The Ancients - Battle of Teutoburg Forest: The Roman Invasion

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Tristan Hughes travels to the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, one of the most epic defeats of the Roman army when an alliance of Germanic peoples ambushed three Roman legions.Across two episodes leading experts analyse every move leading up to those terrifying days in early September 9 AD, deep in the Teutoburg Forest. All stemming from the Roman Invasion of Germany.Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘ANCIENTS’. https://historyhit.com/subscription

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's early September, just over 2,000 years ago in 9 AD. Amidst the wet and boggy ground of a dense German forest, scarred Roman soldiers huddle around fires in the cold, dark night. They're battered and bruised.

The terrors they have faced, unimaginable. Their chances of survival, slim. Their enemy, merciless. These men awaited dawn and almost certain death, victims in one of the greatest defeats in Roman history. It's a story of betrayal, of one man's vehement desire to liberate his people from Roman rule and the brutal bloody lengths he would go to to achieve it. A barbarian who has taken on the might of the Roman Empire, has worked out the way that a Roman army operates in the field and has found a way to nullify Roman power and to take them on in the field and to wipe out an experienced three

legion army. It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and welcome to our special two-parter series all about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Now, a few months ago, I travelled to Germany with Team History Hit to film a couple of documentaries about this infamous Roman defeat. Those documentaries have now been released, and you can watch them today. Simply search historyhit.com slash have now been released, and you can watch them today. Simply

search historyhit.com slash Teutoburg. And remember, you get 50% off your first three months membership when you sign up with code ANCIENTS. Now it's time for the Ancients to cover this amazing story in the detail that it deserves. This first episode will cover the build up to this battle. We'll explore what what led the Romans to brutally carve out a province east of the River Rhine in present-day Germany, how they slowly conquered more and more land through blood and battle, but also sowed the seeds for a great revolt. They will wipe out tribes that oppose them

or they'll resettle enforceably to another area. So they're quite brutally reshaping the ethnographic map of Germany. We'll have leading experts narrating and analysing every move made by the characters central to this epic story. We don't exactly know when Arminius decides to lead a rebellion against Rome. I suspect that he's made up his mind before he comes back to the Rhine frontier and that when he is whispering into Varus's ear and being involved in Varus's inner circle, that he's already making maneuvers in order to bring about the

revolt. We will lead you right up to those terrifying days in early September 9 AD, deep in the Teutoburg Forest, all stemming from the Roman invasion of Germany. Cologne, Germany. Today, its magnificent medieval cathedral dominates the landscape, along with the great river that runs through its heart, the Rhine. Two thousand years ago, Cologne, or to give it its proper name, Araubiorum, was a Roman town, and the River Rhine was the edge of the Roman Empire. On the western side, that was the empire, what the Romans thought civilisation. But on the other, the eastern side, that was unconquered Germania, land of the barbarians. To the Romans, Germania was a

boggy land of forests and swamps, filled with uncivilized backwards people. They labeled the Germans, the people who lived there, as barbarians, a horrible word used by Greeks and Romans to denigrate other people as uncivilized and inferior human beings. Of course, in reality, Germania and its people were far more complex. The Germans were divided between various communities, or tribes, dispersed across large swathes of Germania in small farming settlements, a very different way of life to the Romans and their sprawling urban cities. The Roman historian Tacitus includes physical, rather stereotypical descriptions of the Germans in his Germania, an account designed to give a Roman almost

everything they'd want to know about the Germanic peoples, an ancient ethnography, designed to show how different they were. He mentions how the Germans, that they had blue eyes, reddish hair, and large bodies. He also gives us an insight into the world that they lived in, and the climate, at least according to Tacitus, wasn't up to much. It was cold, wet, windy, dotted with forests and swamps. But he also talks about their different forms of government, the tens of different tribes that existed, the various customs,

and the one thing that they cherished above all else, freedom. It would be in the late 1st century BC that this highly cherished Germanic freedom, well, it would be put to the ultimate test. By 12 BC, the Roman Empire had expanded into the ancient superpower we remember it as today. It stretched from modern day Egypt to France and to the fringes of Germany, major German cities along the River Rhine like Mainz, Bonn and Cologne, where they all have their roots in this Roman expansion. The Romans and Germans were no strangers to each other. In fact, they'd been exchanging blows for roughly some 100 years by that point. Julius Caesar, the famous Roman

statesman, he had marched his armies across the Rhine on two occasions to briefly campaign in Germania, albeit with rather limited success. Meanwhile, Germanic warriors had not only once smashed their way down into Italy, fighting the Romans in a devastating war called the Cimbrian War, but in 16 BC Germanic warriors annihilated an entire Roman legion during a massive raid across the Rhine. For the Romans, following 16 BC and this devastating attack, this devastating raid, well enough was enough. Seeking to pacify this volatile enemy at their border and to further expand the empire, in 12 BC,

thousands of battle-hardened Roman soldiers surged into Germania, intent on conquest. A key routeway these Romans took was the River Lippa, a tributary of the Rhine heading east deeper into Germania. The Lippa was vital for transport and logistics, and it wasn't long before the Romans established a series of advanced forts along its length, characteristic in their playing card shaped design, with barracks, a central principia, a headquarters and a large surrounding wall with ditches and banks in front. One of these forts was established at the present day town of Haltanamsee, a fort made of timber and turf with impressive ramparts and overlooking the Lipo River.

The Romans probably called this fort Aliso, and you can see an impressive and accurate reconstruction there today. Now I was fortunate enough to visit this reconstruction at Haute-Anamsee on my travels. The museum is stunning, filled with amazing artefacts varying from daggers to elaborate ivory funerary couches brought there by the Romans some 2,000 years ago. The museum also has 15,000 Playmobil Roman soldiers that go around the whole venue to give a sense of how huge the Roman army was that perished a few years later at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, which we'll get to soon. Pouton was also where I met Roman historian Dr Matthew Nicholls to find out more about the initial Roman invasions into Germania.

Matt, first of all, it's cold, it's wet, it's windy. This is almost the picture we have of Germania from Roman writers. Yeah, writers like Tassus and I love dwelling on how dank and dripping and wet and miserable it is here and today that's true. For them the Mediterranean is the ideal climate, Rome is the centre of Italy, Italy is the centre of the world. The further you go the more harsh the weather and the climate get. Yeah, it's not what you'd ideally want as a Roman legionary soldier is it? No. So how do the Romans go about conducting these early campaigns into Germania? So the great Rhine

river running north-south is a sort of boundary for the Roman empire from the 50s BC but the tribes on the other side are unsettled and they raid Roman territory and the Romans want to sort that out so from about 12 BC onwards Drusus and then a series of other Roman generals conduct raids and campaigns in this area but first short shot punitive raids that turns into a campaign of conquest and they push eastwards to the Vesa and the Elba rivers, trying to take this area as a Roman province. And how does this fort fit into it? Is this kind of a forward base, something like that?

Yeah, so this fort, maybe it's called a liso, starts life as a summer camp, a temporary camp with an earthwork boundary that the Romans used to occupy on their way east on a campaigning summer. But then it becomes a permanent fort. It gets a timber palisade around it, permanent buildings on the inside, and it becomes a really important supply base. the romans are using the lipper river which flows east west behind us as an axis of advance eastwards on their campaigns and in their train in their wake they use series of garrison strong points where they can reorganize base themselves get their supplies sorted out this is a really important network point in that map

so rivers are better than roads at this stage for the Romans, are they? Well, there aren't any roads until the Romans build them. So rivers are crucial. Land transport, even when there are roads, is slow and expensive. You can load a lot of stuff in a barge and you can tow it up the river with a mule or men on the bank pulling it. So river transport is really important. And are they campaigning all year round or what's the strategy here? Well, they have summer campaigns. They could deal with an emergency at any time of year, but they tend to campaign in the summer. And in the winter, they go back to their great big bases in the rear, places like Xanthin or Mainz,

where they can overwinter, get themselves ready and come out for another campaigning summer season. And also, when we're looking at these early campaigns, their interactions with the locals, is it just military, brutal, point of a spear kind of tactics? Well, the early encounters are short and sharp, and they tend to be pretty violent. And the Romans are very quick to put down resistance and to do that in an exemplary sort of way, because they don't want raids and resistance.

But over time, they try to settle the locals and get them into what they see as the civilized modes of living in towns, paying their tax, acting as farmers. All sorts of different kinds of interaction. They're also not above moving whole peoples around, so they will wipe out tribes that oppose them, or they'll resettle them forcibly to another area. So the Ube and the Secambri are taken from this area, move westwards to the other side of the Rhine, turned into city dwellers and farmers. So they're quite brutally reshaping the ethnographic map of Germany. And also because it is such a divided place, is it also divide and conquer with the different tribes? Yeah, divide and conquer, divide et impera, is the Roman way. So they do it between tribes and this area is not a unified state.

It's a patchwork of tribes who are often at war with each other as well as with the Romans. They'll find the locals who are pliable and willing to bend the knee to Rome, can work with Rome. And over the generations, they take those chieftains of pliable tribes, turn them into Roman citizens, is their idea, and make them into local magistrates and aristocrats who will do the Roman administration for them. How did they talk with these Germans early on? Did they have translators? Yeah, they would have done. I mean, there are Germans for whom speaking Latin is an advantage, traders and merchants. There were Romans for whom speaking German is a necessity, whatever Germanic languages there were. So the legions would have interpreters with them.

But they also had in their ranks locals who had been raised and educated in Rome but then returned to serve as auxiliary troops in Germany and they would know not just the language but the people and the customs and the landscape. But does this all really re-emphasize how during those early years for the Romans going into Germania this is brutal, it's militaristic, it's sword and shield stuff, the consolidation will come later, right now it's time for conquest and invasion. It absolutely is and that's what they're here to do but in doing that they're starting to transform the landscape. This fort would have required 25,000 oak trees to be felled just to build the palisade walls and then inside the fort you have potter's workshops and blacksmith's

forges and granaries and a medical hospital and all sorts of crafts and trades and industries that are gradually transforming the area in the wake of the Romans. So this is a statement of power in itself? Power and what the Romans call civilisation and all of that. Yes, it is. For more than a decade, Roman army after Roman army campaigned east of the Rhine, marching past forts like Aliso along the Lippa, intent on subjugating hostile Germanic tribes and extending Roman power. The campaigns were far from easy. German resistance proved fierce. But Roman tenacity,

military might and brutality prevailed. Although not all the territory was fully subdued, by 6 AD Roman control theoretically stretched as far east as the Elbe River that flows northwest across today's central Germany all the way to the North Sea. The Romans had now turned to the next stage in their conquest – consolidation. Civilian settlements were founded east of the River Rhine. They were called coloniae – nodes of Romaness that they intended to grow into great centres of trade and Roman culture. But military bases east of the Rhine were also established and strengthened. The construction of forts such as Aliso helped solidify Rome's control east of the Rhine.

Trading activity increased, with both Roman and German merchants using the Rhine and its Fide rivers as their highways. All part of the Roman plan to transform Germania into their newest province, Germania Magna. There was no longer any large-scale resistance in Germania. Many Germans within Roman territory had opted to seize the benefits that friendly relations with their new overlords offered. benefits that friendly relations with their new overlords offered, German tribes were paying taxes, giving tributes, and even sending their highborn sons to Rome as hostages. One of those tribes was the Cherusci. Although hard to pin down the exact location of the Cherusci heartlands, it's likely that it was in a pocket around the modern-day city of Hanover and straddled the River Weser,

with a dense Teutoburg forest to the north and west. Amongst the Cherusci was an extraordinary man central to our story, and his name was Arminius. Arminius is an interesting character, actually. He's son of a leading member of one of these 50 Germanic tribes that exists at the start of the first millennium AD. That's Professor Peter Heather from King's College London. He's here to help tell the story of Arminius. He's the son of Segemir, who is a prince of the Cherusci, but not a king. They don't have kings. So he's a high-status individual from a high lineage, and he's caught up in the process of Roman expansion across the Rhine. It's a classic Roman move to take high-status children off to Rome.

They'd been doing it for centuries by the time they start to expand into Europe. And the idea is that they will pick up respect for Roman values and probably realize how big, how much of a colossus the Roman Empire is, and that they will go back to their home societies inculcated with Roman values and with a strong sense of respect for the power of Rome and spread the message that perhaps resistance isn't a good idea. The basic idea that Romans have is that they are the only properly civilized individuals on the planet. And the Roman vision of civilization is that the rational mind controls the irrational body. This is what barbarians are.

They're people whose body controls the mind. Arminius had been taken to Rome as one of these barbarian hostages when he was very young, early on during the Roman invasion of Germany. He grew up in the Eternal City and received a Roman education. By 9 AD, he was in his early 20s and well integrated into Roman society. He had even received Roman citizenship. In Arminius, the Romans believed that they had the ideal Romanized barbarian, a foreigner who had seen the light of Roman culture.

He was the perfect person for one of their commanders to take back into Germania, promoting the benefits of Roman rule, further solidifying their control east of the Rhine. But looks can be deceiving. In 9 AD, a Roman force crossed the Rhine into Germania, which included Arminius. Leading this army was general and politician Publius Quintilius Varus. Representing Varus in today's episode is his 21st century biographer, Dr Joe Ball. Quintilius Varus is a person whose name is familiar to us, but was actually a much more integral part of the early imperial regime than perhaps his later career would signify. He's a great politician, administrator, a military commander, somebody who serves Augustan interests

both in Africa, in Syria, as well as in Germany, and somebody who becomes a significant part at the heart of the imperial regime. He even ends up being married into the imperial family, not just once, but twice, and serves as consul at one point, the first person in his family to do so for at least four centuries. I think when he's appointed to Germany, it's quite a difficult time for the Roman world. So he's appointed to Germany in AD 7, I think as a safe pair of hands to look after the Rhine frontier and the fledgling province of Germania that's been established on the eastern reaches of it. In 9 AD, two years into his appointment,

Varus would take three Roman legions with him on a campaign into Germania east of the Rhine. The 18th, 19th and 20th legions with him on a campaign into Germania east of the Rhine. The 18th, 19th and 20th legions, supposedly the bravest of all armies. At full strength, each legion consisted of just under 5,000 legionaries, which meant Varus had nearly 15,000 of these professional Roman soldiers at his command, a formidable force on the battlefield. Some of these soldiers were equipped with a brand new piece of equipment that would prove revolutionary. Banded iron armour known as Lorica Segmentata, the iconic body armour we picture on Roman legionaries today.

And we know this because of the recent discovery of the oldest and most complete set of this type of armour ever found. Discovered in Germany and dating to the time of Varus, it was very likely worn by one of Varus' legionaries. That is very cool and if you want to learn more about it, then check out a small documentary I did about it now on the History Hit YouTube channel, simply type in Roman Armour History Hit, it'll pop up. Supporting Varus' legionaries were roughly 5,000 non-Roman allied troops. Auxiliaries, slingers, cavalrymen, equipped with different armour to the segmentata. Now these auxiliaries, they came from all across the Roman Empire, but in Varus' army, a lot of these men were Germans,

seeking wealth and glory. Most of these Germans were your everyday rank-and-file soldiers supporting the legionaries, but some of them, well, they were leaders, like Arminius. After his education, Arminius is drafted into the Roman army, and he's an officer in Roman auxiliary forces. Roman army and he's an officer in Roman auxiliary forces. Rome always recruited military contingents from non-citizen bodies around it and actually Roman armies usually consist of 50% citizen legionaries and 50% auxiliaries of different kinds whether cavalry, infantry, or archers, whatever it was. Arminius becomes an officer in Roman auxiliary forces, and he'd served with the Roman armies that were attempting to put down major revolt in the Balkans region of the empire for at least a year, maybe longer. And then his unit is transferred back to the Rhine frontier.

So he's serving under Varus's command as an auxiliary commander, with, of course, special knowledge of the particular tribal groupings, not only his own, but those living nearby in the hinterland of the Rhine frontier. I suspect that Varus viewed him as this kind of special advisor on Cheruscian affairs, and that wouldn't be just the Cherusci. They're part of a grouping of tribes who belong to the same, as Tassus describes it, they belong to the same, as Tassus describes it, they belong to the same cult league.

So it's not a political confederation, but it's a religious cultural confederation which has a series of festivals. So Arminius is obviously particularly informed on the politics and the life amongst the Tchaikovsky, but he will know a lot about neighbouring tribes as well. And as an auxiliary officer with a track record of service to Rome, then he would be, I'm sure, someone that Varus turned to for advice on what might be going on in the Germanic world around him. And indeed, that, of course, is what's reported in the sources.

be going on in the Germanic world around him. And indeed, that, of course, is what's reported in the sources. In 9 AD, like every year, spring came and Varus began a new campaign. Alongside Arminius and 20,000 soldiers, they hacked their way further into their newly conquered lands east of the Rhine, Germania Magna. They headed first along the Lippa River, past Roman bastions like the one at Aliso, before turning north and heading inland, deeper into Germania. His destination was probably somewhere around the present-day town of Mindon, right next to the Weso River. This was where Varus established his summer camp. This would be their base of operations over the coming months, right at the heart of Cherusci territory.

Germany is still developing into a province at this time. There are only certain parts of the territory that have been incorporated into the Roman world, and some bits which remain very much outside of Roman control at this point. Now the Cherusci represent a people who if you can be certain of anybody being your friends if you're Romans in Germany at this time then the Cherusci are the ones that you could rely on. They've been allied with the Romans for at least two decades they've sent hostages to Rome for good behavior they're sent they're contributing troops to the Roman army on a fairly regular basis. So they are good and trusted friends of the Romans at this point.

And so it makes sense if you are going to start campaigning or if you're just sending out a diplomatic mission, almost backed up by military troops to show your strength, then basing it in the territory of the Cherusci is a really sensible strategic decision because it's somewhere where you're going to be safe, or as Hill will find out, somewhere where he thinks he is going to be safe. I think Arminius would have been in on Varus's decision to place this summer camp in the Cheruskian territory. His wouldn't have been the only voice. I mean, you've got the professional military commanders would also be in Varus's ear.

It's worth remembering that Varus is really a political appointment, not a professional military general. So the strategic, well, actually probably more the tactical placement of where this fort is going to be will be dictated by the choices of the military men who are also part of Varus's circle. But Arminius is there. He's involved in the decision-making. Over the summer, Varus and his men remained deep in Germania in the Cherusci heartlands.

His men building infrastructure such as roads and bridges and patrolling the land to protect settlements from bandits and encourage trade. All the while, local Germanic chiefs acted peaceful and friendly towards Varus. In Varus' eyes, these Germans were pro-Rome and fully pacified. Dio tells us that he's been settling the locals down into becoming provincial citizens of the Roman Empire. So forcing them or encouraging them to sell goods in marketplaces, hold peaceable assemblies like political assemblies, get together. Maybe be more sedentary, live in one place, starting to get them to pay tax.

So he's encouraging the locals to think of themselves as Roman citizens. And sometimes he's encouraging them quite forcefully to do that. So AD9, I suspect that he's thinking that this is going to be his last summer in Germany. And I don't think he has any major military objectives at this point. I don't think that he's sort of aiming to incorporate large parts of new territory into the German province. I suspect that he had decided if that was going to be an objective, it would be the turn of the next governor to take this on. What I think, again, that he's trying to do is he's just trying to make the Roman presence more obvious and to promote it in further reaches of the German territories.

And just maybe to get more alliances, more people aware of the Roman presence, and potentially of the benefits of Roman presence, and maybe of the dangers of non-compliance with the Romans as well. A bit of carrot and stick. Overall, the political situation seemed calm and safe. So much so that the Roman contemporary historian Valleius Perturculus, who is admittedly pretty hostile to Varus, mentioned that the commander was acting more like a Roman statesman making legal pronouncements in the heart of Rome

instead of someone commanding an army in the heart of German territory. But little did Varus know he was being lured into a false sense of safety. A man he thought was his trusted friend and ally, in fact, was plotting his demise. None other than Arminius. Arminius had left Varus' camp many times over the summer to go and negotiate with local tribes. Supposedly, he went to go and gain their support for the Roman cause, but actually, he had been secretly gathering Germanic chiefs and their retinues for rebellion. A new hope was being seeded throughout Germania. Whispers spread that the Roman juggernaut could possibly be beaten. I think that there are two main reasons why Ominius is able to persuade people to join in the revolt.

The first one is actually that Roman domination is domination. You know, Rome is a conquest state at this juncture in its history. It exerts itself by force over people and it exploits them. So actually the experience of Roman power that groups in this region between the Rhine and the Elbe have been feeling only for the last 10-20 years by the time Arminius is organizing his revolt is an extremely negative one. And actually, you find that if you look at the expansion of the empire, it's very normal that areas that are brought under Roman rule do see a major revolt in a generation or two

after that first Roman conquest. In Britain, you get it in, well, obviously, famously, Boudicca, about 10, 15 years after Roman conquest. In Britain, you get it in, well, obviously, famously, Boudicca, about 10, 15 years after Roman conquest. The whole Illyrian revolt that Arminius has been engaged in suppressing, that similar pattern. Roman domination is absolute domination, and they exploit you. So the first and main reason that Arminius is able to recruit so many supporters is that people don't like being dominated by Rome. It's an unpleasant experience. Apart from the sort of general groundswell of resentment that Roman domination exerts, there's a more specific reason why it's a good moment for Arminius to recruit people to support him in this rebellion against

Roman rule. And that is that what's going on simultaneously is this huge revolt in the Balkans regions of the Roman Empire, the so-called Illyrian Revolt. And this has meant that eight out of the 11 legions that used to be stationed in the area between the Rhine and the Elbe, that's just been brought under Roman rule, have been transferred to deal with that. So the military establishment that Arminius confronts in Varus' territories is much reduced. So instead of 11 legions, plus a lot of supporting auxiliaries, you've only got three legions.

Instead of 11 legions plus a lot of supporting auxiliaries, you've only got three legions. The time is ripe, and I think that would be a pretty easy message to sell to a whole bunch of people who are already resenting the unpleasantness of Roman rule. We don't exactly know when Arminius decides that he is going to lead a rebellion against Rome. Arminius decides that he is going to lead a rebellion against Rome. If you think about what's involved in making this rebellion happen, how many groups need to be mobilized, then this can't be a sudden decision towards the end of the summer on

Arminius' part. This requires a lot of organization and a lot of plotting. I suspect that it's his experience in the Balkans fighting alongside Roman forces against the rebellion that's going on in the Illyrian territories of Rome in the Balkans and its adjacent areas, in the Illyrian territories of Rome and the Balkans and its adjacent areas, that that's what changes Arminius' mind, and that he's decided that actually the time is ripe and it's possible to throw off Roman dominion. So I suspect that he's made up his mind before he comes back to the Rhine frontier

and that when he is whispering into Varus' ear and being involved in Varus' inner circle, that he's already making manoeuvres, setting them afoot in order to bring about the revolt. It wasn't just the Cherusci that Arminius managed to get on board. Several other tribes were keen to revolt against these Roman interlopers. Tribes such as the Bructeri, the Angrivari, the Usipti and Marsi. Chieftains mustered their men for war. But one German leader wasn't so keen. Just as everything seemed to be going so well for Arminius,

this chieftain stepped forward, determined to destroy him. And this was personal. His name was Segestes, a Cherusci nobleman in on the plot. But his daughter, Thusnelda, had run off with the dashing Arminius, much to Segestes' fury. As revenge, an enraged Segestes snitched. He went to Varus' camp, requested an audience with the governor, and revealed all about Arminius' deception. As a high-ranking Cherusci chief, Segestes had likely known about Arminius' true intentions for some time. He has probably attended those meetings where Arminius had attempted to garner support for his plan.

Do not trust Arminius, he cried to Varus. Bind him up in chains and detain him as soon as possible. I don't think for a moment that Varus thought that Segestes' information was in any way reliable. He seems to have completely dismissed this as a piece of fabrication and a lie that was the sole aim of besmirching the name of one of his friends and potentially getting him into trouble. a llygaid, a'r dymunol oedd ymgymryd â'r enw un o'i ffrindiau a'i gael yn trwbwng.

Nawr, nid yw Segestes a'r Arminius yn cael eu cymryd yn dda yn benodol. Arminius wedi treulio'i ffordd gyda'i gilydd, Thysnelda, o ran y dymunion ei fater, ac roedd yna ychydig o blwch peiriannol rhwng y ddau ohonyn nhw ac mae Varys yn ymddangos i fod yn rhoi'r adroddiad i Stegestis yn ceisio creu anodd i'w mabogon anwant ac i enwi ar y posisiynau a oedd Arminius yn yn y staff arforddol Varys ac yn ymddangos i'w gyd-ddodd. Roedd Stegestis yn bosibl eisiau bod yn y posisiynau Arminius ei hun ac rwy'n credu'n fawr bod Varys yn ystyried bod Stegestis yn ceisio wanted to be in Arminius' position himself. And I strongly think that Varus assumed that Segestes is just trying to cause problems for Arminius because he doesn't like him or potentially

wants to usurp this position. And from Varus' perspective, you know, it's not a bad call to make. I mean, Segestes is somebody, yes, he's a Roman ally, and yes, he's somebody whose loyalty to Rome has been rewarded by citizenship. But Arminius has so much more going for him in terms of potential loyalty. So Arminius has been raised in Rome. He's not just a Roman citizen, but he's also commanded units for the Roman army against potentially other Europeans or other Germanic tribes, even depending on where he's posted.

We don't know where he served. But certainly his credentials for loyalty vastly outweigh those of Segestes, who is just an ambitious local nobleman who wants to potentially have more power in the Roman regime than he's got. So Varus makes the call when he has Arminius on one side and Segestes on the other, that he's going to go with the known quantity of Arminius, who he sees on potentially a day-by-day basis. Varus refused to believe Segestes, a decision that he'd later regret. In early September, Varus' men were readying themselves for a return to the Rhine,

to their winter quarters at places such as Zanten and Cologne. The campaigning season was reaching its end, but just as they were dismantling the camp, a messenger hurried into Varus' headquarters, bringing disturbing news of an uprising. Far to the west, many days' march away, a sizeable group of Germans had risen in revolt against the Romans. Varus had a choice, head back to the Lippa and the Rhine as planned, the original route, or face the threat head on, marching deeper into unknown lands. Arminius advised they fight.

Not only was this way actually quicker to get to the Rhine, as they would be marching west rather than south to the Lippa, but much of the march was through safe Cherusci territory anyway. Unknown lands and routes to the Romans, yes, but not to their Cherusci allies. They should crush this rebellion without delay, recommended the secret turncoat Arminius. Arminius. Arminius knows exactly what he's doing by the autumn. He knows what forces are assembled.

He knows precisely what Varus has got at his disposition as well. And he's able to shape his advice to Varus in a way that's going to create maximum advantage for the tribal alliance that Arminius has managed to put together. So he gives Varus misleading advice as to where the threat lies and is able to push Varus to move his forces in precisely the direction that Arminius wants, where the traps have been laid. So when the news of the rebellion comes in and Varus has to decide what he's going to do, what action he's going to take against this potential uprising, his soldiers are probably looking forward to a little bit of action. We know from the sources that Varus doesn't seem to have undertaken any serious military campaigns during his time in Germany. This makes sense in the

context of the Great Illyrian Revolt and the fact that he's trying to lessen military concerns in Germany rather than add to the wider problems in the empire. But Roman soldiers, especially experienced and well-trained ones, often revel in having the opportunity to go out and campaign against a provincial enemy, particularly one that they think is gonna be relatively easy to defeat. They can go, they can have a bit of a fight, they can get a little bit of glory, bit of booty, and then they can go back with some new stories

to tell over the winter. And so it looks like this is something that the soldiers are keen to do, to engage in this rebellion, to go out and just sort of show their power a little bit, flex their muscles, maybe do some of the fighting that they've been frustrated at not being able to do earlier on in the summer, and really show their abilities in the field.

Varus and his adjutants considered their options and made their decision. They agreed to crush the rebels. It was a change of plan, but the rebel threat appeared small, easily swept away with a quick victory. Not only that, but Arminius had offered them his scouts to guide them through Cherusci lands to reach there, and then on to the Rhine. How thoughtful of the man. The decision was made, onwards to war. Now we must remember that Varus' force included much more than just military men. There were hundreds of camp followers, women, children, slaves, merchants, alongside pack animals, wagons, a huge baggage train. Rather than risk dividing his force, Varus opted to take all of these with him.

And it was then, as this massive army miles long rumbled into action, that Arminius made his next move. Pretending that he was off to gather his Cherusci warriors to support Varus in the upcoming fight, Arminius left the camp. So Varus and Arminius parted ways. The Roman army marched on with no idea that betrayal lay ahead of them. Varus' army headed west, taking everything with them. As far as they were concerned, this was going to be a routine victory for the supreme Roman legionaries. Deeper and deeper they marched into Germania, the columns strewn out for several miles before contracting as they set up camp for the night. The whole army was confident that night. This German uprising they believed would soon be crushed and they could then return to civilization

victorious. It would be one final night of peace before a German nightmare. The march continued the next day, and by the early afternoon they reached a large forest, the Teutoburg Forest, full of dense woodland. Here the path was narrow, tall trees and uneven terrain dominated the landscape. The army moved deeper into the forest, still unaware of the imminent danger of eyes, hundreds of pairs of eyes, looking at them from amongst the trees. Then, all hell broke loose. In the next episode, horror, mayhem and murder will explode across the forest. The second episode, we will cover the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest itself as Arminius and his allies unleashed their ambush on the Roman column as they marched through the unknown territory of the thick Teutoburg Forest. Arminius knows perfectly well that in a

head-on confrontation, the Roman army will make mincemeat of even his assembled coalition forces. What he has to do is wear the Romans down and get them into a position where they're expecting to lose. That's the only point at which Arminius can actually win. And the whole setup of this long extended ambush is about destroying Roman morale and creating the conditions that will lead to the

final catastrophe. Stay tuned for that episode, it is coming very soon but in the meantime I hope you enjoyed today's special episode and if you want to learn more then go and check out our series, our TV documentary series we did on this battle, on this huge campaign, which you can find on History Hit TV. Simply type into your search engine, historyhit.com slash Tudorberg. That's enough from me. Thank you to our editor, Aidan Lonergan,

for making this episode a reality. And I will see you for part two very soon.