Germanicus reached Pannonia, where armies from various points were shortly to assemble; the Batos watched for Severus, who was approaching from Moesia, and fell upon him unexpectedly, while he was encamped near the Volcæan marshes. The pickets outside the ramparts they frightened and hurled back within it, but as the men inside stood their ground, the attacking party was defeated. After this the Romans divided, in order that many detachments might overrun the country in separate places at one time. Most of them did nothing worthy of note during this enterprise, but Germanicus conquered in battle and badly demoralized the Mæzei, a Dalmatian tribe.--These were the results of that year. [A.D. 8 (_a. u._ 761)] [-33-] In the consulship of Marcus Furius with Sextus Nonius the Dalmatians and Pannonians decided they would like to make peace because they were in distress primarily from famine and then from disease that followed it, due to their using grasses of various sorts and roots for food. They did not attempt, however to open any negotiations, being restrained by those who had no hope of preservation at the hands of the Romans. So even as they were they still resisted. And one Scenobardus, who had feigned a readiness to change sides, and had had dealings on this very business with Manius Ennius, commander of the garrison in Siscia, declaring that he was ready to desert, became afraid that he might be injured ere his project was complete, and [19] ... _The Po, which they call the monarch of rivers that cleave the soil of Italy, known by the name Eridanus, had its waters let into a very broad excavation, on the command of the emperor Augustus. A seventh division of the channel of this river flows through the center of the state, affording at its mouth a most satisfactory harbor, and was formerly believed (my authority is Dio) to be an entirely safe anchorage for a fleet of two hundred and fifty ships._ (From the Latin of Jordan.) When the famine at last had subsided, he conducted a horse-race in the name of Germanicus, who was son of Drusus, and in the name of his brother. On this occasion an elephant fought a rhinoceros, and a knight who had once held a prominent position on account of wealth contended in single combat. And he found himself sinking under the burden of old age and physical weakness, so that he could not transact business with all the persons that needed his services, he delivered to three ex-consuls the care of the embassies that were constantly arriving from peoples and kings; each one of these officials separately was empowered to give any such delegation a hearing and to transmit an answer to them, save in such cases as he and the senate needed to pass upon finally. Other questions continued to be investigated and decided by the emperor himself with the help of his cabinet.