Читать книгу Art of War - Sun-tzu - Страница 24

Antiquity to Christianisation of the Roman Empire
Battle of Teutoburg Forest
(September, 9 CE)

Оглавление

Country in which there are precipitous cliffs with torrents running between, deep natural hollows, confined places, tangled thickets, quagmires and crevasses, should be left with all possible speed and not approached.

(Sun Tzu, Ch. 9, 15)

Dark and disheartening, even to heroic spirits, must have seemed the prospects of Germany when Arminius planned the general rising of his countrymen against Rome. Half the land was occupied by Roman garrisons; and, what was worse, many of the Germans seemed patiently acquiescent in their state of bondage. The resources of Rome seemed boundless; the earth seemed left void of independent nations. The German chieftain knew well the gigantic power of the oppressor. Arminius was no rude savage, fighting out of mere animal instinct, or in ignorance of the might of his adversary. He was familiar with the Roman language and civilisation; he had served in the Roman armies; he had been admitted to the Roman citizenship, and raised to the rank of the equestrian order. It was part of the subtle policy of Rome to confer rank and privileges on the youth of the leading families in the nations which she wished to enslave.

It was true that Rome was no longer the great military republic which for so many ages had shattered the kingdoms of the world. Her system of government was changed; and after a century of revolution and civil war, she had placed herself under the despotism of a single ruler. But the discipline of her troops was yet unimpaired, and her warlike spirit seemed unabated.

Arminius found among the other German chiefs many who sympathised with him in his indignation, but to declare open war against Rome, and to encounter Varus’ army in a pitched battle, would have been merely rushing upon certain destruction. Stratagem was, therefore, indispensable; and it was necessary to blind Varus to their schemes until a favourable opportunity should arrive for striking a decisive blow. A succession of heavy rains rendered the country more difficult for the operations of regular troops, and Arminius, seeing that the infatuation of Varus was complete, secretly directed the tribes near the Weser and the Ems to take up arms in open revolt against the Romans. This was represented to Varus as an occasion which required his prompt attendance at the spot; he therefore set his army in motion, and marched eastward in a line parallel to the course of the Lippe, here it was that Arminius had fixed the scene of his enterprise. For some distance Varus was allowed to move on, only harassed by slight skirmishes, but struggling with difficulty through the broken ground. Arminius now gave the signal for a general attack. The fierce shouts of the Germans pealed through the gloom of the forests, and in thronging multitudes. At last, in a series of desperate attacks, the column was pierced through and through, two of the eagles captured, and the Roman host either fell fighting beneath the overpowering numbers of the enemy, or perished in the swamps and woods in unavailing efforts at flight.

Never was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people more instantaneous and complete. We learn this from his biographer Suetonius; and, indeed, every ancient writer who alludes to the overthrow of Varus attests the importance of the blow against the Roman power, and the bitterness with which it was felt.

(adapted from: The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo by E. S. Creasy)


O. A. Koch, Varusschlacht (Battle of the Teutoburg Forest), 1909.

Oil on canvas.

Lippisches Landesmuseum, Detmold.


Giulio Romano, The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, 1520–1524.

Fresco.

Hall of Constantine, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.


Art of War

Подняться наверх