enough to be sacrificed in that manner after reburying many remains the roman thirst for armenius blood was stronger than ever it just so happened that arminius ii was preparing for revenge he managed to gather warriors from many tribes even those previously thought to be pro-roman besides several attempted ambushes no decisive battle materialized as the end of the campaigning season approached germanicus organized the withdrawal from germania with half of his army he set out to take a northern route and ordered cecina to return along a trail known as the long bridges or pontus longi this famous route traversed through marshy terrain over the years romans built causeways and bridges to navigate the territory it is safe to say many of these were destroyed if left unguarded with cecina's army moving in that direction armenia's knew exactly what route they were about to take taking shortcuts he reached the bridges before cecina his warriors took their positions in the forest and on top of hills overlooking the marshes cecina's army numbered around four legions NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN auxiliaries and some levied locals in addition several baggage trains traveled with them in total the roman army must have numbered around NUMBER_TOKEN thousand unfortunately for the romans the causeways indeed were broken down either by nature or sabotage to cross the marshy area cecina ordered his men to repair the bridges he split up his army with part of the soldiers repairing the bridges and other standing guard to cover the working party cecina was well aware of the vulnerability of his army mainly because they were in a buggy plane hampering traditional army formations his feelings were reinforced when small bands of warriors charged from the surrounding woodlands history the romans minor skirmishes at best follow it went on like this throughout the entire day germanic bands of warriors would leap out of the woods or descend from the surrounding hills they would throw javelins and stones or charge into the romans using nature to his advantage armenias ordered his warriors to redirect a stream into the plane with the water tide rising the romans had even more difficulty maintaining formations against immobile and flexible german warriors as night fell tacitus writes several legionaries were already close to breaking they built their camp in the plane still they would not be able to sleep in their wet tents knowing they were entirely surrounded an atmosphere of uncomfortable bread hovered above the quiet roman can its guards saw smoke rise from the audibly celebrating german encampments they knew they had the upper hand the romans knew it as well the following day cecina ordered his army to form an infantry square around the baggage train in theory this was probably the best way to protect the wagons however the two vanguard legions moved at a much faster pace as a result the heavy wagons got their wheels stuck in the mud then as the vanguard reached a wide open plane across the marshes the baggage train was left exposed armenia was closely monitoring from a distance saw the fault in rome's formation he ordered his warriors to charge and launched a massive attack against the wagons and the rearguard the germanic warriors clashed with the legionaries there was no other way for the romans but forward and during the ferocious and brutal fighting across the marshes the baggage train slowly moved towards the open plane the unprotected areas were plundered by the
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