The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (a.k.a. the Varian Disaster)
In AD 9, a confederation of Germanic tribes acted in unison to ambush and annihilate 3 Roman legions marching in the Teutoburg Forest, in the eastern portion of modern-day German. This massive defeat of the ambushed Romans is also know as the Varian Disaster. It took place in a heavily forest region in northern Germania. This region of Germania was outside of the boundaries of the Roman Empire, however it was the homeland of the Nordic and Germanic raiders who frequently attacked and pillaged Roman Gaul (modern day France).
An alliance of Germanic tribes, led by the Germanic “barbarian” Arminius (who had acquired Roman citizenship and received a Roman military education, allowing him to personally deceive the Roman commander Publius Quinctilius Varus and to foresee the Roman army’s tactical responses. The ambush resulted in the decisive and near complete destruction of three Roman legions, which totaled somewhere between 16,000 and 36,000 men and their associated auxiliaries.
It is said that Augustus Caesar was so distraught by this massacre that for months afterwards he walked the halls of his palace in Rome at night crying “Varus give me my legions back!”
