Art of War. Sun TzuЧитать онлайн книгу.
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.
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.
Battle of Milvian Bridge
(28 October, 312 CE)
Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.
The celerity of Constantine’s march has been compared to the rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the Cesars; nor is the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days elapsed between the surrender of Verona and the final decision of the war. Constantine had always apprehended that the tyrant would consult the dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence; and that, instead of risking his last hopes in general engagement, he would shut himself up within the walls of Rome. His ample magazines secured him against the danger of famine; and as the situation of Constantine admitted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the sad necessity of destroying with fire and sword the imperial city, the noblest reward of his victory, and the deliverance of which had been the motive, or rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war. It was with equal surprise and pleasure, that on his arrival at a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome he discovered the army of Maxentius prepared to give him battle. Their long front filled a very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to the banks of the Tiber, which covered their rear, and forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may believe, that Constantine disposed his troops with consummate skills, and that he chose for himself the post of honour and danger. Distinguished by the splendour of his arms, he charged in person the cavalry of his rival; and his irresistible attack determined the fortune of the day.
The cavalry of Maxentius was principally composed either of unwieldy cuirassiers, or of light Moors and Numidians. They yielded to the vigour of the other. The defeat of the two wings left the infantry without any protection on its flanks, and the undisciplined Italians fled without reluctance from the standard of a tyrant whom they always had hated, and whom they no longer feared. The praetorians, conscious that their offences were beyond the reach of mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Notwithstanding their repeated efforts, those brave veterans were unable to recover the victory; they obtained however, an honourable death; and it was observed, that their bodies covered the same ground which had been occupied by their ranks. The confusion then became general, and the dismayed troops of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy, rushed by the thousands into the deep and rapid stream of the Tiber. The emperor himself attempted to escape back into the city over the Milvian Bridge, but the crowds which pressed through that narrow passage, forced him into the river, where he was immediately drowned by the weight of his armour. His body, which had sunk very deep into the mud, was found with some difficulty the next day.
Dark and Middle Ages
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Suicide of Saul (detail), 1562.
Oil on oak, 33.5 × 55 cm.
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna.
Battle of Tolbiac
(496 CE)
Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.
At the age of one-and-twenty, Clovis found himself at the head of the Salian Franks, whose central position was at Tournesis, or Tournay. Rome yet retained within her feeble hold a district independent of the barbarians, of which the governor was Syagrius, and the chief city Soissons. Two such neighbours could not long retain their relative position. On the one side was a community in the last stage of decadence, without patriotic spirit, moral strength, or martial skill; on the other, a young society, trained to war and rapine as the main object of its being, and uniting to the energy of youth contempt for its foe and the confidence inspired by victories already won. The result may be imagined. Clovis set forth with the intent to conquer Syagrius, perhaps with the hope of mastering the whole of Gaul. The first objective he instantly achieved at the Battle of Soissons, in 486.
The next step in his progress was his union with Clotilde, the Catholic daughter of Chilperic II, the Arian king of the Burgundians. This union of Clovis with Clotilde did what a union with no other woman in Europe could have done, bringing him within the great and growing influence of the orthodox Latin church. What the position of the Church was, between the Barbarians on the one side, and the Empire on the other, had been complicated by the establishment of the Visigoth and Burgundian kingdoms, whose rulers professed the Arian heresy.
The Catholics, then, as the stay of imperial support was gradually withdrawn beyond the Alps, felt the necessity of some other equally powerful support against the secular auxiliaries whom their Arian rivals had acquired, and who, they well knew, would be used against the interests of the Orthodox Church. At this very crisis, the Frank appeared in the northern horizon, and, by a masterpiece of policy, they secured his aid. Nor, if the invader brought assistance to the Church, was the Church less useful to the invader: she could smooth the way for his advance among the old semi-Roman population, where her authority was respected, by conciliating their affections