Que faire?: What is to be donc

HERMANN ET THUSNELDA

Page 17. In Hermann and Thusnclda, Klopstock célébrâtes the great victory by which the German tribes were delivered from the Roman yoke. In a battle which lasted three days, the Roman légions under Varus were completely defeated. Thusnelda, the wife of Hermann, the German leader, exulting in his glory, joyfully greets the hero upon his return from the battle-field.

Tacitus says of Hermann : " He was, without doubt, the deliverer of Germany; and unlike other kings and gênerais, he attacked the Roman people, not at the commencement, but in the fullness of their power; in battles, he was not always successful, but he was invincible in war. He still lives in the songs of the barbarians, though unknown to the annals of the Greeks, who admire only what belongs to themselves ; by the Romans, he is not esteemed according to his merits, because in our admiration for the past, we neglect the présent." — Annals IL, 88.