Raphael La Belle Jardiniere painting

Raphael La Belle Jardiniere painting
Raphael The Holy Family painting
Although the campaigning season was nearly at an end, the fine weather still held and Germanicus promised to do what they asked. He threw a pontoon bridge over the river and marched across at the head of twelve thousand Roman infantry, twenty-six battalions of allies and eight squadrons of cavalry. From his agents in enemy territory he knew of a large concentration of the enemy in the villages of Münster, where an annual autumn festival in honour of the German Hercules was being held. News of the mutiny had reached the Germans-the mutineers had actually been in treaty with Hermann and had exchanged presents with him-and they were only waiting for the regiments to
William Bouguereau The Broken Pitcher painting
march away to their new kingdom in the South-West before crossing the Rhine and marching direct for Italy. Gennanicus followed a rarely used forest-route and surprised the Germans completely, catching them at their beer-drinking. (Beer is a fermented drink made from steeped grain and they drink it to extraordinary excess at their feasts.) He divided his forces into four columns and wasted the country on a fifty-mile frontage, burning the villages and slaughtering the inhabitants without respect for age or sex. On his return he