XXI.
Plus discriminis apud Grinnes Vadamque. Vadam Civilis, Grinnes Classicus obpugnabant: nec sisti poterant interfecto fortissimo quoque, in quis Briganticus praefectus alae ceciderat, quem fidum Romanis et Civili avunculo infensum diximus. Sed ubi Cerialis cum delecta equitum manu subvenit, versa fortuna; praecipites Germani in amnem aguntur. Civilis dum fugientis retentat, agnitus petitusque telis relicto equo transnatavit; idem Veraci effugium: Tutorem Classicumque adpulsae luntres vexere. Ne tum quidem Romana classis pugnae adfuit, et iussum erat, sed obstitit formido et remiges per alia militiae munia dispersi. Sane Cerialis parum temporis ad exequenda imperia dabat, subitus consiliis set eventu clarus: aderat fortuna, etiam ubi artes defuissent; hinc ipsi exercituique minor cura disciplinae. Et paucos post dies, quamquam periculum captivitatis evasisset, infamiam non vitavit.
21.
The situation was more critical at Grinnes and at Vada, the first under attack by Classicus, the latter by Civilis. It was impossible to contain their assault: the bravest of the defenders had been killed, among them the squadron commander Brigantibus, loyal to the Romans and, as I have said, the implacable enemy of his uncle. But Cerialis’ intervention with a picked body of cavalry turned fortune in our favor and the routed Germans were pushed into the river. Civilis, recognized while endeavoring to hold back the fugitives and made the target of our missiles, abandoned his horse and swam across the Rhine. Verax saved himself in the same manner. As for Tutor and Classicus, some boats that had come up took them to the other side. Not even then did the Roman fleet participate in the battle, in spite of orders to that effect, but faintheartedness and the dispersal of rowers on other assignments prevented compliance. To be sure, Cerialis usually allowed little time for orders to be implemented, being a man of abrupt decisions, but brilliant in achieving success. Fortune seconded him, even when his tactics had failed, and for this reason he and his army were rather casual about discipline. A few days later, however, he narrowly escaped the danger of being captured, but not without incurring the blame.
XXII.
Profectus Novaesium Bonnamque ad visenda castra, quae hiematuris legionibus erigebantur, navibus remeabat disiecto agmine, incuriosis vigiliis. Animadversum id Germanis et insidias composuere: electa nox atra nubibus, et prono amne rapti nullo prohibente vallum ineunt. Prima caedes astu adiuta: incisis tabernaculorum funibus suismet tentoriis coopertos trucidabant. Aliud agmen turbare classem, inicere vincla, trahere puppis; utque ad fallendum silentio, ita coepta caede, quo plus terroris adderent, cuncta clamoribus miscebant. Romani vulneribus exciti quaerunt arma, ruunt per vias, pauci ornatu militari, plerique circum brachia torta veste et strictis mucronibus. Dux semisomnus ac prope intectus errore hostium servatur: namque praetoriam navem vexillo insignem, illic ducem rati, abripiunt. Cerialis alibi noctem egerat, ut plerique credidere, ob stuprum Claudiae Sacratae mulieris Vbiae. Vigiles flagitium suum ducis dedecore excusabant, tamquam iussi silere ne quietem eius turbarent; ita intermisso signo et vocibus se quoque in somnum lapsos. Multa luce revecti hostes captivis navibus, praetoriam triremem flumine Lupia donum Veledae traxere.
22.
He had gone to Novaesium and Bonna to inspect the winter quarters that were then being set up for the legions and was returning with the fleet. The convoy was advancing in confused order and his guards were anything but vigilant. The Germans saw this and set up an ambush. They picked a gloomy cloudy night and, carried swiftly by the current down the river, managed to slip inside the camp unopposed. The butchery was first aided by a trick: they cut the ropes of the tents, then killed those inside, trapped under their own roof. Another group caused mayhem among the fleet, threw grappling hooks on the ships and dragged them off by the sterns. As silence had favored surprise, so once the carnage started, they added to the chaos with their shouting, to spread more panic. Stung awake by wounds, the Romans rushed to find their weapons, then dashed through the streets of the camp, a few properly dressed and armed, most with their clothes wrapped around their wrists and swords drawn. Cerialis, half asleep and almost naked, came through unscathed only thanks to a blunder of the enemy, for they dragged off the praetorian vessel –recognizable by its standards—thinking he was on board. He had spent the night elsewhere, many believed in the embraces of Claudia Sacrata, a Ubian woman. The sentries placed the blame of their negligence on the reprehensible behaviour of the commander, maintaining they had orders to keep silent so as not to disturb his sleep. Thus, the trumpet calls and the sentries’ cries having been suspended, they too had drifted off to sleep. The enemy retreated in the captured ships when it was full daylight and pulled the praetorian trireme up the river Lippe to be offered as a gift to Veleda.
XXIII.
Civilem cupido incessit navalem aciem ostentandi: complet quod biremium quaeque simplici ordine agebantur; adiecta ingens luntrium vis, tricenos quadragenosque ferunt, armamenta Liburnicis solita; et simul captae luntres sagulis versicoloribus haud indecore pro velis iuvabantur. Spatium velut aequoris electum quo Mosae fluminis os amnem Rhenum Oceano adfundit. Causa instruendae classis super insitam genti vanitatem ut eo terrore commeatus Gallia adventantes interciperentur. Cerialis miraculo magis quam metu derexit classem, numero imparem, usu remigum, gubernatorum arte, navium magnitudine potiorem. His flumen secundum, illi vento agebantur: sic praevecti temptato levium telorum iactu dirimuntur. Civilis nihil ultra ausus trans Rhenum concessit: Cerialis insulam Batavorum hostiliter populatus agros villasque Civilis intactas nota arte ducum sinebat, cum interim flexu autumni et crebris per aequinoctium imbribus superfusus amnis palustrem humilemque insulam in faciem stagni opplevit. Nec classis aut commeatus aderant, castraque in plano sita vi fluminis differebantur.
23.
Civilis now felt the desire to show off his naval power. He equipped all the biremes he had and even the vessels with a single bank of oars. To these he added a large number of boats [each carrying] thirty or forty men, the usual complement of a Liburnian galley; at the same time, he fitted the boats he had captured with multicolored blankets to serve as sails and make for an impressive display. The place selected for the demonstration was like an arm of the sea, where the mouth of the Meuse empties the Rhine into the ocean. Civilis’ intent in parading his fleet, over and above the vanity inherent in these people, was to use that as a deterrent to the flow of supplies from Gaul. Cerialis, more amazed than alarmed at the sight, mustered his ships, smaller in numbers but manned by better trained oarsmen, more experienced pilots, and of larger size. Our fleet was helped by the current, theirs was propelled by the wind. Thus, the two fleets, [sailing in opposite directions], crossed each other then separated after a half-hearted exchange of light missiles. Civilis ventured nothing further and withdrew across the Rhine. Cerialis ravaged the island of the Batavi with unrelenting fury, but left Civilis’s farms and buildings untouched, in keeping with the time-honored tactic of field commanders. Meanwhile, with the change in weather in late autumn and the abundant equinoctial rains, the Rhine overflowed its banks and flooded the island, already low-lyings and swampy, transforming it into a lake. Neither ships nor transport vehicles were at hand, and the Roman camps, situated on low ground, were being swept away by the force of the current.
XXIV.
Potuisse tunc opprimi legiones et voluisse Germanos, sed dolo a se flexos imputavit Civilis; neque abhorret vero, quando paucis post diebus deditio insecuta est. Nam Cerialis per occultos nuntios Batavis pacem, Civili veniam ostentans, Veledam propinquosque monebat fortunam belli, tot cladibus adversam, opportuno erga populum Romanum merito mutare: caesos Treviros, receptos Vbios, ereptam Batavis patriam; neque aliud Civilis amicitia partum quam vulnera fugas luctus. Exulem eum et extorrem recipientibus oneri, et satis peccavisse quod totiens Rhenum transcenderint. Si quid ultra moliantur, inde iniuriam et culpam, hinc ultionem et deos fore.
24.
Civilis claimed afterwards that at that moment he could have wiped out the legions and that in fact it had been the Germans’ intention to do so, but that he had artfully prevented them. Nor was he too short of the truth, since a few days later he surrendered. Indeed, Cerialis had made, by secret messages, overtures of peace to the Batavi and offers of pardon to Civilis, while admonishing Veleda and her associates to alter the fortunes of war –adverse to them on so many disastrous occasions—by rendering a timely service to the Roman people. The Treveri had been overthrown, [he urged], the Ubii’s loyalty to Rome restored, the Batavi left without a homeland: the friendship of Civilis had won them nothing but injuries, defeats, and loss of loved ones. He was a banished man, a fugitive, a burden to those sheltering him. They were culpable enough already, having crossed the Rhine so often. If they offended further, the fault and the guilt would lie on their side, on the Romans’ the vengeance of the gods.
XXV.
Miscebantur minis promissa; et concussa Transrhenanorum fide inter Batavos quoque sermones orti: non prorogandam ultra ruinam, nec posse ab una natione totius orbis servitium depelli. Quid profectum caede et incendiis legionum nisi ut plures validioresque accirentur? Si Vespasiano bellum navaverint, Vespasianum rerum potiri: sin populum Romanum armis vocent, quotam partem generis humani Batavos esse? Respicerent Raetos Noricosque et ceterorum onera sociorum: sibi non tributa, sed virtutem et viros indici. Proximum id libertati; et si dominorum electio sit, honestius principes Romanorum quam Germanorum feminas tolerari. Haec vulgus, proceres atrociora: Civilis rabie semet in arma trusos; illum domesticis malis excidium gentis opposuisse. Tunc infensos Batavis deos, cum obsiderentur legiones, interficerentur legati, bellum uni necessarium, ferale ipsis sumeretur. Ventum ad extrema, ni resipiscere incipiant et noxii capitis poena paenitentiam fateantur.
25.
The messages mixed threats with promises and once the loyalty of the Germans across the Rhine began to waver, complaints were heard from the Batavi themselves. Their misery, [they murmured], ought not to be prolonged; their nation alone could not eliminate slavery in the entire world. What had they achieved by massacring the legions and burning their camp, except to have more and stronger forces brought in? If it was for Vespasian that they had waged war, Vespasian now owned the world. But if it was the Roman people they were provoking to battle, what were the Batavi but a minute part of mankind? They should look at the Raetians, at the people of Noricum and consider the tribute other allies had to shoulder. No tribute was demanded of them, only brave men. That was the nearest thing to independence, and if they were to choose their masters, it was more manly to endure Roman emperors than German females. Such were the sentiments of the people; the nobles said harsher things: they had been pushed to war, they said, by Civilis’ madness; that man had sought the ruin of his nation as a counterweight to his own misfortunes. The gods had turned against the Batavi from the time they besieged the legions, put to death the legates, and embarked on a war useful to one man only and disastrous to the rest of them. Now they had reached the end of the road, unless they recovered their sanity and openly professed repentance by punishing the head that bore the blame.
XXVI.
Non fefellit Civilem ea inclinatio et praevenire statuit, super taedium malorum etiam spe vitae, quae plerumque magnos animos infringit. Petito conloquio scinditur Nabaliae fluminis pons, in cuius abrupta progressi duces, et Civilis ita coepit: ‘si apud Vitellii legatum defenderer, neque facto meo venia neque dictis fides debebatur; cuncta inter nos inimica: hostilia ab illo coepta, a me aucta erant: erga Vespasianum vetus mihi observantia, et cum privatus esset, amici vocabamur. Hoc Primo Antonio notum, cuius epistulis ad bellum actus sum, ne Germanicae legiones et Gallica iuventus Alpis transcenderent. Quae Antonius epistulis, Hordeonius Flaccus praesens monebat: arma in Germania movi, quae Mucianus in Syria, Aponius in Moesia, Flavianus in Pannonia * * * ‘
26.
This change of attitude did not escape Civilis, so he decided to stay ahead of it. Beside being tired of struggling, he had hopes to live, a state of mind that often breaks great souls. Having requested a conference [with Cerialis], the bridge over the Nobalia river was cut in two, and the two generals advanced [from opposite sides] to the cut end. Civilis began his delivery thus: ‘If I were defending myself before one of Vitellius’ legates, my actions ought to deserve [from him} no leniency nor my words credibility. We were enemies, pure and simple: he had begun hostilities and I aggravated them, but my deference to Vespasian goes far back and, as long as he was a private citizen, we were called friends. This Primus Antonius knew full well, by whose letters I was prevailed to go to war to stop the legions of Germany and the youth of Gaul from crossing the Alps. And what Antonius advised in his letters, Hordeonius Flaccus told me in person. I took up arms in Germany as Mucianus did in Syria, Aponius in Moesia, Flavianus in Pannonia …’