Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest was fought over several days in September 9 CE in north-western Germany, probably near Kalkriese, north of modern Osnabrück. An alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius, a chieftain of the Cherusci, ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus. Roman writers called it the Varian disaster. It brought an end to Roman plans to turn the lands between the Rhine and the Elbe into a province.

Under Augustus, Roman armies had campaigned east of the Rhine for two decades, reaching the Elbe and building bases and even a few civilian settlements in the interior. By the early first century CE the region seemed to be on its way to becoming a regular province. In 7 CE Augustus appointed Varus, an experienced administrator who had governed Syria, to command there. He began to impose Roman law and taxation, which caused growing resentment among the local peoples.

Arminius was a son of a Cherusci noble who had served for years as an officer of auxiliary troops in the Roman army and had been granted Roman citizenship and equestrian rank. He knew Roman tactics well and had Varus's trust. Secretly, he built an alliance of several tribes, including the Cherusci, Bructeri, Marsi and Chatti. Another Cheruscan leader, Segestes, is said to have warned Varus of the plot, but he was not believed.

In September 9 CE Varus was moving his army from its summer camp towards winter quarters near the Rhine. Arminius reported an uprising in the area and persuaded Varus to make a detour to suppress it, then left on the pretext of gathering allied forces. The Roman column, made up of the 17th, 18th and 19th legions with auxiliary units, cavalry and a long train of baggage and camp followers, was strung out along narrow tracks through wooded, hilly and marshy country, in heavy rain.

The Germanic warriors attacked from the cover of the forest, striking repeatedly over three or four days. The Romans built a fortified camp and tried to fight their way out, but could not form up properly. At the final stage, apparently at a narrow passage between a hill and a bog, the army was overwhelmed. Varus and several senior officers killed themselves. Estimates of the Roman dead range from about 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers, besides many non-combatants; some prisoners were sacrificed or enslaved. The legions' eagle standards were captured.

The ancient biographer Suetonius records that Augustus, on hearing the news, beat his head against a door and cried out for Varus to give him back his legions. The three legion numbers were never used again. From 14 to 16 CE the general Germanicus led large punitive campaigns across the Rhine, visited the battlefield to bury the dead, and recovered two of the eagles; the third was retrieved decades later. But Rome did not try again to occupy the region permanently. The Rhine became the long-term frontier of the Roman Empire in this area.

Arminius fought on against Germanicus and later against the Marcomannic king Maroboduus. Around 21 CE he was killed by members of his own aristocracy, who reportedly feared he was aiming at kingship.

For centuries the battle's location was unknown. Since the late 1980s, excavations at Kalkriese have uncovered thousands of Roman objects, including weapons, coins and the remains of an earthen rampart, which most scholars connect with the battle, though some still debate the identification. In the nineteenth century German nationalists celebrated Arminius, as "Hermann", as a founder of the nation, and a huge monument to him was completed near Detmold in 1875.

Our 1 BCE map shows the Roman Empire under Augustus, shortly before the battle, and our 100 CE map shows the frontier settled on the Rhine and Danube.