he ground as the trees were felled. This was a great
victory, and withal achieved without loss on our side.

This slaughter of the foe, from the fifth hour[23] of the day until
night, filled the country for ten miles with carcasses and arms. Among
the spoils, chains were found, which, sure of conquering, they had
brought to bind the Roman captives. The soldiers saluted Tiberius as
"Imperator"[24] upon the field of battle, and, raising a mount, placed
upon it, after the manner of trophies, the German arms, with the names
of all the vanquished nations inscribed below.

This sight filled the Germans with more anguish and rage than all their
wounds, afflictions, and overthrows. They, who were just now prepared to
abandon their dwellings and retire beyond the Elbe, meditate war and
grasp their arms; people, nobles, youth, aged, all rush suddenly upon
the Roman army in its march and disorder it. Lastly, they chose a
position shut in by a river and a forest, the inner space being a
confined and humid plain; the forest, too, surrounded with a deep marsh,
except that the Angrivarii had elevated one side by erecting a broad
mound to part them and the Cheruscans. Here their foot were posted;
their horse were concealed among the neighboring groves, that they might
be on the rear of the legions when they had entered the wood.

Nothing of all this was a secret to Germanicus. He knew their counsels,
their stations, their overt movements and their concealed measures; and
turned their subtlety to the destruction of themselves. To Seius Tubero,
his lieutenant, he committed the horse and the plain; the infantry he
so formed that part might pass the level approaches into the wood, and
the rest force their way up the rampart; whatever was arduous he
reserved to himself, the rest he committed to his lieutenants. Those who
had the even ground to traverse easily forced an entrance; but they who
were to storm the rampart were battered from above, as if they had been
assaulting a wall. The general perceived the inequality of this close
encounter, and, drawing off the legions a small distance, ordered the
slingers and engineers to discharge their missiles and dislodge the
enemy. Immediately darts were poured from the engines, and the defenders
of the barrier, the more conspicuous they were, with the more wounds
were beaten down. Germanicus, having taken the rampart, first forced his
way at the head of the praetorian cohorts into the wood, and th