No More Learning

Thus far they listened with silence, at least with moderate murmuring;
but the moment he touched their sedition and questioned, "where now was
the wonted modesty of soldiers? where the glory of ancient discipline?
whither had they chased their Tribunes, whither their Centurions? " to a
man, they stripped themselves to the skin, and there exposed the seams
of their wounds and bruises of their chastisements, in the rage of
reproach. Then in the undistinguished voice of uproar, they urged
"the exactions for occasional exemptions, their scanty pay, and their
rigorous labours;" which they represented in a long detail: "ramparts to
be reared, entrenchments digged, trees felled and drawn, forage cut and
carried, fuel prepared and fetched," with every other article of
toil required by the exigencies of war, or to prevent idleness in the
soldiery. Above all, from the veterans arose a cry most horrible:
they enumerated thirty years or upwards undergone in the service; "and
besought that to men utterly spent he would administer respite, nor
suffer them to be beholden to death for the last relief from their
toils; but discharge them from a warfare so lasting and severe, and
grant them the means of a comfortable recess. " Nay, some there were
who of him required the money bequeathed them by Augustus; and towards
Germanicus uttering zealous vows, with omens of happy fortune, declared
their cordial attachment to his cause if he would himself assume the
Empire. Here, as if already stained with their treason, he leaped
headlong from the Tribunal; but with swords drawn they opposed his
departure, and threatened his life, if he refused to return: yet, with
passionate protestations that "he would rather die than be a traitor,"
he snatched his sword from his side, and aiming full at his breast,
would have buried it there, had not those who were next him seized his
hand and by force restrained him. A cluster of soldiers in the extremity
of the assembly exhorted him, nay, what is incredible to hear, some
particulars advancing nearer, exhorted him _to strike home_: in truth
one Calusidius, a common soldier, presented him his naked sword, and
added, "it is sharper than your own;" a behaviour which to the rest,
outrageous as they were, seemed savage, and of horrid example: hence the
friends of Germanicus had time to snatch him away to his tent.

It was here consulted what remedy to apply: for it was advised, that
"ministers of sedition were preparing to be despatched to the other
army, to draw them too into a confederacy in the revolt; that the
capital of the Ubians was destined to be sacked; and if their hands were
once inured to plunder, they would break in, and ravage all Gaul. " This
dread was augmented by another: the enemy knew of the sedition in the
Roman army, and were ready to invade the Empire, if its barrier the
Rhine were left unguarded. Now, to arm the allies and the auxiliaries of
Rome, and lead them against the departing legions, was to rouse a civil
war: severity was dangerous: the way of largesses infamous; and alike
threatening it was to the State to grant the turbulent soldiers nothing,
or yield them everything. After revolving every reason and objection,
the result was, to feign letters and directions from Tiberius, "that
those who had served twenty years should be finally discharged; such as
served sixteen be under the ensign and privileges of veterans, released
from every duty but that of repulsing the enemy; and the legacy, which
they demanded, should be paid and doubled. "

The soldiers, who perceived that, purely to evade present difficulty,
the concessions were forged, insisted to have them forthwith executed;
and instantly the Tribunes despatched the discharge of the veterans:
that of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters; but
the fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth, refused to stir, till in
that very camp they were paid; so that out of the money reserved by
himself and his friends for travailing expenses, Germanicus was obliged
to raise the sum. Caecina, Lieutenant-General, led the first legion and
twentieth back to the capital of the Ubians: an infamous march, when the
plunder of their General's coffers was carried amidst the ensigns and
Roman Eagles.
Germanicus, the while, proceeding to the army in higher
Germany, brought the second, thirteenth, and sixteenth legions to swear
allegiance without hesitation: to the fourteenth, who manifested some
short suspense, he made unasked a tender of their money, and a present
discharge.

But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions, and
then in garrison among the Chaucians, as they began a sedition there,
were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body: an
execution this, commanded by Maenius, Camp-Marshal, and rather of good
example, than done by competent authority. 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.