Rome's Greatest Humiliation: Roman Empire vs Germanic Tribes

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 9 AD, the rebel chieftain Arminius and his confederation of Germanic tribes ambushed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest. For days the Romans were relentlessly stalked through the woods and pounced on by their pursuers. All told, up to 20,000 Romans were killed in the chaos, and only a handful were able to escape. The battle proved to be one of Rome's most devastating defeats, and left a scar in the Roman psyche for generations to come.

In this Explainer episode, Dan explores the historical context for the battle and its profound consequences for Roman strategy and expansion. He's helped by Dr. Simon Elliott, who provides deeper insights into how the Roman military worked, and where its vulnerabilities lay.

Warning: this episode contains accounts of violence that some listeners may find disturbing.

Written and produced by Dan Snow, and edited by Max Carrey.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dan Snow, and if you would like Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:09.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.4	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:24.9	It took the Romans six years to return to that terrible spot. They were certainly in no hurry
0:32.4	to revisit a place of horror and shame. Tacitus, the historian, describes it as hideous to sight and memory.
0:43.8	Plus, it was the heart of bandit country. Always had been, I suppose. That had been the Romans' mistake.
0:51.7	It was a place talked about in hushed tones.
0:56.6	There was an acceptance among the men that even the mighty Roman army
1:00.6	sustained occasional, rare, catastrophic defeats every few generations.
1:08.2	This they all knew was the sight of one of those. It was a place which they believed
1:14.5	had changed the course of Roman history. They advanced cautiously. They were taking no chances.
1:22.4	There were survivors among them who carried the scars from their previous march through this
1:26.7	terrain. They shared their
1:29.1	stories of the horrors they'd endured in these woods. Perhaps this return healed their wounds.
1:37.0	Perhaps it tore them open afresh. The Roman commander on this occasion was Germanicus Julius Caesar,
1:44.0	a sign of the imperial family. The Germanicus
1:48.0	was an honorific name he'd inherited from his father. It had been given to him for subjugating
1:54.2	the German lands. It turned out that that congratulatory epithet might have been a little premature.
2:04.3	Germanicus Jr. had spent these last few years campaigning in Germany with a single purpose.
2:12.4	Revenge. Revenge for what had happened here to the Roman eagles. And perhaps Germanicus and the Romans hoped
2:22.1	that retribution, sword, fire could scour away their shame. Germanicus knew that it had been
2:29.7	failures in command that had led to that catastrophe.
	...

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