Kitap 16
12.14
To add to this eagerness there was the full approval of the high command and especially of Florentius, the praetorian prefect, who judged that though it was risky, they must none the less fight with hope of success while the savages were standing massed together; but if they scattered, the resentment of our soldiers, who, he said, are inclined by their native hotness of temper towards insubordination, would be impossible to withstand; for that victory (as they thought) should be wrested from their hands they would hardly endure without recourse to the last extremity.
12.15
Furthermore, our men’s confidence had been increased by a twofold consideration, since they recalled that during the year just elapsed, when the Romans were ranging freely all through the country beyond the Rhine, not a man was seen to defend his own home or to make a stand against them; but after blocking the paths everywhere with a thick barricade of felled trees, the savages, frost-bitten by winter climate, had much ado to live, moving far out of the way; and once the emperor had entered into their country they did not dare either to resist or show themselves, and obtained peace by suppliant entreaties.
