At daybreak Cerialis formed up his cavalry and the auxiliary 16 cohorts on his front, with the legions behind them, while he himself held a picked body in reserve for emergencies.  Civilis did not deploy his line, but halted them in columns,[522] with the Batavi and Cugerni[523] on his right, and the forces from across the Rhine[524] near the river on the left.  Neither general followed the usual custom of haranguing the whole army.  They rode along and addressed their various divisions in turn.  Cerialis spoke of the ancient glory of the Roman name and of all their victories old and new.  He urged them ’to blot out for ever their treacherous and cowardly enemy whom they had already beaten.  They had to punish not to fight them.  They had just fought against superior numbers and had yet routed the Germans, and, moreover, the pick of their troops.  This remnant had their hearts full of panic and all their wounds behind them.’  He then gave special encouragement to each of the legions, calling the Fourteenth the conquerors of Britain,[525] reminding the Sixth that the influence of their example had set Galba on the throne,[526] and telling the Second that in the coming fight they would for the first time dedicate their new colours and their new eagle to Rome’s service.[527] Then riding along to the German army,[528] he pointed with his hand and bade them recover their own river-bank and their own camp[529] at the enemy’s expense.  They all cheered with hearts the lighter for his words.  Some longed for battle after a long spell of quiet:  others were weary of war and pined for peace, hoping that the future would bring them rest and recompense.

Nor was there silence in Civilis’ lines.  As he formed them up he 17 appealed to the spot as evidence of their valour.  The Germans and Batavians were standing, he told them, ’on the field of their glory, trampling the charred bones of Roman soldiers under foot.  Wherever the Romans turned their eyes they saw nothing but menacing reminders of surrender and defeat.  They must not be alarmed by that sudden change of fortune in the battle at Trier.  It was their own victory which hampered the Germans there:  they had dropped their weapons and filled their hands with loot.  Since then everything had gone in their favour and against the Romans.  He had taken every possible precaution, as befitted a cunning general.  They themselves were familiar with these soaking plains, but the swamps would be a deadly trap for the enemy.  They had the Rhine and the gods of Germany before their eyes, and in the might of these they must go to battle, remembering their wives and parents and their fatherland.  This day would either gild the glory of their ancestors or earn the execration of posterity.’  They applauded his words according to their custom by dancing and clashing their arms, and then opened the battle with showers of stones and leaden balls and other missiles, trying to lure on our men, who had not yet entered the marsh.