Tacitus: The Histories Part 29

[237] The insignia of equestrian rank (cp. i. 13).

[238] The chief of these were the powers of tribune, pro-consul, and censor, and the t.i.tle of Augustus (cp. i. 47, ii. 55).

[239] Vindex had risen in Gaul; Galba in Spain; Vitellius in Germany; Antonius Primus in the Danube provinces (Illyric.u.m); Vespasian and Mucia.n.u.s in Judaea, Syria, and Egypt.

[240] This was necessary in the absence of Vespasian and t.i.tus.

[241] See vol. i, note 339.

[242] A triumph could, of course, be held only for victories over a foreign enemy. Here the pretext was the repulse of the Dacians (iii. 46).

[243] Vitellius' son-in-law (cp. i. 59).

[244] In the text some words seem to be missing here, but the general sense is clear.

[245] Cp. ii. 91.

[246] If Tacitus ever told the story of his banishment and death, his version has been lost with the rest of his history of Vespasian's reign.

[247] In Samnium.

[248] i.e. s.h.i.+rking the duties of public life.

[249] i.e. the Stoic.

[250] See ii. 91.

[251] Cp. ii. 53.

[252] Sora.n.u.s, like Thrasea, was a Stoic who opposed the government mainly on moral grounds. The story of their end is told in the _Annals_, Book XVI. Sentius was presumably another member of their party.

[253] He refers to Augustus' regularization of the princ.i.p.ate.

[254] Fifty-nine.

[255] The administration of this office was changed several times in the first century of the empire. Here we have a reversion to Augustus' second plan. Trajan restored Augustus'

original plan--also adopted by Nero--of appointing special Treasury officials from the ex-praetors.

[256] His offence lay in a.s.signing to the emperor a merely secondary position.

[257] His ill-timed advocacy of Stoicism is mentioned iii. 81.

[258] Described in the _Annals_, xvi. 32.

[259] The description of this is postponed to chap. 40. Celer was convicted.

[260] C. Piso had conspired against Nero, A.D. 65.

[261] They had both abandoned their camp at Narnia (cp. iii. 61).

[262] Cp. ii. 57.

[263] i.e. he was crucified.

THE REVOLT OF CIVILIS AND THE BATAVI

The growing rumour of a reverse in Germany[264] had not as yet 12 caused any alarm in Rome. People alluded to the loss of armies, the capture of the legions' winter quarters, the defection of the Gallic provinces as matters of indifference. I must now go back and explain the origin of this war, and of the widespread rebellion of foreign and allied tribes which now broke into flame.

The Batavi were once a tribe of the Chatti,[265] living on the further bank of the Rhine. But an outbreak of civil war had driven them across the river, where they settled in a still unoccupied district on the frontier of Gaul and also in the neighbouring island, enclosed on one side by the ocean and on the other three sides by the Rhine.[266]

There they fared better than most tribes who ally themselves to a stronger power. Their resources are still intact, and they have only to contribute men and arms for the imperial army.[267] After a long training in the German wars, they still further increased their reputation in Britain, where their troops had been sent, commanded according to an ancient custom by some of the n.o.blest chiefs. There still remained behind in their own country a picked troop of hors.e.m.e.n with a peculiar knack of swimming, which enabled them to make a practice[268] of crossing the Rhine with unbroken ranks without losing control of their horses or their weapons.

Of their chieftains two outshone the rest. These were Julius 13 Paulus and Julius Civilis, both of royal stock. Paulus had been executed by Fonteius Capito on a false charge of rebellion.[269] On the same occasion Civilis was sent in chains to Nero. Galba, however, set him free, and under Vitellius he again ran great risk of his life, when the army clamoured for his execution.[270] This gave him a motive for hating Rome, and our misfortunes fed his hopes. He was, indeed, far cleverer than most barbarians, and professed to be a second Sertorius or Hannibal, because they all three had the same physical defect.[271] He was afraid that if he openly rebelled against the Roman people they would treat him as an enemy, and march on him at once, so he pretended to be a keen supporter of Vespasian's party.

This much was true, that Antonius Primus had written instructing him to divert the auxiliaries whom Vitellius had summoned, and to delay the legions on the pretence of a rising in Germany. Moreover, Hordeonius Flaccus[272] had given him the same advice in person, for Flaccus was inclined to support Vespasian and anxious for the safety of Rome, which was threatened with utter disaster, if the war were to break out afresh and all these thousands of troops come pouring into Italy.

Having thus made up his mind to rebel, Civilis concealed in the 14 meantime his ulterior design, and while intending to guide his ultimate policy by future events, proceeded to initiate the rising as follows. The young Batavians were by Vitellius' orders being pressed for service, and this burden was being rendered even more irksome than it need have been by the greed and depravity of the recruiting officers. They took to enrolling elderly men and invalids so as to get bribes for excusing them: or, as most of the Batavi are tall and good-looking in their youth, they would seize the handsomest boys for immoral purposes. This caused bad feeling; an agitation was organized, and they were persuaded to refuse service. Accordingly, on the pretext of giving a banquet, Civilis summoned the chief n.o.bles and the most determined of the tribesmen to a sacred grove. Then, when he saw them excited by their revelry and the late hour of the night, he began to speak of the glorious past of the Batavi and to enumerate the wrongs they had suffered, the injustice and extortion and all the evils of their slavery. 'We are no longer treated,' he said, 'as we used to be, like allies, but like menials and slaves. Why, we are never even visited by an imperial Governor[273]--irksome though the insolence of his staff would be. We are given over to prefects and centurions; and when these subordinates have had their fill of extortion and of bloodshed, they promptly find some one to replace them, and then there are new pockets to fill and new pretexts for plunder. Now conscription is upon us: children are to be torn from parents, brother from brother, never, probably, to meet again. And yet the fortunes of Rome were never more depressed. Their cantonments contain nothing but loot and a lot of old men. Lift up your eyes and look at them. There is nothing to fear from legions that only exist on paper.[274] And we are strong. We have infantry and cavalry: the Germans are our kinsmen: the Gauls share our ambition. Even the Romans will be grateful if we go to war.[275] If we fail, we can claim credit for supporting Vespasian: if we succeed, there will be no one to call us to account.'

His speech was received with great approval, and he at once bound 15 them all to union, using the barbarous ceremonies and strange oaths of his country. They then sent to the Canninefates to join their enterprise. This tribe inhabits part of the Island,[276] and though inferior in numbers to the Batavi, they are of the same race and language and the same courageous spirit. Civilis next sent secret messages to win over the Batavian troops, which after serving as Roman auxiliaries in Britain had been sent, as we have already seen,[277] to Germany and were now stationed at Mainz.[278]

One of the Canninefates, Brinno by name, was a man of distinguished family and stubborn courage. His father had often ventured acts of hostility, and had with complete impunity shown his contempt for Caligula's farcical expedition.[279] To belong to such a family of rebels was in itself a recommendation. He was accordingly placed on a s.h.i.+eld, swung up on the shoulders of his friends, and thus elected leader after the fas.h.i.+on of the tribe. Summoning to his aid the Frisii[280]--a tribe from beyond the Rhine--he fell upon two cohorts of auxiliaries whose camp lay close to the neighbouring sh.o.r.e.[281]

The attack was unexpected, and the troops, even if they had foreseen it, were not strong enough to offer resistance: so the camp was taken and looted. They then fell on the Roman camp-followers and traders, who had gone off in all directions as if peace were a.s.sured. Finding the forts now threatened with destruction, the Roman officers set fire to them, as they had no means of defence. All the troops with their standards and colours retired in a body to the upper end of the island, led by Aquilius, a senior centurion. But they were an army in name only, not in strength, for Vitellius had withdrawn all the efficient soldiers and had replaced them by a useless mob, who had been drawn from the neighbouring Nervian and German villages and were only embarra.s.sed by their armour.[282]

Civilis thought it best to proceed by guile, and actually ventured 16 to blame the Roman officers for abandoning the forts. He could, he told them, with the cohort under his command, suppress the outbreak of the Canninefates without their a.s.sistance: they could all go back to their winter-quarters. However, it was plain that some treachery underlay his advice--it would be easier to crush the cohorts if they were separated--and also that Civilis, not Brinno, was at the head of this war. Evidence of this gradually leaked out, as the Germans loved war too well to keep the secret for long. Finding his artifice unsuccessful, Civilis tried force instead, forming the Canninefates, Frisii and Batavi into three separate columns.[283] The Roman line faced them in position near the Rhine bank.[284] They had brought their s.h.i.+ps there after the burning of the forts, and these were now turned with their prows towards the enemy. Soon after the engagement began a Tungrian cohort deserted to Civilis, and the Romans were so startled by this unexpected treachery that they were cut to pieces by their allies and their enemies combined. Similar treachery occurred in the fleet. Some of the rowers, who were Batavians, feigning clumsiness tried to impede the sailors and marines in the performance of their functions, and after a while openly resisted them and turned the s.h.i.+ps' sterns towards the enemy's bank. Finally, they killed the pilots and centurions who refused to join them, and thus all the twenty-four s.h.i.+ps of the flotilla either deserted to the enemy or were captured by them.

This victory made Civilis immediately famous and proved 17 subsequently very useful. Having now got the s.h.i.+ps and the weapons which they needed, he and his followers were enthusiastically proclaimed as champions of liberty throughout Germany and Gaul. The German provinces immediately sent envoys with offers of help, while Civilis endeavoured by diplomacy and by bribery to secure an alliance with the Gauls. He sent back the auxiliary officers whom he had taken prisoner, each to his own tribe, and offered the cohorts the choice of either going home or remaining with him. Those who remained were given an honourable position in his army: and those who went home received presents out of the Roman spoil. At the same time Civilis talked to them confidentially and reminded them of the miseries they had endured for all these years, in which they had disguised their wretched slavery under the name of peace. 'The Batavi,' he would say, 'were excused from taxation, and yet they have taken arms against the common tyrant. In the first engagement the Romans were routed and beaten.

What if Gaul throws off the yoke? What forces are there left in Italy?

It is with the blood of provincials that their provinces are won.

Don't think of the defeat of Vindex. Why, it was the Batavian cavalry which trampled on the Aedui and Arverni,[285] and there were Belgic auxiliaries in Verginius' force. The truth is that Gaul succ.u.mbed to her own armies. But now we are all united in one party, fortified, moreover, by the military discipline which prevails in Roman camps: and we have on our side the veterans before whom Otho's legions lately bit the dust. Let Syria and Asia play the slave: the East is used to tyrants: but there are many still living in Gaul who were born before the days of tribute.[286] Indeed, it is only the other day[287] that Quintilius Varus was killed, when slavery was driven out of Germany, and they brought into the field not the Emperor Vitellius but Caesar Augustus himself. Why, liberty is the natural prerogative even of dumb animals: courage is the peculiar attribute of man. Heaven helps the brave. Come, then, fall upon them while your hands are free and theirs are tied, while you are fresh and they are weary. Some of them are for Vespasian, others for Vitellius; now is your chance to crush both parties at once.'

Civilis thus had his eye on Gaul and Germany and aspired, had his 18 project prospered, to become king of two countries, one pre-eminent in wealth and the other in military strength.

FOOTNOTES:

[264] Cp. iii. 46.

[265] One of the greatest and most warlike of the German tribes living in the modern Hessen-Na.s.sau and Waldeck. Tacitus describes them at length in his _Germania_.

[266] i.e. a stretch of land about sixty miles in length, from Nymwegen to the Hook of Holland, enclosed by the diverging mouths of the Rhine, the northern of which is now called the Lek, the southern the Waal (in Tacitus' time Vahalis). The name Betuwe is still applied to the eastern part of this island.

[267] In the _Germania_ Tacitus says that, like weapons, they are kept exclusively for use in war, and are spared the indignity of taxation.

[268] Some such word as _peritus_ or _exercitus_ must be supplied at the end of this chapter.

[269] Probably during the revolt of Vindex. Capito governed Lower Germany.

[270] Cp. i. 59.

[271] The loss of an eye.