Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37; Tiberius, Emperor of Rome 42 B.C.-37 A.D.
The war lasted for three years, and was eventually ended partly by
diplomacy, partly by the patient strategy of Tiberius. Great pitched
battles were impossible in that difficult country, and the strategy of
the enemy did not permit them. Tiberius kept dividing the forces of his
opponents, cutting off the supplies of the isolated detachments, and
conquered them in detail. Paterculus particularly admires his prudence
in breaking up his own forces after finding that the numbers, on which
others were disposed to rely, were too unwieldy to be effective; he
spread his winter quarters over the country, and himself spent the cold
season at Siscia, high up in the hills near the sources of the Save.
Paterculus does not give us a consecutive account of the campaigns, but
he mentions a few personal details with reference to Tiberius, both on
this campaign and on the subsequent one in Germany after the Varian
disaster, which are worth quoting.
“During the whole of the war in Germany and Pannonia, no one of us or
of those above or below our rank was ever ill without finding that
his health and safety were attended to by the care of Cæsar, in such
a way that his mind seemed to be so free from the weight of all its
other burdens as to be concentrated on this task alone. For those who
desired it there was a composite vehicle ready, his litter assigned
to the general benefit, whose advantages I experienced along with
others; physicians, food, all the apparatus of a bath, carried for this
purpose alone, were ready for every invalid; home and servants alone
were wanting, but nothing was missing which they could supply or need.
I will add a fact which everybody who was present at that time will
recognize at once along with other things which I have related; he
alone always rode, always dined sitting along with his guests during
the greater part of the summer campaigns; he was indulgent to breaches
of discipline, provided there was no bad example; he frequently
advised, sometimes reproved, very rarely punished, and took a middle
course, being blind to most faults, checking others.”
This is the first mention of a field hospital, reserved, apparently,
for the use of the staff and their attendants. Other Roman generals
took an elaborate bath establishment with them on their campaigns for
their own use: Tiberius utilized it only for the sickness of others.
Other generals travelled in carts or on a litter: Tiberius always rode.
He took his meals like an active man in a sitting posture, not lying at
full length after the customary Roman fashion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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