It's September of year 9.
Augustus rules in Rome, and the Empire is at peace.
And far to the north, Publius Quincillus Varus is on the other side of the Rhine with three
legions.
Germania, though still unconquered, has been pacified.
Many tribes now consider themselves allies to Rome.
During the summer months, Varus had been touring around Germania, trying to expand Roman influence.
He put down little uprisings, acted as an arbiter in local disputes, basically gave
the locals a small taste of Roman law.
It was the end of the campaigning season and Varus was heading back across the Rhine.
Representatives from a bunch of different German tribes approached Varus and asked if
they could each host a Roman cohort for the winter.
(A Roman cohort at this time was around 480 men.)
Now, remember that Varus was trying to expand Roman influence, so this is pretty much a
dream request.
"What, you want Rome to have a heavier military footprint in Germania?
Uhh, sure, I mean, if that's what you guys want, we can do that."
So the Germans went home to their tribes, each accompanied by a Roman cohort.
The cohorts built for themselves little outposts, and settled in for the winter.
On an agreed upon day, each one of these German tribes rose up and slaughtered the Romans
in their midst.
The whole thing was one big conspiracy, and was executed flawlessly.
On the same day, the Germans sent messengers to Varus, who was still marching west, and
told him that a revolt had broken out to the north, and the Germans up were formally requesting
Roman assistance.
This was another trick.
There was no revolt.
But Varus felt honour bound to protect Rome's allies, so he lead his army north.
Under normal circumstances Varus would have had 20,000 men, but he had already sent 5,000
men away with the Germans.
These men were already dead, but Varus didn't know this yet.
It wasn't a good time to be marching north.
The weather had turned, and it was pouring rain.
The Romans were struggling to navigate this thick Forest with its narrow dirt path, which
were quickly turning into mud.
The path lead through a swampy pass between two steep hills.
Now let's pause here for a moment.
If you were approaching this pass, what would you do?
One option is to just say "I'm not marching my whole army through a damn swamp," and to
find another way around.
Marching off into the woods isn't ideal, but it was possible.
Another option is to treat the swamp like a river crossing.
Send a cohort across first and have them form a defensive bridgehead, and then slowly cross,
a little bit at a time, while your men hold defensive positions at each end of the swamp.
This might take all day, and Varus was in a rush, but sometimes cautiousness is the
way to go.
Another option is to thoroughly scout ahead before committing to crossing the swamp.
Send some guys up onto the hillside, check out the far side of the swamp, you know, stop
and look around.
Again, this would take some time, and it wouldn't make you immune to an ambush, at least you'd
have some warning.
Another option is to encamp for the night.
If its raining and you have a complicated swamp crossing coming up and you have no idea
what's out there, it's okay just sit tight.
If Julius Caesar were here, that's what he would have done.
He was capable of sitting around for weeks just to make sure he wasn't put at a disadvantage.
I know I'm beating this to death but I want to illustrate how Varus had options, and how
he didn't use any of them.
Even if you don't know what happens next, I hope you can see how careless this was.
Seemingly from nowhere, the Romans were being hit by ranged attacks from all directions.
So there were Germans hiding on both hills.
Obviously.
Many Romans died in these first few moments.
They tried to form a shield wall, and failed, and then tried to throw their javelins in
response, but the hills were just too steep.
Varus ordered half of his men to hold the Germans back, which basically meant stand
there and try not to get killed, and the other half to get onto dry land and start constructing
their fortified encampment.
The Romans carried their walls with them, so they could throw these things together
in no time.
The defences were completed, and the rest of the army retreated behind the walls for
a sleepless night.
That night, Varus took council from his subordinates.
They begged him to fall back across the Rhine and into Roman territory.
Varus remained convinced that there was an uprising to the north, even though there wasn't,
and felt compelled to help.
Honourable, but foolish.
He went against the advice of his subordinates, and made plans to continue north.
The next morning, the Romans ditched many of their supplies and took off pre-dawn, successfully
slipping by the Germans in the darkness.
A good plan, and it actually worked.
They advanced all day in silence, finally exiting the forest onto a wide open plain,
and encamping for the night.
They weren't hiding.
They were sitting out in the open hoping for a fight.
Let me explain their thinking here.
The Romans have always preferred to fight out in the open, seeing it as much more honourable
to meet your opponent face to face.
The Roman word for ambush was the same one they sometimes used for treason.
And just like we don't view treason as a normal part of politics, they didn't view ambushes
as a normal part of warfare.
It goes without saying that history has proven them wrong, but that's what they thought.
So anyway, that's why the Romans were just sitting out in the open after being so badly
beaten.
They wanted to have a "real" battle out in the open.
But the Germans didn't bite.
On the third day they kept pushing north until they were forced to renter the forest.
This is when the Germans attacked.
The Romans were more prepared this time, but couldn't get a good grasp on where the Germans
were coming from due to the dense vegetation, and had a hard time fighting in the mud.
It was a mistake to get sucked into battle here.
They took heavy losses, and were forced to retreat yet again into another fortified encampment.
On the forth day the rain picked up again, with gusts of wind so strong that it pushed
people over.
Varus decided to sit tight until the storm passed, which is pretty reasonable.
Unfortunately, it was on this day that German reinforcements arrived.
On the fifth day, the Romans emerged from their encampment.
They didn't see any Germans, so they continued heading north.
As you might expect, they walked right into yet another German ambush.
Now, this is the big one, so let's slow down and get the lay of the land.
To the south there a small hill, covered with trees.
To the north, there was a swamp.
Yes, another swamp.
Varus must have learned his lesson from Day One, because this time he did everything he
could to keep his men on dry land.
As the Romans moved to go around the swamp, Germans poured out of the forest to block
their path.
What do you think Varus did?
He had his men to build another fortified encampment.
Is anybody else noticing a trend?
If I can see a pattern, and you can see a pattern, we know that the Germans probably
saw the same pattern.
Now, at long last, we have our first mutiny.
The Roman cavalry decided that they'd had enough, and made a break for it, charging
east.
As luck would have it, that's exactly where some more Germans were hiding, and they easily
ran the Romans down.
So much for that idea.
Varus was up at the front line, holding the Germans back, when he was badly wounded.
Probably by a javelin, but we don't know for sure.
His men took him back to the encampment, which was still only half built.
During this confusion, some concealed Germans up on the southern hill revealed themselves,
and charged.
The Romans here were busy setting up walls, and couldn't get into formation in time.
They didn't stand a chance.
Varus, badly wounded and seeing that the battle was lost, killed himself.
These Germans eventually moved up and envelopped the other half of the Roman army, continuing
the slaughter until a Roman officer stepped up and surrendered to the Germans.
They were utterly defeated, there were maybe a couple hundred Romans left.
What happened next became the stuff of legend.
The Germans took the surviving Roman soldiers, lined them up, and systematically beheaded
them, keeping their skulls as trophies.
Then, they took the surviving centenarians to a group of trees and crucified them.
And finally, they gathered up the surviving commanders, took them to a sacred grove, and
burned them alive in a ritual sacrifice.
It's conventional wisdom now that Rome never really recovered from this defeat.
Romans would campaign against Germania for generations, but from this moment on they
always viewed it as enemy territory, and never again as a potential future province.