Archeologists have unearthed remains of a battle fought in Germany between Roman legionnaires and Germanic tribes 200 years after Romans were believed to have retreated behind the Rhine.
Until now, the Teutoburg Forest defeat of three Roman legions by Germanic tribes, 2,000 years ago next year, was thought to have ended Rome’s expansion into northeastern Europe and set the limits of the empire at the Rhine.
The latest archeological find was originally made by amateurs using metal detectors who discovered a number of Roman weapons in a hilly pine-wooded region between Hanover and Kassel.
SECRET
The precise location of the site is being kept secret to prevent pilfering, with more supervised digging to take place next summer.
Archeologists, who began exploring the site in 2006, have now ascertained that a bloody battle took place on the approach to a pass, involving archers and cavalry equipped with long-range catapults capable of piercing shields at a distance of 300m.
“The findings show that possibly 1,000 Romans were involved” in the battle, said archeologist Petra Loenne. “This is an unrivaled, well-preserved site.”
Some 600 artefacts have so far been found, including spears, arrowheads, axes, armour plating, tent pegs, catapult bolts and coins.
One coin depicts Roman Emperor Commodus, who reigned from 180AD to 192AD, while fragments of swords and carts suggest the battle took place in the first half of the third century AD.
Arrowheads point to the involvement on the Roman side of Persian and North African archers, while the paths followed by the Roman soldiers can be traced thanks to nails left from their sandals.
Archeologists do not know who won the battle.
They have discovered little by way of artefacts left by the Germanic fighters and believe the tribes may have carried away their dead for burial.
But, unlike other battlefields where victims were stripped of their belongings, the Roman dead appear to have been left where they lay, their armour and weapons untouched.
The archeologists believe the Roman soldiers might have been heading home, some 200km to the southwest, after carrying out a raid deep into enemy territory.
Eighty percent of the arrowheads were found to the south of the battlefield, suggesting the legionnaires were attempting to break through in that direction.
Until now historians have believed that, in the wake of the Teutoburg Forest massacre in which thousands of legionnaires were slaughtered, the Romans limited their military operations east of the Rhine to short punitive raids.
SOLDIER-EMPEROR
Maximinus Thrax, the first Roman soldier-emperor who reigned briefly from 235-238, was personally involved in operations against the Germanic tribes.
Historical records even suggested he had led an army towards the North Sea to subdue the “barbarians.”
“Until now these sources had been considered quite unreliable,” historian Michael Geschwinde said.
But “we must now look at the historical records in a new light,” said Henning Hassmann, another archeologist involved.
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