Page:15 decisive battles of the world Vol 1 (London).djvu/254

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
238
ARMINIUS.

attack Italy after his first victory. Perhaps he may have had the rare moderation of being content with the liberation of bis country without seeking to retaliate on her former oppressors. When Tiberius marched into Germany in the year 10, Arminius was too cautious to attack him on ground favourable to the legions, and Tiberius was too skilful to entangle his troops in the difficult parts of the country. His march and counter-march were as unresisted as they were unproductive. A few years later, when a dangerous revolt of the Roman legions near the frontier, caused their generals to find them active employment by leading them into the interior of Germany, we find Arminius again active in his country's defence. The old quarrel between him and his father-in-law, Segestes, had broken out afresh. Segestes now called in the aid of the Roman general, Germanicus, to whom he surrendered himself; and by his contrivance, bis daughter Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, also came into the bands of the Romans, being far advanced in pregnancy. She showed, as Tacitus relates,[1] more of the spirit of her husband than of her father, a spirit that could not be subdued into tears or supplications. She was sent to Ravenna, and there gave birth to a son, whose life we know, from an allusion in

  1. "Ann." i. 57.