excivit ea caedes Bructeros, Tubantes, Vsipetes, saltusque, per quos exercitui regressus, insedere. quod gnarum duci incessitque itineri et proelio. pars equitum et auxiliariae cohortes ducebant, mox prima legio, et mediis impedimentis sinistrum latus unetvicesimani, dextrum quintani clausere, vicesima legio terga firmavit, post ceteri sociorum. sed hostes, donec agmen per saltus porrigeretur, immoti, dein latera et frontem modice adsultantes, tota vi novissimos incurrere. turbabanturque densis Germanorum catervis leves cohortes, cum Caesar advectus ad vicesimanos voce magna hoc illud tempus obliterandae seditionis clamitabat
Translation :
The Bructeri, Tubantes, and Usipetes, were roused by this slaughter, and they beset the forest passes through which the army had to return. The general knew this, and he marched, prepared both to advance and to fight. Part of the cavalry, and some of the auxiliary cohorts led the van; then came the first legion, and, with the baggage in the centre, the men of the twenty-first closed up the left, those of the fifth, the right flank. The twentieth legion secured the rear, and, next, were the rest of the allies. Meanwhile the enemy moved not till the army began to defile in column through the woods, then made slight skirmishing attacks on its flanks and van, and with his whole force charged the rear. The light cohorts were thrown into confusion by the dense masses of the Germans, when Caesar rode up to the men of the twentieth legion, and in a loud voice exclaimed that this was the time for wiping out the mutiny. "Advance," he said, "and hasten to turn your guilt into glory."
Edition :
Annales ab excessu divi Augusti. Cornelius Tacitus. Charles Dennis Fisher. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1906.
Complete Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb. Sara Bryant. edited for Perseus. New York. : Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. reprinted 1942.
Remark :
context: This attack was in response to Germanicus' attack on Marsi villages, described in: "Roman Army under Germanicus kills the population of Marsi villages during the night" (1.50-51).
