Day of Decision: Teutoburg Forest
Background
By about the year 16 BC, the Rhine River was considered to be the frontier between the Roman Empire and Germania, at the time the home of various tribes the Romans considered barbarians. While the Germans would fight among one another as often as with the Romans, the Rhine was a fragile frontier, where Germans regularly raided into Roman territory. The Emperor Augustus sent his adopted son Drusus north to pacify that frontier and to bring the Germans to heel.
For the next three years, Drusus organized the Rhine Valley as a military district. He had at his disposal five legions, the XVII, XVIII, and XIX organized as the Army of Germania Inferior and the V Alaudae and the I Germania as the Army of Germania Superior. It was during this time when Drusus subdued the Usipetes, the Tencteri and the Chatti, and the Marcomanni.
In the year 12, Drusus crossed the Rhine, first defeating the Sugambri, Cherusci, and Suebi tribes east of the Rhine, then proceeding north along that river in ships to subjugate the Frisians and Chauci. The following year, Drusus crossed the Rhine and marched down its east-west tributary, the Lippe, and established a fort along its banks near the modern town of Oberaden. Drusus campaigned east of the Rhine in the years 10 and 9, reaching the Elbe by the summer of 9 and establishing a fort on that river at the modern town of Hedem�¼nden, where the Werra and Eder tributaries unite. Drusus died on his way back, after falling from his horse.
It was left to Drusus’ brother Tiberius, the future Emperor, to complete the conquest of Germania. During this period, in the year 4 AD, the three legions of Germania Inferior were garrisoned east of the Rhine along the Lippe. Tiberius marched up the Elbe River, meeting a Roman fleet sailing in from the Baltic Sea. By the year 6 the conquest of Germania was on the verge of being completed, but Tiberius was occupied with a rebellion in the province of Pannonia. In the meantime, Publius Quinctilius Varus commanded the three legions inside Germania with the task of continuing the pacification of that province.
Publius Quinctilius Varus
Varus was appointed Governor with the mandate of hastening the process of Romanization of the province. He was an important Senator with close personal ties to the Emperor Augustus. His previous career as governor of Syria had been uneventful and undistinguished.
Varus apparently proceeded to fulfill his mandate is an abrupt and high handed fashion, treating the German people as slaves and their tribes as subject nations, levying taxes in an arbitrary fashion. Since the Romans had legions, not only on the Rhine, but within Germany itself, the Germans did not rise in revolt immediately. Instead, they pretended to be friendly to the rule of Rome, the better to put Varus at his ease and off his guard. Varus seemed to have no notion that his actions were causing discontent, as the Germans seemed to be slowly, but surely adapting to Roman customs and laws.
Arminius
Arminius, or as the Germans called him Herman, was the son of a Cherusci chieftain and was apparently, at first, well disposed to the Romans. He joined a Roman auxiliary unit and apparently distinguished himself so much that he was made a Roman citizen with the rank of equestrian. History doesn’t record at what time in his life he turned against Roman rule. He may have always secretly opposed Roman, joining the Roman Army solely as a means to learn the Roman way of warfare that had been so successful over the centuries. Or, the tyrannical administration of Varus may have turned him against Rome.
In any event, Arminius plotted the revolt against the Romans, while all the time keeping the confidence of Varus. He gathered allies among the other German tribes, speaking in secret at first to a few leaders, then to many. He convinced enough German chieftains that the Romans could be taken by surprise.
In the summer of 9 AD, Arminius set his plans in motion. He instructed the tribes near the Weser and Ems rivers to rise in revolt. Then he pretended to assist Varus in the suppression of the revolt. Varus was leading his three legions, the XVII, the XVIII, and the XIX south into winter quarters in any case, so a detour to suppress the rebellion could be made without too much trouble.
Weather and terrain combined to slow and hamper the Roman march. The legions, accompanied by a supply train filled with provisions and noncombatants, slogged steadily through thick foliage and marshes, occasionally being forced to fell trees in order to make their path clear.
At a certain point in the march, Arminius made the excuse that he was going to scout ahead. What he was really doing, of course, was making sure that the ambush was set. The ambush would take place in a narrow strip bound on one side by marshland and the other by a thick forest called the Teutoburg Forest.
The Battle
The Germans launched their attacks with a shower of spears on the close packed Romans, then closed with sword and shield. The Romans, hemmed in by all sides, could not move into any time of defensive formation. The slaughter they suffered was terrible. Nevertheless, by abandoning their supply train and all unessential equipment, they managed to fight their way to a spot where they could throw up and rude, fortified camp.
The next day, the Roman survivors marched out in better order and even emerged, for a time, from the heavily wooded area to open country. Nevertheless, they suffered heavy casualties, particularly as more and more German warriors, having heard of the success their comrades had against the Roman, joined in the attack.
The Roman column entered the forest again, where they could not concentrate their forces. Wind and heavy downpours further hampered their movements. By the fourth day, it was all over. Varus and his officers fell on their own swords rather than suffer the humiliation and painful death that would result in execution. The three legions fell almost to the last man. Those unlucky enough to be captured were burned alive and otherwise tortured to death by the Germans. Only a handful escaped, making it to the Rhine forts to bring the news of the disaster.
Aftermath
The victorious Germans swept the land between the Rhine and the Elbe clean of all signs of Roman occupation, destroying forts and burning down Roman style towns, including one recently discovered at Waldgirmes. When Augustus heard of the disaster, he took to wandering the halls of the Imperial Palace, crying out, “Varus, give me back my legions!”
The son of Drusus, named Germanicus Caesar, led a punitive expedition into Germania six years later. He defeated Arminius, as well as other German tribes. He recovered the lost eagles of the three lost legions and, after discovering the bodies of the Romans still rotting after all of those years, buried them with honor. Nevertheless, Augustus was no longer
interested in conquering Germania outright and shortly transferred Germanicus to lead a campaign in Asia Minor. The frontier of Rome would not go beyond the Rhine.
Consequences.
The Varian disaster permanently divided Europe into two parts, that which had been conquered by Rome and had fallen under its influence, and that which remained free of Rome. Some have suggested that there was a tragedy for all of Europe, for if the Romans lost Germania, the Germans lost Rome. The digs at Waldgirmes reveal a civilized Roman town with a forum and temples.
What if the Romans had managed to keep hold of Germania? First, the outward frontier of the Roman Empire would have been the far more defensible Elbe rather than the Rhine. Rome would have been in a far better position to stave off the various barbarian invasions that were to occur in subsequent centuries.
And Rome would have had the help of Germans themselves. Adding their strength to the Empire, tempered by their civilizing influence, the Germans would likely have become like the Celts of Gaul and Britain, benefiting more often than not from the Pax Romanum, the Roman Peace. Also, the coal and iron wealth of the modern Ruhr would have been available to Rome, adding to its wealth and power.
Had the Romans held on to Germania, would Rome have fell four centuries or so hence? Perhaps, but certainly not at the time it did. Also, Germany would be a far different country, having taken the best of Roman rule and combined it with its own customs to build something better than the sums of its parts.
