Tough as they were, Roman soldiers considered Germanic tribes to be otherworldly, uncivilized, and unspeakably savage. This excellent short video by Keith O'Sullivan Composer features a reenactment of the infamous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, led by Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus, which took place in the woods of northern Germania (present-day Germany) in 9 AD. There the Romans were ambushed by united Germanic tribes and in the space of a single day and night lost three legions--the equivalent of 20,000 men--in a single battle. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, many officers and soldiers committed suicide rather than allow themselves to be taken alive by Germanic warriors, since the manner of death the Germanics used was considered to be a particularly horrible way to die.
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest later became legendary as one of the most devastating Roman defeats in the history of the thousand-year Western Empire.
Image above, Varusschlacht or The Varus Battle by Otto Albert Koch, 1909, Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold; image via Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.
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