as they had fled or had made a stand. Near them lay fragments
of javelins and limbs of horses. There were also skulls fixed upon the
trunks of trees. In the adjacent groves were the savage altars, where
they had immolated the tribunes and centurions of the first rank. Those
who survived the slaughter, having escaped from captivity and the sword,
related the sad particulars to the rest: "Here the commanders of the
legions were slain; there we lost the eagles; here Varus had his first
wound; there he gave himself another, and perished by his own unhappy
hand. In that place, too, stood the tribunal whence Arminius harangued.
How many gibbets he erected for the execution of his captives; what
trenches he dug; and how, in proud scorn, he made a mock at the
standards and eagles."

The Roman army which was on the spot buried the bones of the three
legions six years after the slaughter: nor could anyone distinguish
whether he buried the remains of a stranger or of a kinsman; but all
considered the whole as friends, as relations, with heightened
resentment against the foe, at once sad and revengeful. Germanicus laid
the first sod used in raising a tomb, thus rendering a most acceptable
service to the dead, and showing that he shared the sorrows of the
living, a proceeding not liked by Tiberius; whether it were that upon
every action of Germanicus he put a malignant construction, or that he
believed that the impression produced by the sight of the unburied slain
would dampen the ardor of the army for battle and inspire them with fear
of the enemy. He also said that "A general invested with the office of
augur and the most ancient religious functions ought not to have put his
hand to the ceremonies of the dead."

Arminius, retiring into pathless places, was pursued by Germanicus, who,
as soon as he reached him, commanded the horse to advance and dislodge
the enemy from the post he had possessed. Arminius, having directed his
men to keep close together and draw near to the wood, wheeled suddenly
about, and to those whom he had hid in the forest gave the signal to
rush out. Then the Roman horse were thrown into disorder by the assault
of a new army, and the cohorts sent out to support them, broken in upon
by the body of troops that fled, had augmented the consternation, and
were now being pushed into the morass--a place well known to the
pursuers, but dangerous to those unacquainted with it--had not
Germanicus drawn out the legion