Roman Lippe Bike Tour

Roman Lippe BlogPost

Aaron and Paul follow the route the legions took through Teutoburg Forest to their doom. Hopefully, they don't have the same fate!

Navigation

Signage was pretty good, but it still is rather easy to miss them as they can be quite small, especially in cities where they seems to be sometimes lost amoung other signs.

Download the GPXs here in order not to miss a sign:

• Part 1 - GPX
• Part 2 - GPX
• Part 3 - GPX
• Part 4 - GPX
• Part 5 - GPX

Once I have the GPX files, I use this App to display GPX while I cycle.

History of Route

Summary

The battle of the Teutoburg Forest was a conflict between the Roman Empire and Germanic mutineers. The Germanic leader Arminius organized a series of ambushes on a column of three Roman legions headed by Publius Quinctilius Varus. Roman sources indicate that over the course of four days Arminius destroyed all three legions and eventually averted Rome from subordinating Germania east of the Rhine River. This route follows the path the legions took.

Context

Julius Caesar's triumph of Gaul during the first century bce separated the generally Celtic clans into particularly Romanized territories and free Germanic chiefdoms, with the Rhine River as a characteristic limit.

Drusus made two militaries for the lower and center Rhine, locales which the Romans called Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, separately.

In 12 bce Drusus took the multitude of Germania Superior on an undertaking to squash the Sicambri, Frisii, and Chauci clans toward the north.

Before he kicked the bucket in 9 bce, Drusus had oppressed a huge area of domain and clans that the Romans on the whole called Germania.

Drusus' sibling, Tiberius, assumed control over the multitude of Germania Superior after Drusus' demise.

Tiberius had expected to leave from his station in Pannonia during that time, yet a revolt in his region involved his armies for a long time.

He gathered charges at Augustus' bearing, yet this effort to romanize the territory stirred up outrage among the clans.

Arminius often went about as a courier between the Romans and the Germanic clans, and it was in this job that he had the option to curry favor for his revolt among the ancestral pioneers. In spite of opponent tribal leader Segestes' alerts in regards to Arminius' unfairness, Varus trusted the report, and he started bringing his armies from their guarded stations for a walk to the wilderness.

Battle

On the primary day of the walk, Arminius and his coconspirators requested to pass on the military to revitalize Rome's Germanic partners. Varus conceded the solicitation. The Romans fabricated a camp close to the furthest limit of that day while Arminius' radicals arranged to assault.

Sources recommend that while walking for a subsequent day, Varus' segment arrived at a pass between the Kalkriese Hill and an extraordinary swamp.

All in all, the section comprised of approximately 20,000 men and broadened 11.3-12.9 km long.

The pass they were getting through is accounted for to have been vigorously forested and sloppy because of a heavy deluge.

The radical Germanic tribesmen were positioned along the slope behind a progression of strongholds. From this situation on the strategic position, the tribesmen started to toss spears and fire bolts into the Roman section; some hurdled down the slope and battled the legionaries hand to hand.

Being on disadvantageous territory and gotten unsuspecting's, armies couldn't take up protective developments, and the segment might have parted in two. Some kept on battling the Germanic radicals on the Kalkriese incline, yet an enormous mass of sand permitted the tribesmen to go after the legionaries and afterward retreat behind their strongholds over and over.

A huge piece of the Roman section was broken on this day.

The remaining parts of Varus' armies withdrew toward the west, presumably toward current Osnabrück, and set up camp on a close by slope for the evening.

On the third day, they continued through some open landscape and into another lush region. Here they were trapped once more, experiencing weighty misfortunes.

A few individuals from those clans who had not at first joined Arminius decided to help his objective, thus the multitude of the Germanic partnership developed.

On the fourth day, Varus drove the broke survivors along a recognizable street in the valley of the Ems.

Deteriorating downpours and a rough wind are said to have impacted the battling capacities of the generally depleted troopers, be that as it may, and the Germanic tribesmen sought after them to this point.

Understanding that their all out rout was inescapable, Varus and his officials committed suicide on their swords to keep away from catch by Arminius' men.

Altogether, almost 20,000 Romans were killed in the commitment, while German misfortunes were negligible.

Aftermath

The annihilation of three veteran legions at the hands of the Germanic tribes shook the Roman Empire to its core.

Rome’s previously successful wars of conquest had steadily inflated the empire’s sense of superiority over neighbouring powers, particularly those in northern and central Europe.

The tragedy in the Teutoburg Forest struck fear into the hearts of the Romans. The historian Suetonius writes that Augustus went months without cutting his beard or hair—a sign of mourning in Roman religious tradition—and often wailed, “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!”

Tiberius waged three subsequent campaigns against the Germanic tribes, but he chose not to occupy their land east of the Rhine.

By 16 ce he had reconquered the Lippe valley and most of the coast along the North Sea.

However, Tiberius, now emperor, again chose not to bring the area under Roman rule, instead hoping that Germanicus`s campaign would serve as a warning.

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