How Rome Lost Three Legions in the Teutoburg Forest

In September of the year 9 AD, three Roman legions marched into the Teutoburg Forest in Germania. Four days later almost all of them were dead. The man who destroyed them was Arminius, prince of the Cherusci: trained by Rome, a Roman citizen and an officer of its army, and the trusted adviser of the governor he killed, Publius Quinctilius Varus. He beat Rome with a lie, a forest and a wall, worked out here on the map: - The lie: a fake revolt that pulled Varus off his safe road, and the warning from Segestes that Varus refused to believe - The forest and the rain: a Roman column some fifteen kilometres long, hit again and again out of the trees - The wall at Kalkriese: a hidden rampart between a hill and a bog, where Legions XVII, XVIII and XIX died Then Augustus's cry "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions", the revenge of Germanicus and the Battle of Idistaviso in 16 AD, why the Rhine became Rome's border for four hundred years, and how a British army officer with a metal detector found the battlefield at Kalkriese in 1987. Shield Theory takes one battle or commander at a time and works it out on the map: ancient and medieval battles, tactics and the generals who won them. If you want the next one, subscribe. CHAPTERS 0:00 Three legions into the forest, 9 AD 0:53 Germania: Rome's twenty years east of the Rhine 1:42 Arminius and Varus 2:45 The lie 4:15 The forest and the rain 5:33 The first night's camp 6:07 The wall at Kalkriese 7:37 "Give me back my legions" 7:54 Germanicus comes back 8:39 Idistaviso, 16 AD 9:00 The Rhine becomes the border 9:42 Found in 1987 10:08 How Arminius did it SOURCES Velleius Paterculus II.117-119; Cassius Dio LVI.18-24; Tacitus, Annals I.55-71 and II.9-18; Suetonius, Augustus 23 Museum und Park Kalkriese; Tony Clunn, The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions Numbers: about 15,000-20,000 soldiers is the usual modern range; the 15 km column is a modern estimate. The exact site of every stage of the battle is still debated; Kalkriese is the one place with the finds. #TeutoburgForest #RomanEmpire #MilitaryHistory