The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to Waterloo - Edward Creasy (best novels to read in english txt) 📗

England.” [See Lappenburg’s Anglo-

Saxons, p. 378. For nearly all the philological and ethnographical facts respecting Arminius, I am indebted to Dr. R.

G. Latham.]

There is at the present moment a song respecting the Irmin-sul current in the bishopric of Minden, one version of which might seem only to refer to Charlemagne having pulled down the Irmin-

sul:—

“Herman, sla dermen,

Sla pipen, sla trummen, De Kaiser will kummen, Met hamer un stangen, Will Herman uphangen.”

But there is another version, which probably is the oldest, and which clearly refers to the great Arminius:—

“Un Herman slaug dermen;

Slaug pipen, slaug trummen; De fursten sind kammen, Met all eren-mannen Hebt VARUS uphangen.”

[See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 329.]

About ten centuries and a half after the demolition of the Irmin-

sul, and nearly eighteen after the death of Arminius, the modern Germans conceived the idea of rendering tardy homage to their great hero; and, accordingly some eight or ten years ago, a general subscription was organized in Germany, for the purpose of erecting on the Osning—a conical mountain, which forms the highest summit of the Teutoberger Wald, and is eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea—a colossal bronze statue of Arminius. The statue was designed by Bandel. The hero was to stand uplifting a sword in his right hand, and looking towards the Rhine. The height of the statue was to be eighty feet from the base to the point of the sword, and was to stand on a circular Gothic temple, ninety feet high, and supported by oak trees as columns. The mountain, where it was to be erected, is wild and stern, and overlooks the scene of the battle. It was calculated that the statue would be clearly visible at a distance of sixty miles. The temple is nearly finished, and the statue itself has been cast at the copper works at Lemgo. But there, through want of funds to set it up, it has lain for some years, in disjointed fragments, exposed to the mutilating homage of relic-seeking travellers. The idea of honouring a hero who belongs to ALL Germany, is not one which the present rulers of that divided country have any wish to encourage; and the statue may long continue to lie there, and present too true a type of the condition of Germany herself. [On the subject of this statue I must repeat an acknowledgment of my obligations to my friend Mr. Henry Pearson.]

Surely this is an occasion in which Englishmen might well prove, by acts as well as words, that we also rank Arminius among our heroes.

I have quoted the noble stanzas of one of our modern English poets on Arminius, and I will conclude this memoir with one of the odes of the great poet of modern Germany, Klopstock, on the victory to which we owe our freedom, and Arminius mainly owes his fame. Klopstock calls it the “Battle of Winfield.” The epithet of “Sister of Cannae” shows that Klopstock followed some chronologers, according to whom, Varus was defeated on the anniversary of the day on which Paulus and Varro were defeated by Hannibal.

SONG OF TRIUMPH AFTER THE VICTORY OF HERRMAN, THE DELIVERER OF

GERMANY FROM THE ROMANS.

FROM KLOPSTOCK’S “HERRMAN UND DIE FURSTEN.”

Supposed to be sung by a Chorus of Bards.

A CHORUS.

Sister of Cannae! Winfield’s fight! We saw thee with thy streaming bloody hair, With fiery eye, bright with the world’s despair, Sweep by Walhalla’s bards from out our sight. Herrman outspake—“Now Victory or Death!” The Romans, . . . “Victory!” And onward rushed their eagles with the cry.

—So ended the FIRST day.

“Victory or Death!” began Then, first, the Roman chief; and Herrman spake Not, but home struck: the eagles fluttered—brake.

—So sped the SECOND day.

TWO CHORUSES.

And the third came. . . . The cry was “Flight or Death!” Flight left they not for them who’d make them slaves— Men who stab children!—flight for THEM! . . . no! graves!

—‘Twas their LAST day.

TWO BARDS.

Yet spared they messengers: two came to Rome. How drooped the plume! the lance was left to trail Down in the dust behind: their cheek was pale: So came the messengers to Rome. High in his hall the Imperator sate— OCTAVIANUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS sate. They filled up wine-cups, wine-cups filled they up For him the highest, Jove of all their state. The flutes of Lydia hushed before their voice, Before the messengers—the “Highest” sprung— The god against the marble pillars, wrung By the dred words, striking his brow, and thrice Cried he aloud in anguish—“Varus! Varus! Give back my legions, Varus!” And now the world-wide conquerors shrunk and feared For fatherland and home The lance to raise; and ‘mongst those false to Rome The death-lot rolled, and still they shrunk and feared; “For she her face hath turned, The victor goddess,” cried these cowards—(for aye Be it!)—“from Rome and Romans, and her day Is done!”—And still be mourned And cried aloud in anguish—“Varus! Varus! Give back my legions, Varus!”

[Notes:—The battle of Cannae, B.C. 216—Hannibal’s victory over the Romans.

Winfield—the probable site of the “Herrmanschladt. See SUPRA.

Augustus was worshipped as a deity in his lifetime.

I have taken this translation from an anonymous writer in FRASER, two years ago.]

SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN ARMINIUS’S VICTORY OVER VARUS, AND THE

BATTLE OF CHALONS.

A.D. 43. The Romans commence the conquest of Britain, Claudius being then Emperor of Rome. The population of this island was then Celtic. In about forty years all the tribes south of the Clyde were subdued, and their land made a Roman province.

68-60. Successful campaigns of the Roman general Corbulo against the Parthians.

64. First persecution of the Christians at Rome under Nero.

68-70. Civil wars in the Roman World. The emperors Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, cut off successively by violent deaths.

Vespasian becomes emperor.

70. Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans under Titus.

83. Futile attack of Domitian on the Germans.

86. Beginning of the wars between the Romans and the Dacians.

98-117. Trajan, emperor of Rome. Under him the empire acquires its greatest territorial extent by his conquests in Dacia and in the East. His successor, Hadrian, abandons the provinces beyond the Euphrates, which Trajan had conquered.

138-180. Era of the Antonines.

167-176. A long and desperate war between Rome and a great confederacy of the German nations. Marcus Antoninus at last succeeds in repelling them.

192-197. Civil Wars throughout the Roman world. Severus becomes emperor. He relaxes the discipline of the soldiers. After his death in 211, the series of military insurrections, civil wars, and murders of emperors recommences.

226. Artaxerxes (Ardisheer) overthrows the Parthian, and restores the Persian kingdom in Asia. He attacks the Roman possessions in the East.

260. The Goths invade the Roman provinces. The emperor Decius is defeated and slain by them.

253-260. The Franks and Alemanni invade Gaul, Spain, and Africa.

The Goths attack Asia Minor and Greece. The Persians conquer Armenia. Their king, Sapor, defeats the Roman emperor Valerian, and takes him prisoner. General distress of the Roman empire.

268-283. The emperors Claudius, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus defeat the various enemies of Rome, and restore order in the Roman state.

285. Diocletian divides and reorganizes the Roman empire. After his abdication in 305 a fresh series of civil wars and confusion ensues. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, reunites the empire in 324.

330. Constantine makes Constantinople the seat of empire instead of Rome.

363. The emperor Julian is killed in action against the Persians.

364-375. The empire is again divided, Valentinian being emperor of the West, and Valens of the East. Valentinian repulses the Alemanni, and other German invaders from Gaul. Splendour of the Gothic kingdom under Hermanric, north of the Danube.

376-395. The Huns attack the Goths, who implore the protection of the Roman emperor of the East. The Goths are allowed to pass the Danube, and to settle in the Roman provinces. A war soon breaks out between them and the Romans, and the emperor Valens and his army are destroyed by them. They ravage the Roman territories. The emperor Theodosius reduces them to submission.

They retain settlements in Thrace and Asia Minor.

395. Final division of the Roman empire between Arcadius and Honorius, the two sons of Theodosius. The Goths revolt, and under Alaric attack various parts of both the Roman empires.

410. Alaric takes the city of Rome.

412. The Goths march into Gaul, and in 414 into Spain, which had been already invaded by hosts of Vandals, Suevi, Alani, and other Germanic nations. Britain is formally abandoned by the Roman emperor of the West.

428. Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquers the Roman province of North Africa.

441. The Huns attack the Eastern empire.

CHAPTER VI

THE BATTLE OF CHALONS, A.D. 451.

“The discomfiture of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new anti-Christian dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal power of Rome, at the end of the term of twelve hundred years, to which its duration had been limited by the forebodings of the heathen.”—HERBERT.

A broad expanse of plains, the Campi Catalaunici of the ancients, spreads far and wide around the city of Chalons, in the north-

east of France. The long rows of poplars, through which the river Marne winds its way, and a few thinly-scattered villages, are almost the only objects that vary the monotonous aspect of the greater part of this region. But about five miles from Chalons, near the little hamlets of Chaps and Cuperly, the ground is indented and heaped up in ranges of grassy mounds and trenches, which attest the work of man’s hand in ages past; and which, to the practised eye, demonstrate that this quiet spot has once been the fortified position of a huge military host.

Local tradition gives to these ancient earthworks the name of Attila’s Camp. Nor is there any reason to question the correctness of the title, or to doubt that behind these very ramparts it was that, 1400 years ago, the most powerful heathen king that ever ruled in Europe mustered the remnants of his vast army, which had striven on these plains against the Christian soldiery of Thoulouse and Rome. Here it was that Attila prepared to resist to the death his victors in the field; and here he heaped up the treasures of his camp in one vast pile, which was to be his funeral pyre should his camp be stormed. It was here that the Gothic and Italian forces watched but dared not assail, their enemy in his despair, after that great and terrible day of battle, when

“The sound

Of conflict was o’erpast, the shout of all Whom earth could send from her remotest bounds, Heathen or faithful;—from thy hundred mouths, That feed the Caspian with Riphean snows, Huge Volga! from famed Hypanis, which once Cradled the Hun; from all the countless realms Between Imaus and that utmost strand Where columns of Herculean rock confront The blown Atlantic; Roman, Goth, and Hun, And Scythian strength of chivalry, that tread The cold Codanian shore, or what far lands Inhospitable drink Cimmerian floods, Franks, Saxons, Suevic, and Sarmartian chiefs, And who from green Armorica or Spain Flocked to the work of death.” [Herbert’s