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the fatal spot where tlie whitened bones of many thousands of their 

 comrades claimed the last act of friendship at their hands. They 

 traced the progress of that great calamity, the succession of camps 

 from the first, which had held the three unbroken legions, to the last 

 where their miserable remnants had found a short res2">ite, only to pro- 

 long the agonies of their death struggle. On the trunks of trees they 

 beheld grinning skulls, the horrid trophies of the barbarians, and in 

 the neighbouring groves still stood the altars on which the noblest of 

 the captives had bled, an awful thank-offering to the god of war. Ger- 

 manicus and his army performed the funeral rites. They collected the 

 scattered remnants of their countrymen under one huge mound. The 

 general himself laid the first turf — the army shared his grief; but we 

 may well be doubtful whether, as Germauicus iutended, their indigna- 

 tion and the spirit of revenge roused them to greater courage, or, as 

 Tiberius surmised, the awful sights they had seen, made cowards even 

 of the brave. The results of the campaign seem to justify the latter 

 supposition. A pitched battle was fought, which, according to Tacitus, 

 remained undecided. This itself was equal to a defeat under the cir- 

 cumstances, and an immediate i-etreat became necessaiy. It is not 

 easy to understand, how a Roman army of eight legions, that is at 

 least 50,000 men and about an equal number of auxiliaries, could meet 

 any number of barbarous enemies without utterly annihilating them. 

 The difference between the two hosts in point of military skill, organ- 

 isation, discipline, and arms, was not less than that between the 

 English troops of Clive and the Bengalees. In fact it may be 

 doubted if Cortez and his Spaniards were as soldiers so far superior to 

 the army of Montezuma, as the Eoman legions were to the Germans. 

 In drill, discipline, and courage the Romans were equal to the best 

 troops of modern Europe. To their terrible pilum the Germans had 

 to oppose only long poles, sometimes without a metal point, and merely 

 hardened by fire; the large Roman scutum, covered with a thick hide 

 and metal rim, could be matched by the German only by a thin wicker 

 shield ; the Eoman protected himself with helmet, breastplate, and 

 greaves ; the German offered his bare head and breast to the enemy. 

 But he was active and vigorous, at home on his native soil, in the 

 thick forest, the morass, or the mountain side ; and above all he was 

 animated by an unbroken courage, and led to battle by a hero and a 

 great captain. Arminius was not a barbarian ; he had made at least 

 one step towards civilization ; he understood the art of war, which he 

 had studied under the best masters. The Romans might have been 

 proud of their pupil, but they had failed to subdue his free spirit, and 

 to teach him servility and submission. His greatness was not apparent 



