Richard's Ramblings

Historical Fiction and Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Book Reviews and ruminations on life

  • Home
  • About
  • Shield Maiden
  • The Amber Treasure
  • Tomorrow’s Guardian

9

Sep

The battle in the Teutoburg Forest – German Tribes destroy the Romans

Posted by rdenning  Published in history, Romans

The 9th of September in the year 9 AD is of great significant to the history of both the Roman armies and the Germanic tribes. On this day an alliance of six German tribes annihilated three entire legions of Romans along with several cohorts of auxillaries in a battle deep in the vast forest that covered and still cover much of Germany. It was a battle that at times has been used by the Germans in the same way that Britain might talk of Waterloo or Agincourt when stiring nationalist sentiments.

Roman Expansion in Germany

The Romans had been pushing out across from the Rhine, conquering tribe after tribe for 20 years in a series of campaigns.  Thus in 9 AD the Roman Empire controlled, directly or via subservient and allied states, a huge area of western Germany as far east as the River Elbe.

The Romans had been presented as a hostage and tribute the young son of a German tribal leader. This boy was Arminius. He was taken to Rome and raised as a Roman, even being given a Roman military education and a rank. Secertly though Arminius was an enemy of Rome and when he returned to the Rhine and became a trusted advisor to Varus, the Roman commander, he began putting together plans for a betrayal. He contacted the various tribal leaders under the dominance of Rome and found that due to Roman brutality there was a strong appetite for a rebellion.

Statue of Arminius

When all was ready Arminius fed Varus a false report of an uprising North of the Ruhr river.  Varus mobilized all his available troops  – maybe 36,000  men and began to march  to the area Arminius suggested. He was able to lead Varus along a path that led deep into the Teutoburg Forest near Osnabruck.

The path was narrow and Varus was obliged to stretch out his formation over 20km.  This was the moment Arminius and his allies had been waiting for.

The Teutoburg forest

Around 30,000 German tribes men emerged from the forested and assaulted the Romans. The Battle would last 3 days with the Romans managing to build over night  fortresses and march on. IN the end the path they followed brought them in front of another fortification – but this time built (at the suggestion of the Roman trained Arminius) across the Roman path. Assaults on this fortification failed and the Roman army broke up in dis-array with victorious Germans running amock amongst them.

Many Romans took their own lives including Varus but hundreds were taken prisoner. (Some being eventually rescued by the Romans in a later raid 40 years later!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aftermath

The battle – leading to the loss of three legions including their eagles and 36,000 men – crushed Roman authority east of the Rhine. Virtually all the territory they had taken was lost. Augustus Caeser was distrught – apparently banging his head against a wall and shouting ‘Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!’.

The Romans would attack again east of the Rhine  about 5 years later and exact terrible revenge in a number of bloody raids. They would retrieve their lost eagles, rescue captives and even bury the bones of the dead they found strewn over the battlefield in the forest BUT they never again conquered these lands.

Nationalism

Over the centuries THIS battle was been evoked by the Germans at moments when a sense of German nationhood was desirable. In 1808 with much of Germany under the control of the Eagles of Napoleon’s French Empire plays were made of this battle – and it was clear that although the enemy was Rome a parallel was being made with the French oppressor.

The battle was later used in propagana in the wars of German unification against Austria and France in the 1860s and 1870s BUT in the post WW2 era has been ignored as the Germans tended to avoid overt displays of national pride.

 

 

Share

Tags: Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Germany, Romans

no comment

19

Jan

History is all around us – even in suburban Birmingham.

Posted by rdenning  Published in 17th Century History, Romans

I work at a general practice that covers the areas of Great Barr, Streetly and Kingstanding in Birmingham. The area is suburban and full of not terribly inspired estates as well as council housing, playing fields and local shops and schools. As such the area does not have much to recommend it to those interested in history – or at least that seems to be the case.  But dig beneath the surface and there are surprising historical remains that are reminders that all around us history happened.

King’s Standing Bowl Barrow or Kingstanding Mound. 


The two trees above are growing out of what today is a shallow bump in the ground not one metre tall and 20 across. Yet on 19 October 1642,during the Civil War, King Charles I is said to have addressed new recruits from this very spot. There is some dispute but it seems likely that it is after this that the name of the area – what is today called Kingstanding  – was adopted.  Alternatively there is some evidence that it was already called “The King’s Standing” from medieval times. A Standing was a place where the king could wait to have deer driven past so that he could then hunt them.

None-the-less Charles stood here and spoke to his recruits and those same recruits then marched on down that road you can see to fight at the Battle of Edgehill only 4 days later.

The mound would have been much higher in ancient times but supposedly some years after the incident a new farm tenant levelled the mound. When he later heard  from his neighbours of its royal associations he then rebuilt it .

Roman Road

That innocuous road is actually on or within a few yards of part of  the Roman road to Wall (Letocetum near Litchfield) which is known as Rycknield Street.  It crosses Wattling Street (today’s A5)  only a few miles away.

In Sutton Park you can walk along the Roman Road and there are spots where it can be clearly recognised.

The park contains a natural spring which it is believed was used by the Romans as they had a marching camp in the vicinity.

So you can see that in a small area there are several echoes and remnants of past times. Not as glorious as the  great castles of course but still a reminder that history went on all around us.

What  hidden secrets are in your back yard?

Share

Tags: Birmingham, King Charles I, Kingstanding, Romans

no comment

Available Free on Amazon

Book 1 of the Northern Crown Series

Available Free on Amazon

Book 1 of the Nine Worlds Series.

Get my blog updates by email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Contact me:

Email me on r.denning@btinternet.com

Previous Posts

  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (1)
  • October 2014 (3)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (2)
  • July 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (2)
  • April 2014 (3)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • January 2014 (7)
  • December 2013 (3)
  • November 2013 (1)
  • October 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (7)
  • May 2013 (1)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (5)
  • December 2012 (4)
  • November 2012 (6)
  • October 2012 (2)
  • September 2012 (9)
  • August 2012 (3)
  • July 2012 (2)
  • June 2012 (2)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (3)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (2)
  • January 2012 (3)
  • December 2011 (6)
  • November 2011 (6)
  • October 2011 (8)
  • September 2011 (9)
  • August 2011 (16)
  • July 2011 (19)
  • June 2011 (6)
  • May 2011 (3)
  • April 2011 (3)
  • March 2011 (5)
  • February 2011 (3)
  • January 2011 (4)
  • December 2010 (2)
  • November 2010 (3)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (2)
  • June 2010 (3)
  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (6)
  • March 2010 (5)
  • February 2010 (6)

Categrories

  • 17th Century History (19)
  • 17th Century London (13)
  • 18th Century (1)
  • Anglo Saxon Survival Guide (12)
  • Anglo Saxons (72)
  • Bernard Cornwell (1)
  • blog tour (5)
  • Book Review (5)
  • british traditions (1)
  • Character sketch (7)
  • charity (1)
  • Christmas (3)
  • Dark Age (34)
  • demons (3)
  • e-books (10)
  • Edinburgh Fringe (2)
  • entertainment (4)
  • exhibitions (1)
  • fantasy (4)
  • festivals (7)
  • Food and Drink (4)
  • games (8)
  • gardens (1)
  • Great Fire of London (11)
  • Guest Posts (3)
  • halloween (1)
  • Helen Hollick (4)
  • Historical Fiction (25)
  • Historical Figures (8)
  • history (41)
  • Ireland (2)
  • Iron Age (1)
  • Kindle (4)
  • legend (2)
  • libraries (3)
  • London Book Fair (2)
  • marketing (3)
  • Mercia Books (7)
  • Middle Earth (1)
  • museum (1)
  • music (1)
  • My Books (28)
  • mythology (11)
  • Napoleonic Wars (5)
  • National Trust (2)
  • Northumbria (4)
  • Nottingham (1)
  • Orkney (4)
  • Publishing (31)
  • richard denning (53)
  • rituals (3)
  • Romans (2)
  • runes (1)
  • saint (1)
  • school visits (1)
  • sci fi (5)
  • scotland (4)
  • Selfpublishing (26)
  • Short Story (1)
  • stars (1)
  • The Amber Treasure (24)
  • The Last Seal (34)
  • Time Travel (9)
  • Tomorrow's Guardian (16)
  • Uncategorized (88)
  • valentine's day (1)
  • Viking (2)
  • Wales (1)
  • warfare (7)
  • world war 1 (1)
  • writers (6)
  • Yesterday's Treasures (6)

Tags

17th Century aethelfrith Alexander the Great Amazon Anglo-Saxon Anglo Saxons bernicia Blog Tour Book Review Character Sketch Dark Age Decade a week deira entertainment food gods Great Fire of London Helen Hollick Historical Fiction historical research history Kindle mythology Northumbria Old English Orkney richard denning riddles runes saxons Sea Witch seax self publishing Selfpublishing Short Story six sentence sunday Staffordshire Horde The Amber Treasure The Great Fire of London 1666 The Last Seal Time Travel Tomorrow's Guardian Vikings warriors writing

Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Recent Entries

  • The Franks Casket
  • Writing – Making your Mark
  • Xmas Day 1914: where was the Truce?
  • Where’s the Hill? The Mystery of Abingdon
  • Glendalough: The valley of two lakes
  • Place of the Caves – beneath the City of Nottingham
  • To chance your arm – the door of reconciliation
  • The Galloway Hoard – the Viking treasure trove
  • A visit to Bletchley Park
  • Visit to Birsay – one time capital of the Orkneys

Recent Comments

  • rdenning in Writing - Making your Mark
  • rdenning in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Koni Billings in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Steve in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Interview with Author Richard Denni… in The Amber Treasure
  • rdenning in Anglo-Saxon Hall at The British Musuem
  • rdenning in The 17th Century in 26 Words
  • rdenning in Its a Monster! The past and future of UKGE
  • Cabe in Its a Monster! The past and future of UKGE
  • Ros Jackson in The 17th Century in 26 Words
  • Random Selection of Posts

    • Anglo Saxons Treasures at Lichfield Cathedral
    • Six Sentence Sunday: The Amber Treasure
    • Anglo-Saxon Phrase Book
    • The Internet is 20 Years old
    • Burial in Anglo-Saxon England
    • 3 tools for making the most of Twitter
    • Arms and Armour in Anglo Saxon Times Part 2: Missile Weapons
© 2008 Richard's Ramblings is proudly powered by WordPress
Theme designed by Roam2Rome