The Germany and the Agricola of TacitusTacitus, Cornelius
History
The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
Tacitus, Cornelius
Agricola, Gnaeus Julius, 40-93; Germanic peoples -- Early works to 1800; Statesmen -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
[203] "After so many misfortunes, the Roman people thought no general
so capable of repelling such formidable enemies, as Marius." Nor was the
public opinion falsified. In his fourth consulate, in the year of Rome
652. "Marius engaged the Teutoni beyond the Alps near Aquae Sextiae (Aix
in Province), killing, on the day of battle and the following day, above
150,000 of the enemy, and entirely cutting off the Teutonic nation."
(Velleus Paterculus, ii. 12.) Livy says there were 200,000 slain, and
90,000 taken prisoners. The succeeding year he defeated the Cimbri, who
had penetrated into Italy and crossed the Adige, in the Raudian plain,
where now is Rubio, killing and taking prisoners upwards of 100,000 men.
That he did not, however, obtain an unbought victory over this warlike
people, may be conjectured from the resistance he met with even from
their women. We are told by Florus (iii. 3) that "he was obliged to
sustain an engagement with their wives, as well as themselves; who,
entrenching themselves on all sides with wagons and cars, fought from
them, as from towers, with lances and poles. Their death was no less
glorious than their resistance. For, when they could not obtain from
Marius what they requested by an embassy, their liberty, and admission
into the vestal priesthood (which, indeed, could not lawfully be
granted); after strangling their infants, they either fell by mutual
wounds, or hung themselves on trees or the poles of their carriages in
ropes made of their own hair. King Boiorix was slain, not unrevenged,
fighting bravely in the field." On account of these great victories,
Marius, in the year of Borne 652, triumphed over the Teutoni, Ambroni,
and Cimbri.
[204] In the 596th year of Rome, Julius Caesar defeated Ariovistus, a
German king, near Dampierre in the Franche-Comte, and pursued his routed
troops with great slaughter thirty miles towards the Rhine, filling all
that space with spoils and dead bodies. (Bell. Gall. i. 33 and 52.)
He had before chastised the Tigurini, who, as already mentioned, had
defeated and killed L. Cassius. Drusus: This was the son of Livia, and
brother of the emperor Tiberius. He was in Germany B.C. 12, 11. His loss
was principally from shipwreck on the coast of the Chauci. See Lynam's
Roman Emperors, i. 37, 45, Nero; _i.e._ Tiberius, afterwards emperor.
His name was Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero. See Lynam's Roman Emperors,
i. 51, 53, 62, 78. Germanicus: He was the son of Drusus, and so nephew
of Tiberius. His victories in Germany took place A.D. 14-16. He too,
like his father, was shipwrecked, and nearly at the same spot. See
Lynam's Roman Emperors, i. 103-118.
[205] In the war of Civilis, related by Tacitus, Hist. iv. and v.
[206] By Domitian, as is more particularly mentioned in the Life of
Agricola.
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