XL] DRUSUS AND TIBERIUS IN GERMANY. 233
occupied a part of the area now covered by the Zuyder Zee, and
communicated with the ocean. By means of this he conducted
the fleet which he had prepared to the coast of the North Sea,
and proceeded along it as far as the mouth of the Amisia (Ems),
receiving at this time the submission of the Frisians, who in-
habited the neighbouring district He was repulsed, however,
by the Chauci, whose territory lay on the right bank of that
river—a disaster which was partly due to the want of experience
of the tides in those seas from which the Romans suffered
After the premature death of Drusus, his brother
Tiberius, the future emperor, was appointed to his
command, and was successful in his operations
against the Germans, but did not at that time advance further
into their country. At a later period, after his seven years1
retirement at Rhodes, when this government was renewed to
him by Augustus (A.D. 5), he caused his fleet to sail up the
Elbe from its mouth, and himself with his land forces effected
a junction with it on the banks of that river. On this occasion
the Chauci accepted the supremacy of Rome, while their neigh-
bours towards the interior between the Weser and the Elbe,
the Langobardi, whose name now occurs for the first time, were
defeated by the invaders. Subsequently to this, the further
advance of the Romans in that quarter, and indeed their
permanent establishment at any point beyond the Rhine, was
precluded by the great defeat of Varus by Arminius, involving
the destruction of three legions (A.D. 9)—an event of the first
importance in history, because in consequence of it the races
of Germany were developed under native, and not Roman,
institutions.
The two brothers Tiberius and Drusus were also instrumental
in subjugating the countries which lay to the north-
eastward of Italy, and commanded the approaches
to it from that quarter. The area embraced by
these was bounded on the north and east by the
Danube, and on the south by the Alps and the line of the river
Save, as far as its point of junction with the Danube at Belgrade.
It comprised the countries of Rhaetia, Vindelicia, Noricum and
Pannonia, which correspond, generally speaking, to the Tyrol,