Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

The **Battle of the Teutoburg Forest** was a military battle that took place in the year 9 AD. In the battle, an alliance of Germanic tribes won a major victory over three Roman legions. The Germanic tribes were led by Arminius, the Roman legions by Publius Quinctilius Varus.

It was more than a Germanic victory: it was the complete destruction of three Roman legions and all of their commanders. The few men who survived were made slaves. In secret, he forged an alliance of Germanic tribes that had traditionally been enemies. He was helped to do so by the anger over Varus'  and jus cruelty to the people that he had defeated.

"...Stratagem was, therefore, indispensable; and it was necessary to blind Varus to their schemes until a favorable opportunity should arrive for striking a decisive blow..." British historian Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812–1878)

While Varus was on his way from his summer camp, west of the Weser River, to the winter headquarters near the Rhine, he heard reports of a local rebellion that had been faked by Arminius.

"...This was represented to Varus as an occasion which required his prompt attendance at the spot; but he was kept in studied ignorance of its being part of a concerted national rising; and he still looked on Arminius as his submissive vassal..." Edward Shepherd Creasy

Recent archaeological finds place the battle at Kalkriese Hill in Osnabrück County, Lower Saxony.

The Romans set up a fortified night camp and the next morning broke out into open country, near the modern town of Ostercappeln. The break-out cost them heavy losses, as did a further attempt to escape by marching through another forest area, with heavy rains continuing. The rain stopped them from using their bows because sinew strings become slack when wet, which left them virtually defenceless, as their shields also became waterlogged.

The Romans then began a night march to escape but marched into another trap that Arminius had set, at the foot of a hill near Osnabrück. There, the sandy open strip on which the Romans could march easily narrowed at the bottom of the hill. There was a gap of only about 100&nbsp;m between the woods and the swampland at the edge of the Great Bog. The road was blocked by a trench, and towards the forest, an earthen wall had been built along the roadside. That let the tribesmen to attack the Romans from cover.

The Romans made a desperate attempt to storm the wall but failed. The Germanic warriors then stormed the field and  the Romans. Varus committed suicide. However, others were ransomed, and some of the common soldiers were enslaved.

The victory over the legions was followed by a clean sweep of all Roman forts, garrisons and cities, of which there were at least two, east of the Rhine. The remaining two Roman legions in Germany were stationed in a fort at Mainz and commanded by Varus' nephew. They were content to try to hold the Rhine.

### Varus's mistakes 
#Segestes, the father of Arminius' wife and opposed to the marriage, warned Varus about Arminius. The night before the Roman forces had left, he suggested that Varus should arrest Arminius and several other Germanic leaders. He must have known that they were plotting an uprising. Varus dismissed the advice as motivated by a personal feud. Arminius then left by saying that he would drum up Germanic forces to support the Roman campaign. Instead, he led his troops, who must have been waiting nearby, in attacks on surrounding Roman garrisons.
#Even without the warning, Varus, as a matter of policy, should have been less trusting of Arminius, who turned out to be a double agent.
#The choice of a march through the forest was against normal Roman military methods because both vision and defence are limited in a forest. The march was not done in combat formation. Obviously, the route was chosen as a shortcut, but Varus had no proof that such urgency was really necessary. That was doubly so, as the forest caused the line to stretch so far that one part could not support another.
#The lack of scouts ("reconnaissance parties") was almost criminal and would probably have had Varus executed if he had not taken his life.
#The bad weather was another good reason for caution in going into the forest, which was unknown ground to Varus. New routes should always be scouted.

It will never be known why Varus made those mistakes, but his reputation for  and  suggests that he  the Germans. All of Rome's previous experience, however, from Julius Caesar onwards had shown the Germanic tribes to be strong in war.

## Aftermath
Upon hearing of the defeat, Emperor Augustus, according to the Roman historian Suetonius in his work *De vita Caesarum* (On the life of the Caesars), was so shaken by the news that he stood butting his head against the wall of his palace and repeatedly shouted:
„''''“ ('Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!')

The three legion numbers were never used again by the Romans after this defeat, unlike other legions that were restructured, a case unique in Roman history.

The battle ended the period of  Roman expansion that had followed the end of the Civil Wars forty years earlier. Augustus' stepson Tiberius took effective control and prepared for the continuation of the war. Three legions were sent to the Rhine to replace the lost legions.

### Roman retaliation
Their shock at the slaughter was great, but the Romans began a slow and systematic preparation to reconquer the country. In 14 AD, just after Augustus' death and the accession of his heir and stepson Tiberius, a huge raid was led by the new emperor's nephew Germanicus.

On a starry night, he massacred the Marsi and ravaged their villages with fire and sword. That night, the Germans had celebrated; drunk and asleep, they were surprised by Germanicus. The temple of their deity was destroyed.

Several other tribes were roused by the slaughter and ambushed Germanicus on the way to his winter quarters, but they were defeated with heavy losses.

The next year was marked by two major campaigns and several smaller battles with a large army, estimated at 55,000 to 70,000 men, backed by naval forces. In spring 15 AD, the legate Caecina Severus invaded the Marsi a second time with 25,000 to 30,000 men, and caused great havoc.

Meanwhile, Germanicus' troops had built a fort on Mount Taunus from where he marched with 30,000 to 35,000 men against the Chatti (probably a region of villages) and slaughtered children, women, and the elderly. The able-bodied men fled across a river and hid themselves in the forests. After that blow, Germanicus marched on Mattium and burned the city down.

In summer 15 AD, the army visited the site of the first battle. According to Tacitus, they found heaps of bones, and skulls nailed to trees, which they buried, "looking on all as kinsfolk and of their own blood". Burial pits with remains fitting this description have been found at Kalkriese Hill.

Under Germanicus, the Romans marched another army, with allied Germanic soldiers, into Germania in 16 AD. He fought his way across the Weser near modern Minden and suffered some losses. He forced Arminius' army to stand in open battle at the Weser River. Germanicus's legions inflicted huge casualties on the Germanic armies but sustained only minor losses.

One final battle was fought at the Angivarian Wall west of modern Hanover. Again, many Germanic soldiers were killed, which forced the survivors to flee. In summer 16 AD, Caius Silius marched against the Chatti with 33,000 men. Germanicus invaded the Marsi for a third time and devastated their land.

With his main goals reached and winter coming, Germanicus ordered his army back to their winter camps, with the fleet getting damaged in a storm in the North Sea. After a few more raids across the Rhine, with the recovery of two of the three Roman legions' eagles lost in 9 AD, Tiberius ordered the Roman forces to halt and withdraw across the Rhine. Germanicus was recalled to Rome and informed by Tiberius that he would be given a  and a new command.

Germanicus' campaign had been to revenge the defeat at Teutoburg but also partly in reaction to signs of mutiny amongst his troops.
 
Arminius, who had been considered a real threat to stability by Rome, was now defeated. Once his allied Germanic coalition had been broken and honour avenged, the huge cost and risk of keeping the Roman army operating beyond the Rhine was not worth any likely benefit to be gained.

## Later German nationalism 
The battle, and the histories of Tacitus, had a big effect on 19th century German nationalism. In the 19th century the Germans were still divided into many German states, but they linked themselves with the Germanic tribes as shared ancestors of one German people.

In 1808, the German author Heinrich von Kleist's play *Die Hermannsschlacht* aroused anti-Napoleonic sentiment, even though it could not be performed under French occupation.

Later, the figure of Arminius was used to represent the ideals of freedom and unification – as supported by German liberals, and opposed by reactionary rulers. A memorial – the Hermannsdenkmal – was begun during this period, and Arminius became a symbol of *Pan-Germanism*. The monument remained unfinished for decades, until after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 unified the country. The completed monument was then a symbol of conservative German nationalism.

## References