It was early morning, somewhere in the summer, 16 AD.
Germanicus and his officers were preparing for the upcoming battle.
The Roman commander hoped this battle would be a decisive one.
If everything went well, his soldiers would avenge the Teutoburg disaster several years
earlier.
During that ambush, Roman officer and Cherusci chieftain Arminius betrayed Rome and destroyed
three legions in an ambush.
Ever since he has been leading a rebellion from the north.
As the soldiers marched forward, towards, the Germanic warriors, a pair of eyes peered
onto the battlefield.
It was Arminius and his Cherusci warriors, hiding within the trees waiting for the Romans
to engage in battle.
[After Pontes Longi]
In the winter months of 15 to 16 AD, Germanicus worked tirelessly to replenish his ranks.
Instead of returning to Rome, he remained at his winter quarters along the Rhine.
Together with his senior officers, he planned a campaign that would reach deep in Germania's
territory, with no other purpose but to force a final battle against Arminius.
He attracted auxiliaries from the region around the Rhine, and received grain- and animal
shipments from Spain and Gaul.
Caecina's withdrawal after the previous campaign season and the subsequent battle at Pontes
Longi caused a significant dent in his troops.
They lost approximately one in every eight soldiers.
Not to mention other provinces struggling to adequately supply the costly campaigns.
Pondering on the strengths and weaknesses of earlier campaigns, Germanicus concluded
logistics were the main detriment.
Long marches exhausted his men, whereas the Germanic tribes felt comfortable hiding in
forests ambushing his columns trekking through.
Moreover, as had happened at Pontes Longi, baggage trains were an easy target for marauding
warriors.
A rather logical conclusion followed.
Transporting his army by sea along the current-day Dutch coast meant a well-rested army could
land in upper Germania's heartland.
However, one problem arose following this conclusion: he did not have any ships.
So the remainder of the winter, his soldiers built a variety of 1000 ships, clearing the
dense birch and oak woodlands around Nijmegen.
Besides constructing a massive fleet, they had other things going for them.
Several high-profile defectors joined the Roman ranks.
At the beginning of the campaigning season, 16 AD, the Roman fleet lay ready in loyal
Batavi territory.
The Batavi supplied a number of auxiliary troops.
Before Germanicus sent out his fleet to sail north, he ordered several small army groups
to take out potential troublemakers.
He launched an expedition against the Chatti, rebuilt a structure his father erected decades
earlier, nearby the Teutoburg forest, and relieved besieged fortresses close by the
Rhine.
Then, the fleet embarked, sailing upstream to meet up with the advance force.
The advance force built garrisoned outposts north of the Rhine, securing a lot of the
territory.
His fleet arrived after a while, providing him with even more soldiers and equipment.
So when news reached Germanicus of a rebellion among the Angrivarii, he didn't worry.
Surely, he would easily crush it.
Part of his army sailed upstream the Weser river, disembarking in the troubled region.
They swiftly crushed the uprising, plundering settlements as punishment.
As a result, the rebellion did not spread, and Germanicus could finally focus on making
inroads in the heartland of Germania.
This also meant they entered Arminius' territory.
Making it his priority to know what was going on in his territory, early on, scouts informed
Arminius of the large Roman army marching along the river banks.
Taking a large band of warriors with him, he set out to meet the Romans for what he
understood would be a decisive battle.
As Arminius and his army massed along the east side of the river, they saw the large
Roman army marching up north.
Germanicus commanded eight legions, augmented by auxiliary units.
In total, the Roman army must have numbered at least 50.000 men.
They set up camp near the riverbank.
Arminius rode down the slope of the hill to the bank of the river, asking in Latin whether
his brother was among the Romans.
One man indeed left the Roman formation.
It was his younger brother Flavus, who remained a loyal Roman soldier despite Arminius' rebellion.
Flavus face was marked with scars, and he lost an eye during earlier campaigns.
The Romans, and he himself, considered it the ultimate sign of loyalty to Rome.
Tacitus describes how the men asked each other questions.
Flavus insisted on "Roman greatness, the power of the [emperor] . . . the mercy always waiting
for him who submitted himself...."
[Arminius] urged "the sacred call of their country; their ancestral liberty; the gods
of their German hearths; and their mother, who prayed, with himself, that he would not
choose the title of renegade and traitor to his kindred .. . to the whole of his race
in fact, before that of their liberator."
When Flavus asked Arminius to request amnesty and return to Rome, he, in turn, requested
Flavus to join him and his Germanic band of warriors.
Flavus took offence, and both men began cursing at each other.
Reportedly, the Roman commander Stertinius had to hold Flavus back as he wanted to cross
the river on his own to deal with Arminius.
The next morning, Germanicus sent a large part of his cavalry across a shallow part.
Among them was Rome's Batavian cavalry, commanded by its chieftain Chariovalda.
To distract the enemy, they attacked the scattered warriors at the flanks.
Meanwhile, in the back, Roman infantry began building bridges to cross the river.
The fiercest combat erupted between the Batavi and the Cherusci.
Initially successful and forcing the warriors to retreat, slowly but surely the Batavi were
cut off from the remaining cavalry.
Arminius gave the warriors fighting the Batavi explicit orders to lure them.
They feigned a retreat, pulling the ferociously fighting Batavi behind a hill and forest.
Then, warriors ambushed them from the woods.
Missiles and rocks flew down on them, while men charged with their swords and clubs.
The Batavi were surrounded.
They put up a serious fight, and heavy casualties fell on both sides.
The Batavi knew their only way to escape was to break through the warriors.
They rallied in a circle and burst through the rear line of the warriors.
As they broke through, Chariovalda and his horse were slain.
Thanks to their tenacity and the Roman cavalry keeping other warriors at bay, the rest of
the Batavi managed to retreat.
As the cavalry retreated, the Roman army finished the bridges and crossed the Weser.
They set up camp at the riverbank, close by the plain.
That night, a deserter from Arminius' side informed Germanicus he should expect a nightly
attack.
So the commander upped the security around the camp.
But Arminius broke off his planned night attack when he realised the Romans were on high alert.
Instead, a group of horsemen travelled downhill to the rampart.
Speaking fluent Latin, these men now yelled at the Romans within that if they were to
defect, Arminius would richly reward them.
The fact the men spoke Latin indicates several Romans already took his offer.
But to Germanicus' relief, his legionnaires took these suggestions as an insult.
Instead, this offer by the Germans was taken as a sign they were weakening.
Morale actually increased.
[Battle sequence Idistaviso]
The following day, Germanicus deployed his army.
He held a speech instilling strength and morale in his men.
He reportedly saw eight eagles fly over his legions; a good omen.
Then, he ordered his army forward, towards Arminius' army.
The majority of Germanic warriors awaited the Roman army on a plain.
Arminius and the Cherusci were on higher ground, positioned on a moderate slope with the forest
in their rear.
Although their exact formations are unknown, the vanguard of the Roman army consisted of
Gallic and Germanic auxiliaries, followed by dismounted archers.
Four legions, two cohorts of the Praetorian Guard, the cavalry and Germanicus followed
the auxiliaries.
Four more legions of light infantry and horse archers manned the rearguard.
The Germanic warriors were the first to attack the Roman auxiliary vanguard.
Ferocious combat commenced.
Subsequently, the Roman cavalry broke out of the formation and charged the flanks and
rear of the Germanic warriors.
As the fury was going on in the plain, several Cherusci on the hill broke rank against Arminius'
orders.
They charged downhill, attacking the flank of the Romans.
Predictably, the auxiliary cavalry swerved and flanked these Cherusci warriors.
They did not stand a chance.
The counterattack was quick and brutal.
The Roman army continued pushing back the warriors, and casualties on Arminius' side
mounted.
He had to act.
He ordered his remaining men to charge into the Roman flank.
He led the charge himself.
The Cherusci heavily impacted the auxiliary flank, initially making inroads.
During the melee, Arminius was wounded.
As more auxiliary heavy infantry joined the fight against the Cherusci, they began falling
in disarray.
Tacitus detailed the disintegration of Arminius' warriors in his writings: "the enemy was slaughtered
from the fifth hour of daylight to nightfall, and for ten miles the ground was littered
with corpses and weapons.
The Cherusci were being pushed back from the hills.
Arminius was conspicuous among them, striking out, and though wounded, sustaining the fight
with hand and voice."
Before too long, the warriors were routed altogether.
Arminius only managed to escape because he smeared his face with blood to avoid recognition.
Some warriors, unfortunate enough to not reach the woodlands, could do nothing but run towards
the Weser River.
Tacitus writes: "Numbers were overwhelmed in an attempt to swim the Weser, at first
by the discharge of spears or the sweep of the current, later by the weight of the plunging
masses and the collapse of the riverbanks.
Some clambered to an ignominious refuge in the tree-tops, and, while seeking cover among
the branches, were shot down in derision by a body of archers; others were brought down
by felling the trees."
The Romans suffered very light casualties.
But, for now, the wounded Arminius escaped.
[Aftermath]
Following the battle of Idistaviso, the Romans celebrated their victory.
Because Germanicus was the adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, the army held a parade in
his honour.
The battlefield lay littered with corpses and bits of weapons.
The Romans used weapons and wicker shields to create a mound with the names of the defeated
tribes engraved in them.
This mound had quite an adverse reaction, however.
The sight of the trophy with the tribes' names enraged the warriors who survived.
Although many of the battle's survivors were preparing to leave their native lands and
hide deep in the woods until the Romans left, they now organised among themselves once again.
One more battle would follow, for Arminius and his allies felt the Romans overplayed
their hand.
This culminated in the battle of the Angrivarian Wall, the final battle between Rome
and Arminius.