This request was granted: Flavius stepped forward, and was
saluted by Arminius, who, having removed his own attendance, desired that
our archers ranged upon the opposite banks might retire. When they were
withdrawn, "How came you," says he to his brother, "by that deformity in
your face?" The brother having informed him where, and in what fight, was
next asked, "what reward he had received?" Flavius answered, "Increase of
pay, the chain, the crown, and other military gifts;" all which Arminius
treated with derision, as the vile wages of servitude.
Here began a warm contest: Flavius pleaded "the grandeur of the Roman
Empire, the power of the Emperor, the Roman clemency to submitting
nations, the heavy yoke of the vanquished; and that neither the wife nor
son of Arminius was used like a captive." Arminius to all this opposed
"the natural rights of their country, their ancient liberty, the domestic
Gods of Germany; he urged the prayers of their common mother joined to his
own, that he would not prefer the character of a deserter, that of a
betrayer of his family, his countrymen, and kindred, to the glory of being
their commander.
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