province for themselves, though geographically a part of the African
continent, was historically regarded as a Greek island, and united in
one province with Crete. It consisted of a group of five Greek cities
with a large intermixture of Jews. Cyrene has no history in this
period, but after the siege of Jerusalem there was a terrible outburst
of Jewish fanaticism. Thousands of Roman citizens were tortured and
slain.
Perhaps no country in the world has had such a chequered and miserable
history as the pleasant island of Sicily with its rich volcanic soil.
For four hundred years it had been mainly Greek. The eastern end, at
least, had been scattered with important city-states which, under
the leadership of Syracuse, had waged incessant conflict with the
Carthaginian invaders in their western strongholds. We have seen how
the Romans finally drove out the Semitic element and conquered the
Greeks. During the latter part of republican history the island had
been of vital importance to Rome as supplying through its tribute the
chief part of the corn-supply. At the same time it had been cruelly
exploited and oppressed by Roman governors like Verres. Then during
the civil wars Sextus Pompeius had made it his head-quarters, and it
had been laid under heavy contributions by both sides. Messina, its
richest town, had been the scene of a sack and massacre. No country had
more to hope from the Pax Augusta, and it now began to enjoy one of
its brief periods of rest. Augustus spent the winter of 22 in Sicily
at the beginning of his tour in Greece. He founded colonies at six
famous cities of old. While he was in the island the Sicilians offered
him a kind of round-robin of complaint against the extortion of his
procurator. Augustus instantly dismissed the offender and replaced him
by his own valued tutor, the philosopher Areus. It was thoroughly in
accordance with his policy to put a Greek philosopher in charge of a
Greek island.
So far we have been surveying the treatment of that part of the Roman
world which was already quite civilised and mainly Greek. We now turn
to the barbarian West and North, mainly consisting of newly conquered
Cæsarian provinces. In these quarters, the nearer parts of Spain and
the Narbonensian province of Gaul were the only regions which could be
called civilised. As soon as the provisional settlement of 27 b.c. was
effected Augustus hurried away to Gaul. It was generally thought that
he was on his way to conquer Britain, for that was the second of the
two tasks which Julius had left to his successor. Accordingly the loyal
Horace dutifully prays:
serues iturum Cæsarem in ultimos
orbis Britannos.[45]
But this was not the time, and Augustus was not the man, for dazzling
conquests. “Hasten slowly” was his favourite motto, and his empire
policy was founded on the same principle. For the present the Ocean,
then called British, was boundary enough. Augustus was reducing the
army and Britain would have taken at least a legion to keep it quiet.
So Britain had to delay its prospects of civilisation until Gaul and
Spain were organised and the German frontier settled. We have the
record of British chiefs coming to Rome with unknown petitions during
the period, but beyond that there is silence on our island. As for
Gaul, Julius had done the work of conquest thoroughly enough, and the
Gauls as an adaptable people were taking to Roman civilisation with
avidity. There were indeed corners of it not yet enlightened and the
whole government required organisation. Augustus went straight to the
capital of the old province, Narbonne, and there he arranged a census
and a land register, not, as Ferrero observes, out of mere statistical
curiosity. Probably no tribute had come in from Gaul during the civil
wars, and Augustus was much concerned with finance. For the moment an
outbreak in Spain called the emperor away, but five years later he
returned to complete his work. The old province, which has passed into
history as Provence, was now handed back to the senate as completely
pacified, and the rest of Gaul was eventually divided into three
parts: Aquitania, the half-Spanish south-west; Lugdunensis (the east
and centre stretching right across France with its capital Lyons or
Lugdunum on its eastern border); and Belgica (the northern part with
Trier--Augusta Treverorum, not yet founded--and Rheims as its chief
towns). This division was mainly, though not entirely, based on racial
considerations. Together the three formed one of Cæsar’s provinces as
Gallia Comata.
The treatment of the conquered land was wise and humane. Druidical
religion, already a waning force, was permitted to exist, though it
included human sacrifice and was hostile to the Romans. In the reign
of Claudius it was forbidden. But other native deities were actually
encouraged by the state, and Augustus himself built an altar to some
strange Gallic spirits. But side by side with the native religion
he fostered the new cult, as in Asia, of “Rome and Augustus.” There
had always been tribal councils which culminated in a great national
gathering at Lugdunum once a year. Apparently the presiding priests had
been elected from the well-born natives and were in opposition to the
Druids. Augustus made skilful use of this organisation and fostered it
in order to make it a centre for Roman patriotism. He set up a great
altar at Lugdunum inscribed “to Rome and Augustus.” It was constructed
in a sacred grove, and was surrounded by statues emblematic of the
sixty Gallic tribes. The elected priest had to be a Roman citizen of
Gallic birth. It soon became a distinction coveted by the grandsons of
those who had fought against Julius. This is very characteristic of
the systematic empire-building which went on in the days of Augustus.
Lugdunum rose to be a great imperial city, the only city in Gaul which
possessed full Roman citizenship and had a mint of its own. From it
a great and elaborate road system radiated to all parts of France
very much in the same directions as the modern railways. Schools were
founded and the study of Latin encouraged though not enforced. The
Gauls took very ardently to their new studies, displaying in particular
a remarkable faculty for rhetoric. The principle came into force that
when a town or district could show that it spoke Latin it received
important rights of citizenship, including that great privilege, the
use of Roman law. The land system of Gaul differed essentially from
that of Italy in that it was based on tribes and cantons instead of
cities. Already the towns were growing as centres for the tribes, but
to this day many of the names of French cities are those of tribes
rather than towns: thus Lutetia of the Parisii is Paris, Durocortorum
of the Remi is Rheims, Divodurum of the Mediomatrici is Metz, and
Agedincum of the Senones is Sens. The tribute ultimately fixed was a
high one but on the whole justly regulated. It is probable that the
ugly story of Licinius and his extortions is told as an exceptional
occurrence. In any case Gaul was taught how to grow rich and
prosperous. Mines of silver and gold were successfully exploited, the
culture of flax was encouraged, and the soil was found to be admirably
suited to cereal crops. Gaul became a hive of industry and a source
of ever-increasing wealth. She purchased oil and wine from Italy as
well as the articles of Eastern luxury which passed through the hands
of Roman merchants. A 2½ per cent. duty was charged at the frontier
both on imports and exports. Such were some of the methods by which
the Romanisation of Gaul was effected, and the foundations so well and
truly laid that through all the invasions of Franks and Burgundians,
Gaul remained Roman in speech and thought, and remains so to this
day.[46]
Of all the momentous problems which Augustus had to face, the
delimitation of the northern frontier was the weightiest. It has
always been one of the disputed questions of Roman history, why
Augustus, who was generally so cautious and so unwilling to embark
upon adventures, deliberately chose to cross the Rhine and plunge into
those impenetrable forests of whose dangers and difficulties Julius
Cæsar had left so clear a warning. Was it his aim to forestall the
danger of a German invasion of Gaul? On the other hand, the Rhine
might well seem a sufficient frontier, as indeed for many centuries it
was. Was it his aim to exercise his troops in difficult warfare and
perhaps secure military renown for the young men whom he had destined
for the succession? These are scarcely adequate motives for a man like
Augustus. Did he hope to acquire wealth out of Germany as he had done
out of Gaul? He must have known that the virgin forests and undrained
morasses of Germany would scarcely balance the difficulties and dangers
of a campaign there, and that the Germans were far behind their Gallic
cousins in civilisation. The problem seems to me insoluble unless we
accept the theory that the whole scheme was part of the search for a
natural strategic frontier undertaken with false notions of geography.
It is certain that many of the ancients believed that they would find
the Ocean again where Russia is, and that the Caspian Sea was part of
it. In that case the Romans may have hoped to round off their empire
satisfactorily in this direction. It would explain the curious tactics
by which Roman expeditions crossing the Rhine and plunging into the
heart of Germany ordered their fleets to coast along the Dutch and
Danish shores.
From whatever motives it was undertaken, this penetration of Germany
and its ultimate failure was a fact of vast consequence in the
history of Europe. From one point of view the history of Europe may
be described as a record of the various relations between the Roman
and the German elements, with occasional incursions from the Celtic or
Turanian fringes. It is one long contest between Latin and Teutonic
race, religion, language, law, and ideas political and economic. Hence
it is impossible to overrate the importance of the moment when the
first round of that age-long contest was fought out and settled. Hidden
among the forests in those mysterious wildernesses beyond the Rhine
were the numerous tribes who were destined one day to form the nations
of Europe. Here were the Saxons of Saxony and England, the Swabians,
the Franks, the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Goths, the Lombards, and
many others, yet unnamed, the germs of the nations.
It was by no means their first entrance on the stage of history. We
believe that the dominant races of historical Greece, and perhaps of
historical Rome, traced back their ancestry to the central regions of
Europe. Since then history had recorded several alarming incursions
of northern barbarians, and in a general sense the story of the
Mediterranean peoples shows how wave after wave of strong warriors
from the North descended upon the fertile peninsulas of the South,
which always absorbed and assimilated them, until finally they became
a prey to the enervating influences of climate, melted into the native
strain, and had to make room for a fresh wave of untamed northerners.
Read in this light, extraordinary interest attaches to the moment when
all-conquering Rome attempted to conquer the wilds which sheltered
these mighty tribes. If she had succeeded in taming and Romanising the
Germans also, as she had done with the Spaniards and Gauls, the course
of history might have been very different. But even then, though she
knew it not, behind the Teutonic peoples lay the Slavs, and behind
them the Tartars and the Huns. The task of civilising the world from
a single centre was impossible. Augustus would have been wiser to
choose a strong frontier first and then proceed gradually by peaceful
penetration. Probably Augustus judged that the policy of buffer states
which he had applied in the East was not applicable to barbarians. As
it was, conquest was the method he selected, contrary to his usual
custom and contrary to his natural inclination. Herein success led to
over-confidence and so to disaster.
We always term the people over the wall “barbarians,” but the Germans
had their various political and social systems and some of their tribes
were more civilised than others. By comparing the _Commentaries_ of
Cæsar with the _Germania_ of Tacitus we get a fairly comprehensive
notion of German institutions, which, it must be remembered, were
those of our own ancestors. They had no cities. Like the Gauls they
were grouped in tribes and the tribes were subdivided into cantons,
the cantons into villages. They lived on the produce of their flocks
and herds, on the chase, and on a primitive type of “extensive”
agriculture, which involved fresh ploughlands every year and thus
caused continual unrest and jostling of tribe against tribe. This was
what made them such troublesome neighbours to the Gauls, and led to
those gigantic “treks” which meet us from time to time in history.
Their only political system was a fighting organisation; hereditary
chiefs and princes led them in battle and the general in a large
movement was elected from amongst the princes by the freemen of the
tribe. In peace there was no general magistracy, but the elders and
priests administered justice in the villages. Among the warriors
there was a rough freedom and equality. The free warrior had very
considerable rights, but only as a warrior. Among the Suevi, according
to Cæsar, there were a hundred cantons, each of which furnished a
thousand men to the army for a year’s service while the rest stayed
at home to carry on agriculture and hunting. But this seems, if it is
accurate, to be an exceptional degree of organisation. The chastity,
the patriotism, the honesty of these barbarians as well as their
courage and gigantic stature were favourite themes for Roman eloquence.
It is likely enough that Tacitus heightened their virtues with his
satirical instinct in order to point a moral to his fellow-countrymen.
Julius Cæsar had left the Rhine as the frontier of his Gallic
provinces, though he had crossed it twice by way of reconnaissance.
Quite at the beginning of Augustus’s presidency, the Suevi had had to
be chased back across the Rhine, and the Treveri across the Moselle. At
this time, Germany was still for administrative purposes a part of the
Gallic provinces, and as a rule there was some high officer in charge
of both. The Rhine was not impassable to the barbarians, and moreover
there were Germanic tribes on both sides of it, such as the Treveri of
Trier and the Ubii of Cologne, who were in frequent intercourse with
their neighbours on the other side. This made the river a somewhat
insufficient boundary. There were inroads of German barbarians in 29,
25, 20 and 16 B.C. In the latter case a Roman legate was surprised and
defeated, and the eagle of the Fifth Legion carried off in triumph.
This brought Augustus to the spot, and he spent two years in studying
the problems of Gaul and Germany. In 12 B.C. the first campaign was
undertaken under the command of Drusus, his younger stepson. Drusus,
who was not yet twenty-five, was the most brilliant figure of his day,
brave, handsome, virtuous, adored by the soldiers, and a thoroughly
capable general. On this occasion he crossed the Rhine and descended
into Dutch territory, laying waste the lands of the Sygambri and the
other hostile tribes who had provoked these punitive measures. He
accepted the submission of the Frisians who lived on the coast of
North Holland. During the winter his troops seem to have been employed
in cutting a canal from the Rhine to the Zuyder Zee. Next year he
crossed again, marched on, and threw a bridge across the Lippe,
crossed the territory of the Cherusci--the most warlike of all the
tribes--and halted on the banks of the Weser. He built a great fort
at the junction of the Lippe and the Alme or Ems, and cut a highway
along the banks of the Lippe to join the new fort Aliso with a great
camp on the Rhine near Xanten. In the next year there was more building
and settling, and in 9 B.C. came the great effort. Drusus marched out
into Suabia and Cheruscia, crossed the Weser, ravaging everywhere,
and reached the Elbe. This river he essayed to cross, but he could
not, and, as the historians put it, omens appeared to forbid further
progress. This then was the Roman limit. Somewhere between the Saale
and the Weser, Drusus fell from his horse and sustained injuries which
resulted in his death. Augustus, though greatly grieved, determined
to continue his operations. Tiberius was sent to continue the work,
and 40,000 Sygambrians were transported into Roman territory. We know
little of the work of the next dozen years. Another legate reached
the Elbe. A great viaduct was constructed between the Ems and the
Rhine. During this period the pacification was apparently proceeding
with rapidity. Many of the young Germans came into the Roman camp
and learnt Roman ways and Latin speech. The head-quarters were still
at Vetera Castra near Xanten and at Mogontiacum (Mainz), with summer
quarters at Aliso. In A.D. 4 fresh campaigns were undertaken by
Tiberius. For many of these expeditions the Roman historians offer no
excuse or justification. They record with pride the immense slaughter
and devastation that accompanied them. It is hard to resist the
conclusion that much of this fighting was undertaken for its own
sake, or to exercise the legions. In A.D. 5 the greatest expedition
of all was undertaken. There was a great “durbar” at which the wild
Chauci and Cherusci handed in their weapons and did obeisance to the
Roman general. The Langobardi--later known as the Lombards--submitted,
and Tiberius crossed the Elbe itself, while the fleet which had
“circumnavigated the recesses of the Ocean” sailed up the river to meet
the army with supplies. All seemed to be going well: Germany was nearly
conquered. There only remained the powerful kingdom of the Marcomanni
under King Marbod, who dwelt in the fastnesses of Bohemia. Marbod was
an able ruler who alone in Germany had succeeded in establishing a
strong throne, and had drilled a powerful army of 70,000 foot and 4000
horse. As the historian Velleius observes, his Alpine boundaries were
only two hundred miles from Italy, and this formidable power was a
real menace to the safety of the empire. Accordingly elaborate plans
were made for his destruction by an invasion from three sides at once.
Unfortunately just at the moment when the armies were converging upon
their prey, there broke out the great Pannonian and Illyrian revolt of
A.D. 6, which brought all the tribes of Austria down upon the Romans.
It was one of the most dangerous moments in Roman history. Fifteen
legions were employed against them, and the military resources of the
Empire strained almost to breaking-point. Luckily for Rome, Marbod made
no attempt to join the revolt, and the barbarians were under divided
leadership. Germanicus, the son of Drusus, helped Tiberius to crush
them, but it took three or four years to accomplish it.
[Illustration: Portrait of Varus]
Meanwhile Germany itself had to be content with inferior legates.
Quintilius Varus was one of those amiable men who cause mutinies by
kindness. He fancied that Germany was tranquil. He went about founding
cities, holding assizes, collecting tribute and giving justice
according to Roman law precisely “as if he had been a city prætor in
the Forum at Rome and not a general in the German forests.” Accordingly
in A.D. 9 a plot was hatched against him. He was enticed away into
the recesses of the Saltus Teutoburgiensis and slaughtered. Then the
Cheruscan army swept down upon the three Roman legions and destroyed
them.
In itself the disaster was not overwhelming. Three legions had
perished, but fifteen more, flushed with their recent victory over the
Illyrians, were at hand to avenge them. The Cheruscans immediately
submitted and Germanicus found no serious opposition when he penetrated
Germany on an errand of chastisement. But for Augustus the reverse
was decisive. He was now an old enfeebled man. When he heard of the
disaster he beat his head against the wall and was often heard to cry:
“Varus, give me back my legions.” He saw that there was no end to these
adventures in the forest and no profit in them. As a frontier the Elbe
was no better than the Rhine. Therefore he had the supremely good sense
to accept the Rhine as his frontier. Henceforth Rhine and Danube with
roads and forts along them, and with special arrangements to strengthen
the angle where the rivers run small--that should be bulwark enough for
the present. And so it was.
The patriotism of German historians has made of this defeat of Varus
rather more than it deserves. Arminius the young Cheruscan who led the
attack was a patriot though a traitor. He had been, says Velleius,
a faithful ally in previous campaigns and had even attained Roman
citizenship and equestrian rank. He spoke Latin fluently. His very
name is most probably a Latin _cognomen_, though the patriotism of the
Germans will call him “Hermann.” So the German student of to-day sings
over his beer:
Dann zieh’n wir aus zur Hermannschlacht
Und wollen Rache haben.
It was not half so gallant an act of revolt as that of our British
lady, Boadicea, but it had the merit of success. The Germans were able
to develop their strength behind the artificial ramparts of the Rhine
and Danube until the time came for them to burst through in conquest.
It is commonly said that Augustus immediately after A.D. 9 formed two
provinces called Upper and Lower Germany along the Rhine as if to
conceal his loss of the real Germany. This is not exact. In the warfare
of Tiberius’s days the historians speak only of the Upper or the Lower
Army in Germany, and Augustus in his monument speaks of Germany in the
singular. Under Tiberius ample revenge was taken for the defeat and
Germanicus again and again traversed Germany. The Varus disaster was
only one of the episodes which decided the Romans to halt at the Rhine.
Aliso was long retained as an outpost, and colonies of Roman veterans
were planted on German soil. The Cheruscans and Arminius were defeated
in a tremendous battle at Idistavisus near Minden on the Weser in A.D.
16. But on the way back the Roman fleet was shipwrecked and a great
many prisoners fell into the hands of the Germans. Some of these were
sold as slaves to the Britons and many eventually returned to Rome
bringing back marvellous stories of their adventures. As for Marbod,
he was defeated in a battle with the Cheruscans and took refuge on
Roman soil, where he lived for eighteen years at Ravenna. Arminius, his
conqueror, began to play the tyrant in his native tribe and was slain
by the treachery of his kinsmen at the age of thirty-seven. His wife
Thusnelda and his son had long ago fallen into the hands of the Romans
and the boy grew up as a Roman citizen.