Caecina, who was perplexed how at once to repair the causeway
decayed by time, and to repulse the foe, resolved at last to encamp in the
place, that whilst some were employed in the work, others might maintain
the fight.
The Barbarians strove violently to break our station, and to fall upon the
entrenchers: they harassed our men, assaulted the works, changed their
attacks, and pushed everywhere. With the shouts of the assailants, the
cries of the workmen were confusedly mixed; and all things equally
combined to distress the Romans: the place deep with ooze sinking under
those who stood, slippery to such as advanced; their armour heavy; the
waters deep, nor could they in them launch their javelins. The Cheruscans,
on the contrary, were inured to encounters in the bogs; their persons
tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a distance. At last the
legions, already yielding, were by night redeemed from an unequal combat;
but night interrupted not the activity of the Germans, become by success
indefatigable. Without refreshing themselves with sleep, they diverted all
the courses of the springs which rise in the neighbouring mountains, and
turned them into the plains: thus the Roman camp was flooded, the work, as
far as they had carried it, overturned, and the labour of the poor
soldiers renewed and doubled.
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