6.11.06
Germanicus' Campaigns, part 1
Continuation of The Varus Battle - Historical Context
With three legions lost in Germania and the war in Pannonia won at high costs in men, the only thing Augustus could do for the time being was to strengthen the garrisons along the Rhine border in hope the Germans would stay out of Gaul or march even further. Augustus distributed the soldiers of his German Personal Guard among other towns in Italy to forego a possible mutiny, so one can assume the furor Teutonicus, the memory of the march of the Cimbri and Teutones towards Rome, was still alive in the memory of the Romans a hundred years later.
But Arminius knew better than to attack Gaul or Rome and leave his hinterland bare for a punitive expedition. He probably also was busy keeping peace between the different tribes and draw more tribes onto his side, though the Roman sources don't tell anything about this. We know that Arminius did not manage to win the Marcomanni who sat securely in the Bohemian woods and whose king Maroboduus had made peace with the Romans during the Pannonian wars. Arminius sent the head of Varus to Maroboduus, supposedly as token that the German tribes could win against Rome, but the Marcomannic king sent the head to Rome where it got buried. Thus Varus' head fared better than those put on piles and left to rot at the battlefield where Germanicus would find them six years later.
In 14 AD, Augustus died and Tiberius became his successor. The legions at the Danube and the Rhine took this as chance to demand a better pay and shorter service and killed a bunch of officers, especially centurions who were evil drill sergeants in the eyes of the rankers. Tiberius sent his son Drusus to the Danube where he had a hard time putting the mutiny down - in the end they only gave in after the troops at the Rhine had succombed. Germanicus at the Rhine faced an additional problem, besides better pay, the soldiers also wanted to see him emperor rather than his adoptive father Tiberius. The latter can be glad that Germanicus remained loyal and did not use his popularity with the army to rise the Rhine and Danubian legions against Rome, but managed to put down the mutiny. During the mutiny, a young centurion, Cassius Chaerea, distinguished himself by his braveness and loyalty - he fought his way through a whole array of soldiers that already had beaten some sixty centurions to pulp.
One of the many remains of earthen fortifications you keep stumbling upon in Germany. This one is from the 10th century and associated with Henry the Fogler, but the basic structure hasn't changed much since the time of the Chatti stronghold.
When the mutiny was settled, Germanicus took the legions over the Rhine, this time six legions strong plus 26 auxiliary cohorts (if Tacitus counts correctly here; the number of auxiliary seems very high, and later he sometimes mentions six, sometimes eight legions) and eight cavalry sqaudrons. The wars in Germany 15-16 AD were a tapestry of marches hither and thither, a few river transports, at least one North Sea cruise and a collection of battles and skirmishes; not to mention a number of geographical inconsistencies in the sources. I'll concentrate on the most important moves and try to show a general pattern.
Germanicus divided his legions, sent four under Caecina against the Cherusci and Marsi, and went himself with two legions on a punitive expedition against the Chatti, one of the main tribes involved in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans came upon the tribe so fast that they killed the women and children and destroyed their main stronghold south of Kassel, but most of the fighting men escaped by swimming the Adrana (Eder). The Romans tried to build a bridge but were driven back by the javelins and arrows the Chatti launched at them from the other shore, and had to retreat. What strikes me in that passage is: why would the men of the Chatti leave women and children behind and flee themselves? It's not heroic and worth the song of a bard, but it can work as part of a larger strategy. For one, I doubt that more than those living in the main stronghold got killed or enslaved, there will have been more women and children in the settlements in the wider area (the lands of the Chatti are approximately modern Hesse plus a little bit of Lower Saxony) and the Romans make that sound like a big thing. Second, I wonder if Arminius, Roman educated, had been acquainted with Caesar's De bello Gallico where he describes the tactics Vercingetorix used against him - with initial success. Burnt earth was one of these and thinking ahead, giving up a minor skirmish to save the men for a major one. Arminius thought in a grand scale, or he could not have united a number of tribes over several years. Was it at Arminius' orders that the men of the Chatti fled, pardon, retreated?
Germanicus marched back to the winter camps at the Rhine, but not after he had sorted out another problem. Segestes, a noble of the Cherusci and Roman citizen with a pro-Roman attitude, sent an envoy asking succour against his compatriots, men of Arminius, who besieged him in his own stronghold. Arminius was married to Segestes' daughter Thurisnelda, a spirited girl who said to have agreed to an abduction, thus Segestes was pretty mad at Arminius to begin with. I won't be surprised if there wasn't some jealousy towards the younger, charismatic Arminius as well. Segestes could well have aimed for the rule of the Cherusci and led them a different path, but the German side doesn't appear much in the Roman sources. What several sources agree upon is that Segestes warned Varus of treason but his warning was ignored.
Germanicus relieved Segestes who fled to Rome where he got a villa at the Italian coast to live in. Germanicusa also took Thurisnelda and her brother Segimundus who stayed with Segestes, captive; both were brought to Rome as well. Cassius Dio says they later marched in Germanicus' triumphal parade, but Tacitus does not mention this detail, so we can't be sure they did. Thurisnelda bore a child of Arminius but the infant seems to have been taken away from her. Again, the sources are muddy and murky.
One wonders how some of the spoils of the Varus battle made it to Segestes and were now given back to the Romans, as Tacitus mentions. Surely, no spoils would have been distributed among anyone who had not joined the fight. Was Segestes so innocent as he in an invented speech proclaims?
Arminius was furious, of course. Tacitus quotes a speech he never held, even though Arminius may have learned a few basic tricks of Roman rhetorics. One point in the speech we can assume to be sure, he did want to kick the Romans out of Germania for good at this point. His uncle Inguiomer, so far neutral, joined his nephew - and the Romans are not going to like that.
A reconstructed German settlement. The Tilleda reconstruction is a 10th century palatine castle with outbuildings, but the pit house in the foreground is a sort of building already known to the Germanic tribes. The land once was Cheruscian territory and so I thought it fitting to post the pic here. The mountains in the background are the Kyffhäuser.
Next issue: Germanicus' visit of the Varus Battle-site. ¶ 1:40 AM
Continuation of The Varus Battle - Historical Context
With three legions lost in Germania and the war in Pannonia won at high costs in men, the only thing Augustus could do for the time being was to strengthen the garrisons along the Rhine border in hope the Germans would stay out of Gaul or march even further. Augustus distributed the soldiers of his German Personal Guard among other towns in Italy to forego a possible mutiny, so one can assume the furor Teutonicus, the memory of the march of the Cimbri and Teutones towards Rome, was still alive in the memory of the Romans a hundred years later.
But Arminius knew better than to attack Gaul or Rome and leave his hinterland bare for a punitive expedition. He probably also was busy keeping peace between the different tribes and draw more tribes onto his side, though the Roman sources don't tell anything about this. We know that Arminius did not manage to win the Marcomanni who sat securely in the Bohemian woods and whose king Maroboduus had made peace with the Romans during the Pannonian wars. Arminius sent the head of Varus to Maroboduus, supposedly as token that the German tribes could win against Rome, but the Marcomannic king sent the head to Rome where it got buried. Thus Varus' head fared better than those put on piles and left to rot at the battlefield where Germanicus would find them six years later.
In 14 AD, Augustus died and Tiberius became his successor. The legions at the Danube and the Rhine took this as chance to demand a better pay and shorter service and killed a bunch of officers, especially centurions who were evil drill sergeants in the eyes of the rankers. Tiberius sent his son Drusus to the Danube where he had a hard time putting the mutiny down - in the end they only gave in after the troops at the Rhine had succombed. Germanicus at the Rhine faced an additional problem, besides better pay, the soldiers also wanted to see him emperor rather than his adoptive father Tiberius. The latter can be glad that Germanicus remained loyal and did not use his popularity with the army to rise the Rhine and Danubian legions against Rome, but managed to put down the mutiny. During the mutiny, a young centurion, Cassius Chaerea, distinguished himself by his braveness and loyalty - he fought his way through a whole array of soldiers that already had beaten some sixty centurions to pulp.
When the mutiny was settled, Germanicus took the legions over the Rhine, this time six legions strong plus 26 auxiliary cohorts (if Tacitus counts correctly here; the number of auxiliary seems very high, and later he sometimes mentions six, sometimes eight legions) and eight cavalry sqaudrons. The wars in Germany 15-16 AD were a tapestry of marches hither and thither, a few river transports, at least one North Sea cruise and a collection of battles and skirmishes; not to mention a number of geographical inconsistencies in the sources. I'll concentrate on the most important moves and try to show a general pattern.
Germanicus divided his legions, sent four under Caecina against the Cherusci and Marsi, and went himself with two legions on a punitive expedition against the Chatti, one of the main tribes involved in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans came upon the tribe so fast that they killed the women and children and destroyed their main stronghold south of Kassel, but most of the fighting men escaped by swimming the Adrana (Eder). The Romans tried to build a bridge but were driven back by the javelins and arrows the Chatti launched at them from the other shore, and had to retreat. What strikes me in that passage is: why would the men of the Chatti leave women and children behind and flee themselves? It's not heroic and worth the song of a bard, but it can work as part of a larger strategy. For one, I doubt that more than those living in the main stronghold got killed or enslaved, there will have been more women and children in the settlements in the wider area (the lands of the Chatti are approximately modern Hesse plus a little bit of Lower Saxony) and the Romans make that sound like a big thing. Second, I wonder if Arminius, Roman educated, had been acquainted with Caesar's De bello Gallico where he describes the tactics Vercingetorix used against him - with initial success. Burnt earth was one of these and thinking ahead, giving up a minor skirmish to save the men for a major one. Arminius thought in a grand scale, or he could not have united a number of tribes over several years. Was it at Arminius' orders that the men of the Chatti fled, pardon, retreated?
Germanicus marched back to the winter camps at the Rhine, but not after he had sorted out another problem. Segestes, a noble of the Cherusci and Roman citizen with a pro-Roman attitude, sent an envoy asking succour against his compatriots, men of Arminius, who besieged him in his own stronghold. Arminius was married to Segestes' daughter Thurisnelda, a spirited girl who said to have agreed to an abduction, thus Segestes was pretty mad at Arminius to begin with. I won't be surprised if there wasn't some jealousy towards the younger, charismatic Arminius as well. Segestes could well have aimed for the rule of the Cherusci and led them a different path, but the German side doesn't appear much in the Roman sources. What several sources agree upon is that Segestes warned Varus of treason but his warning was ignored.
Germanicus relieved Segestes who fled to Rome where he got a villa at the Italian coast to live in. Germanicusa also took Thurisnelda and her brother Segimundus who stayed with Segestes, captive; both were brought to Rome as well. Cassius Dio says they later marched in Germanicus' triumphal parade, but Tacitus does not mention this detail, so we can't be sure they did. Thurisnelda bore a child of Arminius but the infant seems to have been taken away from her. Again, the sources are muddy and murky.
One wonders how some of the spoils of the Varus battle made it to Segestes and were now given back to the Romans, as Tacitus mentions. Surely, no spoils would have been distributed among anyone who had not joined the fight. Was Segestes so innocent as he in an invented speech proclaims?
Arminius was furious, of course. Tacitus quotes a speech he never held, even though Arminius may have learned a few basic tricks of Roman rhetorics. One point in the speech we can assume to be sure, he did want to kick the Romans out of Germania for good at this point. His uncle Inguiomer, so far neutral, joined his nephew - and the Romans are not going to like that.
Next issue: Germanicus' visit of the Varus Battle-site. ¶ 1:40 AM
Comments:
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Sure, it's all fun and games until someone loses a head.... Speaking of that, what is it with men and heads on a pike? Or in a jar? Or tagged and bagged? Yeesh.
Great stuff, Gabriele. :) Love the
reconstructed German settlement pic. Thanks for sharing.
Great stuff, Gabriele. :) Love the
reconstructed German settlement pic. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe it's that heads are not that important for men. The thought of piked and pickled penises may upset them more. *grin*
Heads on a spear - I can think of the following:
* Metaphysical - some sort of hangover from tribal customs of headhunting, where taking your enemy's head meant in some way taking his power for yourself
* Status - Hey! Look who I just killed! Look how powerful I am!
* Practical - See, he's definitely dead
* Threat - Do as I say or you'll join him
Any advance?
* Metaphysical - some sort of hangover from tribal customs of headhunting, where taking your enemy's head meant in some way taking his power for yourself
* Status - Hey! Look who I just killed! Look how powerful I am!
* Practical - See, he's definitely dead
* Threat - Do as I say or you'll join him
Any advance?
The last one looks the most plausible to me.
* Stay out of our country or there'll be another fence decorated with heads.
ylyfa - sounds like some minor Germanic oak grove godess
* Stay out of our country or there'll be another fence decorated with heads.
ylyfa - sounds like some minor Germanic oak grove godess
But wouldn't all those heads like, yanno, stink??
I like the piked and pickled penises idea. Could be a story in there. However, I'm not touching it with a ten foot pole...err... never mind. :)
Carla- I kinda like the practical aspect, which is so unlike me. Practical I mean. I should go for the great metaphysical, but the idea of someone running around with a head going "Hey, I told you he was dead!" just appeals to me. *g*
I like the piked and pickled penises idea. Could be a story in there. However, I'm not touching it with a ten foot pole...err... never mind. :)
Carla- I kinda like the practical aspect, which is so unlike me. Practical I mean. I should go for the great metaphysical, but the idea of someone running around with a head going "Hey, I told you he was dead!" just appeals to me. *g*
There's a tradition that the English soldiers who killed Llewelyn the Last (1280-something) took his head to Edward I to prove he was dead. In that case I think there was a reward involved - a price on his head, literally - but it would also have had the effect of convincing any die-hard rebels that they really had lost their leader and he wasn't just in hiding. Very practical.
Head-taking was not uncommon in medieval warfare. There's the incident of Roger Mortimer sending the head of Simon de Montfort to his wife (Mortimer's wife, that is) after the Battle of Evesham, and Margaret of Anjou displaying the head of Richard Duke of York on York's city gate with the words "Let York look out upon York" - Shakespeare may have made up the line, but not the incident - and traitors' heads were famously displayed on London Bridge in the Tudor period.
Head-taking was not uncommon in medieval warfare. There's the incident of Roger Mortimer sending the head of Simon de Montfort to his wife (Mortimer's wife, that is) after the Battle of Evesham, and Margaret of Anjou displaying the head of Richard Duke of York on York's city gate with the words "Let York look out upon York" - Shakespeare may have made up the line, but not the incident - and traitors' heads were famously displayed on London Bridge in the Tudor period.
Bernita is right. Cool plot stuff here, Gabriele. I never really knew until Gladiator how Rome and Germania were really at each other's throats.
LOVE the photos!
Cyn
LOVE the photos!
Cyn
Constance,
it looks like once the spoils were taken, the main area of the battle plus the places where the Germans sacrified some of their captives, were some sort of terra non grata for the years after, because Germanicus found the place untouched save by nature. So, no one cared about the stink, and six years later, there was no rotting meat left to smell. ;)
Carla,
I suppose that's what Arminius wanted to achieve when sending Varus' head to Marobaudus. Look, we can kill Roman governors, we can kick them out, so join us rather than making peace agreements with Rome and send them hostages.
Cyn
thank you. Yep, plotbunnies galore - I didn't want to start another novel this year, but visiting the battlefield and the Hedemünden fort really did it to me.
Well, I'll travel to the Hadrian's Wall in spring, and since I already have a NiP taking place there, I should get some new ideas for that one then.
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it looks like once the spoils were taken, the main area of the battle plus the places where the Germans sacrified some of their captives, were some sort of terra non grata for the years after, because Germanicus found the place untouched save by nature. So, no one cared about the stink, and six years later, there was no rotting meat left to smell. ;)
Carla,
I suppose that's what Arminius wanted to achieve when sending Varus' head to Marobaudus. Look, we can kill Roman governors, we can kick them out, so join us rather than making peace agreements with Rome and send them hostages.
Cyn
thank you. Yep, plotbunnies galore - I didn't want to start another novel this year, but visiting the battlefield and the Hedemünden fort really did it to me.
Well, I'll travel to the Hadrian's Wall in spring, and since I already have a NiP taking place there, I should get some new ideas for that one then.
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