Sadistic, brutal warriors who murdered whomever they fell into in battle, left cities and villages completely looted and bathed in blood, and had no mercy for their enemies. This is how Roman propaganda portrayed the barbarians of the Germanic tribes. But were they actually that cruel?
With stories of sadistic, primitive peoples, speaking in an incomprehensible language and enjoying macabre crimes, the ancient Romans frightened their children. And no wonder. There was no shortage of bloody episodes in the history of the turbulent relations between the Empire and the Germanic tribes to prove the truth of these reports.
The text was inspired by the first part of Ben Kane's suspenseful trilogy Imperial Eagles. Dark clouds , which tells the story of one of the greatest military defeats of the Roman Empire in history. The book was published in 2020 by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.
But were the "wild" warriors from the depths of the European continent really that brutal? And is this what they "deserved" to be called barbarians?
No mercy for enemies
Reading the accounts of ancient chroniclers, one gets the impression that the Teutons were primarily concerned with conquests, and the war was even their… hobby. Prof. Karol Modzelewski presented:
Caesar wrote about Suebi that it was the largest and most warlike of the Germanic tribes. "They say they have a hundred wards, and from each [ward] they send a thousand men to war each year." The rest work for a year to support the fighters, who return after a year, and others are sent to replace them. Thanks to this, neither farm work nor hostilities stop.
Of course, it is very likely that the author of this colorful story let his imagination run wild, especially with regard to numerical estimates, but the fact remains that members of the Germanic communities did indeed have a flair for warfare - and were very knowledgeable about the art of war . The latter was also taught by ... the Romans.
Farewell to Arminius
This was the case, for example, in the case of Arminius, the Germanic chieftain of the Cheruska tribe, who in the 9th AD in the Teutoburg Forest carried out a regular massacre of the imperial troops. About 20,000 legionnaires died in agony after falling into a trap organized by barbarians. Arminius used the tactics he was taught during his military training in Rome (he also served in the Imperial army for several years).
Even him, however, was probably surprised by what he found on the battlefield after the end of the battle. This is how the image of the brutal massacre was presented in the novel Imperial Eagles, inspired by the tragic events in the Teutoburg Forest. Dark Clouds Ben Kane:
The Germans liked to smash the heads of their defeated enemies, because they believed that in this way they would prevent a person's soul from leaving his body. Dozens of legionnaires had their eyes gouged out and many more lost their heads. They were later nailed to trees as a symbol of victory and also a warning.
But the mutilations did not end there. The ears were bitten off. Many corpses lacked legs, feet, hands, and sometimes even testicles. In several places, makeshift altars were erected, on which the senior officers were burned alive. Their bodies were only blackened, twisted, unrecognizable shapes.
Thieves and Vandals
The Germans entered the fight not only to get rid of the yoke of the occupiers (as was the case with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest), but also to seize new territories and enrich themselves. As Jerzy Strzelczyk reports:
The plundering expedition of various Germanic tribes (the initiative this time seems to have belonged to the Herulians) in 267 was particularly dangerous and far-reaching (...).
The Heruli, allegedly having 500 ships, unable to effectively break the Roman resistance over the lower Danube, attacked Byzantium and the opposite Chrysopolis, and, driven from there by the Roman fleet, ravaged the surrounding islands and cities, and finally landed in Greece proper, which they almost devastated. in full.
The Vandals have sacked Rome to the end
The Vandals also had a similar motivation, who on New Year's Eve in 405, supported by Alans and the militant Suebi, broke through the Rhine near Mainz and invaded the territory of the Empire.
In the years that followed, the barbarians pushed deeper into the empire, plundering more settlements and villages. Half a century later, they took a roundabout route to the heart of the Empire - under the leadership of Genesis, they sacked and destroyed the Eternal City. Interestingly, they spared its inhabitants because ... they promised the Pope that they would not slaughter this time (instead they took their would-be victims as slaves).
On the other hand, Rome itself, after their departure, presented an image of poverty and despair. For two weeks, the invaders carried out a regular robbery of literally everything that in their eyes was of any value. They stole paintings, statues, gold and valuables. They looted churches (for example, they torn off the gilded roof of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill). Even the iron clamps holding the walls of the buildings have not survived!
Brutals or… victims of mocking?
From the name of the Germanic tribe responsible for the desecration of the Eternal City (after this defeat, the empire did not recover, and two decades later its end was sealed by an invasion by the leader of another barbarian community - Odoacra).
While its origin is not in doubt, the term "barbarian" poses more problems. Today we associate it unequivocally - with the lack of limbing, brutality or even sadism. Meanwhile, it originally referred to something completely different. As Karol Modzelewski explained:
The graceful word bárbaros was derived from an imitation of inarticulate gibberish:bar-bar-bar ... Thus the ancient Greeks mocked those whose speech they could not understand. This is what all foreign-speaking peoples called.
The Romans borrowed this term from the Greeks and used it in a secondary sense, based on the juxtaposition of barbarism and civilization. However, the memory of the original meaning of the word has been preserved, at least among the educated elite.
The text was inspired by the first part of Ben Kane's suspenseful trilogy Imperial Eagles. Dark clouds , which tells the story of one of the greatest military defeats of the Roman Empire in history. The book was published in 2020 by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.
Moreover, historians prove that - for those times - Germanic warriors were not distinguished by any particular brutality and a passion for cruelty. For them, however, the saying that history is written by winners has not proven true. Since virtually all accounts of the Roman-German wars were written by proud citizens of the Empire, today's picture of bloodthirsty barbarians is as follows.
After all, the mighty, almost invincible Empire could not bend its knees to just anyone. If any enemy was going to defeat them, it had to be an extremely terrible enemy…
Inspiration:
The text was inspired by the first part of Ben Kane's suspenseful trilogy Imperial Eagles. Dark clouds , which tells the story of one of the greatest military defeats of the Roman Empire in history. The book was published in 2020 by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.