Legions of Rome (58 page)

At Cologne, the city fathers rose against the rebels, burning a cohort of German warriors to death in their quarters in a village near the city. The people of Cologne then butchered Germans found in the city streets, closed the gates, and sent messages to Cerialis, begging him to come to their aid before Civilis reached them. They also offered the Roman general the wife and sister of Civilis and the daughter of Classicus, who had been left at Cologne by the rebel leaders. By forced march, Cerialis hurried his troops to Cologne, receiving the grateful thanks of the city fathers and the three valuable prisoners.

Civilis retreated north, as the 14th GMV Legion, which had been shipped across from Britain, marched into Belgica, crossed the Scheldt river, and accepted the surrender of the Nervi and Tungri tribes, which had gone over to Civilis early in the revolt. Meanwhile, the Canninefates, a seafaring people, had sent their vessels against Rome’s Britannic Fleet, which was shadowing the 14th GMV up the coast, sinking half the Roman ships and putting the remainder to flight. The Nervians, to show their loyalty to Rome, spontaneously sent a force of young men against the Canninefates, a force swiftly wiped out by the Canninefates. Meanwhile, near Novaesium, Roman cavalry scouting ahead under Briganticus were surprised by Classicus, who sent the troopers packing. The revolt was still far from over.

At Cologne, Cerialis was joined by the 6th Victrix Legion from Spain and the 2nd Adiutrix Legion from Italy, followed shortly after by 14th GMV. The 6th Victrix’s second-in-command was Gaius Minicius, a tribune who, as a prefect, had previously commanded the Treveran Horse and consequently knew how the Treverans fought. Cerialis transferred Minicius to the command of the 1st Wing of the Singularian Horse. This way, Cerialis had a reliable officer keeping watch on Singularian commander Briganticus, Civilis’ nephew.

With now over 50,000 men, Cerialis advanced along the Rhine, to find the Novaesium legion camp a blackened ruin. Approaching Old Camp, he discovered that
the rebels had dammed the Rhine, which was now flooding his path. Advancing warily across the waterlogged plain, the Roman army was attacked by Germans who seemed perfectly at home in the marshy terrain. Roman officers kept their formations together, reined in panicking horses, and collected their dead and wounded as they went, until the army reached high ground not far from Old Camp and pitched camp. Civilis had returned to the ruins of Old Camp, site of his greatest victory, where, amid the ashes, he had built a new fortress. Here, he would make a stand.

AD
70
XXXI. BATTLE OF OLD CAMP
Cerialis versus Civilis

The two armies lined up beside the Rhine. Cerialis placed his cavalry and auxiliary infantry in his front line. The legions occupied the second line, but the Roman general kept back one group of hand-picked legionary cohorts as a reserve. Across the battlefield, Civilis formed his men up in columns. The Batavians occupied the right wing, with Gugerni Germans on their outside. Ubii and Lingones occupied his center, and Bructeri and Tencteri Germans took the left flank, beside the river.

Both commanders harangued their troops. Cerialis reminded his newly arrived units of Rome’s proud military heritage, and implored the Rhine legions to recover Old Camp, where so many of their comrades had died. On the other side, Civilis reminded his Batavians that this was the site of a great Roman defeat. To the Germans, he said that the gods of Germany were watching them, urging them to give battle remembering their wives, their parents and their fatherland. The Roman legions responded to their general with a determined roar. Batavians and Germans let out a guttural war cry, rapped their weapons on their shields and performed crazy dances.

The sun was high above by the time that Civilis initiated battle by ordering his warriors to let fly with their missiles. The rebels launched stones and lead balls from their side of the marsh, but the Roman front line stood firm as missiles glanced off their raised shields. The rebels kept up the barrage until they exhausted their ammunition, then, yelling and screaming, they advanced to the attack. Their long spears felled auxiliaries in large numbers. A band of Germans now crossed the river via their dam and attacked the right of the auxiliary line, which began to give way.

Now the trumpets of the legions sounded. The legionaries had been standing silent and motionless. Now, they advanced in formation, shields up, swords at the ready. The auxiliaries made way for them. Legions and rebel front line engaged. The opposing sides stood toe-to-toe, slogging it out. As the fighting raged, a Batavian deserter came to Cerialis saying he knew a route through the marches to the west. If given cavalry, he would guide them in a surprise attack on the rebel flank. Cerialis sent two squadrons of cavalry with the deserter. Almost certainly, Minicius, new prefect of the 1st Wing of the Singularian Horse, led the detachment.

The deserter proved to be truthful, and Cerialis’ cavalry surprised Gugerni warriors on the rebel right wing and cut them to ribbons. The troopers’ victory cheer cued the legions, who then charged the rebel center. The rebel line broke. Civilis’ troops fell back toward the river, pursued by the legions. As heavy rain began to fall, bogging down legionaries and cavalry alike and reducing visibility, many rebels escaped
upriver. With sunset not far off, Cerialis sounded “Recall.” As darkness fell, Roman troops began stripping the enemy dead.

Next morning, the 10th Gemina Legion arrived at Cerialis’ camp from Spain, bringing news that Cerialis’ superior, Annius Gallus, had finally arrived at Mogontiacum from Italy, accompanied by the 6th Ferrata and 8th Augusta legions. Gallus asked that the 14th GMV be sent to him, with the 10th Gemina filling its place. The old general would feel more secure with Rome’s most famous legion in his camp.

At the Batavian capital, Noviomagus, Civilis, Classicus and Tutor collected what belongings they could, set fire to the rest, then retreated across the Rhine to “the island.” With them went the last of their troops, thousands of refugees, 113 senators from Augusta Treverorum, and Roman deserters including the prefect Montanus and his brother Decimus.

The revolt continued to drag on for weeks. The 10th Gemina Legion lost its camp-prefect and five first-rank centurions at Arenacum (Arnhem). The 2nd Adiutrix and auxiliary units faced fierce resistance elsewhere. In another skirmish, Singularian Horse commander Briganticus perished; Cerialis himself appeared on the scene that day with a cavalry escort and drove the rebels back, recognizing the red-headed Civilis trying to regroup his troops before resorting to swimming for it. Civilis, Classicus and Tutor were all plucked from the water by rebel boats and conducted to safety. There was also a German night raid on Cerialis’ camp which seriously embarrassed the Roman general, who was with his German mistress at the time.

Yet, despite these rebel successes, the Roman counter-offensive was snuffing the life out of the revolt. Its termination was inevitable, as many rebels came to realize. Once Civilis heard that his men were talking about handing him over to the Romans to save their own necks, he sent word to Cerialis seeking a parley. At the appointed time, the two commanders walked to the opposite ends of a broken bridge. There they agreed terms, and the revolt ended.

It is likely that Civilis spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Italy, as had Bato, Caratacus and other defeated leaders over the decades. Surrendered Batavian and Canninefate fighters were formed into new Roman auxiliary units and sent to Britain. The Batavian Horse was retained; its elite status would only increase. [Hold.,
RAB
, App.]

Contrary to Cerialis’ promise, a number of the legions that had gone over to the rebels were punished by Vespasian. He abolished the 1st Germanica and 18th legions.
The 4th Macedonica was abolished and reconstituted as the 4th Flavia; the 16th Gallica was similarly abolished and reformed, as the 16th Flavia, with both new units posted well away from the Rhine. Petilius Cerialis was immediately rewarded with a consulship, and appointed governor of Britain the following year. Taking the 2nd Adiutrix Legion to Britain with him, Cerialis would knock the other legions there into shape then lead them on a new mission of conquest, the invasion of northern Britain.

AD
70
XXXII. BESIEGING JERUSALEM
Titus’ time to shine

Vespasian, having based himself in Alexandria in Egypt during the winter of
AD
69–70, handed the task of resuming and completing the operation against the Jewish rebels in Judea to his 29-year-old son, Titus. To bolster the three legions that had fought under his father, Titus sent for the 12th Fulminata Legion, whose men would have been still smarting after the loss of their eagle under Gallus. Here was their opportunity to make amends. Tacitus says that Titus also reinforced his army with “some men belonging to the 18th and 3rd [Cyrenaica] whom he had withdrawn from Alexandria.” [Tac.,
H
,
V
, 1]

It was late April when Titus reached Jerusalem with the 5th Macedonica, 12th Fulminata and 15th Apollinaris legions, which immediately began building a vast camp west of the city. The following day, the 10th Fretensis arrived from Jericho and began to make camp on the Mount of Olives. Jewish partisans suddenly swarmed out of the Lower City, dashed across the Kidron Valley and attacked unprepared legionaries of the 10th working on the mountain slope. Titus himself was in the vicinity; he rallied his troops and drove off the attackers.

Jerusalem, surrounded by a series of three high walls, had close to a million Jewish people sheltering inside, many of them pilgrims; it would have to be taken by storm. After Titus’ troops had spent weeks clearing the approaches, on May 10 the young general launched an assault on Jerusalem’s Third Wall, not far from the present-day Jaffa Gate. All the legions continually fired their catapults at the walls to clear them of defenders, but the artillery of the 10th Fretensis came in for particular mention from
former Jewish general Josephus, who had changed sides. Josephus noted that the 10th was equipped with the most powerful spear-throwing scorpions, with a prodigious rate of fire, and the largest stone-throwing ballistas of all the legions, firing 100-pound (45-kilogram) rounded stones. [Jos.,
JW
, 5, 6, 3]

Three massive wooden siege towers were rolled up to the Third Wall, and on May 25 the wall gave way to their battering rams. As waiting Roman infantry surged over the rubble, defenders withdrew to the Second Wall, which was higher and thicker than the third. The legions pounded away, day in, day out, at this next obstacle. On May 30, a section of the Second Wall collapsed, forcing the partisans to retreat to the First Wall. Surging triumphantly into the city, legionaries found themselves
trapped in narrow lanes and a Jewish counter-attack forced them to withdraw. On June 2, new breaches allowed the legions to finally secure the Second Wall, and the Jews again retreated to the First Wall.

Titus now gave each of his legions its own wall section, and pitted them against one another in a competition to see which would be first to breach the wall. The 5th Macedonica Legion was assigned to the Antonia Fortress, with the 12th Fulminata not far away. The 10th Fretensis’ sector was near the Amygdalon, the Almond Pool, next to Herod’s Palace. The 15th Apollinaris went to work opposite the High Priest’s monument.

The legions took fifteen days to build massive, gently sloping embankments of earth against the 60-foot (18.2-meter) wall. As siege towers were being rolled up, partisans were able to undermine the two western embankments and collapse two towers. The 10th and 15th succeeded in rolling their towers into place, only for a Jewish raiding party to dash out of a nearby gate and set fire to the towers, totally destroying both.

Realizing that this siege was going to take some time, Titus suspended offensive operations and surrounded Jerusalem with a wall of his own before resuming the assault. The 5 miles (8 kilometers) of trench and wall, with thirteen forts along its length, was completed in just three days. After a sustained assault and a surprise night raid from men of the 15th Apollinaris, the Antonia Fortress was taken. Amid the ruins of the Antonia, Titus had embankments thrown up against the Temple wall.

Inside the city, partisans were fighting among themselves and killing their own leaders, while civilians starved. Somehow, the weakening partisans continued stiff resistance from the walls, and sent out raiding parties to harass the attackers.

By August, the legions were ready for the final assault on the Temple Sanctuary. It began with a fire. (Josephus would later claim that Titus ordered the Temple spared, and that the fire was accidental.) Legionaries smashed through the giant Sanctuary
doors, then went looking for Jews, and plunder. Blood flowed across the Temple flagstones like water. It was a portrait of hell. The spreading flames, the smoke, the heat, the crashing timbers, wild-eyed Roman troops cutting down everything that moved, officers yelling orders, screaming fugitives, the groans of the dying. The Temple was consumed by fire, but not before the legions had looted it of its treasures.

The last resistance was overcome at Herod’s Palace to the west. After four hellish months, Jerusalem had fallen. Close to a million people had died during the siege; another 97,000 Jews had been taken prisoner by the Romans.

When Titus’ legions paraded outside the shattered city to receive bravery awards and pay rises, Titus announced the legions’ new postings. The 10th Fretensis Legion was ordered to stay at Jerusalem, as resident legion, building themselves a base amid the ruins. In early
AD
71, after a triumphant concourse through Judea, Titus would pass by the bleak, razed city of Jerusalem and find the 10th ardently digging up treasure buried by Jews during the bloody siege.

AD
71–73
XXXIII. MACHAERUS AND MASADA
Last Judean sieges