Yule and Christmas; Their Place in the Germanic Year »

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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
CHAPTER III. THE FEAST OF MARTINMAS. The term at which Roman legions in Gaul and Germany withdrew into winter quarters varied a little, although not considerably. As a rule it seems to have been before the middle of October, when the rainy season begins in those countries. It was the frequent rain which prevented any continuation of warfare, not the cold. No Roman general seems to have been bold enough to try to extend warlike operations till frost set in. When Caesar, for once, tried to keep his legions engaged in war beyond the usual term, he was compelled to retreat, as his soldiers could no longer sleep in the open field because of the rain.1 On the other hand, he did not like to retire into winter quarters too early; and when he had to do so, because no more work was to be done, he expressly mentioned it.2 Now, A.d. 14, Germanicus was fighting some German tribes. The autumn came, and he withdrew into winter quarters. The winter was imminent, but had not yet set in.3 The fifth and twenty-first legions were in winter quarters at the sixtieth stone, which place was called Castra 1Caesar, Bellum Gallicum, Lib. III., chap. xxix.: " Incredibili celeritate magno spatio paucis diebus confecto, cum iam pecus atque extrema impedimenta ab nostris tenerentur, ipsi densiores silvas peterent, eiusmodi sunt tempestates consecutae, uti opus necessario intermitteretur et continuatione imbrium diutius sub pellibus milites contineri non possent." 3Bellum Gallicum, Lib. I., chap. liv. : "Caesar, una aestate duobus maximis bellis confectis, maturius paullo, quam tempus anni postulabat, in hiberna in Sequanos exercitum deduxit." 3Tacitus, Annales, Lib. I., chap. xliv. : "Ob imminentem . . . hiemem." Vetera,1 when they mutinied. In order to turn their minds to something else, Germ...