[The following takes place immediately following the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, also known as the Varus or Varian Disaster, in 9 AD. Here, three entire Roman legions were lured into the deep forests of Germany and slaughtered in a surprise attack led by Arminius.]
The centurions and thin-stripe tribunes were separated from their men, then thrust into the pits which the rank and file had been forced to dig. Realizing that the Germans planned painful deaths for them, junior tribune Caldus Caelius, ‘a young man worthy in every way of a long line of ancestors’, according to Velleius, took a section of the chain with which he was bound and crashed it down on his skill with all his might, causing his instant death; with ‘both his brains and his blood gushing from the wound’.
The son of Segimerus looked down at the body of Quintilius Varus, which had been partly disfigured by the botched attempt to burn it. The general’s expensive armour and fittings had been ripped from his corpse, his gold-decorated helmet taken as a souvenir. Tacitus says that the young Chattian insulted the body. Perhaps this was merely with a kick; more gruesomely, perhaps he attacked the general’s corpse with a knife and gouged out his eyes; or perhaps it was that time-honoured insult – urinating on the body.
A warrior soon stepped up and swung a blade, severing the head from Varus’ body. That head was raised on the point of a spear. Tens of thousands of German tribesmen roared their approval.
Source:
Dando-Collins, Stephen. “Part III: The Battles – The Varus Disaster.” Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion. Thomas Dunne Books, 2012. 250. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Velle., II, CXX.
Tac., A, I, 71.
Further Reading:
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