The Historians' History of the World 06 [The Early Roman Empire]

Drusus

(From a bronze in the Louvre Museum)

[11-9 B.C.]

To secure a strong base for his campaigns of conquest Drusus, after a personal interview with his imperial father, had great fortifications constructed the next year on the German river. The banks of the Rhine were lined with more than fifty castella, of which the most important, situated opposite the standing camp of Mogontiacum (Mainz), grew into a town in course of time; Bonn was connected by a bridge with the right bank of the royal stream, the high angle between the Rhine, the Main, and the Lahn was guarded by a series of lines on the Taunus which still proclaim their first framer in their name of “Drususgraben.” They formed the basis of that great frontier rampart which in later days divided Roman territory from free Germania.

After these preparations Drusus undertook his third campaign against middle Germany. Assisted by the warlike Nervii and other Gallic auxiliaries and allied with the Frisians, who supplied him with necessaries, the bold leader advanced northeastwards along the right bank of the Main, defeated the Chatti in a sanguinary pitched battle, penetrated across the Werra and through the Hercynian forest (Thüringerwald) into the country of the Cherusci, and reached the western bank of the Elbe, passing through tracts which no Roman had ever trod, to tribes which had never heard the Roman name. Dion repeats a legend of how, when Drusus was preparing to cross this distant stream, he was met by a woman of superhuman stature, who addressed him in Latin, saying: “Whither, O Drusus, thou insatiable one? It is not allotted to thee by fate to see all this; turn back, already thou standest at the term of thy life and of thy deeds!” He hastened back on account of the approach of winter, but he was never to see the Rhine again. He died on the way back; of sickness according to some, according to others from the results of a fracture of the leg caused by the fall of his horse. He died in the thirtieth year of his age, in the arms of his brother Tiberius, who had hastened to meet him. His body was borne with great pomp and mourning through Gaul and Italy to Rome, where it was committed to a funeral pyre on the Field of Mars and the ashes interred in the imperial vault. An altar in the neighbourhood of the Lippe, a statue in military attire, together with an empty sepulchral monument at Mainz (the remains of which are said still to be preserved in the “Eichelstein”) around which the legions every year celebrated the anniversary of his death with funeral games, and a triumphal arch on the Appian way, were intended to preserve for all time the memory of the brave and beloved prince who was the first of all the Romans to press forward to the Elbe. The title of “Germanicus” Conqueror of the Germans, which Augustus had bestowed upon him, passed over to his son.

[9 B.C.-5 A.D.]

The place of the heroic Drusus was taken by his brother Tiberius. The latter, in accordance with his character, chose the paths of cunning, treachery, and prudent negotiation, and by these means gained more than his knightly brother had won by force of arms. It was through his agency that the German tribes, including even the Sugambri who had at first refused, sent a number of distinguished chiefs with proposals of peace to the emperor when he was staying in Gaul. In defiance of honour and justice they were arrested and carried in custody to Gallic cities, where they took their own lives. By this perfidious deed the Romans gained their end. Tiberius took advantage of the consternation of the Germans to lead his legions straight over the Rhine. At variance among themselves and deprived of their chiefs and leaders, the German tribes could offer no permanent resistance to the invader. Victoriously the general traversed the devastated districts, and by the might of his legions and the terror of the Roman name succeeded in making the inhabitants bow amazed and hopeless to superior might (though not till after forty thousand of them, Sugambri for the most part, had been carried away and settled on the left side of the beautiful river). A Roman governorship was then established between Rhine and Weser.

The events of the next few years are shrouded in obscurity. The triumph that Tiberius celebrated for his German victory was likewise the beginning of the imperial displeasure which kept him for seven years at Rhodes. During this period rumour is silent on German affairs; one campaign only is mentioned, that of Domitius Ahenobarbus, a haughty, arrogant, and overbearing man. He crossed the Elbe, the eastern bank of which he adorned with an altar to Augustus; assigned dwelling-places in south Germany, between the Main and Danube, to the German tribe of the Hermunduri; and began the construction of the “long bridges,” those causeways of piles between the Rhine and Weser, which were to facilitate the junction of the legions across the bogs and marshes which abounded in that insecure ground. Both Domitius and his successor Vinicius won triumphal honours by their exploits, but we have no information concerning the particulars of their achievements. The fact that Augustus expressly forbade the crossing of the Elbe would seem to indicate that up to that time such enterprises had been unsuccessful.