HKB
the day, and he drew off a legion to make a camp; the rest glutted themselves till night, with the blood of the foe; the horse fought with doubtful success.
Germanicus, in a speech from the tribunal, praised his victorious army, and raised a monument of arms with a proud inscription: "That the army of Tiberius Caesar, having vanquished entirely the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, had consecrated that monument to Mars, to Jupiter, and to Augustus." Of himself, he made no mention, either fearful of provoking envy, or that he thought it sufficient praise to have deserved it. He had next commanded Stertinius to carry the war amongst the Angrivarians; but they instantly submitted; and these supplicants, by yielding without articles, obtained pardon without reserve.
The summer now declining, some of the legions were sent back into winter quarters by land; more were embarked with Germanicus upon the river Amisia, to go from thence by the ocean. The sea at first was serene, no sound or agitation but from the oars or sails of a thousand ships; but suddenly a black host of clouds poured a storm of hail; furious winds roared on every side, and the tempest darkened the deep, so that all prospect was lost; and it was impossible to steer. The soldiers too, unaccustomed to the terrors of the sea, in the hurry of fear disordered the mariners, or interrupted the skilful by unskilful help. At last the south wind, mastering all the rest, drove the ocean and the sky: the tempest derived new force from the windy mountains and swelling rivers of Germany, as well as from an immense train of clouds; and contracting withal fresh vigour from the boisterous neighbourhood of the north, it hurled the ships and tossed them into the open ocean, or against islands shored with rocks or dangerously beset with covered shoals. The ships by degrees, with great labour and the change of the tide, were relieved from the rocks and sands, but remained at the mercy of the winds; their anchors could not hold them; they were full of water, nor could all their pumps discharge it: hence, to lighten and raise the vessels swallowing at their decks the invading waves, the horses, beasts, baggage, and even the arms were cast into the deep.
By how much the German ocean is more outrageous than the rest of the sea, and the German climate excels in rigour, by so much this ruin was reckoned to exceed in greatness and novelty. They were engaged in a tempestuous sea, believed deep without bottom, vast without bounds, or no shores near but hostile shores: part of the fleet were swallowed up; many were driven upon remote islands void of human culture, where the men perished through famine, or were kept alive by the carcasses of horses cast in by the flood. Only the galley of Germanicus landed upon the coast of the Chaucians, where wandering sadly, day and night, upon the rocks and prominent shore, and incessantly accusing himself as the author of such mighty destruction, he was hardly restrained by his friends from casting himself desperately into the same hostile floods. At last, with the returning tide and an assisting gale, the ships began to return, all maimed, almost destitute of oars, or with coats spread for sails; and some, utterly disabled, were dragged by those that were less. He repaired them hastily, and despatched them to search the islands; and by this care many men were gleaned up; many were by the Angrivarians, our new subjects, redeemed from their maritime neighbours and restored; and some, driven into Great Britain, were sent back by the little British kings. Those who had come from afar, recounted wonders at their return, "the impetuosity of whirlwinds; wonderful birds; sea monsters of ambiguous forms, between man and beasts." Strange sights these! or the effects of imagination and fear.