At War With Germania

[caldrail]

The war with Germania is described in The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus. The story is too detailed to reproduce here, but it amounted to a revenge campaign by Germanicus for the Varian Disaster and the loss of three legions at the hands of Arminius. However, on reading the tale there are some interesting aspects of roman warfare in the wilderness.

 

The ability of roman legions to mount military campaigns is almost legendary, and their reputation as invincible soldiers survives to this day. We know of course that they weren't, and this is highlighted by the ambush of the 17th, 18th, and 19th legions in the Teutoberg Forest.

 

The terrain of Germania in those days is somewhat different than the farmland we see today. This was a temperate rainforest. Tacitus described Germania as 'fearful forest, and stinking bog'.

 

Everything was against the Romans. The waterlogged ground was to soft for a firm stand and too slippery for movement. Besides, they wore heavy armour and could not throw their javelins standing in the water. The Cherusci on the other hand were used to fighting in marshes. They were big men too, whose thrusts with their great lances had considerable range.

 

Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus

 

Then Arminius ordered the germans to attack. At the head of a picked force, crying that here was another Varus and his army caught in the same trap again, he broke through the roman column. His chief target were the horses, which slipped in their own blood and the slimy bog, and threw their riders, scattering everyone in their way and trampling on those who had fallen.

 

Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus

 

At first Vitellius had an easy journey. The ground was dry or only slightly waterlogged. But then at the autumnal equinox, when the North Sea is always at its roughest, his column was harassed and confused by a northerly gale. The country was deluged. Sea, land, and shore all looked the same. There was no way to distinguish solid from treachorous ground, shallow water from deep. Men were knocked down by waves and dragged under. Pack animals, baggage, dead bodies floated about and struck each other. Units lost their identity. Men stood up to the chest or even the neck in water. Then they lost their footing, and were carried away or went under.".

 

Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus

 

At first glance then the Romans were out of their depth (literally) in such difficult terrain. Germanicus refused to accept this. Tacitus reports a speech he made to his men in which he points out that with suitable tactics even forest and rough ground can fought over by roman soldiers.

 

Open ground is not the only battlefield suitable for a Roman. Woods, wooded hills, are good too, if he acts sensibly. The natives great shields and huge spears are not so manageable among tree-trunks and scrub as roman swords and javelins and tight fitting armour..

 

Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus

 

Because the usual march and countermarch of continental warfare is difficult across such forbidding terrain, we see the romans evolving strategy to cope. In the spirit of revenge the romans target german sites ruthlessly, settlements or religious groves, commiting their occupants to the sword regardless of age or sex, but the domination of area was more important than discrete sites by the end of the campaign.

 

At one point Germanicus orders three of his commanders to construct a fleet of ships to carry men fro m the coast upriver into the interior of Germania. Tacitus reports a thousand vessels were constructed (Officers were sent to Gaul to raise funds for these) of various designs. Some flat bottomed, others double ended for manoeverability.

 

This was amphibious warfare in its infancy, yet it seems a wasted opportunity because the troops disembarked short of their destinations and resorted to bridge-building. Since the romans were unwilling to leave such bridges undefeded, this slowed the roman movement. Since the lack of roads meant that travel had to be made by circuitous routes or by watercourses, speed of movement was a vital consideration. The ability of the german tribes to ambush and fight in these bogs and forests was not lost on the romans after the Varian Disaster. With resilience and no shortage of stubbornness, Germanicus defeated the tribes long enough to recover the three legionary standards captured from Varus.

 

[ASCLEPIADES]

With resilience and no shortage of stubbornness, Germanicus defeated the tribes long enough to recover the three legionary standards captured from Varus.

 

Salve, C.

 

Only two of them: Lucius Stertinus recovered the Legio XIX Eagle from the Bructeri in DCCLXVIII AUC (15 AD), and the hiding place of a second standard was told to Germanicus from the captured leader of the Marsi after the Battle of the Weser River the following year (C. Tacitus, Annales: Libri II, Ch. XXXII).

 

The fate of the third one was explained by Cassius Dio (Libri LX, Ch. VIII, sec. VII) ; it was recovered at DCCXCV AUC (42 AD):

 

"This same year, however, Sulpicius Galba overcame the Chatti, and Publius Gabinius conquered the Cauchia and as a crowning achievement recovered a military eagle, the only one that still remained in the hands of the enemy from Varus' disaster. Thanks to the exploits of these two men, Claudius (Germanicus' brother) now received the well-merited title of imperator. "

Edited September 30, 2007 by ASCLEPIADES

[caldrail]

The impression I got from Tacitus's account is that one was recovered early on, the remaining two were located by the defeated Cherusci and recovered from where they had been buried. Its interesting that there's a difference in the account.