The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to WaterlooCreasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir
History
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo
Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir
Battles
It seems probable that the jealousy with which Maraboduus, the king of
the Suevi and Marcomanni, regarded Arminius, and which ultimately broke
out into open hostilities between those German tribes and the Cherusci,
prevented Arminius from leading the confederate Germans to attack Italy
after his first victory. Perhaps he may have had the rare moderation
of being content with the liberation of his country, without seeking to
retaliate on her former oppressors. When Tiberius marched into Germany
in the year 10, Arminius was too cautious to attack him on ground
favourable to the legions, and Tiberius was too skilful, to entangle his
troops in difficult parts of the country. His march and counter-march
were as unresisted as they were unproductive. A few years later, when
a dangerous revolt of the Roman legions near the frontier caused
their generals to find them active employment by leading them into the
interior of Germany, we find Arminius again energetic in his country's
defence. The old quarrel between him and his father-in-law, Segestes,
had broken out afresh. Segestes now called in the aid of the Roman
general, Germanicus, to whom he surrendered himself; and by his
contrivance his daughter Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, also came into
the hands of the Romans, being far advanced in pregnancy. She showed, as
Tacitus relates, [Ann. i. 57.] more of the spirit of her husband than
of her father, a spirit that could not be subdued into tears or
supplications. She was sent to Ravenna, and there gave birth to a son,
whose life we find, from an allusion in Tacitus, to have been eventful
and unhappy; but the part of the great historian's work which narrated
his fate has perished, and we only know from another quarter that
the son of Arminius was, at the age of four years, led captive in a
triumphal pageant along the streets of Rome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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