] was laid waste. Not far hence
lay the forest of Teutoburgium, and in it the bones of Varus and the
legions, by report still unburied.
Hence Germanicus became inspired with a tender passion to pay the last
offices to the legions and their leader; the like tenderness also affected
the whole army. They were moved with compassion, some for the fate of
their friends, others for that of their relations here tragically slain;
they were struck with the doleful casualties of war, and the sad lot of
humanity. Caecina was sent before to examine the gloomy recesses of the
forest; to lay bridges over the pools; and upon the deceitful marshes,
causeways. The army entered the doleful solitude, hideous to sight,
hideous to memory. First they saw the camp of Varus, wide in
circumference; and the three distinct spaces, allotted to the different
Eagles, showed the number of the legions. Further, they beheld the ruinous
entrenchment, and the ditch nigh choked up: in it the remains of the army
were supposed to have made their last effort, and in it to have found
their graves. In the open fields lay their bones all bleached and bare,
some separate, some on heaps; just as they had happened to fall, flying
for their lives, or resisting unto death.
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