" Near the third watch of the night, they approached
and insulted the camp; but without striking a blow, when they found the
ramparts covered thick with cohorts, and no advantage given.
Germanicus had the same night a joyful dream: he thought he sacrificed,
and, in place of his own robe besmeared with the sacred blood, received
one fairer from the hands of his grandmother Augusta; so that elevated by
the omen, and by equal encouragement from the auspices, he called an
assembly, where he opened his deliberations concerning the approaching
battle with all the advantages contributing to victory: "That to the Roman
soldiers not only plains and dales, but, with due circumspection, even
woods and forests were commodious for an engagement. The huge targets, the
enormous spears, of the Barbarians could never be wielded amongst thickets
and trunks of trees like Roman swords and javelins, and armour adjusted to
the shape and size of their bodies, so that with these tractable arms they
might thicken their blows, and strike with certainty at the naked faces of
the enemy, since the Germans were neither furnished with headpiece nor
coat of mail, nor were their bucklers bound with leather or fortified with
iron, but all bare basket-work or painted boards; and though their first
ranks were armed with pikes, the rest had only stakes burnt at the end, or
short and contemptible darts; for their persons, as they were terrible to
sight and violent in the onset, so they were utterly impatient of wounds,
unaffected with their own disgrace, unconcerned for the honour of their
general, whom they ever deserted and fled; in distress cowards, in
prosperity despisers of all divine, of all human laws.
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