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33At the beginning of spring he set out again for the war, crossed the Rhine, and subjugated the Usipetes. He bridged the Lupia, invaded the country of the Sugambri, and advanced through it into the country of the Cherusci, as far as the Visurgis. 2He was able to do this because the Sugambri, in anger at the Chatti, the only tribe among their neighbours that had refused to join their alliance, had made a campaign against them with all their population; and seizing this opportunity, he traversed their country unnoticed. He would have crossed the Visurgis also, had he not run short of provisions, and had not the winter set in and, besides, a swarm of bees been seen in his camp. 3Consequently he proceeded no farther, but retired to friendly territory, encountering great dangers on the way. For the enemy harassed him everywhere by ambuscades, and once they shut him up in a narrow pass and all but destroyed his army; indeed, they would have annihilated them, had they not conceived a contempt for them, as if they were already captured and needed only the finishing stroke, and so come to close quarters with them in disorder. 4This led to their being worsted, after which they were no longer so bold, but kept up a petty annoyance of his troops from a distance, while refusing to come nearer. Drusus accordingly conceived a scorn of them in his turn and fortified a stronghold against them at the point where the Lupia and the Eliso unite, and also another among the Chatti on the bank of the Rhine. 5For these successes he received the triumphal honours, the right to ride into the city on horseback, and to exercise the powers of a proconsul when he should finish his term as praetor. Indeed, the title of imperator was given him by the soldiers by acclamation as it had been given to Tiberius earlier; but it was not granted to him by Augustus, although the number of times the emperor himself gained this appellation was increased as the result of the exploits of these two men.
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