The Battle Against Rome_1of2_A Province too Far
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00:00There could be nothing more brutal than that defeat in the swamps and the forests.
00:15That was the account in the Chronicles of Rome.
00:20Three imperial legions annihilated in the swamps of Germania in the autumn of the year
00:269 AD.
00:29The battle was a turning point in European history, because Rome failed to conquer the
00:40lands up to the river Elbe, let alone the lands further east.
00:46The Romans would withdraw to their defences along the Rhine and the Danube.
00:52It was split in two, down the ages to come.
01:01It was the beginning of a German legend.
01:04The greatest military power of the ancient world brought to its knees by an iron alliance
01:09of freedom-loving tribes.
01:15Nineteenth-century German nationalists made this battle in the swamps the founding act
01:21of the modern nation.
01:26Since 1875, a monument to the victor dominates the landscape, Arminius to the Romans or Hermann,
01:35the first hero of German liberation.
01:41Since then, Arminius is all but forgotten in this country.
01:49This is his story.
02:14Julius Caesar gave the same name to all the tribes in the inaccessible regions east of
02:19the Rhine, Germani.
02:22They were forever making incursions into Roman territory.
02:29Even before the birth of Christ, Augustus Caesar decided to protect the exposed eastern
02:34flank of the empire in Gaul.
02:36In a series of campaigns, the Germanic tribes were to be subdued.
02:41Some put up a struggle.
02:43Others, like the Cherusci, allied themselves with Rome.
02:51This tribe now live under the iron fist of the Pax Romana.
03:03A young boy lives here.
03:05Later, he will be called Arminius.
03:09When he's about ten years old, his life is changed forever.
03:19Arminius is of noble blood.
03:24His father, Segimerus, belongs to Cheruscan aristocracy, but Segimerus is firmly opposed
03:31to the alliance with Rome.
03:44The nobles have chosen Segestes as the leader of their clan.
03:47Segimerus must accept his leadership and his decisions.
03:53But Segestes is not welcome in this company.
04:01Segestes has chosen the alliance with Rome, and now he has come to fulfill the conditions
04:06of the alliance.
04:08He has come for Segimerus' sons.
04:12They must be handed over to the occupiers at once.
04:16It is, he says, a necessary sacrifice that must be made for the good of the whole tribe.
04:26It means that Segimerus may never see the boys again.
04:29They will become Romans.
04:40Taking hostages was a favorite Roman ploy.
04:43Just like Segestes were their agents, with everything to gain from cooperating.
04:54We know relatively little about the early history of the Cherusci.
05:00They suddenly turn up in the time of Augustus.
05:04For a while they were Rome's enemies, but then they formed an alliance with Rome.
05:12Segestes was the leading figure among the Cherusci at the time of the Roman conquest.
05:18When a colossal superpower like Rome collides with a relatively small tribe, it's not really
05:24surprising if part of the clan, or the whole tribe, decide to form an alliance with the enemy.
05:42Everything we know about the Germans comes from ancient Roman texts.
05:46Writers like Paterculus, Tacitus, or Cassius Dio used accounts by Roman soldiers returning
05:51from Germania.
05:53The Germanic tribes had no writing, so they have left no version of the story of Arminius.
06:00Arminius and his brother Flavius, a fair one, will be brought up as Romans, so they can
06:07return to their homeland one day, as representatives of Roman power.
06:19To the Romans, this seems a sure way to consolidate their control.
06:26Who else can they trust, when families and clans among their Cheruscan allies are split
06:31between the enemies and friends of Rome?
06:39But it's misleading even to speak of a unified people and call them Germans.
06:44There are dozens of tribes, constantly fighting each other.
06:49For the Romans, this really is a terra incognita, an unknown world.
06:59From the Roman point of view, they were entering a territory of a sort they had never conquered
07:04before.
07:05Gaul had a quite different structure.
07:07It was Celtic, it already had permanent towns, and its tribes were much more hierarchically
07:13stable than tribes in Germania.
07:21The Germanic people lived for themselves, separated from each other, said the Roman
07:27historian Tacitus.
07:31The bigger settlements numbered up to 25 houses, with humans and animals living under
07:36the same roof.
07:43Towns and cities like those in the rest of the empire are unknown here.
07:48And for the Romans, the people are uncivilized savages, living more like animals than humans.
08:00Tacitus tells us they live in a wild landscape, between the rivers Rhine and Elba, a landscape
08:07covered with vast, dense forests of oak and birch.
08:15The place Tacitus describes is deeply foreign.
08:21The marshes that cover this territory are repulsive.
08:26The forests make one shiver with fear.
08:33What disturbed the Romans most was that there were no roads, no trade routes, and there
08:39were no fixed points to aim for, no castles or strongholds to take.
08:45Just this dreadful forest that took nine days to cross without encountering a single
08:49human being.
08:50It was a nightmare for the Romans.
09:01The impenetrable forests were totally unsuited to Roman military tactics and logistics.
09:09Being sent to Germania in the freezing north was seen by most Roman soldiers as a punishment.
09:23And they were scared because they had never seen forests.
09:28After centuries of building Roman cities and naval fleets, there were scarcely any forests
09:33left in Italy.
09:42They were stationed in northern Europe.
09:43They knew they didn't belong here.
09:48Julius Caesar wrote, even if they walk for 60 days, no one can say they have come to
09:54the end of this forest.
09:57And no one can even know where it ends.
10:12Throughout the Mediterranean region, Rome had an urban culture.
10:18They lived in towns.
10:19And compared to that, what they found in Germania was very primitive.
10:24It was simple.
10:28The basic elements of Roman civilization and achievements were missing.
10:35It was a real collision of two cultures.
10:50For Arminius and Flavius, their route towards the Roman world would have taken them first
10:56through the forests to the river Rhine.
11:02This is where the Roman world began, where the first solid evidence of Rome's engineering
11:11mastery was a great fortress and a bridge spanning the river.
11:22From this army camp at Vetera, many thousands of legionaries protect Rome's frontier along
11:27the river.
11:29It's only one of many camps along the Rhine.
11:31The Romans founded cities like Cologne, Koblenz and Mainz, shop windows for Roman civilization.
11:41The message they give is not keep away.
11:56They're a magnet for the barbarians who engage in flourishing trade with the Romans.
12:05Long blonde hair is especially valuable.
12:09The Germans accept coins they've never seen before for their hides and furs.
12:22Tribesmen with nothing to sell work as laborers for the Romans.
12:26It's a tempting new world.
12:31It must have made an incredibly powerful impression on the Germanic tribesmen.
12:37The way the Romans built their towers, the complicated organization behind it, their
12:43skill at calculation and measurement, their skill at providing a supply of running water,
12:51all that would have made an enormous impression.
12:54You can imagine the tribesmen standing there open-mouthed.
12:58They must have been absolutely astounded.
13:09The separation from his family must have been painful for Arminius, but there were plenty
13:15of new impressions to distract him, and the barbarian brothers will have been an attraction
13:23in their own right.
13:28The sons of nobles get privileged treatment, including their first miraculous experience
13:39of heated floors.
13:48This is the journey of a lifetime, up the River Moselle, through the cities of the Roman
13:53province of Gaul, then across the Mediterranean to the capital city of the ancient world.
14:03It was a popular tactic for the Romans.
14:05They brought noble sons to Rome and educated them at the Princes' School on the Palatine
14:10Hill.
14:11They served two purposes.
14:14On the one hand, they were hostages, guaranteeing the good behavior of their fathers, but on
14:19the other hand, they were brought up as Romans, and when they went back to their own people,
14:24they were expected to behave as Romans.
14:27It would have been like that with Arminius, because when he was a boy, the Romans were
14:31certainly taking noble hostages in Germania.
14:38Arminius and Flavius may have reached Rome about 9 BC.
14:42First they passed the workers' stone tenements in the teeming suburbs.
14:46Then they neared the center of the biggest city in the world, with its million inhabitants.
15:06Arminius arrives in a city that is flourishing as never before.
15:10Great parade routes crisscross the city.
15:13Marble glistens in the Mediterranean sun.
15:21There had never been a longer period of peace, and never had the Roman Empire been as big
15:25as it was under the Emperor Augustus.
15:32Under Augustus, the Roman Empire had expanded to a size it had never known before, and Augustus
15:38extended the Roman Empire far further than any single Roman had done before him.
15:45Just think about it.
15:46Northern Spain, the Alps, great swathes of territory as far as the Danube, inner Anatolia,
15:52Judea, Egypt, Africa.
15:55He added all this to the Roman Empire.
15:57It reached an enormous geographical span.
16:03And yet later, the time of Augustus would be associated with peace, and that's because
16:10he made peace in Rome after decades of civil war, Roman against Roman.
16:15But in his foreign policy, Augustus was anything but an emperor of peace.
16:20He waged war non-stop throughout his reign.
16:31As a young man, Arminius becomes part of Rome's gigantic war machine.
16:43He soon grasps the key to Rome's military success, discipline.
16:58It can't have been easy for a Cheruscan to submit to strict drill and unquestioning obedience.
17:05Germanic warriors reject firm leadership, but Arminius proves an excellent pupil.
17:12A young man, quick to pick things up, and unusually talented for a German, is a contemporary
17:18verdict.
17:20This Cheruscan is turning into the perfect Roman soldier.
17:25This education of a Germanic tribesman in the Roman Empire always had two sides, a technical
17:32side, how do I lead an army, what weapons do I carry, and an ideological side, politics
17:39and Rome as one and the same thing, Rome as the ideal we should worship, and the Romans
17:45combined them.
17:49Around 1 BC, Arminius receives his first posting, to Pannonia in the Balkans.
17:57He's a captain of the Auxilia, a mounted force of Germanic mercenaries.
18:09Tribes in this Balkan province have risen against Rome.
18:13Rome hits back hard, sending 15 legions, more than 100,000 men, half the entire army,
18:20to crush the rebels.
18:37It's a show of the absolute superiority of Roman military tactics.
18:52Roman power lies not in the courage of individual soldiers, but in the strategic cooperation
18:58of military units.
19:00Arminius will never forget this lesson.
19:02In open warfare, Rome is invincible.
19:08Two different ways of waging war meet head on here.
19:12The Roman army is professional and disciplined.
19:15Different ranks have precisely defined skills and roles.
19:19Each man knows he can do this or that.
19:22He commands so many men, and he has the means and equipment to do this or that.
19:27For the Germans, however, this was a relationship that had grown together between chiefs and
19:34nobles and selected warriors, who would cross from tribe to tribe, who had sworn allegiance
19:40to those chiefs.
19:43In their own way, the warriors were professionals, too.
19:46It was a personal relationship.
19:48And in some ways, of course, it also instilled discipline.
19:52That is, it was a question of honor.
19:58And it was a situation in which they were attached to this one man, and they owed him
20:05allegiance.
20:08The Romans advanced in a closed formation called the Tortoise.
20:16The barbarians attacked in a wedge-shaped formation called the Boar's Head.
20:28The force of the impact is only momentarily effective.
20:38The armored legions can mow down their attackers.
20:43They are so tightly closed, they function like a single body.
20:49We don't know exactly what Arminius did in the Pannonian War, but he must have fought
20:54with distinction.
20:55Back in Rome, the Emperor Augustus makes him a knight, the highest honor open to a member
21:00of a Germanic tribe.
21:14A noble son from the forests of Germania has become a respected citizen of Rome.
21:30Fifteen years since he left home, impossible to say whether he misses his family, the freedom,
21:37the endless forests.
21:40Impossible to say what ambitions he holds today.
21:47We know of many cases where Germanic tribesmen in the service of Rome learned how to behave
21:53in the Roman way without feeling Roman or becoming loyal to Rome.
22:02It's not easy to make people genuinely committed to a system that may bring them great privileges,
22:08but also requires a change of identity.
22:11Not everyone can do that.
22:18In the year 7 AD, Augustus appoints a new governor for Germania.
22:27He's a relative called Publius Quintilius Varus.
22:31He's described as physically corpulent and spiritually complacent.
22:38And yet Varus has proved himself in a crisis.
22:43He crushed a Jewish revolt as governor in Syria, crucifying 2,000 rebels.
22:49He came into this rich province a poor man, and he left this poor province a rich man,
22:56they said later.
22:59In his glory days, coins were minted with his likeness, a rare privilege.
23:09Varus had the skills and experience a Roman senator selected for that job in Germania
23:14would need.
23:17And Augustus would certainly not have sent someone there just because he was a relative,
23:24unless he was also convinced that he had the experience to carry out what was expected of him.
23:36But then, Augustus makes a decision with unforeseen consequences.
23:43He sends Arminius to Germania at Varus's side.
23:49It's a decision that will have pleased Varus.
23:58Arminius has the reputation of being brave, disciplined, and loyal.
24:03And he knows the Cherusci and their fighting style.
24:07He speaks their language.
24:19In 7 AD, Arminius comes back to his homeland.
24:23Over the past 15 years, the Romans have surged on, building up their new province, constructing
24:28camps along the rivers Rhine, Main, and Lippe, to consolidate their control in Germania Magna.
24:35Haltern on the Lippe is their administrative center, the capital of the new province.
24:45Thanks to today's Roman museum at Haltern, they create a base for three legions, a total
24:52of 20,000 men.
25:04There are barracks, smithies for making weapons, kilns for pottery, and villas for the high officials.
25:13And on the Lippe is a harbor for the supply of Roman goods and luxuries that make life
25:18bearable in these barbarian lands.
25:24Right from the beginning, the Romans tried to give the impression that they had subdued
25:28Germania.
25:30In his last will and testament, Augustus wrote, I have conquered Germania as far as the mouth
25:35of the Elbe.
25:38Whenever a general won a little victory in Germania, he would call himself Germanicus,
25:43as if to say he had the Germanic tribes under control.
25:47The Romans minted coins showing Germania as a woman, sitting on the ground in mourning
25:52with a broken spear.
25:54So ordinary Romans really would have got that impression.
25:58But Tacitus contradicted that.
26:00He said, that's nonsense.
26:02Germania has not been defeated.
26:04The Germanic tribes are living just as they did 200 years ago, completely free.
26:13On his return, Arminius may have looked in vain for the signs of Roman domination.
26:25From distance from the Roman forts, the advanced Roman way of life is nowhere to be seen.
26:40Arminius will have taken the opportunity to be reunited with his father, Segimerus.
26:46Never time to speak of the greatness of Rome or of his homeland.
26:57However warm the greeting, his father must have had mixed feelings at seeing his son
27:04enter the family house in the uniform of a Roman soldier.
27:14Arminius must have paid lip service to the advantages brought by Rome by being part of
27:19the empire, the wealth, skills and justice, and an end to the endless civil wars between
27:27the Germanic tribes.
27:29There will soon be roads, cities, even heated stone floors instead of beaten clay.
27:38But these are two men talking past each other.
27:42To Segimerus, his son is denying the land of his birth.
27:45The Romans are squeezing the tribes for tributes like the grapes for their sour wine, counting
27:50them like cattle to levy taxes, and forbidding free men to bear weapons.
28:00Without a sword, a Cheruscan cannot be free.
28:06But his people are powerless.
28:08Things have changed.
28:15The Cheruscans are condemned to a life of slavery.
28:21Their freedom is lost.
28:26But not all Germanic tribesmen insist, like Segimerus, on freedom and independence.
28:32On the river Lahn, near the small town of Waldgiermas, archaeologists have made a remarkable
28:37discovery.
28:40When Roman remains were found here in 1993, they thought it was just another army camp.
28:48The Romans said they'd built proper towns east of the Rhine, but the experts had always
28:52dismissed it as propaganda.
28:58But now there was evidence of something more.
29:02This is a civilian town.
29:06So far, the only Roman town discovered on this side of the Rhine.
29:14This was planned to be used by Romans and Germans.
29:33Roman historian Cassius Dio described the strategy behind it.
29:38By building forums, houses, and baths, the defeated peoples were seduced into peace.
29:53And then, archaeologists put together conclusive proof of Rome's attitude to its newly conquered
29:59territory.
30:03We were really surprised when we found fragments, gilded on one side with gold leaf.
30:10We soon realized that they must be parts of a bronze statue.
30:16But when we found a stirrup, a part of a harness, and a horse's hoof, we said to ourselves,
30:22this is an equestrian statue.
30:26And of course, the size of the parts made it clear how big the whole statue was.
30:32It was life-size.
30:34And since it was gilded, a statue at that time and at that place could only have been
30:40a statue of the Emperor Augustus.
30:45This golden monument stood in the forum.
30:52The fact there was a gilded, life-size equestrian statue in Waldgirmis shows the Romans clearly
30:59making their claim to the territory.
31:02Above all, to the local population.
31:05You have to imagine how it would have looked to a local tribesman, standing in the forum,
31:10looking at this glistening gold statue of a horse and rider with a realistic portrait
31:16of the Emperor.
31:17It must have seemed utterly amazing to him.
31:23Varus must have expected to find Germania already pacified when he arrived at Haltern
31:28and met Arminius.
31:35Varus is tasked with turning Germania into a fully-fledged Roman province.
31:43Arminius' assessment of the situation is invaluable.
31:48But a mere captain of the auxiliary cavalry would never tell his general what to do.
31:56Arminius insists, a German knows how to deal with Germans.
32:02He knows how to bring them into the empire.
32:06The blood in my veins may be German, Arminius says.
32:09My head and my tongue are Roman.
32:14Then Arminius must act like a Roman, Varus says.
32:26When Arminius is given his first mission, the legions are about to set out for their
32:30summer camp.
32:33Arminius is to reconnoiter the route.
32:43To demonstrate their dominance, the Romans move troops eastwards every summer, from their
32:49strongholds on the Rhine and the Lippe towards the river Weser, home to the Cherusci.
33:03Travelling through this uncharted wilderness is a daunting task.
33:13There are no roads of any kind.
33:16To transport their troops and keep them supplied, the Romans are forced to use the river Lippe.
33:30They've even developed a special boat for the purpose.
33:37It's a 30-metre flat-bottomed barge with a draft of only 40 centimetres.
33:43It can sail in shallow waters, carrying a load of 53 tonnes.
33:50With hundreds of these barges, Varus advances deep into Germania, until the river is too narrow.
34:00The cargo is transferred to land.
34:03There's massive amounts of material.
34:05The legions travel with civilian support, blacksmiths, carpenters, tax collectors, many
34:10with their families.
34:12And there are the merchants with wine and olives, the little luxuries from back home
34:18that make life bearable for Romans in the chilly, savage north.
34:31The Auxilia, mounted Germanic mercenaries, are to scout and secure the route.
34:42Arminius is their commander.
34:49A total of 22,000 people, stretching for 15 kilometres, forcing their way across the plain.
34:58The soldiers marched in four columns.
35:01Every legion had a baggage train carrying its equipment.
35:05The whole column could cover, on average, 20 kilometres a day.
35:15The legions were aiming for an area close to today's Minden.
35:19Even today it has a Latin name, Porta Westfalica.
35:23This is where the river Weser cuts through the Wien and Weser hills.
35:32For a long time, the exact location of Varus' summer camp was not known.
35:40But in 2008, archaeologists discovered Roman remains in a village near the river Weser.
35:54It's early days yet, but finds like these suggest this was a military base, perhaps
35:59Varus' summer encampment.
36:02Here's a peg from a legionary's tent.
36:12From his new forward position, Varus decides to impose Roman law on the barbarians.
36:21The people not subdued in battle may be controlled by the strict application of justice.
36:41But is this really the right time?
36:44Historian Valerius Paterculus has his doubts.
36:47He writes, Varus gave the Germans orders as if they already lived in slavery.
36:52He demanded tributes as if they were subjects.
37:05The tax collectors become notorious for demanding that the exact amounts of the different commodities
37:10are paid.
37:11The rules apply to everyone without exception or delay.
37:27But the Roman tax authorities are disappointed by what they can drum up in Germanic villages.
37:33This land barely provides a surplus.
37:40The Germanic tribes are subsistence farmers.
37:43When their limited produce is confiscated, their frustration at Roman rule turns to hatred.
37:59And Roman law just makes things worse.
38:04For one person to judge between two parties in a dispute goes deeply against the Germanic
38:09sense of justice.
38:11It has been the privilege of the old Germanic nobles to negotiate between themselves matters
38:17of justice.
38:24The worst transgression?
38:26Varus condemns natives to be crucified for theft.
38:36In the Germanic world, only the gods hold sway over the life and death of a free man.
38:42Theft, even murder, are atoned by paying a fine known as the Wehrgat.
38:50But Varus ignores the sacred Germanic traditions.
38:58The way Varus behaved in Germania was not so different from Roman policy elsewhere in
39:03the empire.
39:05He had to try to introduce Roman law because that was part of life in a Roman province.
39:14And if the Germanic peoples didn't like it, then that was a perfectly normal reaction
39:18on their part.
39:22Just think of today how people hate it when they find themselves being judged or imprisoned
39:27by a foreign power.
39:33Every community will try to resist when strangers come and try to impose their own form of justice.
39:49Varus brutally suppresses any sign of unrest.
39:52The ringleaders are executed, their villages burned.
40:01What does Arminius make of this?
40:04He remembers his people as proud, free warriors.
40:07On his return, he finds them powerless, impotent, and immoralized, oppressed by the very power
40:13he himself represents.
40:16Perhaps no other choice is possible.
40:20He turns against Rome.
40:38Historians still dispute exactly why Arminius did it.
40:44The Roman sources tell us nothing.
40:49But maybe it's not difficult to understand.
41:03Arminius must have had experiences that led him to this change of heart.
41:13Rome had never completely replaced the Cheruscan world in his loyalties.
41:18He would have been tugged both ways when he made his decision.
41:30He must have been deeply fascinated by Rome, and he'd absorbed from it everything he'd
41:34need to carry out his plan.
41:39He used that, and he combined it with his Germanic Cheruscan heritage to turn it against
41:45Rome.
41:49Rome, which he now felt could no longer be the future for his people.
42:03But maybe Arminius had selfish reasons to betray Rome.
42:08Any claim he might have to leadership of his own tribe had suffered by his proximity
42:12to Varus.
42:14Leading a successful revolt against Rome would give him enormous credit with all the Germanic
42:19peoples.
42:30Quite likely, Arminius had the ambition of becoming king of the Germanic peoples, something
42:36there had never been.
42:38According to this theory, he acted out of this strange combination of local patriotism
42:44and a distinctly Roman lust for power.
42:50If I fight against the Romans with my own people behind me, I can build up a powerful
42:55independent position that would never have been possible as a follower of the Romans.
42:59I would always be their puppet.
43:02He certainly had a very strong lust for power.
43:05So this personal impulse, you could say it was a struggle for freedom at the same time
43:09if you want to, he was using this impulse to create his own kingdom, his own empire,
43:16an Arminius empire.
43:17And it's certainly no coincidence that he was later murdered by his own people because
43:24in some ways he was an enemy of Germanic freedom.
43:37Behind the backs of the Romans, Arminius calls the Germanic tribes together to test out their
43:42loyalty.
43:44He has to persuade them that he possesses the heil of a successful military leader.
43:51For the Germanic peoples, heil is the highest form of good fortune.
43:57He who earns it or is granted it by the gods will succeed in whatever he undertakes.
44:03And his heil is then shared with everyone who follows him.
44:21But it won't be easy to unite the Germanic tribes behind one goal.
44:25They prefer warring against each other.
44:29The worst enemy of a Germanic tribe is another Germanic tribe.
44:38There are tribal leaders who have been showered with gold and privileges by the Romans in
44:42exchange for their loyalty.
44:45One of these is Segestes, a relative of Arminius.
44:52Segestes has been elected leader of the Cherusci.
44:57Segestes tries hard to persuade his fellow tribal leaders that it would be suicidal to
45:02rise up against Varus and the legions.
45:05In every uprising until now, the Romans have been victorious.
45:09The tribes have been crushed.
45:12The revenge of the Romans has been terrible.
45:16To attack them again would only bring the same result again.
45:20Only this time, their reprisals will be even more brutal.
45:27A Roman prefect like Arminius should know better than anyone that the Romans are invincible.
45:34It's Arminius the Roman who reminds his people that they are living in slavery.
45:43That the weapons and symbols of occupation, the Romans' battle axes, reed bundles and
45:48togas are infesting their forests and villages.
45:54That free men pay taxes and tributes to foreigners and are executed under Roman law.
46:00To convince the last waverers, scared they're heading for certain death and their families
46:04to slavery, Arminius reveals he has a plan, a plan that has to be carried out now.
46:12He promises to lead his followers to freedom.
46:30The grandeur of Rome, so effective in the intimidation of its enemies, is impotent here.
46:38Nothing will happen in these forests.
46:43Deadly danger is waiting, perfectly concealed.
46:49Varus and his soldiers are marching to disaster.
46:53This slaughter will break on the Romans with no warning, and with savage fury.