IV.

Claudius Civilis was a Batavian of noble race, who had served twenty-five years in the Roman armies.  His Teutonic name has perished, for, like most savages who become denizens of a civilized state, he had assumed an appellation in the tongue of his superiors.  He was a soldier of fortune, and had fought wherever the Roman eagles flew.  After a quarter of a century’s service he was sent in chains to Rome, and his brother executed, both falsely charged with conspiracy.  Such were the triumphs adjudged to Batavian auxiliaries.  He escaped with life, and was disposed to consecrate what remained of it to a nobler cause.  Civilis was no barbarian.  Like the German hero Arminius, he had received a Roman education, and had learned the degraded condition of Rome.  He knew the infamous vices of her rulers; he retained an unconquerable love for liberty and for his own race.  Desire to avenge his own wrongs was mingled with loftier motives in his breast.  He knew that the sceptre was in the gift of the Batavian soldiery.  Galba had been murdered, Otho had destroyed himself, and Vitellius, whose weekly gluttony cost the empire more gold than would have fed the whole Batavian population and converted their whole island-morass into fertile pastures, was contending for the purple with Vespasian, once an obscure adventurer like Civilis himself, and even his friend and companion in arms.  It seemed a time to strike a blow for freedom.

By his courage, eloquence, and talent for political combinations, Civilis effected a general confederation of all the Netherland tribes, both Celtic and German.  For a brief moment there was a united people, a Batavian commonwealth.  He found another source of strength in German superstition.  On the banks of the Lippe, near its confluence with the Rhine, dwelt the Virgin Velleda, a Bructerian weird woman, who exercised vast influence over the warriors of her nation.  Dwelling alone in a lofty tower, shrouded in a wild forest, she was revered as an oracle.  Her answers to the demands of her worshippers concerning future events were delivered only to a chosen few.  To Civilis, who had formed a close friendship with her, she promised success, and the downfall of the Roman world.  Inspired by her prophecies, many tribes of Germany sent large subsidies to the Batavian chief.

The details of the revolt have been carefully preserved by Tacitus, and form one of his grandest and most elaborate pictures.  The spectacle of a brave nation, inspired by the soul of one great man and rising against an overwhelming despotism, will always speak to the heart, from generation to generation.  The battles, the sieges, the defeats, the indomitable spirit of Civilis, still flaming most brightly when the clouds were darkest around him, have been described by the great historian in his most powerful manner.  The high-born Roman has thought the noble barbarian’s portrait a subject worthy his genius.