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Did Augustus, even under the pressure
of old age and infirmities, take so many journeys into Germany? and
should Tiberius, in the vigour of his life, when the same or greater
occasions called him thither, sit lazily in the Senate to watch senators
and cavil at words? He had fully provided for the domestic servitude
of Rome; he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers,
to restrain their turbulent spirits, and reconcile them to a life of
peace. "

But all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius: he was
determined not to depart from the capital, the centre of power and
affairs; nor to chance or peril expose his person and empire. In truth,
many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him: "the German
army was the stronger; that of Pannonia nearer; the power of both the
Gauls supported the former; the latter was at the gates of Italy. Now to
which should he repair first? and would not the last visited be inflamed
by being postponed? But by sending one of his sons to each, the equal
treatment of both was maintained; as also the majesty of the supreme
power, which from distance ever derived most reverence. Besides, the
young princes would be excused, if to their father they referred such
demands as were for them improper to grant; and if they disobeyed
Germanicus and Drusus, his own authority remained to appease or punish
them: but if once they had contemned their Emperor himself, what other
resource was behind? " However, as if he had been upon the point of
marching, he chose his attendance, provided his equipage, and prepared
a fleet: but by various delays and pretences, sometimes that of the
winter, sometimes business, he deceived for a time even the wisest men;
much longer the common people, and the provinces for a great while.

Germanicus had already drawn together his army, and was prepared to take
vengeance on the seditious: but judging it proper to allow space for
trial, whether they would follow the late example, and consulting their
own safety do justice upon one another, he sent letters to Caecina,
"that he himself approached, with a powerful force; and if they
prevented him not, by executing the guilty, he would put all
indifferently to the slaughter. " These letters Caecina privately read
to the principal officers, and such of the camp as the sedition had not
tainted; besought them "to redeem themselves from death, and all
from infamy; urged that in peace alone reason was heard and merit
distinguished; but in the rage of war the blind steel spared the
innocent no more than the guilty. " The officers, having tried those they
believed for their purpose, and found the majority still to persevere
in their duty, did, in concurrence with the General, settle the time for
falling with the sword upon the most notoriously guilty and turbulent.
Upon a particular signal given they rushed into their tents and
butchered them, void as they were of all apprehension; nor did any but
the centurions and executioners know whence the massacre began, or where
it would end.

This had a different face from all the civil slaughters that ever
happened: it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies, nor from
different and opposite camps, nor in a day of battle; but of comrades
upon comrades, in the same tents where they ate together by day, where
they slept together by night.
From this state of intimacy they flew
into mortal enmity, and friends launched their darts at friends: wounds,
outcries, and blood were open to view; but the cause remained hid: wild
chance governed the rest, and several innocents were slain. For the
criminals, when they found against whom all this fury was bent, had also
betaken themselves to their arms; neither did Caecina, nor any of the
Tribunes, intervene to stay the rage; so that the soldiers had full
permission to vengeance, and a licentious satiety of killing. Germanicus
soon after entered the camp now full of blood and carcasses, and
lamenting with many tears that "this was not a remedy, but cruelty
and desolation," commanded the bodies to be burnt. Their minds, still
tempestuous and bloody, were transported with sudden eagerness to attack
the foe, as the best expiation of their tragical fury: nor otherwise,
they thought, could the ghosts of their butchered brethren be appeased,
than by receiving in their own profane breasts a chastisement of
honourable wounds. Germanicus fell in with the ardour of the soldiers,
and laying a bridge upon the Rhine, marched over twelve thousand
legionary soldiers, twenty-six cohorts of the allies, and eight
regiments of horse; men all untainted in the late sedition.

The Germans rejoiced, not far off, at this vacation of war, occasioned
first by the death of Augustus, and afterwards by intestine tumults in
the camp; but the Romans by a hasty march passed through the Caesian
woods, and levelling the barrier formerly begun by Tiberius, upon
it pitched their camp. In the front and rear they were defended by a
palisade; on each side by a barricade of the trunks of trees felled.
From thence, beginning to traverse gloomy forests, they stopped to
consult which of two ways they should choose, the short and frequented,
or the longest and least known, and therefore unsuspected by the
foe: the longest way was chosen; but in everything else despatch was
observed; for by the scouts intelligence was brought that the Germans
did, that night, celebrate a festival with great mirth and revelling.
Hence Caecina was commanded to advance with the cohorts without their
baggage, and to clear a passage through the forest: at a moderate
distance followed the legions; the clearness of the night facilitated
the march, and they arrived at the villages of the Marsians, which with
guards they presently invested. The Germans were even yet under the
effects of their debauch, scattered here and there, some in bed, some
lying by their tables; no watch placed, no apprehension of an enemy. So
utterly had their false security banished all order and care; and they
were under no dread of war, without enjoying peace, other than the
deceitful and lethargic peace of drunkards.

The legions were eager for revenge; and Germanicus, to extend their
ravage, divided them into four battalions. The country was wasted by
fire and sword fifty miles round; nor sex nor age found mercy; places
sacred and profane had the equal lot of destruction, all razed to the
ground, and with them the temple of Tanfana, of all others the most
celebrated amongst these nations: nor did all this execution cost the
soldiers a wound, while they only slew men half asleep, disarmed, or
dispersed. This slaughter roused the Bructerans, the Tubantes, and the
Usipetes; and they beset the passes of the forest, through which the
army was to return: an event known to Germanicus, and he marched in
order of battle. The auxiliary cohorts and part of the horse led the
van, followed close by the first legion; the baggage was in the middle;
the twenty-first legion closed the left wing, and the fifth the right;
the twentieth defended the rear; and after them marched the rest of the
allies. But the enemy stirred not, till the body of the army entered
the wood: they then began lightly to insult the front and wings; and at
last, with their whole force, fell upon the rear.