Deed — 2 authors face each other below

the Varian disaster

kind: battle · 9 CE — the editor’s frame · 4 mentions across 4 episodes of the record — counted by the house’s first pass receipt — the deed shelf, first pass receipt — the witness index

The destruction of Varus' three legions. No primary narrative survives on the served shelf: the event is attested by aftermath — Augustus' grief, Germanicus' burial party, the rebels' boast.

Where the accounts part — the record’s own argument; the witnesses below carry the receipts

Suetonius gives the emperor beating his head against the door — 'Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!'; Tacitus, six years on, walks Germanicus through the whitening bones and nailed skulls, and gives Caecina Varus' ghost. An event served entirely through its echo — the record is silent on the battle itself, and the silence is displayed.

The regnal line — the editor’s table of years, never the record’s voice

Anchored at 9 CE on the editor’s table of years .

· 9 CE — date secure ·

9 CE in the German forests; the served record has no contemporary narrative — Suetonius' notice and Tacitus' battlefield revisit are both retrospection, and the index says so.

The accounts, side by side — each witness in its own words; every quote is the served record’s, linked to its episode

Suetonius · one account

23 looking back The disaster in the register of Augustus' defeats, with the famous cry.

three legions were cut to pieces with their general, his lieutenants, and all the auxili Suet. Aug. 23

The Deified Augustus · J. C. Rolfe, 1913

Tacitus · 3 accounts

1.60–1.62 looking back Germanicus at the battlefield: the bones buried six years late.

In the centre of the field were the whitening bones of men, as they had fled, or stood their ground, strewn everywhere Tac. Ann. 1.61

The Annals · Alfred John Church & William Jackson Brodribb, 1876

1.65 in passing Varus' ghost rising from the swamps in Caecina's dream.

He seemed to see Quintilius Varus, covered with blood, rising out of the swamps, and to hear him, as it were, calling to him Tac. Ann. 1.65

The Annals · Alfred John Church & William Jackson Brodribb, 1876

4.17 in passing The disaster as rallying cry in the Batavian revolt, sixty years on.

It was only lately indeed that Quintilius Varus was slain, and slavery driven out of Germany. Tac. Hist. 4.17

The Histories · Alfred John Church & William Jackson Brodribb, 1864

Who stands in this deed — standing in the same episodes; counted by the house’s first pass

Arminius — a candidate entry Varus — a candidate entry Emperor — a candidate entry Otho — 1 episode shared

Doors to the sister houses

logoi — the words

No door is cut to the word-house from this room yet. logoi.health keeps the words meanwhile.

mythoi — the stories

No door is cut to the story-house from this room yet. mythoi.health keeps the stories meanwhile.

The record here: The Histories, Herodotus — Godley, 1920–25 · Parallel Lives, Plutarch — Perrin, 1914–26 · 166 works · 12,119 episodes served

lives · deeds · times · the shelf