The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
to his own. He divided his army into three columns, one of which he dispatched eastward under Cornelius Scipio, to act against the Garamantes and protect Leptis. In the west, the son of Blaesus commanded a second column, and defended the territory of Cirta; while in the centre Blaesus himself established a number of fortified positions, and thus embarrassed the enemy, who found, wherever he turned, Roman soldiers in his face, or on his flank, or in his rear. When summer was over, Blaesus continued hostilities, and by a skilful combination of forts and flying detachments of picked men, who were acquainted with the desert, he drove Tacfarinas back step by step and finally captured his brother, and occupied the district of the Musulamii (22A.D.). Tiberius permitted the triumphal ornaments to be awarded to Blaesus, and also granted him the distinction of being greeted Imperator by the troops—the last occasion on which this honor was granted to a private person.
But even the success of Blaesus was not the end of the insurrection. There were three laurelled statues at Rome for victories over the Musulamian chief—those of Camillus, Apronius, and Blaesus—and yet he was still ravaging Africa, supported on the one hand by the king of the Garamantes, on the other by the Moors. His boldness was increased by the circumstance that, after the campaign of Blaesus, the IXth legion had been recalled from Africa. In 24 A.D. he laid siege to Thubursicum, a Numidian town lying a little to the north of Mount Aurasius. The proconsul of the year, Publius Dolabella, immediately collected all his troops, and raised the siege. Knowing by the experience of previous campaigns that it was useless to concentrate his heavy troops against an enemy which practiced such desultory warfare as Tacfarinas, Dolabella adopted the plan of Blaesus, and divided his forces into four columns. He also obtained reinforcements from Ptolemy, king of the Mauretanians. Presently he was informed that the Numidian marauders had taken up a position close to Auzea (Aumale), a dilapidated fort, surrounded by vast forests. Some light-armed infantry and squadrons of horse were immediately hurried to the place, without being told whither they were going. At daybreak they fell upon the drowsy barbarians, who had no means of flight, as their horses were tethered or pasturing at distance. The dispositions of the Romans were so complete that the enemies were slaughtered or captured without difficulty. The general was anxious to capture Tacfarinas, but that chieftain, driven to bay, escaped captivity by rushing on the weapons of his assailants. His death ended this tedious war.
During this period there were also grave disturbances in Gaul and Thrace. In Gaul the fiscal exactions had led to heavy accumulations of debt among the provincials, and the creditors pressed for payment. The provincials resorted to counsels of despair. A conspiracy was formed to organize a rebellion throughout the whole land, and throw off the Roman yoke. The leaders were Julius Florus and Julius Sacrovir, two Romanised provincials. Florus undertook to gain over the Belgae and Treveri while Sacrovir, who perhaps held some priestly office, intrigued among the Mini and other tribes. The secret was well kept, and the revolt broke out in western Gaul in the consulship of Tiberius and Drusus (21A.D.). But the first rising was premature. The Andecavi and the Turones—whose names still live in Anjou and Tours—moved too soon, and were crushed by the garrison of Lugudunum, under Acilius Aviola, the legatus pr. pr. of Lugudunensis. This false move put the Romans on their guard, and the subsequent risings of the Treveri were easily foiled by the governors of the two Germanic provinces. Florus slew himself to escape capture. The Aedui had seized the important city of Augustodunum (Autun), but they too were easily defeated by C. Silius, legatus of Upper Germany, at the twelfth milestone from that town. Sacrovir escaped from the field to a neighboring villa, where he fell by his own hand, and his faithful comrades slew one another, having first set fire to the house. A triumphal arch was erected at Arausio (Orange) to commemorate the defeat of Sacrovir.
The dependent kingdom of Thrace, after the death of Rhoemetalces, who had loyally stood by the Romans in the Dalmatian revolt, was divided between his brother Rhascuporis and his son Cotys. Their jealousies and feuds, which ended in the murder of Cotys, led to Roman interference and the execution of his uncle (19 A.D.). Two years later a formidable insurrection of the western tribes broke out. The rebels besieged Philippopolis, but were defeated by P. Vellaeus, the governor of Moesia. They rebelled again in 25 A.D., and of this rising we have more details,
The mountaineers refused to submit to levies and to supply their bravest men to the armies of Rome. A rumor had spread that they were to be dragged from their own land to distant provinces, so that, mixed with other nations, they might lose their own nationality. They sent envoys to the governor of Achaia and Macedonia, Poppaeus Sabinus, assuring him of their fidelity, if no fresh burden were laid upon them. Otherwise they gave him to understand that they would fight for their freedom. He gave mild answers until he had completed his preparations; but when he had concentrated his forces, and was joined by a legion from Moesia and reinforcements from Rhoemetalces, son of Rhascuporis, he advanced on the rebels, who had taken up a position in some wooded defiles in their mountains, in the neighborhood of a strong fortress. Sabinus fortified a camp and occupied, with a strong detachment, a long narrow mountain ridge, which stretched as far as the enemies’ fortress, which it was his object to capture. After some skirmishing in front of the stronghold, Sabinus moved his camp nearer, but left his Thracian allies in the former entrenchments, with strict injunctions to pass the night vigilantly within the camp, while they might harry and plunder as much as they wished in the daytime. Having observed this command for some time, they began to neglect their watches, and gave themselves up to the Enjoyment of wine and sleep. Learning this, the insurgents formed two bands, of which one was to surprise the pillagers, the other to attack the Roman camp, in order to distract the attention of the soldiers. The plan was successful, and the Thracian auxiliaries were massacred.
Sabinus then laid regular siege to the stronghold, and connected his positions with a ditch and rampart. The besieged suffered terribly from thirst, and their cattle were dying for want of fodder. The air of the place was polluted with the stench of the rotting carcasses of those who had perished by wounds or thirst. In this situation, many followed the advice and example of an old man named Dinis, who surrendered himself, with his wife and children, to the Romans. But two young chieftains named Tarsa and Turesis had determined to die for their freedom. Tarsa plunged his sword in his heart, and a few others did likewise. But Turesis and his followers decided to prolong the struggle, and planned a night-attack on the camp during a storm. Sabinus was prepared, and the brave barbarians were beaten back and compelled to surrender. The triumphal ornaments were decreed to Sabinus (26 A.D.).
Against a revolt of tributaries on the northern boundary of the Empire, the arms of Rome were not so successful. The Frisians, who had been subdued by Drusus in 12 B.C., had for forty years paid the tribute which he imposed on them. This tribute consisted in ox-hides, which were required for military purposes, and the officers who levied it never examined too curiously the size or thickness of the skins, until in 28 A.D. Olennius, a primipilar centurion, who was appointed to exact the tribute, chose the hides of wild bulls as the standard. As the domestic cattle of the Germans were of small size, the Frisians found this innovation hard. In order to meet the demands of Olennius, they were forced to give up, first their cattle, then their lands, finally to surrender their wives and children as pledges. As their complaints led to no redress, they rose in revolt. The soldiers, who were collecting the tribute, were impaled on gibbets, and Olennius himself was obliged to flee to the fortress of Flevum —probably in the island of the same name, now Vlieland, near the Texel—which was a Roman coastguard station. When the news reached L. Apronius, the governor of Lower Germany, he summoned some veteran legionaries and chosen auxiliaries from the upper province, to reinforce his own legions, with which he sailed down the Rhine, and relieved Flevum, which the Frisians were besieging. He then constructed roads and bridges over the adjoining estuaries, in order to transport his legionaries into the heart of the Frisian territory; and in the meantime sent some auxiliary cavalry and infantry across by a ford to take the enemy in the rear. The Frisians beat these forces back; more cohorts and squadrons were sent to the rescue, but these too were repulsed; and soon all the auxiliary forces were engaged. The legions were at length able to intervene, and just saved the cohorts and cavalry, who were completely exhausted. A large number of officers had fallen, but Apronius did not attempt to take vengeance or even to bury the dead. Two other disasters completed the ill-luck of the Romans. Nine hundred soldiers were destroyed by the enemy in the wood of Baduhenna; and another body of four hundred, who had taken possession of a country house, perished by mutual slaughter, to avoid