Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1917 — Battles Which Made the World [ARTICLE]

Battles Which Made the World

ARMINIUS’ SLAUGHTER OF THE ROMANS f « The Original of Hlnßenbur K More Than Nineteen Hundred Yearn A«o lne Laj-d the SwamuM of Germany to Overwhelm Its Knemles.

By CAPT. ROLAND F. ANDREWS

(Copyright, 1017, by McClare Newspaper Syndicate)

Arminius was a German who fought for the liberty of a people against the most powerful and warlike empire of the tithe. He won it Oddly enough he won it by employment of the very tactics which have gained the most marked success for the German arms In the present war. He may almost be said to have furnished the inspiration for Hindenburg. For he gained his great victory by luring the legions of Rome into the mire of his swamps and morasses and there slaughtering them ■almost to a man. The great fight took place nine years-*before 'the beginning of the Christian era. It drove the power of Rome out of Germany forever* —-— Vercingetorlx, the great Gallic chieftain, had been overcome by Julius Caesar, had been made to march in Caesar’s triumph and had afterward been murdered in hls Roman dungeon. Augustus, the voluptuary and profligate, was on the throne of a Rome now largely given over to pleasure. Tiberius, afterward to become emperor himself, had been recalled from the command of Germany, then held as an outpost of German empire. To succeed him came Quintilius Varus, fresh from rule as the proconsul of Syria. He established his headquarters near the renter of the modern country of Westphalia, where he not only gave up himself to the gratification of his rapacity and licentiousness, but encouraged all manner of excesses on the part of his soldiers. No man’s life or property was safe. Less so was the honor of any woman. The Romans wallowed in evil. The German swarm buzzed in indignation. In the mind of Arminius formed the plan, preposterous as it seemed, not only to take vengeance upon the oppressors, but to defy the whole Roman empire, and turn Germany back from vassalage of Rome to its own independence. But for his success the Europe of today might be populated by an entirely different race.

As is not infrequently the case a woman figured in the maelstrom. Arminius, himself a citizen of Rome by the benign concession of the Roman emperor who had conquered him, eloped with the daughter of one Segestes. For this he was denounced and proscribed. So he took to the forests w’here he roused and organized the wild hordes of German fighting men. Very crafty was Arminius. He waited for the heavy rains. These coming in due season turned the country into bogs through which it became most difficult to maneuver regular troops. Then he directed the tribes near the Weser and, the Ems to take up arms in minor revolt against the Romans. This was' represented to Varus as a local disturbance which required his immediate presence on the spot. Varus fell into the trap. Promptly he set forth, starting his army on a line parallel with the Lippe. Here, not far from the source of the Ems, where the cduntry is rugged and heavily wooded, with streams which are shallow in the dry season, but which overrun their banks in the time of the rains, Arminius staged his terrible enterprise. No modern Hindenburg drew on the invaders with more guile. Varus was little, more than an ordlnary general, but he had with him a force of the best-disciplined, most formidablej troops in the world —Roman legionaries to the number of some 14,000 supplemented by a thousand Roman Cavalry and numerous light auxiliaries. These were commanded by skillful officers, although the incompetent Varus had permitted his force to be encumbered - by-a-rabble -of eamp followers and women who greatly impeded the march. Into the dark forest entered this doomed host.

Oncfe-clear of the firm level ground came trouble. In the marshes the cavalry often found Itself unable to proceed. Even the infantry must make roads of logs. The camp followers got in the way of the engineers. ,And then suddenly came the word that the rear guard had been furiously attacked by the barbarians. Confused and startled, Varus gave the command to press forward. His troops struggled on, but from the woods on either flank came heavy discharges of missiles. Some of the best of the cohorts were mowed down by enemies whom they were unable to see. On such ground the legions could npt deploy. The Germanic auxiliaries began to desert. But Roman discipline held firm. Advancing until it reached something which approximated an open spot, the army, continually beset by harassing fqes, stolidly pitched Its Regulation Roman camp.

The veteran officers of Varus were worried. While, history is somewhat uncertain on this point, it appears that during the night they induced him to surrender command. When army resumed its march on the morrow’ it was under the direction of its best soldiers but not even this change could save the condemned men of Rome. Armlnius was far too wise to risk his levies in open battle against the stern legions. He had no taste for the flight of javelins to be followed Inevitably by the shock of swordsmen, each encased in helmet and cuirass.

He tormented the marchers with ar- * rows and slings, while the angry gods of Germany poured down fresh torrents of rain. It was not until the Romans wearily attempting to breast a hill found themselves thrown into confusion by stumbling into barricades of felled trees, that Arminius gave signal for a general attack. Through the gloom of. the w’ood sounded the wild yells of the Germans as they poured showers of darts on the floundering legionaries, while Arminius and his body guard, concentrating their fire against the horses of the cavalry, drove these wounded animals into the already shattered Roman ranks. Varus attempted a retreat toward the Lippe, only to find himself more fiercely attacked than before. Vala, commanding the cavalry, rode off with all his squadrons, seeking safety for himself by abandoning ]»la comrades, but the horse were overpowered in detail and killed to the last man. Varus, badly wounded, remained with the desperately fighting infantry. Finally, seeing all lost and fearing the punishment which would be meted out_ to him, he plunged upon his own sword and died. One lieutenant general fell fighting. The other surrendered, only to be put to instant death. Deep of the cup of suffering they - had so often administered to others drank the Romans. Weaker and weaker grew the army. At last the eagle* pierced and the great array which had marched forth in such pride either died fighting frantically or perished miserably in the morass. One small body of veterans like the guard of after years at Waterloo, formed on a mound and there beat off all attacks through a long, dreadful night But at dawn, worn-out with hunger and wounds, they were charged by an overwhelming force and either butchered where they stood or offered up in fearful sacrifice on the altars of the old deities. “Never,” says Creasy, “was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people more instantaneous and complete." Throughout Germany the Roman garrisons were assailed and cut off. WJthln a few weeks from the fall of Varus the soil of Qermany was free. The German people had won the right to achieve their own destiny.