Caius Velleius Paterculus

CVI. (1) Pro dii boni, quanti voluminis opera insequenti aestate sub duce Tiberio Caesare gessimus! Perlustrata armis tota Germania est, victae gentes paene nominibus incognitae, receptae Cauchorum nationes: omnis eorum iuventus infinita numero, immensa corporibus, situ locorum tutissima, traditis armis una cum ducibus suis saepta fulgenti armatoque militum nostrorum agmine ante imperatoris procubuit tribunal. (2) Fracti Langobardi, gens etiam Germana feritate ferocior; denique quod numquam antea spe conceptum, nedum opere temptatum erat, ad quadringentesimum miliarium a Rheno usque ad flumen Albim, qui Semnonum Hermundurorumque fines praeterfluit, Romanus cum signis perductus exercitus. (3) Et eadem mira felicitate et cura ducis, temporum quoque observantia, classis, quae Oceani circumnavigaverat sinus, ab inaudito atque incognito ante mari Qumine Albi subvecta, cum plurimarum gentium victoria parta cum abundantissima rerum omnium copia exercitui Caesarique se iunxit.

CVI. (1) Ye Heavens, how large a volume could be filled with the tale of our achievements in the following summer under the generalship of Tiberius Caesar! All Germany was traversed by our armies, races were conquered hitherto almost unknown, even by name; and the tribes of the Cauchi were again subjugated. All the flower of their youth, infinite in number though they were, huge of stature and protected by the ground they held, surrendered their arms, and, flanked by a gleaming line of our soldiers, fell with their generals upon their knees before the tribunal of the commander. (2) The power of the Langobardi was broken, a race surpassing even the Germans in savagery; and finally - and this is something which has never before been entertained even as a hope, much less actually attempted - a Roman army with its standards was led four hundred miles beyond the Rhine as far as the river Elbe, which flows past the territories of the Semnones and the Hermunduri. (3) And with the same wonderful combination of careful planning and good fortune on the part of the general, and a close watch upon the seasons, the fleet which had skirted the windings of the sea coast sailed up the Elbe from a sea hitherto unheard of and unknown, and after proving victorious over many tribes effected a junction with Caesar and the army, bringing with it a great abundance of supplies of all kinds.