Teutoburg Forest — Rome's Most Catastrophic Defeat
Three Roman legions were destroyed in a German forest in September of the year 9 and the empire stopped expanding north. Publius Quinctilius Varus was governing the new territory between the Rhine and the Elbe, which Rome had been organising into a province for two decades — roads, taxes, courts and a market economy — on the assumption that it was pacified. His adviser was Arminius, a Cherusci noble who had commanded auxiliaries in Roman service, held Roman citizenship and equestrian rank, and had spent years learning how Roman columns move. He reported a rising in a distant district, and Varus turned the column off the marching route to deal with it, into broken country of forest, ravine and bog, in rain, with baggage and camp followers strung out over kilometres. The attack came in stages over three or four days from prepared positions, and the column could never deploy into a line. Varus killed himself, some 15,000 to 20,000 men died, and the eagles were taken. Augustus is reported to have beaten his head on a door frame and called for Varus to give him back his legions, and the numbers of the three legions were never reissued. Germanicus recovered two of the eagles and buried the bones in 15 and 16. Rome campaigned across the Rhine afterwards and never again attempted to hold the territory. The site was identified at Kalkriese in 1987 by a British officer with a metal detector. The frontier that resulted has lasted in a sense nobody intended. The line between the Romanised provinces and unconquered Germany runs close to the boundary between the Romance and Germanic language areas, and much of the later German national mythology was built on this battle.
- Year: 9 CE
- Category: Military
