it is early autumn of the year 235 a.d
somewhere north of the hars mountains in
germania as dawn breaks a 25 year old
legionary named aurelius vitalis
prepares for another long day of
marching despite his young age he is
already a seasoned veteran of the fourth
flavian loyal legion in which he served
from the age of 18 and took part in the
sassanid war now his legion is hundreds
of kilometers deep within germania as
part of the great expedition of
maximinous thrax to avenge previous
germanic attacks on the frontier the
summer campaign east of the hars
mountains has been a resounding success
so far they defeated the resistance in a
pitched battle burned and looted
settlements and captured large numbers
of prisoners to be sold as slaves now
the roman army is on trail back to the
safety of the limes for winter camps
vitalis only comfort in the long march
ahead is the thought of soon spending
the rest of the winter in the safety of
his camp enjoying the riches and loot
together with his tentmates one flavius
proculus specifically has become a close
friend to him through the years of
service side by side both now prepare
for the long march ahead the romans know
that once west of the harsh mountains
they will be out of peril as the tribes
in that region are friendly to rome the
only obstacle ahead would be the narrow
past between the haar's mountains and
the large hill of vogelberg because
heavily forested hills and swampy
valleys are tough terrain for the
movement of large quantities of men and
carts once there they will have to march
along a narrow trail between the steep
slope of the vogelberg and the swamp a
very vulnerable position but the recent
victories have dispelled the possibility
of an attack from the local tribes and
the confidence level in the army is high
similar preparations are happening on
the opposite side of the camp here
decurian birubham abscess of the heavy
cataphract unit inspects his squadron
before the march born in mesopotamia
like many of his horsemen he was
transferred from the east to take part
in this great expedition against the
germanic tribes to him and his units the
campaign has been a disappointment so
far the forested swampy and rugged
landscape of germania is far from ideal
for cavalry and to make matters worse
the germanic tribesmen flee at the mere
sight of his unit cavalry men saluda
regrethus and abdetathis are more vocal
than their officer in their opinion they
have marched for months to be nothing
more than an exotic touch to the entire
expedition the same cannot be said about
the light infantry accompanying the
expedition barsemes former decurian of
the alanova cataphracts was promoted to
officer of the archer cohort of hemesa
his double strength cohort of archers
has been in the thick of action since
the expedition began and was very
successful in constantly fighting off
local warriors fortunately the germans
have learned to keep their distance from
the archers as they are on the verge of
running out of ammunition the months
ahead will be full of hard work
replenishing supplies for the unit but
only the prospect of returning to his
family that accompanied him to the
border eases barcemas worries
the marching order is finally given and
the long roman column starts slowly
moving through the landscape of germania
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scouts are sent ahead to race and look
for signs of enemy presence they are
followed by the vanguard composed of
legionaries auxiliaries and cavalry
including abscess at the head of his
exotic cataphracts
all baggage and collected loot is put in
the center of the column closely guarded
by members of the legion including
vitalis along with his close friend
proculus right by him finally a strong
rear guard protects the march of the
army this is composed of the rest of the
infantry and cavalry together with all
the artillery and the feared archers of
hemesa led by barcemas the whole roman
column extends over kilometers and as
vitalis and proculus pass the harsh
mountains abscess and the cataphracts
are already halfway through the pass
for now no sign of alarm has been given
but little does the roman column know
that deep in the forested hills of the
pass vengeful eyes are waiting for them
a large army of germanic warriors has
gathered to take revenge on the invading
romans it will be their last chance to
liberate their captured tribesmen and
crush the invaders at an agreed signal
the nearby hills come to life as
thousands of germanic warriors scream
their famous war cries and spring out of
the forest and attack the roman vanguard
and center the romans are caught
completely by surprise without time to
form a proper battle line they engage
the enemy where they stand the attacking
tribesmen soon manage to break part of
the roman center and begin to loot the
baggage train and free fellow prisoners
from their shackles meanwhile the rest
of the center still stands strong and
begin an orderly retreat towards the
vanguard vitalis and proculus are among
those desperately fighting under the
rising pressure and confidence of the
germanic assault it is at this moment
that a spear slips through vitalis guard
piercing his neck and killing him
instantly while proculous and the others
continue to fight for their lives now
the shadow of the battle of tudaburg
looms high across the battlefield as the
roman column is cut into two
emperor maximinus ordered the rearguard
to form a battle line and prepare for
immediate action but the germanic tribes
left a strong detachment in the steep
hill of the horsehorn to prevent the
rearguard from helping their ambushed
men the outcome of the battle is now in
their hands and it is up to them to hold
off and save the day the legionary heavy
infantry forms up for a desperate uphill
attack but the steepness of the hill
makes this a challenging task
groups of germanic warriors at the
horsehorn launch a series of furious
attacks against their right flank
confident from their success against the
roman center but this time they are
pushed back into the safety of the
wooded hill by the combined fire of
artillery and archers the romans then
bring their artillery forward and
together with barcemus and the archers
they start barraging the top of the hill
meanwhile proculus and the retreating
remnants of the roman center are getting
more hard-pressed but in the heat of the
fighting they catch a glimpse of
shimmering armor in the distance it's a
contingent of the vanguard's cavalry
spearheaded by abscess and the alanova
cataphracts the hour has finally come
for the cavalry to show their mettle the
tribesmen of germania were struck hard
by the cavalry but kept on fighting
unwilling to give up their success it is
only after a series of well-coordinated
cavalry charges that the ambushers
finally routed but the curian abscess
saluda and regrethus fell in the fray
with their sacrifice they have allowed
their hard-pressed comrades in the
center to rush to the support of the
vanguard which was still fighting on in
the rear guard emperor maximinus gives
the order to start the advance against
the barbarians defending the hill and
blocking the way to the baggage train
supported by cavalry and a constant hail
of fire from the scorpios ballistas and
archers the roman legionaries are able
to charge the hill and engage the
tribesmen a furious and desperate battle
ensues with the steep terrain having the
romans at a huge disadvantage no clever
tactics could be used here and it is
only roman blood discipline experience
and determination that will finally tip
the scales dislodging the enemy from the
summit and forcing them to run for their
lives
following the success of the infantry
the archers and artillery are moved to
the summit and start raining down
missiles on the germanic warriors
plundering the baggage and blocking the
mouth of the pass the germanic warriors
break after a token resistance cavalry
and skirmishers are sent to chase them
and while the rest of the roman rear
rearguard manages to reclaim the baggage
it becomes known that the vanguard was
also able to repel the attackers only
the swift reaction of the rear guard
under maximinus has prevented a disaster
of great proportions the romans spend
the next few days securing the baggage
and burying the dead every piece of
serviceable equipment is gathered this
cleanup of the battlefield is the main
reason we only have limited information
to recreate this battle today luckily
though enough remains were ignored by
the triumphant romans to allow us to
reconstruct the course of the battle the
findings included broken helmets
arrowheads scorpio projectiles open
shackles coins and more even the field
of fire of ballistas on the hill could
be recreated we know for sure that the
romans continued their march to the
border uncontested where they stopped
for a brief period in their winter camp
here many took the chance to honor their
fallen brethren and this is how we came
to know of the main characters in this
video legionary proculus made sure to
honor his fallen friend vitalis and
directed a small altar in his memory
abdetathus honored abscess and the other
fallen horsemen with the tombstone
depicting a cataphract and barcemas
returned to his family and together with
them erected a small monument honoring
the god jupiter fitting monuments to
honor the men who fought and fell in
distant lands in the name of rome far
from home but their efforts have only
recently been recognized as highly
significant up until the early 2000s
modern historians thought it highly
unlikely for a roman expedition as far
as 300 miles into germania especially
during the crisis of the 3rd century
when rome was thought of as being only a
victim to mass invasions from all
borders in fact when 17th century
historian claude saumus came across
roman sources claiming the 300-mile
invasion he immediately assumed it was a
typo or exaggeration and changed the
distance to 30 miles in his translation
now with the findings of the battle of
harshorn we can see that we greatly
underestimated the might of rome as even
in the 3rd century they were still
capable of casting a long shadow over
germania by launching a mass invasion
covering the longest distance since the
campaigns of germanicus the rhine may
have been the edge of the roman world
but the cause of rome didn't stop there
as maximus made sure the next generation
of germanic tribesmen would remember
this video was a collaboration with
youtuber and author told in stone head
on over to his channel to see the first
part of this video which covers the
earlier stages of the campaign we would
like to express our deepest gratitude to
felix bittman from the lower saxony
institute for historical coastal
research for providing us with the
valuable information about the battle as
well as the patriots for making this
video possible feel free to join them
and greatly helping to make more of such
videos i will see you all in the next
one