ishment of peace.

Until the last year of the war in Illyricum the Germanic tribes had
remained quiet under Roman overlordship. But in 9 A. D., provoked by the
attempt of the new Roman commander, Publius Quinctilius Varus, to subject
them to stricter control, they united to free themselves from foreign
rule. In the coalition the Cherusci and Chatti were the chief peoples, and
Arminius, a young chieftain of the Cherusci, was its leading spirit. Varus
and his army of three legions were surprised on the march in the Teutoberg
Forest and completely annihilated. Rome was in panic over the news, but
the Germans did not follow up their initial success. Tiberius was again
sent to the post of danger and vindicated the honor of Rome by two
successful expeditions across the Rhine. But no attempt was made to
recover permanently the lost ground. The frontier of the Elbe was given up
for that of the Rhine with momentous consequences for the future of the
empire and of Europe. The coast peoples, however, remained Roman allies
and a narrow strip of territory was held on the right bank of the Rhine.
The reason lay in the weakness of the Roman military organization, caused
by the strain of the Illyrian revolt and the difficulty of finding
recruits for the Roman legions among the Italians. The cry of Augustus,
"Quinctilius Varus, give back my legions," gives the clue to his
abandonment of Germany.

*The eastern frontier.* In the East alone was Rome confronted by a power
which was in any way a match for her military strength and which had
disastrously defeated two Roman invasions. The conquest of this, the
Parthian kingdom, appeared to Augustus to offer no compensation comparable
to the exertions it would entail and therefore he determined to rest
content with such a reassertion of Roman supremacy in the Near East as
would wipe out the shame of the defeats of Crassus and Antony and
guarantee Roman territory from Parthian attack. He was prepared to accept
the natural frontier of the Euphrates as the eastern boundary of Roman
territory. Between the Roman provinces in Asia Minor and the upper
Euphrates lay a number of client kingdoms, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia and
Lesser Armenia, and Commagene. At the death of Amyntas, king of Galatia,
in 25 B. C., his kingdom was made into a province, but the others were
left under their native dynasts. Across the Euphrates lay Armenia, a
buffer state between the Roman possessions and Parthia, which was of