Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC. He and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani to defeat their rivals the Aedui, after which they settled in large numbers in conquered Gallic territory in the Alsace region. They were defeated, however, in the Battle of Vosges and driven back over the Rhine in 58 BC by Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar #14 – Ariovistus And The Battle of Vosges
Ariovistus failed to understand that in becoming a ‘Friend of Rome’ he had offered ‘Earth and Water’ to the Persians.
Regarding Caesar’s exhorting his men, consider that Caesar was relating to his audience’s great fear, the marauding German giants.
Within living memory, the German tribes had destroyed a number of Roman armies and it took the advent of a superior military commander to subdue the Germans. Caesar subconsciously merges his reputation with that of a well-known General, Marius, because Rome only hears all this afterward and in the knowledge of his victory.
As he had won the faith of his men with his words, he was also swaying the opinions and faith of the folks back home, too.
Scipio Africanus often publicly took the omens before battles. Amazingly, they were always favorable!