BOOK II  A.D. 16-19.

 The commotions in the East happened not ungratefully to Tiberius, since then he had a colour for separating Germanicus from his old and faithful legions; for setting him over strange provinces, and exposing him at once to casual perils and the efforts of fraud. But he, the more ardent he found the affections of the soldiers, and the greater the hatred of his uncle, so much the more intent upon a decisive victory, weighed with himself all the methods of that war, with all the disasters and successes which had befallen him in it to this his third year. He remembered"that the Germans were ever routed in a fair battle, and upon equal ground; that woods and bogs, short summers, and early winters, were their chief resources; that his own men suffered not so much from their wounds, as from tedious marches, and the loss of their arms. The Gauls were weary of furnishing horses; long and cumbersome was his train of baggage, easily surprised, and with difficulty defended; but, if we entered the country by sea, the invasion would be easy, and the enemy unapprised. Besides, the war would be earlier begun; the legions and provisions would be carried together; and the cavalry brought with safety, through the mouths and channels of the rivers, into the heart of Germany."

On that method therefore he fixed: whilst Publius Vitellius and Publius Cantius were sent to collect the tribute of the Gauls; Silius, Anteius, and Caecina had the direction of building the fleet. A thousand vessels were thought sufficient, and with despatch finished: some were short, sharp at both ends, and wide in the middle, the easier to endure the agitations of the waves; some had flat bottoms, that without damage they might bear to run aground; several had helms at each end, that by suddenly turning the oars only they might work either way. Many were arched over, for carrying the engines of war. They were fitted for holding horses and provisions, to fly with sails, to run with oars, and the spirit and alacrity of the soldiers heightened the show and terror of the fleet. They were to meet at the Isle of Batavia, which was chosen for its easy landing, for its convenience to receive the forces, and thence to transport them to the war. For the Rhine, flowing in one continual channel, or only broken by small islands, is, at the extremity of Batavia, divided as it were into two rivers; one running still through Germany, and retaining the same name and violent current, till it mixes with the ocean; the other, washing the Gallic shore, with a broader and more gentle stream, is by the inhabitants called by another name, the Wahal, which it soon after changes for that of the river Meuse, by whose immense mouth it i