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 was the reduction of the coast of Lower Germany as far as the Visurgis. In the next year (11 B.C.) he determined to follow this up by the reduction of the inland regions in the same direction. For this purpose he had to choose another way. The chief military station on the Lower Rhine was at this time Castra Vetera, situated not far from the mouth of the Luppia. Starting from there in spring, the legions crossed the Rhine, subdued once more the unruly Usipetes, threw a bridge across the Luppia and entered the land of the Sugambri. In order to advance eastward it was necessary to secure the tranquility of these troublesome tribes in the rear. Then following the course of the Luppia, Drusus advanced into the land of the Cherusci (the modern Westphalia), as far as the banks of the Visurgis. It was thought that the Sugambri might have thrown obstacles in the way of this achievement, but they were fully occupied by a war with their southern neighbors, the Chatti, who dwelled about the Taunus Mountains. Want of supplies and the approach of winter prevented the Romans from crossing the Visurgis. In returning, they fell into a snare, which, but for the skill of the general and the discipline of the soldiers, would have proved fatal. At a place named Arbalo, which cannot be identified, they were surrounded in a narrow pass by an ambushed enemy. But the Germans, confident in their own position, and regarding the Romans as lost men, took no precautions in attacking; and the legions cut their way through, and reached the Luppia in safety. On the banks of that river, at the point where it receives the waters of the Aliso, Drusus erected a fort, as an advanced position in this country, which was yet to be thoroughly subdued. This fort, also named Aliso, perhaps corresponds to the modern Elsen, the river being the Alme. About the same time another fort was established on Mount Taunus, in the territory of the Chatti, whom the Romans drove out of their own land into that of the Sugambri. The following year (10 B.C.) seems to have been occupied with the subjugation of the Chatti, who were fighting to recover their old homes between the Laugonna and the Moenus (Main). During this year Drusus possessed the proconsular power—that is the secondary imperium, as it is called, subordinate to that of the Emperor—which had been conferred upon him by designation in the previous year. Soon afterwards, perhaps in the following year, along with his brother Tiberius he received the title of imperator.
While Drusus was thus actively accomplishing his great design of a Roman Germany, he was not neglectful of the defence of the Rhine, which was secured by a line of fifty forts on the left bank, between the sea and Vindonissa. The chief station of the Lower Rhine was Castra Vetera; of the Upper, Moguntiacum (Mainz), probably founded by Drusus. Among the most important stations, which were established either at this time or not much later, were Argentoratum (Strasbourg), the southern Noviomagus, which corresponds to Speyer, Borbetomagus (Worms), Bingium (Bingen), Bonna (Bonn); the northern Noviomagus, which is still Nimeguen, and the northern Lugudumim on the Rhine, which has become Leyden, in contrast with its southern namesake on the Rhone, which has been transformed into the softer rayons.
In the following year the victorious young general, who might now lay claim to the title of “subduer of Germany”, entered upon his first consulship. Bad omens at Rome in the beginning of the year did not hinder the consul from setting forth in spring, to carry on his work beyond the Rhine. This time he was bent on a further progress than he had yet achieved. Hitherto he had not advanced beyond the Visurgis; it seemed now high time to press forward to the Albis itself. Starting probably from Moguntiacum he passed through the subject land of the Chatti and entered the borders of the Suevi. Then taking a northerly direction, he reached the Cherusci and the banks of the Visurgis, and crossing that river marched to the Albis, hitting it perhaps somewhere in the neighborhood of the modern Magdeburg. Of his adventures on this march nothing is definitely recorded, except that the Romans wasted the land and that there were some bloody conflicts. On the bank of the Albis he erected a trophy, marking the limit of Roman progress. A strange and striking story was told of something said to have befallen him there, and to have moved him to retreat. A woman of greater than human stature stood in his way and motioned him back. “Whither so fast, insatiable Drusus ? It is not given to thee to see all these things. Back! for the end of thy works and thy life is at hand”.
And