This chapter summarizes Tacitus:
"A sketch suffices." (p. 543)
We recognize the voice of the omniscient narrator.
Buhrmund occupies the country of the Sunici and recruits there. At the Moselle River, he defeats some Germans but, while he struggles to pursue them through the Belgic woods, his allies, Classicus and Tutor, are idle or slow. Romans advance, link with auxiliaries led by Buhrmund's nephew, Julius Briganticus, and defeat Tutor.
Petillius Cerialis, in charge of the Imperial campaign, pacifies Gaul, enters Trier, declares an amnesty, reincorporating defected units into his army, and rejects the imperium of Gaul offered to him by Burhmund and Classicus. He defeats a rebel attack, retakes the city of the Aggripenses and would have ended the war in a two-day battle near Old Camp if he had had ships to prevent the rebels from escaping across the Rhine. The rebels dig in with guerrilla resistance as winter approaches.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember Petillius Cerealis! And of how Everard thought that Roman soldier reminded him of the US Gen. George Patton. Both of them able, tough, determined men loyal to their causes.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that in the possible alternate in which Velada flees to "free Germany" and preaches her religion, a hostility to Rome is 'baked in' to the new faith. That would probably cause severe problems for Rome, and possibly an earlier fall of the Empire.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Because, in that scenario, the German tribes would have been unified by a religion preaching holy war against the Empire. Analogous to how Mohammed unified the Arab tribes under Islam.
Ad astra! Sean
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