this way. Family groups were organized into clans composed
of their relatives. Th e clans were organized into tribes. Th e
tribes oft en had their own chiefs, and a war chief needed to
address their worries and their ambitions, keeping those fac-
tors in check while trying to keep everyone focused on the
military campaign.
Summoning warriors family by family was a slow pro-
cess, and it depended on the mutual obligations between
family members and their chief. Germanic armies tended to
bunch together, which made them diffi cult to maneuver on
the battlefi eld and hard to organize into effi cient marching.
Poor scouting and a focus on internal discipline among the
troops meant that German armies were oft en taken by sur-
prise. When sur prised, t hey might not fl ee, but they were slow
to respond and poorly organized at such times; they might
stubbornly fi ght where they stood until they were cut down.
Even so, when they were assembled and units were properly
sorted out by family, clan, and tribe, the Germans could form
large, formidable armies.
Generals were usually men from well-known warrior
families. During the fi rst century c.e. the leaders of these
families became nobles, and their status and political power
continually increased as their tribes forged national identi-
ties over the next several centuries. Th ese nobles were usually
dedicated full time to preparing for and waging war. Around
them grew the comites, full-time warriors who served a noble.
During the ancient era Germanic warriors were primarily
infantry. Th ey did not have the exceptionally sophisticated
cavalry gear that the Celts had, making it hard to use horses
as mobile battle platforms the way the Celtic cavalry did, al-
though those few who fought from horseback were extraordi-
narily skilled and not to be taken lightly.
Th e waging of war was the preoccupation of most Ger-
manic peoples. Th eir sons were taught throughout childhood
how to kill their enemies, and if the family could aff ord it, a
son’s coming-of-age ceremony included a gift of weapons , hel-
met, and shield. Even poor families could give a son a framea,
a light spear. Leadership in a tribe was oft en determined
by who was the most successful warrior. In some tribes the
chiefs were elected by the warriors of the tribe, but in others a
notion of kingship was developing that would evolve into the
system of mutual obligations that became the feudal system
of the medieval era.
Aft er Caesar’s time many German tribes became foe-
derati, or tribes that were federated with Rome and helped
protect Roman borders. By the year 9 c.e. the Romans were
making good progress advancing their borders east and north
into German lands. Th e Germans in Roman-held territory
were beginning to speak Latin as their primary language,
were wearing Roman-style clothing, and were adopting Ro-
man customs. A Roman governor, however, abused and
overtaxed the Germans in Roman territory, making it easy
for German nationalists to recall days when their ancestors
roamed the land, terrifying their enemies. In 9 c.e. the Ger-
mans rose in revolt.Th e Romans had many Germans in their armies. One was
Arminius, a member of the Cherusci tribe. He had proved so
valiant in battle that he had been awarded Roman citizen-
ship, but he was still German at heart. He hoped that through
warfare he would win enough glory to become chief of the
Cherusci. Th e Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 b.c.e.–14 c.e.)
appointed a successful diplomat, Publius Quintilius Varus (d.
9 c.e.), as commanding offi cer of the Roman army in Ger-
many. In September 9 c.e. he led three Roman legions, com-
posed of 15,000 troops, toward their winter quarters through
lands that were unfamiliar to him. Although other Germans
with him warned that Arminius was untrustworthy, Varus
followed the guidance of Arminius.
In what followed can be seen the strengths of German
tactical thinking. Arminius led the Romans through muddy
grounds, weakening the soldiers’ legs and making them
weary. Ahead of them was a large German army. As the Ro-
mans marched between a large bog to their right and a 300-
foot-tall hill to their left , about 10 miles north of the modern
German town of Osnabrück, they confronted a wa ll of most ly
sand, about 4 feet in height and several feet deep. Behind it
were German warriors, coordinating their defenses through
cooperation. Th e site was discovered in 1987. Th e area in front
of the wall shows that the Romans tried to storm it several
times. Th e wall was a zigzag shape that broke up the Roman
line and allowed defenders to stand on the wall and use their
spears to strike Romans from their sides as well as their front.
Th e absence of debris on the German side of the wall suggests
that the Romans never made it over the top.
Behind the Roman column Germans who had hidden
in the woodlands to the left of the Romans tried to block a
Roman retreat. Others waited to storm the column from the
woods. What resulted was a well-timed, carefully coordinated
ambush in which an experienced army of 15,000 troops was
trapped. Varus fell on his sword to avoid being captured, as
did several of his offi cers. Th is left junior offi cers and regular
soldiers to fi ght without a center of authority to coordinate
their actions as they faced an enemy that fought with disci-
pline. Many Roman soldiers fought as Romans oft en did, de-
terminedly holding their ground when the Germans fi nally
charged into them. Th e German strategy had broken up the
Roman column so the German warriors could penetrate it
and take on individual soldiers. Romans were very good at
one-on-one combat, and this strategy by the Germans prob-
ably resulted in unnecessary deaths for many of them. But
Arminius was leading Germans, not Romans, and to keep
German warriors satisfi ed with his leadership, he probably
had to let them have their battlefi eld glory.
Some Romans made their way into the woods and slowly
went back home. Others were captured, tortured, and taken
to altars set up in the woods. When Romans visited the site
six years later, they found Roman heads dangling from trees
and blood-drenched altars as well as the bones of Romans
piled across the battlefi eld. Almost all died, about 15,000. Ro-
manization of much of Germany was halted, and the Romans1144 war and conquest: Europe0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1144 1144 10/10/07 2:31:14 PM