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cenotaph of Marcus Caelius, a Roman centurion killed in the battle
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Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Nihil illa caede cruentius. "Nothing was bloodier than that massacre." Florus, Roman Historian
Completed by Mr. Ryan Sellers, Memphis University School |
The earliest account of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD) comes from the Roman historian Velleius Paterculus (ca. 25 AD). He blames the disaster primarily on the egregious incompetence of Quinctilius Varus.Tacitus (ca. 115 AD) describes not the battle but the battlefield, as visited in 15 AD by Germanicus. Six years after the disaster, it is a gruesome junkyard of weapon fragments, horse limbs, and human skeletons.Like Tacitus, Suetonius (ca. 120 AD) does not describe the battle itself. Instead, he records the emotional reaction of Augustus back in Rome when he receives news of the disaster ("Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!").The brief description of the event written by Florus (ca. 150 AD) harshly criticizes the leadership qualities of Varus but also depicts the savagery of the German soldiers: "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, exclaiming, 'At last, you viper, you have ceased to hiss.'"Cassius Dio, Roman History 56.18-23 (English)Out of all the ancient historians, Dio (ca. 200 AD) offers the most comprehensive account of the disaster.
Benario, Herbert W. "Arminius into Hermann: History into Legend." Greece and Rome 51, number 1 (2004): 83-94.The evolution of Arminius into a German national hero._______________. "Bellum Varianum." Historia 35, number 1 (1986): 114-115.A German scholar had questioned the interpretation of the phrase bello Variano on the cenotaph of Marcus Caelius. Benario argues against the interpretation suggested by this scholar ("the war of the Germans against Varus") and insists that the conventional interpretation ("Varus' war") must be correct. "It strikes me as idle to expect that an inscription which refers to the disaster . . . would have any other name than his. The responsibility was his own, for carelessness and overconfidence (p.115)."_______________. "Teutoburg." Classical World 96, number 4 (2003): 397-406.Benario places the blame for the disaster squarely on the shoulders of Quinctilius Varus: "Had a capable and experienced general been in command of legions XVII, XVIII, and XVIIII in that fateful year . . . the disaster ever since linked with the names of Arminius and the Teutoburg Forest would, in all likelihood, not have occurred (p. 402)."Decisive Battles: Herman the German (2008)Harnecker, Joachim. Arminius, Varus, and the Battlefield at Kalkriese. Translated by Erika Strenski. Bramsche: Rasch, 2004.This is the publication associated with the museum / archaeological site connected to the location of the battle. Excellent photographs and diagrams.Hope, Valerie M. "Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier." World Archaeology 35, number 1 (2003): 79-97.A general discussion of Roman funeral mounuments, with the cenotaph of Marcus Caelius offered as an example.Lapham, Lewis H. "Furor Teutonicus: The Teutoburg Forest, AD 9." In What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. New York: Putnam, 1999.Lapham, though not a true classical scholar, offers some thoughts on how the victory of Arminius may have led to the destructive German nationalism of the 20th century.Murdoch, Adrian. Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest. Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2006.A very lucid and readable discussion of the battle and its implications.Oldfather, W.A. "The Varus Episode." Classical Journal 11, number 4 (1916): 226-236.Like most historians, ancient and modern, Oldfather does criticize the actions of Varus. He does, however, also question whether Augustus really had any serious interest in conquering the territory east of the Rhine.Pagan, Victoria E. "Actium and Teutoburg: Augustan Victory and Defeat in Vergil and Tacitus." In Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography, edited by D.S. Levene and D.P. Nelis. Boston: Brill, 2002.A discussion of two interesting flashback sequences, both of which relate to Augustus: Vergil's flashback to the victory at Actium and Tacitus' flashback to the defeat at the Teutoburg Forest._____________. "Beyond Teutoburg: Transgression and Transformation in Tacitus Annales 1.61-62." Classical Philology 94, number 3 (1999): 302-320.A detailed, eloquent analysis of Tacitus' description of the battlefield: "There the soldiers of Germanicus come face to face with the vision of Varus' men. Time and space collapse into a point of absolute zero (p. 308)."Reinhold, Meyer. "Marcus Agrippa's Son-in-Law P. Quinctilius Varus." Classical Philology 67, number 2 (1972): 119-121.Varus was indeed a well-connected member of the Augustan inner circle . . . and perhaps these connections won him an appointment in Germania that he really wasn't qualified to fill.Wells, Peter S. The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest. New York: Norton, 2003.A well-researched text, supplemented by many excellent maps, diagrams, and photographs.Wishart, David. Ovid. London: Sceptre, 1995.This is a historical novel rather than a scholarly monograph, but it does propose a rather clever conspiracy theory about the battle.
