Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald (The Battle in Teutoburger Forest) (2008)
Reinhard Wolters
255 pages
Last year, I watched Barbarians (in the original German, Barbaren) on Netflix, which tells the story of a battle that occurred in 9 AD, in what is present-day Germany, between regional tribes under a leader named Arminius and occupying Roman Legions led by a commander named Varus. While I enjoyed the series as entertainment, I also found myself wondering how accurately it represented historical events.
On one hand, I recalled having learned that fighting did occur between tribes located in what the Romans referred to as Germania, and the Roman Legions. On the other hand, it was clear that, as historical fiction, most of the characters and their interactions would be invented. But, the main characters, the main events – how faithfully does the series represent them?
Other than a few cursory Google searches, however, I didn’t actively follow-up on my questions at the time. Then, recently, a serendipitous find brought them front of mind: I discovered historian Reinhard Wolters’s book Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald: Arminius, Varus und das römische Germanien (The Battle in Teutoburger Forest: Arminius, Varus and the Roman Germania) among my parents’ books. My interest peaked, I dove right in.
Perhaps not surprisingly, my questions of authenticity didn’t lend themselves to easy answers. Yes, the battle portrayed in the Barbarians series apparently happened; yes, the various tribes in Germania who participated were led by Arminius, and the Roman Legions by Varus. Beyond these basic facts, however, Wolters makes clear that significant uncertainties and conflicting opinions exist among historians, archaeologists, and the variety of scholars and laypeople who have explored the history of the event. With his book, Wolters describes his goal as being to offer:
an up-to-date, critical as well as transparent introduction to the current state of our understanding about the battle in Teutoburger Forest – to its prehistory, its course, as well as the consequences that resulted from the severe Roman defeat against the Teutons. (7)
Throughout, Wolters references the limited (and exclusively Roman) written sources that have survived to the present day – along with inscriptions on ancient monuments and memorials – from which historians have attempted to reconstruct the reality of a battle that has become the stuff of legend. He notes the challenges faced in attempting to understand these historical sources, and he carefully evaluates the variety of conclusions that have been drawn from them.
The breadth of the uncertainty quickly becomes evident, not only in attempts to clarify the backgrounds of the two protagonists, Arminius and Varus, but also the details of the battle, and even whether it is properly characterized as a battle, with sources “describing in one case an attack by Germanic fighters on a Roman military outpost, while in other cases … a treasonous ambush, set in difficult territory.” (13)
Beyond evaluating the interpretations from the ancient texts of how events played out, and of Arminius and Varus as the protagonists, Wolters provides a fascinating account of the investigation into where the battle took place. Theories and counter-theories have been put forth over the centuries, he notes, by a wide variety of interested parties:
In this debate, have participated and continue to participate not just professional archaeologists and historians; widely differing proposals have been and continue to be put forward by knowledgeable local researchers and laypeople from a wide variety of professional origins. (150)
One might assume that the battle took place in the north-central German region known as the Teutoburger Forest; however, writes Wolters, this name for the area only first appeared a few centuries ago, based on one scholarly interpretation of the ancient texts as to the location of the battle. In recent decades, new archaeological evidence has narrowed the focus to a site some dozen miles north of the Teutoburger Forest, just over a similarly forested ridge. But, as Wolters describes, even with regards to that site, significant questions and contradictory information remain.
While the specific, historical details surrounding the battle and its location make for a fascinating story, I found particularly striking Wolter’s examination of what the engagement with the history of this battle by scholars and others – from Roman times up through the present day – reveals about the process of rendering and interpreting history itself.
In his evaluation of both the historical sources and subsequent works by historians and others who have interpreted them over the centuries, Wolters provides a kind of case study for the trenchant observation of historian Eric Foner in the preface to his excellent essay Who Owns History (my review linked to at right):
Each generation rewrites history to suit its own needs. … In every country, versions of the past provide the raw materials for nationalist ideologies and patriotic sentiments.
Wolters finds this truth to apply not only to the original Roman sources, but also to the wide variety of interpretations of them that have arisen since, calling out:
the fragmentary nature of what has been passed down from, and no less the contradictions already present in, the ancient sources. These written accounts originate from different centuries and stand at different timespans from the events described: they provide information over the changing horizon of meaning already in antiquity – and this meaning was each time guided by the interests of the authors and marked by each of their specific, contemporary experiences. (14-15)
In that vein, he explores the ways in which Roman historians, as well as scholars and others up through to the present-day, have colored their interpretations of the event based on their personal outlook, including the social and political context in which they lived and worked, and with which they wished to either align themselves with or influence the direction of. This has included, in particular, a long line of German historians, writers of literary and theatrical works, and artists who have sought to present Arminius’s rising up to defeat the Roman occupiers as a defining moment in the origin of the idea of Germany as a nation, or as the original example of Germanic pursuit of freedom and independence. The result, he finds, has been centuries of often wildly varying interpretations of the event, that both exploit the conflicting information from the ancient sources and often extrapolate far beyond it, to make a particular political or social statement.
For this one dramatic event, that took place over perhaps a few days some two thousand years ago, Wolters provides a thorough and enjoyable introduction in The Battle in Teutoburger Forest. He leverages the event itself to present an understanding of the Roman state, both in terms of its inner workings, as well as its view of and engagement with the lands to the east of the Rheine that it sought to add to its empire. With that context in place, he explores the understandings historians have developed of the lives of its principal characters, Varus and Arminius, as well as the battle they fought and its aftermath.
And, beyond the instructive examination of the historical events themselves, he provides an engaging and eye-opening look at the challenges present in interpreting ancient sources colored by their authors’ eye to their particular political and social environment, as well as the way subsequent historians, too, have allowed such motivations to influence their interpretation and presentation of the event.
As ever, I suppose, with texts on history that carry a strong bias: caveat emptor…
Other notes and information:
The translations from the original German are mine.
Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf
