The Conspiracy Behind The Teutoburg Forest Massacre | Lost Legions of Varus | Odyssey

[Music] for 2000 years europe has been divided by war each passing century marked with the blood of endless conflict sometimes religious always political and never resolved finally it exploded to engulf the world it seems absurd to think that it could all be traced back to a single battle but it can a battle few europeans remember but no roman was allowed to forget they called it the varian disaster after the varian disaster rome fell back upon the rhine and the rhine became the empire's frontier so giving birth to a rift in the center of europe between two groups of nations the romanic and the germanic the rift is with us still the european union exists to try and heal it and no one knows whether they or not they will succeed [Music] but if you trace this rift back and back and back you come eventually to the tutabug [Music] forest [Music] in 15 a.d in germany a detachment of roman soldiers under the command of their general germanicus made a grim discovery they were in the area to exact revenge on the local tribes and this was why [Music] a slaughtering ground stretching for miles the remains of as many as 20 000 romans reduced over six years to a carpet of bones for here in 9 a.d the unthinkable had happened three of rome's finest legions wiped out by a horde of iron age savages their commander pobleus quintilius virus decapitated his severed head impaled on a spear no roman had thought it possible but here was the evidence on the open ground were whitening bones scattered where men had fled heaped up where they had stood and fought back fragments of spears and of horse's limbs lay there also human heads fastened the tree trunks in groves nearby were the outlandish altars at which the germans had massacred the roman colonels and senior company commanders in the depths of the chuterberg forest under constant threat of attack germanicus set about burying the remains of his fellow countrymen with no time to discriminate between human and animal remains he decided to bury everything every trace of rome's shame [Music] so six years after the slaughter a living roman army had come to bury the dead men's bones of three whole divisions no one knew if the remains he was burying belong to a stranger or a comrade but in their bitter distress and rising fury against the enemy they looked at them all as friends and blood brothers [Music] history would be denied sight of this the empire's darkest hour for two thousand years the forest kept it secret as a battle the varian disaster is formative in european history it shaped the continent helped define modern germany and in halting the advance of the roman empire brought its greatest emperor augustus to his knees when the news reached rome augustus ordered patrols of a city at night to prevent any uprising it is said that he took the disaster so deeply to heart that he left his hair and beard untrimmed for months he would often beat his head on a door shouting quintillius varus give me back my legions and always kept the anniversary as a day of deep mourning three years earlier when varus left for germany augustus had thought only of success his reign was in fact glorious he had brought peace to the roman world and with that prosperity he took in hand the alps he conquered austria he conquered much of the balkans he finished the conquest of spain and he annexed egypt in fact these acquisitions for the roman empire were more than any previous individual in roman history it seems that to romans at the beginning of augustus's reign rome had a divine mission there would be endless empire conquest without end but there were lands of which rome knew nothing they didn't know how big the world was and they didn't know that when you left the german areas behind you ended up in the eurasian steppe um so that was a problem they didn't know what lay ahead i imagine for roman soldiers contemplating the penetration of iron age germany looking across the rhine at the forest was rather like one a modern explorer looking at the amazon forest psychologically both are rain forests and both are dangerous i think we must understand that rome had expanded in the mediterranean by means of the takeover of other people's empires like those of carthage or even older structures like ptolemaic egypt now these were ready-made provinces with a population already accustomed to taxation and obedience however as horizons widened the going became tougher the people more truculent resistance became more obdurate the land itself less developed the people less advanced where to conquer one tribe merely brings rome into contact with another even more defiant even more backward for 20 years the expeditionary armies of rome had been crossing the rhine and engaging with the germanic tribes they had calmed a few and they had killed a few this was a roman policy to to split the germanic tribes even in in the later years they made contracts with some of the germanic tribes to fight against the other germanic tribes they gave some some of these tribes got money others didn't get money and so on this like in nowadays policy there's no difference to america the job of bribing and coercing the german warlords have been given to virus by augustus was a roman lawyer who chanced to marry the emperor's great niece claudia pulcra and his career advanced accordingly [Music] varus was not a general if anything he was a lawyer but he was thought right for the posting i think what augustus had in mind and may have been in viruses intentions also was now was the time to start turning this area which they had overrun and which they were holding into a roman province that is to say an area which could produce revenue in terms of taxes could produce products agricultural products minerals whatever and also manpower the political situation must have been calm in the moment when vows was in germany the treaties were firm it was calm and so there was no reason to think about a revolt it was quiet [Music] in the spring of 9ad varus his army and full civilian entourage left their headquarters for the german interior their route would follow the course of the river liver and then cross to the banks of the vaser there to advance the process of romanization normally the roman army fought only in summer in the winter the roman army was in in camps so in spring they went through the country for all not only for military purpose but also for prospection for looking how to organize the the country where to build streets which are the good places for the foundation of towns all these prospection was done by the roman army the roman army was a factor of civilizing of romanizing the new province when quintillious virus became governor of the province of germany and in the exercise of his powers also came to handle the affairs of these peoples he tried both to hasten and to widen the process of change he not only gave orders to the germans as if they were actual slaves of the romans but levied money from them as if they were subject nations these demands they would not tolerate villaius particulus says that he was not only cruel but greedy he says that as governor of syria he showed no aversion to cash he commanded the forces in germany simply because he was governor and the governor was expected to give the orders but in fact he was a military non-entity a military ignoramus he was learned in the law but not in common sense he was a judge but he was not a judge of men this was to prove varus's greatest weakness in exercising the power of rome he was blind to the distress it had brought to the german tribes they had crisscrossed germany for 20 years winning nothing but battles but in fact the germans were biding their time hiding their weapons concealing their views and biding their time and ferris a military novice went into this situation not not realizing that he was that he was penetrating darkest germany paradoxically varus felt safe because he was protected by his own germanic auxiliaries local tribesmen under the command of the churuskin chieftain arminius he was a roman officer and as a member of the royal family he got roman citizenship and there was a roman officer he took his own people his own soldiers his own kuruski and fought with his troops under roman command and so he was able to learn roman tactics and strategy and he knew exactly the weak points arminius knew the romans because he was raised as one an education in rome was a privilege extended to families of the influential they were supposed to become romans arminius did not during his time in germany he must have reflected very often was i right to think rome was invincible true the germans had suffered 20 years of defeat but in his service in the balkans he had seen brave men make a bid for freedom and almost win so he thought what now in germany germany under varys here is a stupid man here is a gullible man his room really invincible and then he hatched the plot [Music] campaigning over for the summer it was time for varus to return to winter quarters several days march away for the three legions auxiliaries and the rabble of camp followers the return journey would be slow and difficult [Music] in his terse epigrammatic way tacitus summed up the roman view of germany sylvis jorida out paludibus feeder fearful forest and stinking bog the one usually beginning as soon as the other ended [Music] it was a terrain in which communications were almost impossible the tribes were scattered and wary of each other and yet arminius had begun to pull them together he communicated his thoughts at first to few and afterward to more stating to them and assuring them that the romans might be cut off by surprise he then proceeded to add action to resolution and fix the time for carrying a plot into action his plot was to bide his time then at a critical moment he would send a false message about some fictitious uprising to the north west hoping that varys would change course into the uncharted forest amazingly varus did playing right into the hands of arminius his master stroke may have been to deliver the message at the right moment at a point on the roman march back towards the rhine where to divert meant that the romans would go through the worst of the terrain the thickest part of the forest and by delivering that message and calculating that varys would be rash enough to to to follow it he drew them through a part of the forest where he was waiting and where the conditions were least favorable to the roman army it remains a mystery why varus took the whole entourage on what was clearly a risky adventure but he did it's fairly clear i think from the literary accounts that varus was lulled into a sense of of security which it really didn't didn't exist the attacks began almost immediately [Applause] oh the beleaguered army stretched out like a snake could now be chopped to pieces leaving the head to draw the survivors ever deeper into the forest [Music] a legion even marching in favorable terrain could take two or three hours to pass a given spot with all their baggage and the heavy equipment the end of the column was perhaps half a day behind the beginning of the column when you think that they would have to cut through the woods so the attacker is in the position where he can choose his moment and he can choose his place and strike where he wishes and he did for two days and two nights and still the head of the column pressed on unaware they were playing armenia's game everybody behind would be saying for god's sake what is happening we're being attacked doesn't the commander know what's going on the leaders were lost behind them a wake of roman corpses stretched for miles the reality of their situation was beginning to dawn arminius had finally shown his hand [Music] they fell upon virus in the midst of the forests which at this point in his march were almost impenetrable there when they stood revealed as enemies instead of subjects they dealt a succession of terrible blows to the romans uh confused demoralized and hemmed in on all sides the survivors could only go forward the weather had deteriorated there were violent thunderstorms for romans a portent of disaster and then word spread through the column varus was dead and so virus and all senior officers fearing that they would either be taken alive or slaughtered by their bitterest enemies for they had already been wounded nerve themselves for the dreaded but unavoidable act and took their own lives the legions their women and children were on their own and arminius's final trap was set cut off and surrounded the romans were doomed with nowhere left to go they were helpless as the iron age tribesmen hacked them to pieces [Applause] so there was no way out and arminius clearly knew precisely how to entrap and he knew how to choose his ground he did so superbly well and there was nowhere for the roman army to go if they couldn't fight their way out they'd had it one-tenth of rome's total military strength perished in that dark forest rome the world's superpower was on her knees the news burst upon augustus like a thunderclap his first reaction was panic his strategy had been to place the roman legions round the perimeter of the empire and therefore there was almost nothing standing between italy and germany no attack came armenia stayed on his side of the rhine it was six years before a roman army returned looking for revenge they found a boneyard these were the remains germanicus had to bury stripped of their weapons stripped of their uniforms and finally after six years stripped of their flesh they put out the eyes of some of them and cut off the hands of others they sewed up the mouth of one of them after first cutting out his tongue never again would rome have a 17th and 18th or a 19th legion they were lost for all time [Music] but below the forest floor their bones lay waiting in the chuterberg forest the tide of imperial expansion had been halted rome's legions wiped out by arminius in his bid to unite the germanic tribes despite the incredible victory he failed but the dream persisted and in 1871 it became a reality germany a nation in search of a hero rediscovered arminius aminos was a figure of germanic nationalism and brought freedom of rome to the germanic tribes in the 19th century when this large statue was built he was a figure of identification and in this context the discussion of the liberation of germany was very very important and always connected with the battlefield and the search of the battlefield the armenia statue was erected on only one of almost 700 possible sites in and around the tuteeberg forest in the late 19th century the german forest was alive with a village school masters local clergymen retired army officers scholarly folk of all kinds tacitus in one hand and map in the other looking for clues to the lost legions [Music] in the event it was a retired army officer a british tank commander serving with the nato forces in osnabruck who would find the first clue major tony klum's curiosity about the ancient countryside had developed whilst on maneuvers in 1987 his interest was at best casual that changed as he found the first link in a chain that would lead him to the battle site [Music] the first find of roman silver coins they were fairly well spread out but i turned around uh returned the following weekend and were successful in late locating the core of the actual fine and within this core there was approximately uh 80 odd roman silver coins so i recovered all those bagged them up and then subsequently handed them in the following week the silver coins were of the augustan period in this case the type and distribution of the coins conform to a theory by the eminent 19th century historian theodore monson momsen had studied a similar horde found a hundred years earlier and in the same area mumson reasoned that to sweeten the german tribes varys must have been carrying large quantities of gold and silver kind it followed that if he were to plot all augustine coin finds in northwestern germany to see if they seem to radiate from a single point he might find the battlefield [Music] applying momsen's theory to his own finds klun realized that they all seem to emanate from a single point the single point was a narrow gap where two thousand years ago steep forest met impenetrable bog near a place called calcreza but then a coin with a difference virtually the signature of varus himself the turning point was when we found the first copper coin with a counter mark of varus himself the counter mark has three letters v a r varus and it indicates that virus put the quantum the counter marks on those coins [Music] it also put varus and his army at calcreza a long long way from the relative safety of either the rhine or the lipper varus arrived as it is written at the rhine in the year 6780 and that means this site could not be dated earlier than 6 or 7 a.d and this is the first exact date which this counter mark gives us quite clearly it is a very very spectacular event that has caused these coins to be buried in the ground we have no other site with a similar concentration of this spectrum of coins now an event of that importance will be recorded in the historical sources the sources for this period are good and there is only one event which is recorded and that is the battle in the toyota berger forest [Music] if more proof were needed major klum was about to provide it over 50 miles from the statue which celebrated the victory a british officer armed with a metal detector found three small lead sling shots of standard roman army design [Music] i didn't actually recognize them at the time and they were taken into into the boxes at the institute and were later recognized as lead slingshot and obviously this caused great excitement because it was the first piece of militaria that had been found in the area so small so humble yet these were big with meaning as big with meaning for german archaeology as schliemann's discovery of troy in the 1870s [Music] in 1989 professional archaeologists began to dig in earnest the site was a rich one they found coins and much more a horde of objects that in their diversity fit the profile of the virus group besides weapons there were civilian implements tools scraps of armor and a spectacular cavalry officer's mask [Music] the cavalry mask was a rare find whilst principally ceremonial it was also worn to terrify and intimidate perhaps this time even to mask fear itself the finds that included the mask were extremely well preserved closer examination of the area revealed why [Music] in the middle of the battlefield the archaeologists uncovered what appear to be the ghost of a man-made structure when we excavated in the beginning of 1990 we saw a structure in the ground which was not natural it was artificial and we realized that it was the rest of a wall which had been about four or five meters wide and one and a half meters high the wall was a major find the mask and other artifacts have been buried when a section of it collapsed hiding them for posterity but more importantly the wall itself had unique features [Music] it was built as a fixed attacking position a battlement it was built rapidly over a period of weeks it was not built by romans armenias did one thing which was assumably new he built this sort of a small wall in the battlefield that was new as far as we know this is a construction which could have been made by the romans they would have made it a bit higher but we think that some germans learned to build in this way when they were in the roman army [Applause] until now no one had credited the germans with such tactical ingenuity the ambush at calcreza have been planned well in advance arminius was a good soldier of course and he got the idea we can press the roman army between the mountain and the bog with these ramparts we can press them into in german it's a trista what what do you tell this if you fill water into a bottle it's a aha yeah not only had arminius organized the tribes to serve his ends he had enlisted the landscape itself it was built by the germans as an ambush to attack the romans the germans were standing here in this area the romans came from the east to the west the germans were waiting behind the wall and attacked the romans when they were in this place today the terrain at calcreza is deceptive farmers have drained the fields the forest has receded but the archaeologists have restored a small section to see what the land was like in 9 a.d the bog was deep and dangerous only a few yards away the forest was dense and unyielding between them arminius put his wall the romans had been squeezed into a bottleneck england's most famous guerrilla leaders were heroin the wake and robin hood one had the finlands to protect him the other had the forest arminius had both where the trees ended the reeds began his plan would use both of these unfavorable elements to deadly effect at calcresa where the narrow space between forest and marsh narrowed to less than a bow shot almost a spears throw calculator was made for ambush [Music] a mule trapped beneath the collapsed wall had a bell around its neck the bell was packed tightly with grass to prevent it from ringing whoever was traveling was trying to travel quietly it was already too late the calcrisa site was to yield one more dark secret perhaps the darkest of all as the lost souls of the various legions returned to bear witness [Music] in 1994 we found pits with bones of roman soldiers and horses and mules [Music] and we saw that those pits were made after the battle we had some human skulls in these bits and we had mules bones they had with them many wagons and pack animals as they would for a journey in peace time they were even accompanied by women and children and a large retinue of servants all being factors which caused them to advance in scattered groups flight was out of the question however much a man might desire it so every soldier and every horse was cut down without resistance [Music] after 2 000 years it was finally time for the bones to tell their story the battle that germanicus buried in 15 a.d has finally been brought to light [Music] at gottingen university forensic anthropologists have established that the remains recently exhumed at calcareza had lain above ground for several years before they were buried you can say if a dead body lay on the ground after two years the flesh and the muscles and the tendons are away and so we say okay it must be more than two years and [Music] not more than 10 years because after 10 years there would be nothing furthermore the evidence reveals that all the bones human and animal were buried with extreme care exactly as the roman historians had described two burials one under a wall collapsed in the heat of battle and the other six years later in a series of mass graves compelling evidence that this is where the remnants of varys's legions halted and fell arminius had built his trap with great care and breathtaking confidence it was miles from the route the romans should have been on and yet he drew them unerringly into it an act of military genius he led an entire army across almost impossible terrain to a place from which there was no escape once there he wiped them out you can't deny arminius pulled it off and it was an astounding feat no one can deny that but of course he was a tremendous opportunist and i think really the my admiration should be reserved not for him as a military commander but as a sort of breathtakingly imaginative conceiver of a plot it is amazing that a young man of 25 could defeat a superpower it is quite astonishing he was in fact an arch opportunist he was a gambler on a winning streak this then is the point at which europe was cleft in two the place where a 25 year old warrior changed the course of history i see it as one of the great barbarian triumphs against a very large roman army and from that point of view unexpected and in rome massively shocking i mean nothing like this had overcome a roman army since the days of hannibal's time in in italy in the 3rd century bc another historian major general fuller wrote had germany been for four centuries thoroughly romanized one culture not two would have dominated the western world there would have been no franco-german problem no charlemagne no louis xiv no napoleon no bismarck no kaiser wilhelm a second and no hitler the impact of arminius on european history has been considerable he had wanted to break the ties between rome and the germanic tribes and he succeeded but was a victory for arminius a victory for the german people east of the rhine at a place called valgamez startling new evidence would suggest not in recent months professor von schnurbein and his team have discovered a town where no town should be a town made of stone the first indication was this house here with these colonnades and we knew that this this architecture is not common in the military camps and so we came to the idea this must be a town and in the fifth year of our excavation we found the traces of the stone building and in the first moment we thought it must be medieval because we do not have any roman stone wall in augusta period in the northwestern empire it's his first and we didn't believe it in the first time and only when we could prove that it is augustine too then we were sure it's a roman town the discovery will literally rewrite the history books it's a massive significance and and i don't think anybody would have predicted the finding of a site like that 10 years ago does seem to indicate is that roman intentions of establishing a roman province here were firm were determined uh with roman style buildings stone buildings of this date across the room front extremely rare indeed they're not all that common outside major cities it was a town east of the rhine in which germans and romans lived and worked together for ten years then suddenly in 9 a.d it was over everything which started here in the rhine valley the the fact that the romanization was already in progress here in the lan valley everything like this stopped the romans withdrew immediately and the place was burnt down at valgamis civilization had been snuffed out but the cities of mainz cologne and bonn suggest what might have been it's difficult to believe that valkyrie lies on its own there it is near near gisen it's it's quite a long way to the east of the rhine and even further north of the danube uh so i i wouldn't be at all surprised if there's much more to come elsewhere so its significance is very great rome had lost germany but equally germany had lost rome this was uh oh in german and when the punkt a turning point of the history whether germans winners or losers that is perhaps a matter of opinion yes they did win their freedom but there was a price to pay rome had almost pulled the germans into history arminius cut the cord and they slipped back into prehistory into tribalism lawlessness and barbarism that was the price they paid arminius held the tribes together for another 10 years in 1980 at a tribal meeting he was assassinated he had tried to create a unified germany and failed creating instead a divided europe a continent that would struggle for centuries towards its own uneasy peace

Channel: Odyssey

Views: 183,055

Rating: 4.8353591 out of 5

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, roman history, varus, roman legions, ancient mysteries, massacre at teutoberg forest, battle of teutoberg

Id: 93Wb9aa0-6Q

Length: 48min 39sec (2919 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021