Quinctilius Varus, where are my legions! The walls are gone, the land has melted, and I am not found! Oh, no, that is my revenge, if it may be! It is just as if a man should fly from his enemies in his pride, and think that he is victorious: he must return home to those whom he has vanquished!
(6) "If, then," adds Varus, "he comes to me and desires to see my legions, the law would not stop him." But Varus in his anxiety to be first and see his armies, was in a worse way deceived: it is said, that when he saw the land, when he saw his forces, and the way to the battle-field; that he fled, as if to a dark prison; no, what has come upon him is far worse; it is as if, when he was seeking victory, he has fallen on the same ground with himself; he will not meet his own foes, and will give his enemies to them; he has been cheated by cowardice. For he was a slave of nature, when he wished to be the victor, an animal,