So, about this place I've ended up for 24 hours: In 9. A.D., one Publius Quinctilius Varus had been tasked by Augustus to transfer the country into a Roman province. His most important tasks were settling disputes within Germania and introducing the Roman legal and tribute system. He went about this in a heavy-handed manner with little consideration for Germanic traditions. (Contemporary parallels shall be overlooked.) In his escort, among Germanic noblemen, was Arminius, a Cheruscan prince. As usual in late summer, Varus was returning to the winter quarters on the river Lippe or the river Rhine with his entire army and cortege. Only smaller units with surveillance duties remained further inland. In the Cheruscan region near the river Weser, he received notice of a rebellion in an area, which lay off his intended route. He decided to make a detour in order to end this mock revolt. On the way to the alleged revolt, the Romans were ambushed by secretly rallied warriors of the Cherusci, Bructeri, Marsi, and Chatti tribes. Arminius led the attack having separated himself from the Roman army a short time before. In a topographically unfavourable area, the Romans had to fight not only against the Germanic warriors but also against the defecting Germanic auxiliaries in their own army. In addition to this, the weather is said to have been very poor. The battle lasted for several days. In the first night, the Romans entrenched themselves in a camp; in the second night, they were only able to do so in a rudimentary fashion. Ultimately, the Roman army was largely annihilated. Only a few managed to flee; some were taken prisoner. In view of the hopelessness of the situation, Varus took his own life. The Germanic tribes killed the captured officers - from a Roman point of view, in an extremely barbaric way - and beheaded Varus. Arminius sent his head to the Marcomannian King, Marbod, in order that he may join the anti-Roman coalition. Following long conflicts with the Romans, the Marcomanni were at pains to repay the favour and sent the head on to Rome where it was buried. Emperor Augustus is said to have been most distraught about the defeat. ("Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!") The numbers of the legions that had fallen - numbers 17, 18, and 19 - were never issued again.

(Rosemary Sutcliff readers, you'll get a sense of deja vu.)

Anyway, the exact location of this particular battle has been in dispute for eons, not least because Tacitus sucked at German geography. There is the place near Detmold where in the 19th century, Arminius got a statue built. There are about 69 other locations. And then there is this one, Kalkriese near Bramsche, where a British officer and amateur archaelogist, one Major Tony Clunn, found freshly minted coins no later than the reign and Augusts and Roman sling shots at the end of the 80s, which led to serious evacuations starting with 1990, which in turn led to findings supporting what, among other people, the historian Theodor Mommsen had suggested even in the last century: that this was the most likely location of the battle. In addition to more coins (1500 so far, and none later than Augustus, with the copper ones bearing VAR, the counter stamp of Varus as the local governor), they found bones of men between 20 and 40 who died a violent death and mules for which the same is true, anchor rings for tents, spearheads, other battle debris and a fantastic mask. Also the remains of a rampant - not a Roman one, a German one. Today, when you visit the location, you can see that the Germans improvised a lengthy wall (out of wood, earth and grass, not stones, there was no time) on one side, with the former marshes being on the other, which had the Romans trapped who had to pass through. You can visit the battle area - or rather, just a part of it - this this took several days, it stretched, but the one you can visit today is the most narrow, where most of the Romans would have died - and the museum, which won an award two years ago and gets across how much detective work archaelogy is. It also uses the new media - there is a section where we are in the pov of a Roman soldier which clearly took its clue from the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan - and gives fascinating background on both the Romans and the German tribes at the time.

One section is devoted to show how the whole Arminius tale was used to induce national fervour in the 19th century (where the Romans suddenly were made to stand in for the French and you got a lot of "battle for German liberty" slogans, not to mention Kleist writing his most chilling drama) and of course then in the 20th (guess who just loved the story); by contrast, the museum is pointedly free of that kind of pseudo patriotic pathos, and on the battle grounds, there are bronze plates commemorating the Roman dead. It reminded me, of all the things, of WWI commemorations. Though the archaelogist who showed me around joked that if someone were to make a film, it would probably be more like a Vietnam movie; think "PLatoon" or "Apocalypse Now", with the Romans standing in for the Americans. Which gave me a weird image of Germanicus, who between 14 and 16 A.D., led Roman troops anew into Germania to atone the opprobrium, as Martin Sheen. (Germanicus managed to bury the remains of the fallen Romans - this, btw, is also an indication that the Kalkriese site is the correct one, as those bones were exposed to the elements for some years before getting buried - but despite having six legions, i.e. an army twice the size of Varus' legions, didn't manage to defeat Arminius & Co., either, and after some more humiliating losses, Tiberius ordered him to withdraw.) The Romans: having to stand in for the superpower of the day, every century, at least in the public imagination, it seems.