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The tumult, however, swelling
again with fresh rage, he fled, but was discovered; so that, finding
no safety in lurking, from his own bravery he drew his defence, and
declared "that to himself, who was only their Camp-Marshal, these their
outrages were not done, but done to the authority of Germanicus, their
General, to the majesty of Tiberius their Emperor. " At the same time,
braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him, he fiercely
snatched the colours, faced about towards the Rhine, and pronouncing
the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks,
brought them back to their winter quarters, mutinous, in truth, but not
daring to mutiny.

In the meantime the deputies from the Senate met Germanicus at the
altar of the Ubians [Footnote: Cologne. ], whither in his return he was
arrived. Two legions wintered there, the first and twentieth, with the
soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans; men already under
the distractions of guilt and fear: and now a new terror possessed them,
that these Senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every
concession which they had by sedition extorted; and, as it is the custom
of the crowd to be ever charging somebody with the crimes suggested by
their own false alarms, the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid
upon Minutius Plancus, a Senator of consular dignity, and at the head of
this deputation. In the dead of night, they began to clamour aloud for
the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus, and, rushing
tumultuously to his gate, burst the doors, dragged the Prince out of his
bed, and, with menaces of present death, compelled him to deliver the
standard. Then, as they roved about the camp, they met the deputies,
who, having learnt the outrage, were hastening to Germanicus: upon
them they poured a deluge of contumelies, and to present slaughter were
devoting them, Plancus chiefly, whom the dignity of his character had
restrained from flight; nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge
than the quarters of the first legion, where, embracing the Eagle and
other ensigns, he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration
ever paid them. But, in spite of religion, had not Calpurnius, the
Eagle-bearer, by force defeated the last violence of the assault, in the
Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman People, and
with his blood had been stained the inviolable altars of the Gods; a
barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy. At last, day returning,
when the General, and the soldiers, and their actions could be
distinguished, Germanicus entered the camp, and commanding Plancus to
be brought, seated him by himself upon the tribunal: he then inveighed
against the late "pernicious frenzy, which in it, he said, had fatality,
and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers, but by that of the
angry Gods. " He explained the genuine purposes of that embassy, and
lamented with affecting eloquence "the outrage committed upon Plancus,
altogether brutal and unprovoked; the foul violence done to the sacred
person of an Ambassador, and the mighty disgrace from thence derived
upon the legion. " Yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than
calmness, he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse.

During this affright, Germanicus was by all men censured, "that he
retired not to the higher army, whence he had been sure of ready
obedience, and even of succour against the revolters: already he had
taken wrong measures more than enow, by discharging some, rewarding all,
and other tender counsels; if he despised his own safety, yet why expose
his infant son, why his wife big with child, to the fury of outrageous
traitors, wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men? It
became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and
to the State. " He was long unresolved; besides Agrippina was averse to
leave him, and urged, that "she was the grand-daughter of Augustus, and
it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger. " But embracing
her and their little son, with great tenderness and many tears, he
prevailed with her to depart.
Thus there marched miserably along a band
of helpless women: the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive,
and upon her bosom bore her infant son: about her a troop of other
ladies, dragged from their husbands, and drowned in tears, uttering
their heavy lamentations; nor weaker than theirs was the grief felt by
all who remained.

These groans and tears, and this spectacle of woe, the appearances
rather of a city stormed and sacked, than of a Roman camp, that of
Germanicus Caesar, victorious and flourishing, awakened attention and
inquiry in the soldiers: leaving their tents, they cried, "Whence these
doleful wailings? what so lamentable! so many ladies of illustrious
quality, travelling thus forlorn; not a Centurion to attend them; not
a soldier to guard them; their General's wife amongst them,
undistinguished by any mark of her princely dignity; destitute of her
ordinary train; frightened from the Roman legions, and repairing, like
an exile, for shelter to Treves, there to commit herself to the faith
of foreigners. " Hence shame and commiseration seized them, and the
remembrance of her illustrious family, with that of her own virtues;
the brave Agrippa her father; the mighty Augustus her grandfather; the
amiable Drusus her father-in-law, herself celebrated for a fruitful bed,
and of signal chastity: add the consideration of her little son, born
in the camp, nursed in the arms of the legions, and by themselves named
Caligula, a military name from the boots which of the same fashion
with their own, in compliment to them, and to win their affections, he
frequently wore. But nothing so effectually subdued them as their own
envy towards the inhabitants of Treves: hence they all besought, all
adjured, that she would return to themselves, and with themselves
remain: thus some stopped Agrippina; but the main body returned with
their entreaties to Germanicus, who, as he was yet in the transports
of grief and anger, addressed himself on this wise to the surrounding
crowd.

"To me neither is my wife or son dearer than my father and the
Commonwealth. But him doubtless the majesty of his name will defend; and
there are other armies, loyal armies, to defend the Roman State. As to
my wife and children, whom for your glory I could freely sacrifice, I
now remove them from your rage; that by my blood alone may be expiated
whatever further mischief your fury meditates; and that the murder of
the great grandson of Augustus, the murder of the daughter-in-law of
Tiberius, may not be added to mine, nor to the blackness of your past
guilt. For, during these days of frenzy what has been too horrid for you
to commit? What so sacred that you have not violated? To this audience
what name shall I give? Can I call you _soldiers_? you who have beset
with arms the son of your Emperor, confined him in your trenches, and
held him in a siege? _Roman citizens_ can I call you? you who
have trampled upon the supreme authority of the Roman Senate?