No More Learning

They will venture out again and will fall, not into the hands of an
inexperienced boy, who knows more about making speeches than war, but
into the hands of Civilis and Classicus, at the sight of whom they
will recall their fears and their flights and their famine, and
remember how often they have had to beg their lives from their
captors. Nor, again, is it any liking for the Romans that keeps back
the Treviri and Lingones: they will fly to arms again, when once their
fears are dispelled. ' Classicus finally settled the difference of
opinion by declaring for Tutor's policy, and they promptly proceeded
to carry it out.

The Ubii and Lingones were placed in the centre, the Batavian 77
cohorts on the right, and on the left the Bructeri and Tencteri.
Advancing, some by the hills and some by the path between the road and
the river,[440] they took us completely by surprise. So sudden was
their onslaught that Cerialis, who had not spent the night in camp,
was still in bed when he heard almost simultaneously that the fighting
had begun and that the day was lost. He cursed the messengers for
their cowardice until he saw the whole extent of the disaster with his
own eyes. The camp had been forced, the cavalry routed, and the bridge
over the Moselle, leading to the outskirts of the town, which lay
between him and his army,[440] was held by the enemy. But confusion
had no terrors for Cerialis. Seizing hold on fugitives, flinging
himself without any armour into the thick of the fire, he succeeded by
his inspired imprudence and the assistance of the braver men in
retaking the bridge. Leaving a picked band to hold it, he hurried back
to the camp, where he found that the companies of the legions which
had surrendered at Bonn and Novaesium[441] were all broken up, few men
were left at their posts, and the eagles were all but surrounded by
the enemy. He turned on them in blazing anger, 'It is not Flaccus or
Vocula that you are deserting. There is no "treason" about me. I have
done nothing to be ashamed of, except that I was rash enough to
believe that you had forgotten your Gallic ties and awakened to the
memory of your Roman allegiance. Am I to be numbered with Numisius
and Herennius?
[442] Then you can say that all your generals have
fallen either by your hands or the enemy's. Go and tell the news to
Vespasian, or rather, to Civilis and Classicus--they are nearer at
hand--that you have deserted your general on the field of battle.
There will yet come legions who will not leave me unavenged or you
unpunished. '

All he said was true, and the other officers heaped the same 78
reproaches on their heads. The men were drawn up in cohorts and
companies, since it was impossible to deploy with the enemy swarming
round them, and, the fight being inside the rampart, the tents and
baggage were a serious encumbrance. Tutor and Classicus and Civilis,
each at his post, were busy rallying their forces, appealing to the
Gauls to fight for freedom, the Batavians for glory, and the Germans
for plunder. Everything, indeed, went well for the enemy until the
Twenty-first legion, who had rallied in a clearer space than any of
the others, first sustained their charge and then repulsed them. Then,
by divine providence, on the very point of victory the enemy suddenly
lost their nerve and turned tail. They themselves attributed their
panic to the appearance of the Roman auxiliaries, who, after being
scattered by the first charge, formed again on the hill-tops and were
taken for fresh reinforcements. However, what really cost the Gauls
their victory was that they let their enemy alone and indulged in
ignoble squabbles over the spoil. Thus after Cerialis' carelessness
had almost caused disaster, his pluck now saved the day, and he
followed up his success by capturing the enemy's camp and destroying
it before nightfall.

Cerialis' troops were allowed short respite. Cologne was 79
clamouring for help and offering to surrender Civilis' wife and sister
and Classicus' daughter, who had been left behind there as pledges of
the alliance. In the meantime the inhabitants had massacred all the
stray Germans to be found in the town. They were now alarmed at this,
and had good reason to implore aid before the enemy should recover
their strength and bethink themselves of victory, or at any rate of
revenge. Indeed, Civilis already had designs on Cologne, and he was
still formidable, for the most warlike of his cohorts, composed of
Chauci and Frisii,[443] was still in full force at Tolbiacum,[444]
within the territory of Cologne.