German Memories - Germans Against Roman Rule

In 7 A.D. a new governor became commander-in-chief over Germania: 55-year old Publius Varus who had married a niece of the Roman Emperor Augustus. He had earlier served as governor in Syria, which led the first century Roman historian Velleius Paterculus to say, 'He came to the rich land poor and left a poor land rich.'

He wanted to civilize the Germanic tribes by consistently introducing Roman laws. He tried to overcome with the sword those he couldn't subdue by law. He came to central Germania and spent the summer time with jurisdiction and law-abiding proceedings before his bench among the people who were enjoying the sweetness of peace.

Yet the Germanic tribes had a different understanding of law than what Romans imposed on them. The tribes - used to liberty and savageness - felt that the modern Roman state was enslaving and burdening them: In former times, dues had to be paid only by slaves.

Now with the Romans requiring taxes from them, the Germanic tribes felt humiliated. What also filled them with bitterness was the fact that matters of dispute were decided by a Roman official - and not by an assembly of all free men. It was as if a slave master mediated disputes among his slaves.

In part, the dues were too high. The Roman officials were accustomed to high revenues from other provinces. But for the Germanic tribes who were barely able to feed themselves, such tax demands necessarily resulted in hardships.

Even the Germanic aristocrats were discontent. Over the last couple of years, they had ruled their tribes with Roman assistance according to the Romans' wishes. Now they feared Varus' policy of a faster Romanization: If the Romans ruled Germania directly and extended their control to local matters, they would no longer need any indigenous stooges or collaborators. They feared that they would very soon lose their power, wealth and privileges.

Apart from these general objections, most Germanic people were probably irked by the many small everyday humiliations, conflicts and quarrels. Roman officials objected to the insufficient size of the cattle skins delivered as tribute. But the race of cattle bred by the Germanic tribes was comparatively small at that time. They knowingly ignored the fact and demanded additional payments. The corrupt officials were not indicted when they demanded bribes, customs and taxes which appeared too high to the locals.

When soldiers of the occupying forces raped indigenous women, they were not punished or their punishment was not severe enough by the Roman authorities.

All of these may have raised people's nostalgia for the 'good old time', when they were their own masters, when they could fight for themselves when faced with injustice, when they had to obey no one at all, and when their tribe's fate was still decided by free voting of their own popular assembly - and not by the often unreasonable commands of subaltern Roman officials, who sometimes had arrived in Germania only a few weeks ago, who knew nothing about the previous customs of the people they governed and didn't care to know about the Germanic traditions.