effect of it was to make Germanicus resolve on retreating to the
Rhine. He himself, with part of his troops, embarked in some vessels on
the Ems, and returned by that river, and then by sea; but part of his
forces were intrusted to a Roman general named Caecina, to lead them
back by land to the Rhine. Arminius followed this division on its march,
and fought several battles with it, in which he inflicted heavy loss on
the Romans, captured the greater part of their baggage, and would have
destroyed them completely had not his skilful system of operations been
finally thwarted by the haste of Inguiomerus, a confederate German
chief, who insisted on assaulting the Romans in their camp, instead of
waiting till they were entangled in the difficulties of the country, and
assailing their columns on the march.

In the following year the Romans were inactive, but in the year
afterward Germanicus led a fresh invasion. He placed his army on
shipboard and sailed to the mouth of the Ems, where he disembarked and
marched to the Weser, there encamping, probably in the neighborhood of
Minden. Arminius had collected his army on the other side of the river;
and a scene occurred, which is powerfully told by Tacitus, and which is
the subject of a beautiful poem by Praed. It has been already mentioned
that the brother of Arminius, like himself, had been trained up while
young to serve in the Roman armies; but, unlike Arminius, he not only
refused to quit the Roman service for that of his country, but fought
against his country with the legions of Germanicus. He had assumed the
Roman name of Flavius, and had gained considerable distinction in the
Roman service, in which he had lost an eye from a wound in battle. When
the Roman outposts approached the river Weser, Arminius called out to
them from the opposite bank and expressed a wish to see his brother.
Flavius stepped forward, and Arminius ordered his own followers to
retire, and requested that the archers should be removed from the Roman
bank of the river. This was done; and the brothers, who apparently had
not seen each other for some years, began a conversation from the
opposite sides of the stream, in which Arminius questioned his brother
respecting the loss of his eye, and what battle it had been lost in, and
what reward he had received for his wound. Flavius told him how the eye
was lost, and mentioned the increased pay that he had on account of its
loss, and showed the collar and other