89 



on the battlefield alone ; he showed his aptitude to lead and to com- 

 mand by the skill with which he united in one common cause a number 

 of independent tribes, naturally jealous of, and often hostile to, one 

 another ; by the perseverance with which he successfully resisted the 

 intrigues and hostility of his nearest relation, of his own brother, who 

 served in the ranks of the Roman legions, and of his father-in-law, 

 who was mean enough to surrender his daughter, the wife of Arminius, 

 to Roman captivity. No ties of blood or love could hold his proud neck 

 under the foreign yoke. Like an Abd-el-Kader or a Shamyl, he alone 

 was a host in himself ; he upheld the standard of freedom, and his 

 countrymen flocked round it and set the conquerors of the world at 

 defiance. 



The successful resistance of the Germans to the Roman arms is 

 the more surprising when we remember how short a period sufficed 

 to reduce to complete subjection, not only the whole population of 

 Gaul, but the hardy tribes which inhabited the inaccessible fast- 

 nesses of the Alpine chain, the rugged mountains of lUyricum, and the 

 marshy plains of Hungary. One short campaign broke for ever the 

 Celtic mountaineers of Noricum and Rhtetia, countries which, when 

 afterwai'ds held by Germanic tribes, earned by their heroic resistance' 

 to foreign aggression a paramount and peculiar glory as the noblest 

 champions of freedom. The country between the Rhine and the Elbe 

 was certainly more assailable than the mountain regions of the Alps, 

 and we must therefore attribute the failure of Rome in these parts to 

 the spirit of our Teutonic ancestors, and to the genius of their leaders. 



The retreat of Germanicus was eflfected partly by sea and partly by 

 land. Germanicus himself, with four legions, returned in his fleet ; 

 the cavalry was ordered to follow the margin of the sea ; and Csecina, 

 with the remainder of the troops, made the best of his way to gain a 

 high road or dyke constructed through the bogs of Hanover and Fries- 

 land, by L. Domitius some years before. But he was already preceded 

 by Arminius. With the fate of Varus and his legions before their eyes 

 the trembling Romans had at the same time to repair the dilapidated 

 road, to throw up earthworks for the protection of their camp, and to 

 resist the impetuous onset of their enemies. Driven in on every side 

 they were only saved from destruction by the approach of night (Tac. 

 A. I. 64). What a terrible night ! Cut off", and surrounded by cruel 

 enemies, in the midst of bogs and forests, they heard their wild yells of 

 triumph and the songs of victory resounding from the neighbouring 

 hills ; they wanted repose, and could not lie down to sleep. The 

 thought of the heaps of bones of their fallen comrades, which they had 

 buried, unnerved them. Ca;cina himself, who had seen forty years of 



