German Memories - Germanic Victory Over Roman Forces

Arminius (Hermann) was a 28-year old Germanic aristocrat from the Cheruscans tribe. As a leader of Germanic auxiliary forces he had been serving Rome for a long time, and had even obtained Roman citizenship and the title of a Roman knight. Arminius had learned enough of the Roman art of warfare in order to know that he and his warriors would definitely fail in an open battle against the disciplined and well-equipped legionaries.

Therefore, in 9 A.D, he told Varus of an alleged rebellion and then made guides available to him. The guides were his loyal men to lure Varus into a trap.

As usual, Varus and his entire army were about to move to their winter camps. Along the way they intended to quickly strike down the rebellion. Though having been warned of betrayal by one of Arminius' relatives, he trusted his Germanic guides. So with three legions and an enormous baggage, totaling more than 20,000 men, he moved through a swampy, complex and unfamiliar forest area (probably north of today's German city of Osnabruck).

The soldiers were marching in comfortably free order with their helmets off and shields on their back, when they were suddenly ambushed by the men of Arminius who were Germanic and had formerly served in Roman auxiliary troops. Arminius' men had been equipped by the Roman arms and turned against their former allies and masters.

The fights stretched over more than three days. As for the legionaries, continuously strong rain affected visibility, silted up the ground and - along with cold weather - started to waste away their endurance. The slowly moving baggage prevented them from a fast withdrawal out of this adverse setting.

Above all, they were not able to carry out effective resistance because after each attack the Germanic units pulled back into the protective forest. While at first the Roman army had withdrawn in an orderly fashion, soon a general panic set in where everyone was only trying to save their own life.

What followed was a terrible slaughter: Some Romans would not even show resistance anymore, others would kill themselves, and most of them, disoriented and weakened, fractured into small groups - would be slain one by one by Arminius' warriors.

There were virtually no Roman survivors. Three of the best legions were not just defeated, but annihilated. One sixth of the entire armed forces of the Roman Empire was destroyed.

For 30 years the Romans had been arduously exploring the Germania. They had won over Germanic tribes as allies or had subdued them, they had built roads, they had established a province administration, they had founded cities. Over 50,000 men had been employed for three decades in an effort to civilize Germania and to make it part of the Roman empire, and had been paid for their work, equipped, accommodated and provisioned by the Roman state.

But ultimately more than 20,000 of their men had been killed within a few days. Now Germania was a province no more, but a free and hostile country.

Arminius had sent to Marbod Varus's head as a call to join the war against Rome, but he was satisfied with his own empire. He didn't want to take part in a risky war; so he sent Varus's head back to Emperor Augustus in Rome.

To the Romans' surprise and joy, the rebellious and victorious Germanic tribes did not attack Gaul or Italy. They seemed content with having regained their old way of living and their independence, and leading numerous small wars against each other. Actually, they were in no position to attack the Roman Empire.

The Germanic tribes in the north were still allied with Rome. In the west and south there were the legions of Roman Gaul and Rhetia, and in the east the Germanic kingdom of the Marcomanians was holding out, showing ominous neutrality. The Rhine river remained the border between Roman Gaul and the free Germania.

Arminius would not become king of a united Germania. Rather, he was murdered by his relatives, and his wife and son were captured and handed over to the Romans by Arminius' father-in-law. The outcome of the battle established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next few hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire never was able to conquer Germania, although many attempts were made thereafter.

The battle had a lasting setback on the Roman attempt of taking over Germania which seriously started in 14 BC and had long term historical consequences as it set the boundary between Romance languages and Germanic languages.

German Memories - Attack on Roman Forces by Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons were marching south along with their neighbors, the Cimbri and the Ambrones, and attacking Roman Italy.

The Cimbri were ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Evidence that the Cimbri may have practised ritualistic sacrifice is found in the nearly 1500 year-old Haraldskaer Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated.

After several battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and other tribes appeared 113 BC in Noricum ( the today's Austria), where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci. On the request, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated only to find themselves deceived and attacked at Noreia, an ancient city in the eastern Alps as the capital of the kingdom of Noricum.

In a bloody battle, they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved them from complete annihilation.

Thereafter the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul (modern day France). They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The same year, they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux). In 107 BC, the Romans once again lost against the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri.

It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Empire itself. At the Rhone River, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. The Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later caused a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio.

The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed by being burned alive in a wicker cage.

The Roman force had witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp backs to the river caused their total annihilation. The Romans lost as many as 112,000 men including the lost auxiliary cavalry and the non-combatants.

German Memories - Victory of Roman Forces Over Germanic Teutons & Cimbri

In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their Proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned towards Spain where they pillaged far and wide. During this time Roman general Gaius Marius had the time to prepare and in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhone River. These two tribes intended to go into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tyrolian Alps.

At the estuary of the Isere River, the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. Marius took up a strong position on a carefully selected hill and enticed the Teutones to attack him there using his cavalry and light infantry skirmishers by using the allied Ligurians. The leading Teutone elements, the Ambrones, took the bait and attacked. They were soon foolishly followed by the rest of the horde.

Meanwhile, Marius had hidden a small Roman force of 3,000 nearby. At the battle's height this force launched an ambush, attacking the Teutones from behind, and throwing them into total confusion. In the ensuing massacre 90,000 Teutones were slain including their King Teutobod, captured.

The captured women committed mass suicide, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism: By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning all were found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.

The Cimbri, however, had penetrated through the Alps into the areas of today's northern Italy. However, the consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the Po River, and so the land was open to the invaders. However, the Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements.

The Cimbri desired battle, and according to their custom sent to the Romans to settle the time and place for it; Marius gratified them and named the next day - it was the 30th July 653 (101 BC) - and the Raudine plain, a wide level space, which the superior Roman cavalry found advantageous for their movements.

Here they fell upon the enemy expecting them and yet taken by surprise; for in the dense morning mist the Cimbrian cavalry found itself in hand-to-hand conflict with the stronger cavalry of the Romans before it anticipated attack, and was thereby thrown back upon the infantry which was just making its dispositions for battle. A complete victory was gained with slight loss, and the Cimbri were annihilated. The Cimbri were virtually wiped out, with over 140,000 killed and 60,000 captured, including large numbers of women and children in the fateful battle of Vercellae in the Raudine Plain near the settlement of Vercellae (modern Vercelli) around 101 BC.

Thereafter the human avalanche had alarmed for several decades the nations from the Danube to the Ebro, from the Seine to the Po, rested beneath the sod or toiled under the yoke of slavery; the forlorn hope of the German migrations had performed its duty; the homeless people of the Cimbri and their comrades were no more.