Arminius, retiring into pathless places, was pursued by Germanicus, who,
as soon as he reached him, commanded the horse to advance and dislodge
the enemy from the post he had possessed. Arminius, having directed his
men to keep close together and draw near to the wood, wheeled suddenly
about, and to those whom he had hid in the forest gave the signal to
rush out. Then the Roman horse were thrown into disorder by the assault
of a new army, and the cohorts sent out to support them, broken in upon
by the body of troops that fled, had augmented the consternation, and
were now being pushed into the morass--a place well known to the
pursuers, but dangerous to those unacquainted with it--had not
Germanicus drawn out the legions in order of battle. Hence the enemy
became terrified, our men reanimated, and both retired without advantage
on either side. Germanicus, soon after, returning with the army to the
Amisia, reconducted the legions, as he had brought them, in the fleet;
part of the horse were ordered to march along the sea-shore to the
Rhine. Cæcina, who led his own men, was warned that, though he was to
return through well-known roads, yet he should with all speed pass the
causeway called the Long Bridges. It is a narrow causeway, between vast
marshes, and formerly raised by Lucius Domitius. The rest of the country
is of a moist nature, either tough and sticky from a heavy kind of clay
or dangerous from the streams which intersect it. Round about are woods
which rise gently from the plain, which at that time were filled with
soldiers by Arminius, who, by short cuts and quick marching, had arrived
there before our men, who were loaded with arms and baggage. Cæcina, who
was perplexed how at once to repair the causeway decayed by time and to
repulse the foe, resolved to encamp in the place, that while some were
employed in the work, others might begin the fight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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