triumphs of Tiberius," and with peculiar praises celebrated the "glorious and immortal deeds, which with these very legions in Germany he had accomplished;" he next boasted the quiet state of things, the consent of all Italy, the loyal faith of both the Gauls: and every quarter of the Roman State exempt from disaffection and turbulence.
Thus far they listened with silence, at least with moderate murmuring; but the moment he touched their sedition and questioned, "where now was the wonted modesty of soldiers? where the glory of ancient discipline? whither had they chased their Tribunes, whither their Centurions?" to a man, they stripped themselves to the skin, and there exposed the seams of their wounds and bruises of their chastisements, in the rage of reproach. Then in the undistinguished voice of uproar, they urged "the exactions for occasional exemptions, their scanty pay, and their rigorous labours;" which they represented in a long detail: "ramparts to be reared, entrenchments digged, trees felled and drawn, forage cut and carried, fuel prepared and fetched," with every other article of toil required by the exigencies of war, or to prevent idleness in the soldiery. Above all, from the veterans arose a cry most horrible: they enumerated thirty years or upwards undergone in the service; "and besought that to men utterly spent he would administer respite, nor suffer them to be beholden to death for the last relief from their toils; but discharge them from a warfare so lasting and severe, and grant them the means of a comfortable recess." Nay, some there were who of him required the money bequeathed them by Augustus; and towards Germanicus uttering zealous vows, with omens of happy fortune, declared their cordial attachment to his cause if he would himself assume the Empire. Here, as if already stained with their treason, he leaped headlong from the Tribunal; but with swords drawn they opposed his departure, and threatened his life, if he refused to return: yet, with passionate protestations that "he would rather die than be a traitor," he snatched his sword from his side, and aiming full at his breast, would have buried it there, had not those who were next him seized his hand and by force restrained him. A cluster of soldiers in the extremity of the assembly exhorted him, nay, what is incredible to hear, some particulars advancing nearer, exhorted him to strike home: in truth one Calusidius, a common soldier, presented him his naked sword, and added, "it is sharper than your own;" a behaviour which to the rest, outrageous as they were, seemed savage, and of horrid example: hence the friends of Germanicus had time to snatch him away to his tent.
It was here consulted what remedy to apply: for it was advised, that "ministers of sedition were preparing to be despatched to the other army, to draw them too into a confederacy in the revolt; that the capital of the Ubians was destined to be sacked; and if their hands were once inured to plunder, they would break in, and ravage all Gaul." This dread was augmented by another: the enemy knew of the sedition in the Roman army, and were ready to invade the Empire, if its barrier the Rhine were left unguarded. Now, to arm the allies and the auxiliaries of Rome, and lead them against the departing legions, was to rouse a civil war: severity was dangerous: the way of largesses infamous; and alike threatening it was to the State to grant the turbulent soldiers nothing, or yield them everything. After revolving every reason and objection, the result was, to feign letters and directions from Tiberius, "that those who had served twenty years should be finally discharged; such as served sixteen be under the ensign and privileges of veterans, released from every duty but that of repulsing the enemy; and the legacy, which they demanded, should be paid and doubled."
The soldiers, who perceived that, purely to evade present difficulty, the concessions were forged, insisted to have them forthwith executed; and instantly the Tribunes despatched the discharge of the veterans: that of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters; but the fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth, refused to stir, till in that very camp they were paid; so that out of the money reserved by himself and his friends for travailing expenses, Germanicus was obliged to raise the sum. Caecina, Lieutenant-General, led the first legion and twentieth back to the capital of the Ubians: an infamous march, when the plunder of their General's coffers was carried amidst the ensigns and Roman Eagles. Germanicus, the while, proceeding to the army in higher Germany, brought the second, thirteenth, and sixteenth legions to swear allegiance without hesitation: to the fourteenth, who manifested some short suspense, he made unasked a tender of their money, and a present discharge.
But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions, and then in garrison among the Chaucians, as they began a sedition there, were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body: an execution this, commanded by Maenius, Camp-Marshal, and rather of good example, than done by competent authority. The tumult, however, swelling again with fresh rage, he fled, but was discovered; so that, finding no safety in lurking, from his own bravery he drew his defence, and declared "that to himself, who was only their Camp-Marshal, these their outrages were not done, but done to the authority of Germanicus, their General, to the majesty of Tiberius their Emperor." At the same time, braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him, he fiercely snatched the colours, faced about towards the Rhine, and pronouncing the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks, brought them back to their winter quarters, mutinous, in truth, but not daring to mutiny.
In the meantime the deputies from the Senate met Germanicus at the altar of the Ubians {Footnote: Cologne.}, whither in his return he was arrived. Two legions wintered there, the first and twentieth, with the soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans; men already under the distractions of guilt and fear: and now a new terror possessed them, that these Senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every concession which they had by sedition extorted; and, as it is the custom of the crowd to be ever charging somebody with the crimes suggested by their own false alarms, the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid upon Minutius Plancus, a Senator of consular dignity, and at the head of this deputation. In the dead of night, they began to clamour aloud for the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus, and, rushing tumultuously to his gate, burst the doors, dragged the Prince out of his bed, and, with menaces of present death, compelled him to deliver the standard. Then, as they roved about the camp, they met the deputies, who, having learnt the outrage, were hastening to Germanicus: upon them they poured a deluge of contumelies, and to present slaughter were devoting them, Plancus chiefly, whom the dignity of his character had restrained from flight; nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge than the quarters of the first legion, where, embracing the Eagle and other ensigns, he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration ever paid them. But, in spite of religion, had not Calpurnius, the Eagle-bearer, by force defeated the last violence of the assault, in the Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman People, and with his blood had been stained the inviolable altars of the Gods; a barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy. At last, day returning, when the General, and the soldiers, and their actions could be distinguished, Germanicus entered the camp, and commanding Plancus to be brought, seated him by himself upon the tribunal: he then inveighed against the late "pernicious frenzy, which in it, he said, had fatality, and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers, but by that of the angry Gods." He explained the genuine purposes of that embassy, and lamented with affecting eloquence "the outrage committed upon Plancus, altogether brutal and unprovoked; the foul violence done to the sacred person of an Ambassador, and the mighty disgrace from thence derived upon the legion." Yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than calmness, he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse.
During this affright, Germanicus was by all men censured, "that he retired not to the higher army, whence he had been sure of ready obedience, and even of succour against the revolters: already he had taken wrong measures more than enow, by discharging some, rewarding all, and other tender counsels; if he despised his own safety, yet why expose his infant son, why his wife big with child, to the fury of outrageous traitors, wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men? It became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and to the State." He was long unresolved; besides Agrippina was averse to leave him, and urged, that "she was the grand-daughter of Augustus, and it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger." But embracing her and their little son, with great tenderness and many tears, he prevailed with her to depart. Thus there marched miserably along a band of helpless women: the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive, and upon her bosom bore her infant son: about her a troop of other ladies, dragged from their husbands, and drowned
