on, was ill-armed and undisciplined, while the enemy's troops
consisted of veterans in the highest state of equipment and training,
familiarized with victory and commanded by officers of proved skill and
valor. The resources of Rome seemed boundless; her tenacity of purpose
was believed to be invincible. There was no hope of foreign sympathy or
aid; for "the self-governing powers that had filled the Old World had
bent one after another before the rising power of Rome, and had
vanished. The earth seemed left void of independent nations."

The German chieftain knew well the gigantic power of the oppressor.
Arminius was no rude savage, fighting out of mere animal instinct or in
ignorance of the might of his adversary. He was familiar with the Roman
language and civilization; he had served in the Roman armies; he had
been admitted to the Roman citizenship, and raised to the rank of the
equestrian order. It was part of the subtle policy of Rome to confer
rank and privileges on the youth of the leading families in the nations
which she wished to enslave. Among other young German chieftains,
Arminius and his brother, who were the heads of the noblest house in the
tribe of the Cherusci, had been selected as fit objects for the exercise
of this insidious system. Roman refinements and dignities succeeded in
denationalizing the brother, who assumed the Roman name of Flavius, and
adhered to Rome throughout all her wars against his country. Arminius
remained unbought by honors or wealth, uncorrupted by refinement or
luxury. He aspired to and obtained from Roman enmity a higher title than
ever could have been given him by Roman favor. It is in the page of
Rome's greatest historian that his name has come down to us with the
proud addition of "_Liberator hand dubie Germaniae_."

Often must the young chieftain, while meditating the exploit which has
thus immortalized him, have anxiously revolved in his mind the fate of
the many great men who had been crushed in the attempt which he was
about to renew--the attempt to stay the chariot wheels of triumphant
Rome. Could he hope to succeed where Hannibal and Mithradates had
perished? What had been the doom of Viriathus? and what warning against
vain valor was written on the desolate site where Numantia once had
flourished? Nor was a caution wanting in scenes nearer home and more
recent times. The Gauls had fruitlessly struggled for eight years
against Caesar; and the gallant Vercingetorix, w