AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 276 of 332 contributions to the Roman auxiliary continued. He took with him three prime Legions (XVII, XVIII and XIX) comprising around 18,000 Roman soldiers under his command. Meanwhile, Arminius the son of the Chieftain, had grown learning Latin while accomplishing himself as a Roman Auxiliary cavalry officer. In time he became a Roman citizen and supported General Varus in his campaign. Varus had begun to trust Armimius and even made him sit at his dinner table at the Roman Officers mess. What was unknown to Varus was that Arminius had been witnessing the harsh treatment of his own Germanic tribes which pushed him to plot against Rome. In the Autumn of 9AD, Varus had gathered his three Legions along with all his auxiliary troops and an unaccounted number of Roman civilians and baggage train at his summer camp. He commenced marching Westwards towards the Rhine, to link up with other Roman units before peak Winter set in. This area was enveloped by the thick dark Teutoburg Forest (near Hanover in North Germany) which did not have a clear stoned or cobbled pathway as the Romans are normally used to in other parts of the empire. Travelling a narrow path surrounded by thick forest during a rough rainy weather was a scary to the Roman legionnaire. The entire unit was stretched over two miles and the path led ever deeper into the woods. Arminius, unknown to the Romans, had all this time been meeting the tribes in Germania and had successfully united them. He put a sinister plan in place to ambush the Roman legions at the appropriate time during this long march in the forest. On the first day of the march, he sought the approval from Varus to move farther away from the main body of troops to consolidate all other auxiliary units. This was not uncommon for an auxiliary officer and hence approved. He used this opportunity to bring all auxiliary cavalry and other Germanic tribal units numbering at least 20,000 to the right locations close to the marching route. He had also convinced Varus of an uprising of tribes North of their position within the Teutoburg forest which in fact was a ploy and created by him to divert the legions into more unknown territory. Varus did not in the least have any suspicion and trusting Arminius, ordered his legions and the entire marching unit to divert as desired. Arminius and the tribes had already altered and modified the marching path using mud and created a false bog including a mud wall at the end. Arminius had not returned yet with his auxiliary units and suddenly the