and sticks meant to play the tribes off one another in this reframed geopolitical world the various germanic chiefs had much to consider one of the major positions they wrestled with was just how closely they should embrace rome arminius naturally found himself establishing a base of power as the faction which championed germanic freedoms forever swearing to oppose the hated romans while this was still an appealing message in theory the reality of nearly a decade of war meant that many were jaded by this approach therefore power in the region began to consolidate around other chiefs with a more friendly disposition towards rome one of the greatest rivals to arminius was mariborus king of the marcomani his tribe had a formidable reputation as great warriors who clashed with roman armies in the past this respect was evident in NUMBER_TOKENad when arminius had actually sent the head of varus tomorrow bodus hoping to gain his alliance however in the war that followed the marcomani king had remained neutral which now allowed him to play the peacemaker he could even boast of never having been defeated by the legions in contrast to the battered arminius who had accumulated a fair share of losses in recent years this rivalry apparently escalated to such a degree that the two chieftains came to blows normally such inner tribal spats would have involved a series of raids and skirmishes to sort out who was top dog however owing to the severity of their animosity and perhaps the degree to which the recent years had militarized the germanic peoples this war quickly escalated into a major conflict the two sides apparently meeting in a climactic pitch battle unfortunately details are frustratingly scarce with our main source tacitus depicting the battle in more symbolic terms as a clash of ideals arminius was the freedom fighter striving for a united german people and trying to excise the cancer of roman sycophants marvidus on the other hand touted his great strength and his ability to coexist with rome while arminius fought for ancient glories and freedom marburus fought to increase the size and influence of his own kingdom as for the fighting itself tacitus mentions only that it was hard fought we have no other sources or archaeological findings to go on and so must imagine a battle fought in the traditional germanic fashion perhaps though armenius may have borrowed a trick or two from his time spent fighting with and against the romans whatever the source of advantage it ultimately made him the victor of the field in the aftermath morobotus was forced to retreat into the hilly forests of bohemia here he would prove just as elusive as arminius had been to the romans in the years prior and managed to outlast his pursuer the following year though moro botus would be challenged by a younger nobleman and forced into exile he would then flee to rome and eventually be held in captive in ravenna arminius meanwhile returned to his own tribe here he continued to plot a way to unite the disparate tribes yet after four long years of frustrating negotiations he was getting nowhere the prediction of emperor tiberius proved prescient left to their own devices the tribes would fall prey to their own petty squabbles this was of course facilitated by the favors and gold which passed over the rhine
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