The Historians' History of the World 06

They came to a clearing where it was evident that they could keep the enemy at a respectful distance; but the road presently led into the forest again, and the Germans were about them immediately, inflicting sanguinary losses. The Romans defended themselves, but the narrowness of a defile into which the army got so cramped that it could not deploy, while on the other hand a charge of mingled horse and foot miscarried through the crowding of both arms in the dense forest. To add to their distress the rain and tempest set in anew; they could barely keep their feet, to say nothing of pressing forwards, and the drenched weapons of the Romans could not be employed to advantage against a light-armed foe equally swift to retreat or to attack. Moreover, the numbers of the enemy increased, for those who had hitherto cautiously held back now flocked to secure a share of the spoils; and if the Marsi were not already included in the compact we may suppose that they appeared at this juncture and captured the eagle which was afterwards found in their possession.

The case was desperate, and Varus had not courage to die in battle rather than by his own hand. The report of his death crippled the last remains of vigorous resistance in his army, though they did not neglect to bury his body at once. Whether the cavalry under Numonius Vala now attempted to flee or whether they had already fled we cannot tell; neither do we know whether the legates were still alive or had already fallen. At the last the two camp prefects seem to have taken command, L. Eggius first, and afterwards, when he had fallen in a last desperate attempt to break through, Ceionius. It was the latter who presently entered into negotiations with the Germans for the surrender of what was left of the army.

Velleiuse states that Ceionius entered into negotiations after the greater part of the army had perished in the fight. When he had submitted there ensued the scenes of vengeance reported by Florus.f These do not here concern us, but it is a matter of greater interest that there was only one of the Roman castella in Germany which the Germans were unable to take. This was Aliso, whither some fugitives succeeded in escaping. Here the primipilar C. Cæditus assumed the chief command, and defended it in the hope of relief until hunger forced the garrison to an attempt at flight in which the strongest at least were successful.d

Terrible was the vengeance which the Germans took for the wrong done to their liberties. Many distinguished Romans, colonels and captains, bled on the altars of the gods; attorneys and judges were put to death by torture; the heads of many of the fallen were affixed as trophies to the trees round the battle-field; and those who escaped with life found themselves condemned to dishonourable slavery. “Many a Roman of knightly or senatorial birth grew old as a hind or shepherd to some German peasant.”

Vengeance did not even respect the dead. The corpse of Varus, which his soldiers had piously buried, was torn from its grave and the severed head sent as a trophy to Marboduus, who subsequently delivered it up to the emperor at Rome. So perished miserably this splendid army of nearly fifty thousand men. Well might Augustus bewail himself at the news of the disaster in the Teutoburg forest and cry aloud in his despair: “Varus, give me back my legions!” Many families of long descent had to mourn the loss of kinsmen or connections. The feasts and games stopped, the German bodyguard was dismissed to the islands, Rome, usually so noisy, was still and dumb. Sentinels patrolled the streets at night, vows to the gods and recruiting on a great scale gave evidence of the dread that was in men’s hearts. They feared that the terrible days of the Cimbrians and Teutons might come again.

[9-14 A.D.]

The conquest of the Roman castella between the Rhine and the Visurgis followed close on the heels of the defeat of Varus. Aliso held out longest; thither the Romans had carried their women and children and there the scattered and fugitive remnants of the army had taken refuge. When their provisions came to an end the besieged tried to slip through the sentries of the besiegers under cover of a stormy night. But only the armed men succeeded in cutting their way through to the Rhine, the greater number of the helpless fell into the hands of the victors and shared the fate of other prisoners, and the fortress of Aliso was destroyed. Asprenas, who was guarding the bank of the Rhine with his two legions lest the revolt should spread to the excitable Gauls, was powerless to lay the tempest. Thus was Roman supremacy broken down on the right bank of the Rhine.