41.3
Things
wore a very different aspect among the Romans. There was confusion both
on land and sea. The marines struck their tents and hurriedly carried back on
board the stores which had been landed on the beach; the soldiers rushed in
panic to the boats at the water's edge; some of the sailors, afraid of their
boats being overcrowded, tried to stop the crowd; others pushed their boats
off into deep water. This resulted in a struggle, and soon a regular fight
began between the soldiers and the sailors -with bloodshed on both sides -until at the consul's orders the fleet was withdrawn to some distance from
the land. Then he began to separate those who had arms from those who
were without any. There were hardly 1200 out of the whole number who
were still armed; very few of the cavalry were found to have brought away
their horses with them; the rest were a disorderly mob like so many sutlers
and camp-followers, certain to fall a prey to the enemy, if the enemy had had
any idea of fighting. At last, word was sent to recall the third legion and the
Gaulish contingent, and the troops posted round the camp began to come in
determined to recover the camp and remove the stain of disgrace. The
military tribunes of the third legion ordered the loads of wood and fodder to
be thrown off the baggage animals, and commanded the centurions to place
the older men in couples on the mules which had been relieved of their loads,
and the cavalry were each to take one of the younger men with them on their
horses. They told their men that it would be a most glorious thing for their
legion if, by their own valour, they recovered the camp which had been lost
through the faintheartedness of the second legion. And it easily could be
recovered if the barbarians were suddenly surprised in the midst of their
plundering; the camp could be recaptured just as it had been captured. His
words of encouragement were listened to eagerly by the soldiers, the
standards rapidly went forward, and the legionaries followed without a
moment's delay. The first, however, to approach the rampart were the consul
and the troops he was bringing from the sea. The first tribune of the second
legion, with the view of encouraging his men, pointed out to them that if the
barbarians had intended to hold the camp by the same arms by which they
had taken it, they would, first of all, have followed up their enemy in his
flight from his camp to the sea, and then they would have stationed pickets
in front of their rampart. They were in all probability lying sunk in wine and
slumber.
