He it was (Hermann Arminius) who, with a power to organize equal
to that of William of Orange, bound the German tribes in a secret
confederacy, whose object it was to resist and repel the Roman armies.
While still himself serving as an officer in the Roman army, he managed
to rally the confederated Germans and to attack Varus’s army of forty
thousand men—the best Roman legions—as they were marching through the
Teutoburger Forest, where, aided by violent storms, the Germans threw
the Romans into panic and the fight was changed to a slaughter. When
the news of the great German victory reached Rome the aged Augustus
trembled with fear; he let his hair and beard grow for months as a sign
of trouble, and was often heard to exclaim: “O, Varus, Varus, give me
back my legions.” Though Rome, under the able leadership of Germanicus,
soon after defeated the Germans, yet she had been taught that the
Germans possessed a spirit and a power sufficient to make her tremble
for her future supremacy.
Hermann seems to have devoted himself to the creation of a permanent
union of the tribes he had commanded. We may guess, but can not assert,
that his object was to establish a national organization like that of
Rome, and in doing this he must have come into conflict with laws and
customs which were considered sacred by the people. But his remaining
days were too few for even the beginning of a task which included such
an advance in the civilization of the race. We only know that he was
waylaid and assassinated by members of his own family in the year 21.
He was then 37 years old and had been for thirteen years the leader of
his people.[A]
* * * * *
He was undoubtedly the liberator of Germany, having dared to grapple
with the Roman power, not in its beginnings, like other kings and
commanders, but in the maturity of its strength. He was not always
victorious in battle, but in war he was never subdued. He still lives
in the songs of the barbarians, unknown to the annals of the Greeks,
who only admire that which belongs to themselves—nor celebrated as he
deserves by the Romans, who, in praising the olden times, neglect the
events of the later years.[B]