Rome's man in the Rhineland in a. d. 9 was Publius Quinctilius Varus. He had achieved an admirable record of service as governor and general elsewhere in the Empire, but in Germany he found himself totally unprepared for what was to come. Rome's blame for the catastrophe fell on his shoulders.
Opinions about Varus vary greatly among historians, ancient and modern, and the character of the man is important for understanding the background to the great battle. Velleius Paterculus, a soldier and historian and a contemporary of Varus who knew him personally, left a very unflattering profile. Tacitus, on the other hand, who wrote three generations after Varus's death, painted a much more positive picture of him. Different historians interpret the events leading up to the ambush and the course of the battle differently, depending upon which characterization of Varus they accept.
Varus and His Political Career
Publius Quinctilius Varus was born in 47 or 46 b. c. We know very little about the circumstances of his birth or childhood, or about either side of his family. The family of the Quinctilii apparently enjoyed patrician status, but had lost its prominence by the time Varus was born. Everything we know about him derives from his connections with Augustus and the political positions in which he served as the result of that relationship. He also benefited greatly from politically advantageous marriages. Although details of his personal life remain unknown, the available information about his career sheds light on the experience of a highly placed imperial functionary in the Roman elite.
The first fixed date in our knowledge of Varus's career is the year 13 B. C., when he served as consul with Claudius Nero, later known as Tiberius, the son of Augustus's wife Livia, who became Augustus's principal general, was adopted by the emperor in A. D. 2, and succeeded him as emperor. (Two consuls served as magistrates for both military and civil matters in Rome, and at this time they were appointed for annual terms by Augustus.) While serving as consul, Varus was married to a woman named Vipsania, who was a daughter of Augustus's close friend Agrippa, who had been governor of Gaul and occupied other important public positions. Later Varus married a woman named Claudia Pulchra, who was the daughter of a niece of Augustus's. One of Varus's sisters was married to another of Augustus's close friends, Lucius Nonius Asprenas. These marriage connections linked Varus closely to Augustus and provided him entry into the political elite of Rome. In his role as consul, Varus was able to ingratiate himself further with the emperor. When Augustus returned to Rome from the Rhineland and Gaul in 13 B. C.,Varus and his coconsul organized the festivities in honor of the god Jupiter that celebrated the emperor's return. This opportunity gained Varus favor with Augustus and at the same time drew public attention to his active role in a big public spectacle. Besides the great celebrations, Augustus's return to Rome was marked by the dedication of the Altar of Peace, a highly visible and permanent monument to Augustus's successes in bringing peace to the provinces.
In the years 7-6 B. C., Varus served as proconsul of Africa, but we know very little about his experience there. Roman Africa at this time consisted of a narrow coastal territory between the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, extending from modern eastern Algeria in the west to central Libya in the east. We are far better informed about his service as legate of Syria. Syria was an imperial province of Rome—its administration the direct responsibility of the emperor—and Augustus appointed Varus legate, his governing representative, in 6 B. C. In the accounts of his diplomatic, military, and political work there, we learn the most about what sort of a man Varus was and why Augustus chose him to become commander of the Roman army on the Rhine.
The position of governor in Syria was a difficult one, and Augustus's appointing of Varusto it indicates the emperor's great confidence in the man. Varus had to oversee several kingdoms, each with its own local ruler, as well as some major cities, within the province. Maintaining peace in this part of Rome's Empire required diplomatic ability as well as willingness to act with determination and ruthlessness when the situation required it. To the east, the Parthian Empire, controlling the lands between the Euphrates and Indus Rivers, provided a constant challenge to Roman peace in the region. This powerful state bordered the Roman Empire at the eastern end of Asia Minor, and the two rivals competed over the region of Armenia. Augustus's grandson and heir Gaius was to die in A. D. 4 as the result of a wound suffered in that theater of conflict, and a period of uneasy peace there followed.
Herod, king of Judea in the southwest part of the province, died in 4 B. C. (shortly after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth), and as governor Varus had to confront major uprisings that accompanied the succession struggle of this powerful Roman ally. According to the account of the Jewish historian Josephus, Varus controlled developments decisively and effectively. He brought one of the three legions stationed in Syria to Jerusalem to quell the disturbances there; later he sent the other two into the region to deal with uprisings elsewhere. Through skillful movements of different units of the army and application of force and threat of force at the right places, Varus succeeded in ending the disturbances in a relatively short time and bringing peace to the region. His actions in Syria indicate that he was able to command his military forces intelligently and to deal with complex regional crises effectively.
We do not know how long Varus remained in his position in Syria, nor do we know his successor. Probably in about 3 B. C. he ended his service there. From the time of his actions in quelling the rebellions in Palestine until his assumption of military command in Germany—a period of about a decade—we do not know where Varus was or what he did. In fact, between the years 6 B. C. and A. D. 5, we have comparatively little historical documentation about Rome as a whole.
Varus in Germany
In A. D. 7, Augustus appointed Varus his legate, or governor, for the Rhineland (see map 5).This position put him in charge of the legions stationed on the Rhine frontier and gave him responsibility for Rome's offensive policy in Germany east of the river. In the years A. D. 4 and 5, Tiberius had led large military campaigns east of the Rhine into Germany as far as the Elbe, where he linked with Roman naval ships that had advanced up the Elbe from the North Sea. He even spent the winter ofA. D. 4-5 somewhere east of the Rhine, probably in one of the bases on the Lippe River (see below). By the end of the campaign season of A. D. 5, it appeared to Augustus and the rest of the Roman policymakers that Tiberius had successfully conquered Germany from the Rhine to the Elbe and that the land and its people were ready to be fully integrated into the provincial structure of the Roman Empire. A year later, the general Sentius Saturninus marched a large contingent of the army based at Mainz on the
Map 5. Map showing places mentioned in chapters 5 and 6, associated with Roman policy in the Rhineland and with German activity east of the Rhine.
Rhine eastward toward what later became Bohemia. Their mission was to engage the forces of Maroboduus, leader of a tribal confederation that threatened the Roman frontier on the Danube. However, a rebellion in Pannonia and Dalmatia required a quick and massive military response (see chapter 6). The campaign against Maroboduus was called off, and Saturninus brought the legions back to their bases on the Rhine. This was the situation on the Rhine frontier when Varus assumed his new position.
Since Augustus and other Roman leaders considered the region between the Rhine and the Elbe conquered and ready for the introduction of provincial administration, Varus must have understood that his primary responsibility was creating Roman administrative structures, such as systems of census taking and taxation, among the tribal peoples of the region. From his experience in Syria, and from the outbreak of rebellion in Pannonia and Dalmatia, Varus was surely aware of the possibility of armed resistance to the expansion of Roman power and thus of the importance of his showing force during his administration. We have no information about Varus's actions during the year A. D. 8. It is quite possible, as Velleius Paterculus says, that Varus began to institute Augustus's policy of collecting taxes from the tribal groups, as if they were already part of Rome's provincial populations, but there is no clear evidence for this practice in Germany. If he did so, this action would certainly have added to the grievances that the Germanic tribes felt toward the Romans.
His presence in the Rhineland and in the territories east of the river between A. D. 7 and 9 is represented archaeologically by coins stamped with his name. A series of copper as coins (the Roman as denomination weighed about half an ounce) minted at Lyon, in Gaul, from 12 B. C. on bore a picture of Augustus on the obverse and of the Altar of Rome and Augustus, a monument erected in that political and religious center of Roman Gaul, on the reverse. These coins were intended to serve as payment to the soldiers. Many were subsequently stamped, not at the mint but at military bases, with countermarks that represented commanders of the legions. It was common practice for commanders to give monetary rewards to particular units of soldiers, sometimes to individuals, for outstanding service. The coins used for such gifts were often stamped with the donors name to serve as a reminder of the source of the largesse. Such countermarked coins are found almost exclusively on military sites. Coins with the distinctive VAR countermark, for Varus, are common at military bases in the Rhineland, and they are well represented at the battle site of Kalkriese.
Varus's Character and the German Catastrophe
Modern as well as ancient opinion about Varus is mixed. As was mentioned earlier, Velleius Paterculus, who knew Varus personally, had only bad words for him, suggesting that he was incompetent as a military leader and that he enriched himself improperly during his governorship of Syria. According to Velleius, the Teutoburg Forest disaster was attributable to Varus's incompetence. Some modern historians, such as Theodor Mommsen, have largely accepted Velleius's assessment.
In contrast to Velleius, Tacitus says nothing uncomplimentary about Varus. The modern historians Walter John and Ronald Syme have held that Varus was a highly competent diplomat and military leader, who proved his consummate skills in Syria and was the ideal man for Augustus to place in the complex situation in Germany. John has suggested that Velleius's critical portrayal of Varus should be understood as the complaints of a cranky old soldier about an administrator who was given military command over the legions.
The judgment on Varus ultimately comes down to the question of who was to blame for the disaster in A. D. 9. Velleius and some other Roman writers placed the blame firmly on Varus, portraying him as lax, indolent, unable to see through the schemes of the crafty Arminius. Many modern commentators have accepted that representation and argued that Varus was the wrong person for the German post. But, as was noted above, this negative portrayal of Varus was by no means universal among Roman historians, and the accounts of his performance in Syria, in both the diplomatic and the military spheres, suggest that he was extremely competent. The lands east of the Rhine were of great concern to Augustus, and there is no reason to think that he would have placed a man in that position in whom he did not have the utmost confidence.
As I shall show in subsequent chapters, the reason for the Roman disaster in the Teutoburg Forest lay not in Varus's lack of ability or his misjudgement but instead in a much more pervasive misunderstanding of the political and social situation there on the part of Augustus and his advisers.
Life on the Roman Frontier
When, in A. D. 7, Varus became Augustus's governor and military commander of the Rhineland and the territories to the east, he arrived in a situation with well-established military bases and an ongoing military and diplomatic policy toward the Germanic peoples there. To understand what the army and the individual soldiers whom Varus commanded were like, we need to consider life on the Roman frontier at this time.
After Caesar's conquest of Gaul between 58 and 51 B. C., the Rhine River formed the eastern border of the new Roman territory. Caesar had made two forays across the Rhine, in 5$ and 53, but had not conquered any territory there or defeated any tribal groups. In the decades following Caesar's conquest of Gaul, peoples east of the Rhine conducted numerous incursions westward across the river that were troublesome for the Roman authorities (see chapter 7). The defeat of a Roman legion under the command of Marcus Lollius in 16 B. C. (chapter 4) was a catalyst for a change in Roman policy—in particular, for a reorganization of Roman military forces in Gaul.
During his years in Gaul, Augustus directed the establishment of a provincial infrastructure that included a system for collecting taxes. At Lyon, he arranged the building of a central cult site for all of Gaul. It included an Altar of Rome and Augustus, to honor both the center of the Empire and himself as first citizen. He also reorganized the deployment of the legions, moving them from the interior of Gaul to the frontier along the banks of the Rhine. He oversaw the construction of a series of new military bases, at what are today Nijmegen, Xanten, Moers-Asberg, Neuss, Mainz, and perhaps Bonn. The chief purpose of these bases was to stop incursions into the Roman territory by groups from across the Rhine, but the troops could also be called upon to deal with uprisings within the province, as they had to be in 12 B. C. when disturbances broke out over taxation. At the same time, these frontier bases provided ideal locations from which to launch campaigns into the regions east of the Rhine. Those at Xanten and Mainz, in particular, were situated just across the Rhine from the confluences of rivers—the Lippe and the Main—that provided water access into the interior of Germanic territory. A naval fleet was built for moving supplies and troops along the Rhine and up those slow, westward-flowing rivers. In 12 B. C., massive military campaigns began, under the command of Augustus's adopted son Drusus, against the Germanic tribes east of the Rhine. The troops set out from the bases at Xanten and Mainz and moved eastward up the valleys of the Lippe and Main Rivers, in a pincer strategy that was intended to converge on the powerful tribes in the German interior.
The details of this summer campaign, and its relation to later events, will be explored in chapter 7. Our subject here is life in the military bases on the Rhine frontier and at the forward bases established across the Rhine along the routes of penetration into the Germanic lands. What was the military experience for the soldiers who followed Varus into the German forests and perished at the hands ofArminius and his warriors?
The Rhine Bases
When first established by Augustus's orders between 15 and 12 B. C. in preparation for the new offensives into Germanic territory, the bases along the Rhine were temporary affairs, without the solid stone architecture that we associate with Roman fortresses. The familiar image of a Roman military base—from movies, drawings in books and magazines, and reconstructions in museums and on archaeological sites—is of a huge defensive wall of cut stone blocks enclosing stone-and-mortar barracks, officers' quarters, administration buildings, workshops, and a hospital, all solidly built on a regular plan. But these sturdy and precisely organized forts were constructed only in a later phase of Roman activity in the Rhine and Danube provinces, after the middle of the first century A. D. The early camps featured exterior V-shaped double ditches on the outside, and walls built of two rows ofver-tical wooden planks set about nine feet apart, with the earth from the ditches filling the space between them. Instead of stone, barracks, officers' residences, workshops, and the hospital were all made of wood. Gates at the entrances and guard towers were also built of timber.
Mainz (Mogontiacum)
In about 13 B. C., the Roman forces established a base to accommodate two legions at Mainz. The base was situated on a plateau about a hundred feet above the Rhine; this afforded a broad view in all directions. The fortification consisting of a double ditch and a wall of wood and earth enclosed roughly ninety acres. Excavations have yielded pits and foundation ditches, probably for barracks. Historical sources inform us that the First and Fifth Legions were stationed at Mainz, under the command of Lucius Asprenas.
In addition to abundant subsurface structures and large quantities of pottery, tools, weapons, and other materials from the military base at Mainz, a unique monument associated with the Roman campaigns across the Rhine still stands on the site. After the general Drusus died, as the result of a fall from his horse during his return from the summer campaign in Germany in 9 B. C., his troops brought his body to the base at Mainz, where the soldiers performed ceremonies in his honor. His brother Tiberius later accompanied the body to Pavia, in northern Italy, and Augustus led the funeral procession from Pavia to Rome. At the base in Mainz, the soldiers erected a monument to their leader, and the enormous stone structure, on a promontory overlooking the Rhine, still stands, sixty-four feet high. This cylindrical tower was visible throughout the surrounding landscape, from both sides of the Rhine, and served to remind the troops of their highly regarded leader, who had given his life in the pursuit of the new province east of the Rhine.
Xanten (Vetera), Varus's Rhineland Base
The fortress at Xanten was the base from which Varus operated when he departed on his fateful campaign of A. D. 9. The legionary camp ofVetera was founded in 13 or 12 B. C., shortly before Drusus's campaign in the summer of that year. Located on the southern slope of the Furstenberg, just south of the modern city of Xanten, on the west bank of the Rhine, it provided a broad view over the flat surrounding landscape. Directly across the Rhine was the mouth of the Lippe River (the confluence is now farther south), and General Drusus began his summer offensive of 12 B. C. by heading up the Lippe valley. From Xanten's founding, five successive legionary bases have been identified through excavation on the site. Current archaeological evidence from the first fort at Xanten is sparse, but much of the area remains to be investigated. A ditch, two kilns in which pottery was fired, a wall built of earth and wood, and many pit structures make up the clearest evidence for this earliest phase of the fort.
We do not know for certain which legions were stationed at Xanten between its founding and A. D. 9.The discovery on the site of the gravestone of Marcus Caelius, a centurion of the Eighteenth Legion who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (see illustration 14)—the only clear archaeological evidence, before the discoveries since 1987 at Kalkriese, that the battle ever took place—makes it very likely that the Eighteenth Legion was stationed here (see below). That legion was annihilated with Varus in A. D. 9, and it was never reconstituted.
As Mainz and Xanten are examples of early bases on the Rhine, Haltern is a well-studied advance fort in Germany east of the Rhine. It is on the Lippe River, eleven miles upstream from where it flows into the Rhine opposite Xanten. As is already apparent with the founding of Xanten in 13 or 12 B. C., Drusus selected the Lippe as an ideal route eastward into the heart of Germany, and the Romans established a series of fortresses along the river, five of which have been identified through archaeological research, to serve as bases for the advances toward the Elbe. We do not know the Roman names for these places, since they are not mentioned in any surviving texts. They are known today exclusively by the local German place-names—from west to east, Holsterhausen, Haltern, Beckinghausen, Oberaden, and Anreppen. As a small, slow-flowing river without falls or rapids, the Lippe was ideal as a water route for moving men and supplies inland from the Rhine. Shipping on the Lippe saved great amounts of time and energy, compared with land marches and hauling of goods by pack animal and wagon. In addition to providing the resources needed by the troops as they sought to bring the Germanic territories under control, the Roman foundation at Haltern was probably also intended to form an administrative base for the establishment of the infrastructure for the new province, once the lands and peoples had been fully conquered and integrated. Varus probably spent time with his legions at Haltern, which may have been their base during the final winter before the fateful summer of A. D. 9.
Archaeologists have identified six Roman sites at Haltern (see illustration 15). Three of these—the main base, the naval harbor, and the port—are particularly important for this account. The complex was founded about 5 B. C. and was abandoned— hastily—in A. D. 9. The archaeological evidence from this base allows us to reconstruct what life was like for a soldier stationed
Here during the legions's forays eastward toward the Elbe. The main base at Haltern covered forty-seven acres and was surrounded by a defensive system of two ditches and a wall built of timber and earth (illustration 16). Four gates led into the interior of the fortress. A Roman soldier stationed here would have felt a certain measure of protection from the standard military bank-and-ditch defense, with guards posted along the walls, even though he knew he was in German, not Roman, territory.
Inside the defensive perimeter was a small city with all of the administrative, economic, and residential functions that a legion of some five thousand men, together with support staff, required. The main street in the fortress ran between the east and west gates. The principal cross street led to the headquarters at the center of the base, which served as the command and administration building, the pay office, and the site of the sanctuary in which the legion's standards were kept. The fort commander's office and residence were next to the headquarters, as were the houses of other high-ranking officers. Barracks for the soldiers, designed to accommodate as many men as possible rather than to provide comfort, were arranged along the outside edge of the fort. Other important buildings on the base were the hospital and the blacksmith's shop, where weapons and tools were made and repaired. Just outside the fort's walls were kilns for firing pottery for everyday cooking and serving of food, finer decorative ceramics, and oil lamps.
The size of the base at Haltern and the composition of its interior suggest that it was not a typical legionary base, but rather one intended for special administrative purposes beyond those of the unit stationed there. The number of houses designed for officers is unusually high, perhaps because Haltern was being developed to serve as an administrative center.
Not everything that archaeologists have found at Haltern conforms to the picture of a smoothly running army base. In one of the pits in which potters had worked their clay were skeletons of at least twenty-four men. Other signs of disruption are buried hoards. One pit thirteen feet in diameter and thirteen feet deep contained thousands of iron arrowheads, together with iron axes and wagon tires, fragments of bronze, and glass beads. Another pit contained a helmet, an iron lance, two bronze pails, and iron tools. A hoard of coins included 185 silver denarii and one aureus—an amount equivalent to the annual salary of a legionary soldier. The latest coin in the hoard, represented by 71 specimens, is a denarius with images of Augustus's grandsons Gaius and Lucius, minted between 2 B. C. and A. D. 4.The next denarius type minted by Rome appeared in A. D. 13. Since none of these later coins is represented in the hoard, the hoard was most likely buried between 2 B. C. and A. D. 13, probably by a soldier who was never able to retrieve it.
Nearly 3,000 Roman coins have been recovered at Haltern, and coins are common finds at all of the Rhineland bases. A recent compilation of the Haltern coins counted 2,561 copper, 293 silver, and 2 gold coins. Soldiers carried money with them in leather, cloth, or bronze purses, both at their bases and on campaigns. They used their money for a variety of purposes. They bought things from their comrades, sometimes paid others to carry out camp duties assigned to them, and shopped in the native settlements around the bases. A favorite way of passing leisure time was in gambling. In the Roman world at this time, gambling at games of luck such as dice and board games was enjoyed by many people, including the emperor Augustus. The city of Rome had rules against gambling in public except during the festival of Saturnalia, in mid-December, an indication of how popular and distracting these games must have been. At Roman military bases, where soldiers presumably could engage in such games whenever they were not on duty, archaeological finds of dice carved from bone and of gaming pieces—slightly smaller than modern checkers and made of stone or animal bone—are common. The soldiers probably played for low stakes for amusement, rather than trying to win a lot of money from their fellows.
Southeast of the main base at Haltern and situated directly on the Lippe River was a naval station. A fortification consisting of double ditches, each pointed at the bottom, and a wood-and-earth wall, like those at the main base on the hill, enclosed it on three sides, and the fourth side was open to the water. Foundations of eight slips for boats, measuring 94 by 20 feet, show that large ships were based here, kept inside the shelters in bad weather, perhaps through the winter months.
Also on the Lippe, due south of the main base, was a harbor town, established by the Roman army but inhabited largely by people from the area. Here supplies were unloaded for the whole military complex at Haltern, and a variety of port functions were provided. Local crafts workers, who lived in nearby villages, produced goods wanted by the soldiers, such as ornaments for their uniforms, belts, sandals, and tools. Farmers sold meat, fruit, vegetables, and beer, offering the troops diversions from their standard diet. Innkeepers sold prepared meals, and prostitutes offered their services. Probably some unofficial families of the soldiers lived in the harbor town as well. For these varied reasons, some of the soldiers surely spent much of their leisure time in this part of the Haltern complex.
Soldiers were not allowed to marry, but many became involved in relationships with local women, and some had families. The families were not permitted to live in the military bases (officers, however, were allowed to have their families on the bases), but they often lived in the towns nearby. Many soldiers, when they completed their terms of service, settled down near the base where they had been stationed, using their veterans' pensions to purchase land and to build or buy a house. Near military bases that lasted longer than Haltern, such as those on the west bank of the Rhine at Xanten, Cologne, and Mainz, substantial settlements often developed. Their populations included native people who moved to the site to earn money by producing goods for the soldiers; families begun by soldiers on active duty; veterans and their families; and all manner of merchants, entertainers, and others who wished to capitalize on the presence of a large number of well-paid men eager for new goods and entertainment. As these communities grew in size, many took on the character of Mediterranean towns, with stone architecture, paved streets, aqueducts to deliver fresh water and underground drains to carry away waste, and the typical Roman infrastructure of temples, public baths, and arenas. Although the predominant language heard on the street would have been the local version of Germanic or Celtic, otherwise such a town looked like a very small version of Rome. Similar urban bustle, marketing of foodstuffs and craft products, aromas of cooking foods, and manufacture of pottery, tools, textiles and other materials defined the urban character. Soldiers from distant parts of the Empire and itinerant merchants contributed to the cosmopolitan aspect of the community.
The Legions at Xanten, at Haltern, and in the Great Battle
The organization of the Roman army changed over time, and it is important that we consider its structure immediately before the fateful battle. Augustus was the first Roman ruler to form a professional standing army loyal to the Roman state. At the time of the reorganization of the military in Gaul and the Rhineland, there were twenty-eight legions, each designated by a number and commanded by a legate, a man of senatorial rank. A legion consisted of about 5,000 men, but the size varied somewhat. It was divided into a number of smaller units. Ten cohorts were each made up of about 480 soldiers, and each cohort was further broken down into six centuries of about 80 men, commanded by a centurion. The smallest unit was the contubernium, consisting of 8 men, who shared a tent on campaign and a room in the barracks on the bases.
In addition to these 4,800 infantry soldiers, the legion had a cavalry force of some 120 men and horses, together with craftsmen, medical specialists, and officers. The legionary legate, or commander, was assisted by a tribune of high rank, a camp prefect, and five tribunes of lesser rank. Each legion had one soldier whose job was to carry the imperial eagle of that legion, and each century had a soldier who carried that century's standards.
Life in the Bases
When Roman troops built a new base, as they did at Xanten in 13 or 12 B. C. and at Haltern around 5 B. C., they first laid out the main cross streets and sites of the four gates, using surveying instruments, including lead plumb bobs. Next, they dug the outer ditches, using iron-headed picks and shovels, and constructed the wood-and-earth wall. For the main base at Haltern, some 12,500 oak trees were felled for the wood, by means of sturdy iron axes. For temporary camps, just the ditches and an earth wall were constructed, as Julius Caesar describes in his commentary on his campaigns in Gaul.
The principal food in the soldiers' diet was grain, mainly wheat, often eaten in the form of baked bread or a stew of grain, vegetables, and salted meat. Grain was stored in a base granary and distributed to individual soldiers. Meat was consumed in small amounts, relative to the typical modern diet in America and Western Europe. Spices, especially pepper, added zest to food, as did the favorite Roman fish sauce, garum. All soldiers had some wine, which they diluted with water, but officers had more and better wine. Unlike modern military bases, the Roman bases had no mess hall. Soldiers cooked their own food, often with the seven other members of their contubernium. Grindstones for
I. Woodcut by Hans Brosamer, 1543, showing Arminius holding the head ofVarus. From Burkart Waldis, Ursprung und Herkumeti der zwolf ersten Konig und Fursten Deutscher Nation (Nuremberg).
2. Copper engraving by Sandrart, 1689, showing Arminius in battle armor and holding tankard. From Daniel Casper Lohensteiri, Grossmuthiger Feldherr Arminius (Leipzig).
3. Copper statue ofArminius near Detmold, in northern Germany.
4. The three lead slingstones that provided the first direct evidence that a battle involving Roman troops took place at Kalkriese.
The slingstone at lower left is about I. J inches long.
J. Iron weapons recovered from the battlefield: two catapult bolt points, a lance shoe (end opposite point, for sticking in the ground), three lance heads, and a fragmentary dagger. Largest point is about 8 inches long.
6. RIGHT. Iron point of a javelin (pilum) recovered from the battlefield. Length 7 inches.
7. BELOW RIGHT. Iron pick ax (dolabra), Roman tool with an ax blade at one end and a broad pick at the other, recovered from the battlefield. This tool was used for clearing underbrush and digging ditches around temporary military camps. Length 21 inches.
8. Four lead plumb bobs, used by Roman military engineers for laying out camps. The bottom object is about 0.7 inches long.
9. Two Roman surgical instruments. The top object is a handle from a surgical knife. Its ends contain silver inlay. The bottom object is a probe. Military doctors used such implements to tend the wounded soldiers. Length of probe about 6 inches.
10. Characteristic Roman women's bronze jewelry, a pin and two fragmentary brooches. These are among the objects found on the battlefield that suggest women were present among the Roman troops and were killed in the battle along with the legionaries. The pin is about 5 inches long.
II. Skeleton of a mule discovered on the battlefield.
12. Marble statue of Cleopatra. Height about 24 inches.
13. The Gemma Augustea, a cut stone representation showing Augustus seated as Jupiter on a throne, next to the spirit of Rome. On the left, the victorious general Tiberius steps from a chariot. On the bottom, Roman soldiers raise a trophy of captured enemy weapons above the defeated and bound captives. Width 9 inches.
14- Gravestone of Marcus Caelius, a centurion of the Eighteenth Legion who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Height 54 inches.
15. Plan of the Roman military complex at Haltern. Hauptlager, main base. Hofestatt, the naval station (originally directly on the Lippe River, the course of which has since been changed). Wiegel, the port (also originally on the Lippe).
I6. Plan of the main Roman military base at Haltern, the best-documented base ofAugustan times. The plan shows the double ditches on the outside, the wall inside of them, the principal streets, and the complex of buildings that have been excavated: i, headquarters; 2, 3, 7, residences of the base commander and of high officers; 8, workshops; and 9, hospital.
17. Iron catapult bolt point with the stamp LEG XIX, indicating the Nineteenth Legion. Found at Dottenbichl, near Oberammergau in southern Bavaria. Length 2 inches.
I8. Reconstruction drawing of the Iron Age village of Hodde, in Denmark.
20. Iron nails from Roman military sandals recovered from the battle site at Kalkriese.
21. Representation of the triumph of Tiberius in 8 or 7 B. C., on the silver cup from Boscoreale, in Italy. The scene shows Tiberius riding in a horse-drawn chariot through the streets ofRome, being crowned with the laurel wreath of victory. Height about 4 inches.
19. OPPOSITE. Objects from Grave 150 at Putensen.
They include an iron sword, spearheads, and a shield boss, six spurs, numerous brooches, two Roman bronze casseroles, and a large bronze-and-iron cauldron.
2:i. Iron swords from Nydam (three on left) and Vimose (without and with scabbard), Denmark. The three from Nydam are all two-edged; that from Vimose is one-edged. The sword on the far left has a wooden handle ornamented with silver bands, length 36 inches. The next has a bone handle, length 34 inches. The sword in the middle is missing its handle, length 34 inches. The sword from Vimose is 23 inches long. From C. Engelhardt, Nydam Mosefund (Copenhagen, 1865), pi. 6, 3. 4, pi. 7, 15, and Vimose MosefUndet (Copenhagen, 1869), pi. 7, 26. 27.
23. Iron spearheads from Nydam and Vimose, shield and fittings from Thorsberg in Germany, and chain mail from Vimose. The spearheads show the range of sizes and shapes represented. All are drawn to the same scale, and the longest is 17 inches long. The third from the left was found complete with its wooden shaft. It was a javelin, with a total length of about 10 feet. The wooden shield is 40 inches in diameter. Below the shield are a wooden shield handle, covered with sheet bronze, and a bronze shield boss (attached to the front of the shield to cover the handle). The chain mail fragment is about 3 by 2.25 inches in size. From Engelhardt, Thorsb-jerg MosefUnd (Copenhagen, 1863), pi. 8, 1. 6. 11a, Nydam Mosefund (Copenhagen, 1865), pi. 10, 5. 9. 10. 12. 19, and Vimose MosefUndet (Copenhagen, 1869), pi. 4, 2.
24- Woolen tunic from Thorsberg. From Engelhardt, Thorsbjerg Mosefund (Copenhagen, 1863), pi. 1,1.
25. ABOVE. Woolen pants from Thorsberg. From Engelhardt, Thorsbjerg Mosefund (Copenhagen, 1863), pi. 2, 1.
26. LEFT. Leather shoe from Thorsberg. From Engelhardt, Thorsbjerg Mosefund (Copenhagen, 1863), pi. 3, i.
27. Roman silver denarius coin, minted in 48 or 47 B. C., shortly after Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul. It shows a captive enemy and a trophy of weapons.
28. Large bronze bell found stuffed with straw, with a mule skeleton, on the battle site. Length 6.5 inches.
29. Iron face mask, with remains of original silver coating still apparent around edges, found near the wall on the battle site. Height 6.7 inches.
30. Plans (left) and reconstruction drawings (right) showing the development of the settlement at Flogeln, in northern Germany: a, farm as the earliest settlement; b, farm complex in the second phase, showing larger buildings and enclosing fences, aspects of a more complex and specialized economy; c and d, later phases of development, in the late first and second centuries A. D.
Preparing grain, ceramic cooking pots, jugs, plates, knives, and spoons were the equipment for food preparation and consumption, and examples of all of these items have been recovered by archaeologists on Roman bases. Officers used finer ceramics and more spices and generally consumed better foods than did the soldiers. On campaign, soldiers carried their rations in their packs, usually their personal supply for three days. A bronze-handled pot called a casserole was the all-purpose cooking vessel when they were on the march.
Food, equipment, and other goods were supplied to Roman bases largely by boat, except for what the soldiers could acquire from local people who lived and farmed around their bases. Before the invention of motorized vehicles and the building of railroads and highways, water transport was the most practical way of moving freight. The Rhine and the Lippe Rivers provided easy access by boat to the bases such as Mainz, Xanten, and Haltern. Archaeologists have found and studied many Roman boats from the Rhine and know a great deal about shipping technology. At the site of the port just south of the base at Haltern, great quantities of grain and sherds of amphoras reflect goods that were spilled and broken in the process of transfer from ships on the Lippe to storage facilities at the base. Remains of some 850 amphoras have been found so far at Haltern, about half of them of the type for transporting fish sauce and a quarter each for wine and olive oil. Wine was probably shipped largely in wooden barrels, which have not survived as often as ceramic amphoras have.
The quantities of food required by the Roman troops were enormous. A legion consumed over two thousand tons of wheat per year; the horses of a cavalry unit, over six hundred tons of barley. When a base relied largely on the surrounding countryside to produce its food, this demand could put a tremendous strain on the local farmers. But at the same time it offered a highly profitable cash resource for communities that had been accustomed to dealing mostly in barter trade. When grain, meat, and other supplies were not available locally, the logistical problems of bringing the goods in from outside, by boat up the Rhine and Lippe, were formidable.
At the time that Haltern was in use, the legionary soldier was paid 225 silver denarii a year for his service, usually in three installments of 75 denarii each. To put this amount into context, one denarius was equal to sixteen asses, the copper coins in common use. Twelve copper coins would purchase a week's ration of grain. A liter of cheap wine cost one as; a liter of the best wine, four. A centurion earned up to fifteen times as much as a legionary soldier, and the commander of the first cohort in each legion, up to sixty times as much. Sometimes pay was augmented by gifts from the emperor or local commander, or by shares in goods captured from defeated enemies. The soldiers had to pay for their own food and clothing and for the upkeep of their weapons; amounts to cover these expenses were usually deducted from their salary before they received the cash, leaving them about half of their official salary, which they received in coin. They often had money left to spend at the shops and inns in the town outside the base. They liked to buy trinkets of various kinds, purchase wine of better quality than that available on the base, entertain women, and gamble at the games of luck that they enjoyed so much in their off-duty time. After twenty or twenty-five years of service, a retiring veteran received a pension of3,000 denarii—the equivalent of thirteen years' pay.
What Was Life Like for the Soldiers?
Despite the great emphasis in the study of the Roman military on fighting and marching on campaign, most of the time most of the soldiers, like their modern counterparts, were not fighting. Only during the summer months did the soldiers based on the Rhine at Mainz and Xanten, and those on the Lippe at Haltern leave the bases to go on campaigns eastward into Germany. Even then, they spent most of their time in marching, setting up temporary camps, and generally "showing the flag"—in this case, the Roman standards.
Drills were a regular, probably daily, occurrence. Maneuvers were carried out periodically, to keep the soldiers in shape and practiced at cutting roads, building bridges, and constructing camps. The men had to clean and polish their weapons to pass the frequent inspections. Soldiers did a lot of building and repair work on the bases and were responsible for cutting wood in the forests for construction and for fires, for procuring foodstuffs through purchase and trade in the countryside around the bases, and for other everyday tasks. Many worked at the crafts that were required to keep the legions supplied with weapons, tools, clothing, and cooking supplies. Roman bases were outfitted with all of the essential facilities that the legions required. A blacksmith shop made and repaired weapons and tools. A pottery workshop produced the containers needed for preparing and serving food. Every base had a hospital, complete with medical personnel, surgical instruments, and medicinal chemicals and plants to treat diseases and wounds.
The length of time that a unit was stationed at a particular base varied greatly, depending upon where the emperor and his generals decided that troops were needed. Soldiers sometimes felt they had to work too hard at their daily tasks on the bases. Describing circumstances on the Rhine in A. D. 14,Tacitus writes, "They complained about the hardness of the work and specifically about building ramparts, digging ditches, foraging, collecting timber and firewood, and all the other camp tasks that are either necessary or invented to keep men busy."
Like most soldiers, legionaries stationed at the bases in the Rhineland surely met and courted local women in their spare time, though we do not have much specific information about these relationships. But the informal meeting of soldiers and natives was an important vehicle for the transmission of cultural knowledge. Soldiers got to know the people who lived around their bases, and the locals became familiar with some of the troops stationed in their vicinity. Through dealings with local women, friendships with farmers, and transactions with vendors of food, wine, and craft products, soldiers learned about the peoples on whose lands they were stationed and thus formed relationships very different from the official ones between Rome and its provinces. As a result, many soldiers probably developed attitudes toward these peoples that differed from the stereotypical views expressed in the writings of the authors back in Rome.
The physical remains of architecture, pottery, tools, and food debris can provide us with a good idea about the material aspects of the legionaries' lives. From a base distant in time and space from Mainz, Xanten, and Haltern, we can learn also about the thoughts of some of the people at the bases on the imperial frontier. At the Roman site of Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain, unusual conditions of preservation have led to the survival of hundreds of letters written with ink on thin pieces ofwood between A. D. 90 and 120. They offer direct insight into the personal lives of some of those stationed in the frontier bases. For example, one is a note about an individual's clothing sup-plies—"I have sent you. . . pairs of socks from Sattua two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants." Another is a birthday party invitation, written to the wife of the base commander— "On the third day before the Ides of September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival." Reading such personal messages makes us realize that, in many respects, the Roman soldiers and their families were not very different from us.
Xanten, Haltern, and the Doomed Legions
It is almost certain that many of the Roman legionaries who died in the great battle in the Teutoburg Forest lived in the bases at Xanten and Haltern shortly before their fateful march eastward. The legions that were annihilated in that event, the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth, were raised by Octavian sometime between 41 and 30 B. C. and were stationed on the Rhine.
We know very little about the Seventeenth Legion. For the Eighteenth, we have more information. The tombstone of the centurion Marcus Caelius (illustration 14), who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, is an important piece of archaeological evidence for the Eighteenth Legion. The stone was found at Xanten, and that is probably where he was stationed. This gravestone offers the only portrait that we possess of an individual who fought in that battle. (Though coins were minted in North Africa during Varus's service as proconsul there, the head on the obverse is thought not to be a true portrait of Varus.) The tombstone, which is fifty-four inches high, marked a cenotaph—a grave that contained no body—because his body was not recovered from the battlefield. Like modern gravestones, it has an inscription that tells us much about the deceased individual and his role in the Roman army.
Marcus Caelius was born in Bologna, Italy, and was a centurion of the top rank in the Eighteenth Legion. He was fifty-three and a halfyears old when he died in the battle, serving with Varus. The two heads on either side are those of slaves whom he freed, named Marcus Caelius Privatus and Marcus Caelius Thiaminus. The sculpture shows the fallen centurion framed by a small temple, a typical feature in Roman cemeteries. He wears body armor decorated with five medallions, and he is equipped with a variety of symbols of rank and honor. In his right hand, he holds the staff that marks his rank as centurion. On each wrist, he wears a bracelet. On his head is a crown of oak leaves—an award given for saving the life of another Roman citizen—and on each shoulder an ornamental ring with buffer ends. This representation shows how he looked when dressed for ceremonial occasions, such as military parades and victory celebrations.
The archaeological indicators of the Nineteenth Legion are more abundant and more varied, and they all attest to this legion's service on the frontier in Germany. Recent excavations at Dottenbichl, near Oberammergau in southern Bavaria, have recovered, together with other Roman weapons, three iron catapult bolt points with the legend LEG XIX (see illustration 17; see also chapter 7). Roman historical sources tell us that in 15 B. C. the generals Tiberius and Drusus led campaigns to conquer the lands between the Alps and the Danube, and this bolt and the associated objects are consistent with this date. These objects indicate that the Nineteenth Legion participated in this conquest of what is today southern Bavaria, probably under the command of Drusus.
A small bronze tag bearing the number XIX was recovered in excavations at the Roman frontier base at Dangstetten, on the upper Rhine in southwest Germany, a fortress that served as a launching point for the conquest and pacification of the peoples in southern Germany. This tag indicates that at least part of the Nineteenth Legion was stationed there at some time between 15 and 7 B. C. It is thought that when Augustus and his advisers judged that the region had been successfully subdued, he ordered the Nineteenth Legion to Cologne, on the lower Rhine.
In excavations at Haltern in 1964, a lead ingot weighing about 140 pounds was found. On one side of the rectangular bar, a chiseled legend reads CCIII L XIX. CCIII indicates the weight— 203 Roman pounds—and L XIX names the Nineteenth Legion. Lead was used for many purposes on Roman bases, and several other ingots have been recovered at Haltern. This ingot, marked as
A possession of the Nineteenth Legion, is the first archaeological discovery between the Rhine and Elbe Rivers that names one of the legions that were annihilated in the battle in the Teutoburg Forest.
In his account of the visit by the general Germanicus and his troops to the battle site six years after the event (see chapter 11), Tacitus informs us that the eagle of the Nineteenth Legion had been captured by the enemy troops in their defeat of Varus.
The End of Haltern
The Roman base at Haltern, eleven miles into Germanic territory from the Rhine, was abandoned hurriedly in A. D. 9. No written sources mention the base, and we are completely dependent upon the archaeological evidence. The hoards of weapons, tools, and coins found at Haltern show that the occupants buried items they did not want to fall into enemy hands—weapons of war and treasure. Another kind of evidence also indicates hurried departure. Among the items of pottery recovered through excavation on the site, the proportion of complete ceramic vessels is exceptionally high. Most of the pottery that we find on settlement sites is in the form of fragmentary sherds. Plates, bowls, and cups break through everyday use, and the fragments become trodden into the ground where they fall, or where people toss them. Under ordinary conditions, when people leave a place, they take usable goods with them. Legions departing from Haltern under peaceful conditions would have taken their pottery, especially the ornate and popular fine ware known as terra sigillata. The unusually high proportion of terra sigillata vessels found intact at Haltern indicates that the troops did not depart under planned, peaceful circumstances. The twenty-four skeletons in the kiln pit suggest that the community came to a violent end.
The date of Haltern's end can be fixed through the coins. Among the large and varied assemblage of coins recovered on the site, many belong to the years before A. D. 9, but none after that year. We will see a similar pattern among the coins found at Kalkriese, where the legions based at Haltern met their end. When they learned of the disaster at Kalkriese, the small garrison left behind at Haltern apparently fled in terror westward, back to the safety of the Rhine bases. All of the other short-lived bases on the Lippe River—Anreppen, Oberaden, and Holsterhausen—were also abandoned out of fear that Arminius was about to sweep through the valley, slaughtering Roman soldiers there as he had at Kalkriese, just sixty miles to the northeast.
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