings, and had already darkened the mental vision of the Roman general. Such, indeed, is the nature of things, that, in general, when the gods94 design to reverse a man’s good fortune, they perplex his thoughts, and, what is most distressing, make it appear that his sufferings happen to him through his own fault, so that accident is laid to the account of guilt. Varus refused to credit the information, asserting that he felt a trust in the good-will of the people, proportioned to his kindness towards them. However, after this first premonition, there was no time left for a second.