The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
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missiles, but could not provoke the Romans to enter the marsh. When the missiles were spent, they drew nearer, and with long lances pierced the front ranks of the soldiers, who were slipping and tottering on the margin of the morass, and could not with their shorter weapons reach the assailants. Then a column of the Bructeri, who were stationed on the right bank of the river, swam across from the mole already mentioned, and fell upon the right wing of the Romans. The cohorts seem to have had the worst of it all along the line, but the legions, when it came to their turn, stood their ground. The battle was decided by the interposition of a Batavian deserter, under whose guidance two squadrons of cavalry went round by the extremity of the marsh, where there was solid ground and the Cugerni were keeping careless watch, and attacked the enemy in the rear. The legions at the same time pressed on more vigorously in front, and the Germans fled to the river. The approach of night and the nature of the ground prevented a pursuit.
After this defeat Civilis could no longer hold his position on the Rhine. He made no attempt to defend the “town of the Batavians”, which is perhaps the modern Cleves, but retreated into the island. He destroyed the dam of the Rhine, begun by Drusus and finished in the reign of Nero (55 A.D.), which was intended to divert the waters of the left arm of the river into the right or eastern channel. When it was broken down, the waters plunged into the left channel, called the Vahalis, and the right channel, or the Rhine proper, was rendered shallow. The result of this act of Civilis was that the Island of the Batavians was made, as it were, part of Germany—a trans-Rhenane land; instead of being, as before, a part of Gaul. The remnant of the “empire of the Gauls”,— Tutor, Classicus, and more than a hundred Treveran senators—also found refuge in the home of Civilis, which was now “beyond the Rhine”. Cerealis led his forces down the river, and occupied various posts. The Xth was stationed at Arenacum (the village of Ryndern, near Cleves), the IInd at Batavodurum (near Nymwegen), while cohorts and aim of the auxiliaries were sent to Grinnes and Vada, places close to each other on the Vahalis. Cerealis himself probably made the “town of the Batavians” his headquarters. Civilis divided his forces into four parts, to attack these posts of the Romans. The assault on Vada he undertook himself, Grinnes was assigned to Classicus; while Tutor and Verax, a nephew of Civilis, marched against Arenacum and Batavodurum. The assault on Arenacum resulted in the slaughter of the prefect of the camp and some officers and soldiers. At Batavodurum, where the Romans were building a bridge across the river, there was an indecisive skirmish. On the Vahalis the fighting was more serious. Julius Briganticus, another nephew of Civilis, but his bitter foe and a faithful adherent of the Romans, was slain; and the Germans, reinforced by Tutor and Verax, were winning the day, when the arrival of Cerealis with a band of cavalry decided the battle in favor of the Romans. The enemy were driven into the river. Civilis and Verax escaped by swimming, and Tutor and Classicus were rescued by boats. They would have been captured if the Roman fleet had come in time.
The conduct of the campaign by Cerealis had been marked by great want of caution and great good-luck. He did not mature his plans, and yet they generally succeeded; fortune favored him when he ought to have failed. But his carelessness about details of discipline proved almost fatal to him a few days after the victory of Vada. New camps were being constructed at Novaesium and Bonna, as winter was approaching, and Cerealis sailed up the Rhine to inspect them. An escort of foot accompanied him, marching along the banks, and, as he was returning, the trans-Rhenane Germans—Tencteri and Bructeri, doubtless—who were on the watch, observed that the soldiers did not keep together, and were careless about their night encampments. Choosing a dark night, they entered the camp, cut the ropes of some of the tents, and massacred the soldiers who were unable to extricate themselves. They also dragged away the vessels, including the “praetorian ship” of the commander, which was towed up the Luppia, and presented as a gift to Veleda. The cause of this disaster was that the watch had fallen asleep, having been ordered not to sound the bucina or trumpet, lest they should disturb Cerealis, who was engaged in a love adventure somewhere in the neighborhood.
Civilis soon abandoned the defence of the Vahalis and retreated beyond the true Rhine into the country of the Frisians. The Romans then crossed the Vahalis, and laid waste the Batavian Island, sparing, however, the private possessions of Civilis, in order to excite the suspicions of his countrymen, just as Archidamus had spared the property of Pericles in the Peloponnesian war, and Hannibal that of Fabius Maximus. But the Batavians were ready to return to their allegiance; the trans-Rhenanes were ready to make peace; and Civilis, seeing the inclinations of his followers, resolved to save his own life by capitulation. He sought an interview with Cerealis. A bridge across the river Nabalia—perhaps the Yssel or the Vecht—was severed in the centre, and the two leaders conversed from the broken extremities, and made their terms. No record remains as to the ultimate fate of Civilis or of his Gallic allies, Classicus and Tutor. The Batavians resumed the same position which they had held before; they paid no tribute, but were largely employed as auxiliaries. The submission of the trans-Rhenane Germans, who took part in the war, is shown by the fact that the prophetess Veleda was conveyed as a captive to Rome. We may take it for granted that Mucianus, who along with the Emperor’s son Domitian had come to Lugudunum, in order to be near the scene of operations, had a decisive voice in making the final negotiations.
The revolt of Civilis could never have taken place but for the strange position in which the Roman Empire was placed after the death of Nero. It was a direct consequence of the action of the Germanic legions, and is merely another act of the same drama to which the civil wars in Italy belonged. It exhibits the mistrust of officers and relaxation of discipline which generally prevailed. If the legions asserted at Betriacum their part in the Empire, the auxiliary troops asserted themselves in the movement of Civilis. It was primarily a rebellion of the auxiliaries, but it involved in its train aggressions of the free Germans beyond the Rhine, and the attempt to set up a Gallic empire. Civilis has been called a successor of Arminius, and Arminius, like him, had been an officer in the Roman army. But it must be remembered that the Cheruscans were only tributaries, and did not, like the Batavians, supply the army with recruits. The Batavian war was properly a revolt within the army itself, though it accidentally assumed larger proportions.
Civilis has also been called a successor of Vindex, but this is due to a misconception. Civilis indeed used the name of Vespasian, as Vindex used the name of Galba; but the idea which, according to all appearance, Vindex cherished of making a Gallic kingdom was renewed, not by Civilis, but by Classicus, Tutor, and Sabinus. The Batavians and the Gauls had a common interest in their hostility to Rome, and so far they co-operated; but Civilis had nothing to do with the imperium Galliarum. It is remarkable, however, that the states which took the leading part in establishing the Gallic kingdom, at which Vindex had aimed, were the Treveri and Lingones, the very people who had refused to join his enterprise, and had sided with Verginius Rufus against him. On the other hand, the Sequani, who had supported the cause of the Aquitanians, declined to move when the same cause was represented by Treverans and Lingons. The events of the rebellion show clearly that the Gauls in general, apart from a few disaffected tribes, had come to see that their true interests were best served by remaining faithful to Rome. They saw that to win freedom by the help of Germans beyond the Rhine would only bring upon them a new Ariovistus. It should also be remarked that the part played by the free Germans was a small one. The revolt only affected those tribes which dwelled close to the Roman limes, and did not call forth any movement in central Germany. Moreover, the motive which attracted the Bructeri and Tencteri to the Batavian standard was rather the hope of immediate plunder than the expectation of any lasting success against the Roman power.
When the revolt was quelled, Vespasian adopted the wise policy of letting bygones be bygones. It was of course impossible to ignore the conduct of the Germanic legionaries, who had failed so signally in meeting the responsibility which had fallen to their share—who had taken the oath of allegiance to the Julius of Trier. The four legions of the Lower province (I., V., XV., XVI.) and one legion of the Upper (IV. Macedonica) were broken up; the XXIInd, the legion of Vocula, was pardoned. But Vespasian had learned a lesson from the rebellion, and he made a very important change in the organization of the auxilia. The cohorts and alas no longer consisted of men of the same nation. Batavians and Treverans, for example, were scattered among all the auxiliary regiments indifferently. Moreover, the command of the auxiliaries was no longer entrusted to natives, like Arminius and Civilis, but to men of Italian origin; and these troops were not employed