Читаем The Historians' History of the World 06 полностью

The place of the heroic Drusus was taken by his brother Tiberius. The latter, in accordance with his character, chose the paths of cunning, treachery, and prudent negotiation, and by these means gained more than his knightly brother had won by force of arms. It was through his agency that the German tribes, including even the Sugambri who had at first refused, sent a number of distinguished chiefs with proposals of peace to the emperor when he was staying in Gaul. In defiance of honour and justice they were arrested and carried in custody to Gallic cities, where they took their own lives. By this perfidious deed the Romans gained their end. Tiberius took advantage of the consternation of the Germans to lead his legions straight over the Rhine. At variance among themselves and deprived of their chiefs and leaders, the German tribes could offer no permanent resistance to the invader. Victoriously the general traversed the devastated districts, and by the might of his legions and the terror of the Roman name succeeded in making the inhabitants bow amazed and hopeless to superior might (though not till after forty thousand of them, Sugambri for the most part, had been carried away and settled on the left side of the beautiful river). A Roman governorship was then established between Rhine and Weser.

The events of the next few years are shrouded in obscurity. The triumph that Tiberius celebrated for his German victory was likewise the beginning of the imperial displeasure which kept him for seven years at Rhodes. During this period rumour is silent on German affairs; one campaign only is mentioned, that of Domitius Ahenobarbus, a haughty, arrogant, and overbearing man. He crossed the Elbe, the eastern bank of which he adorned with an altar to Augustus; assigned dwelling-places in south Germany, between the Main and Danube, to the German tribe of the Hermunduri; and began the construction of the “long bridges,” those causeways of piles between the Rhine and Weser, which were to facilitate the junction of the legions across the bogs and marshes which abounded in that insecure ground. Both Domitius and his successor Vinicius won triumphal honours by their exploits, but we have no information concerning the particulars of their achievements. The fact that Augustus expressly forbade the crossing of the Elbe would seem to indicate that up to that time such enterprises had been unsuccessful.

At Rome it was resolved to have recourse to the old and tried methods of craft, subornation, and treachery, instead of to the force of arms; and that master of guile, Tiberius, accordingly betook himself to the Rhine, accompanied by the servile flatterer, Velleius Paterculus, at that time leader of the cavalry. In pompous bombast the latter vaunts the exploits of his hero, that he may at the same time gather some of the beams of this glory about his own head. In two campaigns the tribes between Weser and Elbe were subjugated, the gigantic Chauci, and the Longobards “savage with more than German savagery,” and the fleet meanwhile sailed along the coast of the North Sea and joined hands with the land forces.

[5-9 A.D.]

Перейти на страницу:

Похожие книги

100 великих интриг
100 великих интриг

Нередко политические интриги становятся главными двигателями истории. Заговоры, покушения, провокации, аресты, казни, бунты и военные перевороты – все эти события могут составлять только часть одной, хитро спланированной, интриги, начинавшейся с короткой записки, вовремя произнесенной фразы или многозначительного молчания во время важной беседы царствующих особ и закончившейся грандиозным сломом целой эпохи.Суд над Сократом, заговор Катилины, Цезарь и Клеопатра, интриги Мессалины, мрачная слава Старца Горы, заговор Пацци, Варфоломеевская ночь, убийство Валленштейна, таинственная смерть Людвига Баварского, загадки Нюрнбергского процесса… Об этом и многом другом рассказывает очередная книга серии.

Виктор Николаевич Еремин

Биографии и Мемуары / История / Энциклопедии / Образование и наука / Словари и Энциклопедии
1917 год. Распад
1917 год. Распад

Фундаментальный труд российского историка О. Р. Айрапетова об участии Российской империи в Первой мировой войне является попыткой объединить анализ внешней, военной, внутренней и экономической политики Российской империи в 1914–1917 годов (до Февральской революции 1917 г.) с учетом предвоенного периода, особенности которого предопределили развитие и формы внешне– и внутриполитических конфликтов в погибшей в 1917 году стране.В четвертом, заключительном томе "1917. Распад" повествуется о взаимосвязи военных и революционных событий в России начала XX века, анализируются результаты свержения монархии и прихода к власти большевиков, повлиявшие на исход и последствия войны.

Олег Рудольфович Айрапетов

Военная документалистика и аналитика / История / Военная документалистика / Образование и наука / Документальное