The soldiers proclaimed Tiberius _Imperator_ upon
the field of battle, and raising a mount, placed upon it as trophies the
German arms, with the names of all the vanquished nations inscribed below.
This sight filled the Germans with more anguish and rage than all their
wounds, past afflictions, and slaughters. They, who were just prepared to
abandon their dwellings, and flit beyond the Elbe, meditate war and grasp
their arms: people, nobles, youth, aged, all rush suddenly upon the Roman
army in its march and disorder it. They next chose their camp, a strait
and moist plain shut in between a river and a forest, the forest too
surrounded with a deep marsh, except on one side, which was closed with a
barrier raised by the Angrivarians between them and the Cheruscans. Here
stood their foot; their horse were distributed and concealed amongst the
neighbouring groves, thence, by surprise, to beset the legions in the rear
as soon as they had entered the wood.
Nothing of all this was a secret to Germanicus: he knew their counsels,
their stations, what steps they pursued, what measures they concealed;
and, to the destruction of the enemy, turned their own subtilty and
devices.
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