The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Six
P. CORNELII TACITI |
PUBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS |
LIBER I |
BOOK I |
| ...Ductum inde agmen ad ultimos Bructerorum, quantumque Amisiam et Lupiam amnis inter vastatum, haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu, in quo reliquiae Vari legionumque insepultae dicebantur. | 60 ...From there the army was led to the borderlands of the Bructerians; and so much was destroyed between the Amisia (now Ems) and the Lupia (now Lippe) rivers, not far from the Teutoburg forests in which the remains of Varus and his legions were said to be unburied. |
| LXI. Igitur cupido Caesarem invadit solvendi suprema militibus ducique, permoto ad miserationem omni qui aderat exercitu ob propinquos, amicos, denique ob casus bellorum et sortem hominum. Praemisso Caecina, ut occulta saltuum scrutaretur pontesque et aggeres umido paludum et fallacibus campis inponeret, incedunt maestos locos visuque ac memoria deformis. Prima Vari castra lato ambitu et dimensis principiis trium legionum manus ostentabant; dein semiruto vallo, humili fossa accisae iam reliquiae consedisse intellegebantur: medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disiecta vel aggerata. Adiacebant fragmina telorum equorum- que artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora. Lucis propinquis barbarae arae, apud quas tribunos ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant. Et cladis eius superstites, pugnam aut vincula elapsi, referebant hic cecidisse legatos, illic raptas aquilas; primum ubi vulnus Varo adactum, ubi infelici dextera et suo ictu mortem invenerit; quo tribunali contionatus Arminius, quot patibula captivis, quae scrobes, utque signis et aquilis per superbiam inluserit. | 61. Therefore, a desire of paying last respects to the soldiers and their leader comes on Caesar, since all the army that was present was moved to pity towards their kinsmen, towards their friends, and finally towards the misfortunes of war and the lot of men. After Caecina was sent out so that he might explore the secret places of the forests and set up bridges and causeways on the wet place of the swamps and on the false fields, they approach the places sad and hideous both in sight and in memory. Varus' first camp with its wide circuit and measured head- quarters showed the handiwork of three legions. Then, by means of the half- demolished palisade and the shallow ditch, the rest of the soldiers, now reduced in number, were perceived to have taken up a position. In the middle of the field were the whitening bones, scattered as the men had fled, or heaped up as they had resisted. Pieces of spears and legs of horses added to this; at the same time skulls had been nailed on the trunks of trees. In nearby groves were barbaric altars upon which they had sacrificed the tribunes and the centurions of the first rank. And the survivors of this disaster, having escaped the fight or chains, told that here the legates had fallen, there the eagles had been taken. They told where the first wound was inflicted on Varus, where he found death by his unhappy right hand and his own blow. They told from which platform Herman made his speech, how many gallows there were for the captives, what pits there were, and how with arrogance Herman mocked the standards and the eagles. |
| LXII. Igitur Romanus qui aderat exercitus, sextum post cladis annum, trium legionum ossa, nullo noscente alienas reliquias an suorum humo tegeret, omnis ut coniunctos, ut consanguineos, aucta in hostem ira, maesti simul et infensi condebant. Primum exstruendo tumulo caespitem Caesar posuit, gratissimo munere in defunctos et praesentibus doloris socius. Quod Tiberio haud probatum, seu cuncta Germanici in deterius trahenti, sive exercitum imagine caesorum insepult- orumque tardatum ad proelia et formi- dolosiorem hostem credebat; neque imperatorem auguratu et vetustissimis caerimoniis praeditum adtrectare feralia debuisse. | 62. Therefore, the Roman army that was present after the sixth year of the disaster buried the bones of the three legions. Since no one knew whether he buried foreign remains or those of his own in the earth, although their anger against the enemy was increased, sad and at the same time hostile they buried all as friends, as kinsmen. Caesar placed the first piece of turf for raising a burial mound by way of a most pleasing gift to those having died and sharing the grief for those present. And this thing was not approved by Tiberius either interpreting all things of Germanicus unfavorably, or because he believed that the army had been hindered for battles and was more fearful of the enemy because of the image of those killed and unburied. And he believed that an imperator endowed with the office of an augur and the oldest ceremonies ought not to have handled dead things. |