Chapter IX.
The Winning and Losing of Germany — Death of Augustus
SECT. I. — THE CONQUEST OF GERMANY
The subject of the present chapter is the story of the Roman Germany that might have been. Caesar’s conquest of Gaul pointed beyond the limits of that country to further conquests; it pointed beyond the sea, to the island of the north, and eastward beyond the Rhine, to the forests of central Europe.
Caesar had shown the way to the conquest of Britain, he had likewise crossed the Rhine. As far as Britain was concerned, Augustus did not follow out the suggestions of his “father”; that enterprise was reserved for one of his successors. But in regard to Germany he was persuaded to act otherwise. The advance of the Roman frontier from the Rhine to the Albis (Elbe), and the subjugation of the intervening peoples, must have seemed from a military point of view good policy. The line of frontier to be defended would thus be lessened. The defence of the Upper Danube, from Vindonissa on the Rhine to Lauriacum would not be needed, and the Albis would take the place of the Rhine. This project of extending the Empire to the Albis, into which perhaps the cautious Emperor was persuaded by the ardor of his favorite stepson Drusus, was well begun and seemingly certain of success, when it was cut short by an untoward accident, if there was not some deeper cause in the hidden counsels of the Roman government. But the winning and losing of Germany is a most interesting episode, giving us our earliest glimpse of the rivers and forests of central Europe.
Caesar in his Commentaries has given a brief sketch of the political and social life of the Germans in general, and of the Suevians in particular. This sketch, though somewhat vague and doubtless derived chiefly from the information of Gauls, is valuable as the earliest picture of the life of our forefathers, and one written by a great statesman. He describes them as a hardy, laborious and temperate people, dividing their life between hunting and warlike exercises. They practice agriculture but little, and subsist chiefly on flesh, milk, and cheese. No one possesses a permanent lot of land; but the chiefs assign a certain portion of land every year, and for only one year’s occupancy, to the several communities which form a civitas. At the end of each year the allotments are given up, and each community moves elsewhere. For this custom several reasons were given, of which the most important were that the people might not by permanent settlement become agricultural and give up warfare; that the more powerful might not drive the weaker from their possessions; and that the mass of the people might be contented. The territory of each tribe is isolated from those of its neighbors by a surrounding strip of devastated unpeopled land. This is a safeguard against sudden attack. In time of war special commanders are chosen; but in time of peace, there is no central or supreme magistracy in the state, but the chiefs of the various districts (pagi) or tribal subdivisions, administer justice. The Suovi had a hundred pagi, of which each furnished a thousand man to the military host; the rest stayed at home and provided food for the warriors. The next year the warriors returned home and tilled the land, while those who had stayed at home the previous year took their places.
From this sketch it may be inferred that the tribes known by Caesar “were in a state of transition from the nomadic life to that of settled cultivation”. Some tribes must have been in a more advanced stage of development than others; and this development must have been proceeding during the age of Augustus. But we have no means of tracing it.
The first disturbance in Gaul after the battle of Actium was the revolt of the Celtic Morini, in the neighborhood of Gesoriacum (Boulogne); and their rebellion, perhaps, was in some way connected with the invasion of the German Suevians from beyond the Rhine, in the same year (29 B.C.). The Suevians were driven back, and the Morini subdued by Gaius Carrinas; while Nonius Callus, about the same time, suppressed a rising of the Treveri, on the Musella. The following years were marked by those measures of organization in Gaul, which have been mentioned already (Chap. VI.). There seems to have been a good deal of oppression in the taxation, and dissatisfaction among the provincials. In 25 B.C. German invaders came from beyond the Rhine, and were repulsed by M. Vinicius; but we know not whether they came by the invitation of Roman subjects. More alarming was the invasion which took place nine years later. Sugambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri, tribes whose homes were on the right bank of the lower Rhine, crossed the river on an expedition of plunder, and inflicted a defeat on the legatus, M. Lollius, carrying off the eagle of the Vth legion. This event was not a very serious loss, but it was a serious disgrace. Augustus hastened to Gaul himself, taking Tiberius with him; the question of the defence of the northern frontiers was becoming serious. Tiberius was appointed to the military command in Gaul, and offensive operations were begun by the annexation of Noricum and the conquest of Raetia and Vindelicia.
In 12 B.C. Drusus succeeded his brother as commander of the Rhine army. He was a brilliant young man, hardly twenty-five years old, handsome, brave, and popular; of winning manners worshipped by the soldiers; ardent and bold, but a sagacious leader. He lost no time in setting about the accomplishment of his scheme of conquest beyond the Rhine; and the occasion was given to him by the hostilities of the Sugambri and their confederates. Having inaugurated the altar of Augustus at Lugudunum, and thus called forth a display of loyal sentiment in Gaul, he proceeded to the lower Rhine, threw a bridge across the river, and entered the land of the Usipetes, who had already begun hostilities. This tribe dwelled on the northern bank of the Luppia, a tributary of the Rhine, which still bears the same name in the formLippe. The lands south of the Luppia belonged to the Sugambri, and southward still as far as the Laugonna (now shortened into Lahn) dwelt the Tencteri. Having quelled the Usipetes, the Roman general marched southward to chastise the Sugambri, who, under their chieftain Melo, had begun the hostilities.
But at present his way did not lie further in that direction. His plan was to subdue the northern regions of Germany first; and he had decided that this must be done in connection with the navigation of the northern coast. There were three stages from the Rhine to the Albis. The conqueror must first advance to the Amisia, and then to the Visurgis, before he reached the Albis, his final limit. The names of these rivers, thus Latinized by Roman lips, are still the same: the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe. A canal connecting the Rhine with Lake Flevo (as the sheet of water corresponding to the Zuyder Zee was then called) was constructed by the army under Drusus, from whom it was named the Fossa Drusiana; so that the Rhine fleet could sail straight through the Lake into the German Ocean and coast along to the mouth of the Amisia. The Batavians acknowledged without resistance the lordship of Rome, and helped the troops in cutting the canal; and the Frisians, who dwelled northeast of Lake Flevo, likewise submitted to Drusus without resistance. Having thus secured the coast from the Rhine to the Amisia, he occupied the island of Burchanis (which we may certainly identify with Borkum) at the mouth of that river, and sailing up the stream, defeated the Bructeri in a naval encounter. Returning to the sea, he invaded the land of the Chauci, who inhabited the coast regions on either side of the mouth of the Visurgis; but it does not appear whether the Roman fleet sailed as far as the Visurgis, or whether Drusus advanced into the territory of the Chauci from the Amisia. In the return voyage the ships ran some danger in the treacherous shallows, but were extricated by the friendly Frisians who had accompanied the expedition on foot.
Thus the work of Drusus in the first year of his command