More than two thousand years ago, in AD 9, Rome suffered one of the most ignominious defeats in its history. In a surprise attack by the Germans led by Hermann der Cherusker, better known as Arminius, 18,000 soldiers, led by the Roman governor Varus, were cut to pieces near the Teutoburg Forest. Clarity has only recently emerged about what and especially where this happened.
In AD 15, the Roman commander Germanicus, nephew of Emperor Tiberius, marched his legions through Germania, the area east of the Rhine. During this punitive expedition, Germanicus sent an army unit to the Bructeren, a tribe with which the Romans still had a score to settle. The historian Tacitus records that the Romans recovered the 19th Legion's flag, the eagle captured by the Bructeri six years ago when they had taken part in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest. In plundering the remainder of the Bructeri, the Roman troops approached the site of the fatal battle, in which three legions and nine cohorts of auxiliaries with their commander Publius Quinctilius Varus had been killed.It was known that at the site of the battle the remains of the fallen Romans still lay unburied in the open air. Out of respect, the Roman army command decided to visit the site of the battle. What they found defied description. They first passed the remains of the army camp from which Varus had set out on his last journey. The size of the camp corresponded to the size of three legions, about 18,000 soldiers. Further on, the Romans found thousands of albentia ossa (faded bones) of the victims, in groups or separately, at the place where they were killed. Between the bodies lay fragments of weapons and horse harness. Skulls were nailed to the trees. In clearings in the forest, altars had been erected by the Germans, where they had slaughtered the high officers and the centurions.
Some eyewitnesses who had witnessed the battle pointed out the places of remembrance:here the officers had been tortured and killed, there Varus committed suicide, here soldiers were hanged, there the flags were trampled and the eagles captured. In a mood of mounting anger and grief, the soldiers collected the bones, which were covered with a burial mound during a ritual ceremony. Germanicus paid tribute to the fallen and shared in the sorrow of the troops.
Varus, governor of Germania
How could the military might of Rome have come to this? Under Emperor Augustus, Publius was Quinctilius Varus in the year 7 AD. appointed proconsul (governor) of Germany. He had previously held such a position in Syria. Losers usually don't have good press in historiography, and Varus suffered the same fate. The chronicler Velleius Paterculus described him as slow in body and mind, tyrannical, impressionable, and not averse to monetary gain:"As a poor man he entered rich Syria, as a rich man he left poor Syria."
When Varus took office in Germania, the area already seemed pretty much under Roman rule. Many Germanic soldiers served in the auxiliary troops of the Roman army. The civilian population was forced to exchange its manners and customs for Roman citizenship and to prepare for life in newly built cities. It was Augustus's intention to make the Elbe the frontier of the empire and to establish Germania as a new Roman province. But the peaceful coexistence came to an abrupt end, according to some because of the mendacious disposition and latent ferocity of the Germanic people, according to others because of the greed and lack of tact of Governor Varus.
In almost all sources it is stated that Varus proceeded far too expeditiously with the romanization process. High taxes were levied, pushing tribes into poverty. The Roman legal system was introduced, triggering a flood of lawsuits with judgments and decisions that went against the old-fashioned sense of honor of the "primitive" Germanic. The growing uneasiness was channeled by one man who had made his mark in the Roman army:Arminius.
The ambush of Arminius
Arminius was born in the tribe of the Cherusci around the year 17 BC. He and his brother Flavus enlisted in the Roman army and soon belonged to the first generation of social climbers. Arminius, whose name probably derives from the "Armenian blue" of his eyes, made it commander of a cavalry unit, acquired Roman citizenship and was even inducted into the ranks of the equites (knights). In 7 AD he returned to Germania, where he belonged to the military staff of Governor Varus.Apparently he was a loyal Roman officer, but his Germanic roots could not be denied. His soul must have been touched by the disastrous consequences of Varus' tax policy and the arrogant attitude of the Romans towards the Germans:"people who have nothing human except their voice and limbs." He decided to prepare an uprising. He made secret contacts with the leaders of the main tribes:in addition to his own Cherusci, these were the Chatt, the Bructer, the Chauk and the non-Germanic tribes the Marses and the Sicambrians.
It was hard to hide a conspiracy on this scale. According to one of the historians, Varus had been informed of Arminius' treachery, but refused to give credence to the rumours:the signs of friendship towards him had convinced him of the loyalty of the Germans. Such 'blinding' to the clearly approaching doom is a fixed fact in ancient tragedies. Completely confident in his own safety, Varus stayed with three legions and a few cohorts of auxiliary troops (about 2000 men) in northern Germany in the autumn of the year 9.
As he was preparing to return with the troops to the winter quarters along the Rhine, word reached him that a tribe in the west had revolted. The Germanic conspirators in his staff, including Arminius, then left the camp for the purpose of gathering their warriors to help Varus as quickly as possible. The Roman governor let them go in good faith and prepared to march against the insurgents.
Fired as cattle
During the march, Varus was unaware of any danger, for he was passing through the territories of his allies. He deviated from the well-known march route for unclear reasons. The army had to fight its way through forests, hills and swamps in a formation that stretches for miles. The march pace was slowed by carts carrying luggage and supplies. Women, children and slaves were also part of the army line, which moved slowly through the northern German landscape. The weather turned and the heavy rain soaked the soldiers to the bone and slipped into the mud with every step.
Then all hell broke loose. A shower of arrows and spears descended on the legionaries from behind an earthen wall, followed by rapidly advancing combat units that easily parted the long ribbon of Roman soldiers. The Romans had no opportunity to form and were hampered by the heavy wet shields, the mud, the confusion and the murder around them. The scattered clusters of Roman soldiers were easy loot for the fast-moving Germans led by Arminius. They were surrounded and killed. Some units managed to build a bulwark and spent the night there. Others burned all their wagons with luggage behind them and managed to get out of the ambush. But soon they got lost in the woods and new units of Teutons appeared.
Survivors painted a horrific picture:“One they put out their eyes, the other cut off their hands. Another had the mouth sewn shut after a barbarian cut out the tongue. Triumphantly, he held up the limb and exclaimed, "You viper, at last you have stopped hissing!"' (From Lucius Annaeus Florus, Bellum Germanicum.) The massacre lasted several days. When Varus realized the magnitude of the catastrophe, despair overcame him. He threw himself into his sword. The troops then lost all courage and allowed themselves to be slaughtered like cattle by the Germans. When the victors found Varus's body, they chopped it to pieces. The head of the governor was delivered to King Marbod of the Marcomanni, who sent it to Emperor Augustus in Rome. In complete dismay he spoke the historic words:"Vare, legiones saved!" (Varus, return my legions!)
The disaster year 9 reverberated for a long time in the collective consciousness of Roman society. Germanicus' bold punitive expeditions were only a plaster on the wound, though he was able to capture Arminius' wife Thusnelda and lead them into his triumphal procession. In the following decades, the Rhine was definitively designed as the border of the Roman Empire.
Looking for the battlefield
The manuscript of Tacitus' Annals was discovered in the early 16th century. Through this find the learned world learned of the location of Varus' famous defeat. Tacitus used the words haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu to mark the spot where the white bones of Varus' men lay unburied. But what was 'not far from the Teutoburg Forest'? And where was that forest? About this the most fantastic theories arose, over the centuries several hundred in number, which were developed with great topographical knowledge, but without any tangible evidence. Only archeology would be able to answer this question.
When historian Theodor Mommsen was told about a coin find from Kalkriese in 1885, his interest in this place near Osnabrück was aroused. The find did not contain any coins minted later than 9 AD. Had this "money purse" belonged to a soldier who had been killed in the battle? Critics countered that a few coins were not sufficient evidence for a battle. Objects from a military context were missing, such as remains of weapons. Rather, it was assumed that the battle had taken place in the hilly and wooded area around Detmold. This forest had the historicizing name Teutoburger Wald and here in 1875 the huge bronze statue of Hermann der Cherusker (Arminius) was consecrated, triumphantly with the sword raised, the menacing gaze directed towards France…
In 1987, however, scientific attention was again drawn to Kalkriese. British officer and amateur archaeologist J.A.S. Clunn found 160 silver denarii here, all minted before AD 9. In addition, he discovered three lead slingshots, the first militaria at this site. The finds prompted the Osnabrück Archaeological Service to conduct regular excavations around Kalkriese, with sensational results. Not only were the weapon parts of cavalrymen and infantrymen found, but also bronze measuring equipment, styluses and medical instruments, the tools of civilian army units. There were also signs of looting:an iron face mask (part of a equestrian helmet) had been stripped of its silver-plated surface and then discarded.
Forensic examination of skull fragments made it clear that the bone remains had been lying outside unburied for a long time before they had gone underground. The topography of the place showed hills and swamps, with a narrow pass between the Kalkrieser Berg (157 meters) and the Grosses Moor. The site of part of the Varus Battle, perhaps the site of the first ambush, seemed to have been discovered with these finds. The battlefield has, of course, stretched out over a much larger area. Future research will provide even more information about the last days of Varus' legions.
Rarely has a single battle, no matter how bloody, had such a profound effect. Varus' defeat meant the end of Rome's Elbe policy (the Elbe as the northern border of the Empire) and the end of a Romanized Provincia Germania.
Read more at Kennislink: -The Roman Teutonic Politics- Rebellious Batavians