Avenging Varus - Battle of Idistaviso (16 AD) DOCUMENTARY 

"Permission to leave Roman territory." "For what purpose, Germanicus?" "To give the barbarians back their arms." "Permission granted."

"Sir. Drinkie my slurpie"

"My name should be a clue."

Pffttt 343 likes!

It didn't help that his disguise was just Germanicus with a mustache.

The Roman Clark Kent lmao

@@_Slog_ Mario Germanicus

@@jonbaxter2254 lmao

@@jonbaxter2254 No Luigi Germanicus

I’m imagining a lot of fear and a little bit of excitement

Run Boy! RUN!!!!!

*pissed off fully armed Roman legions

you mean 8...

More like 8… and a sight you would not want to be on the other side of.

Bro I’ve been waiting for so long. Definitely my favorite videos.

Same here so excited for this episode

Agreed its the series I've always needed.

What’s next after this one?

A Netflix or HBO series about the germanic wars would be great ;)

I'm still barely learning about Rome. So much interesting content. I want to learn about the rest of Western Asia, Asia, and Europe, but there's so much to cover with Rome alone. I'm currently reading SPQR by Mary Beard. I want to eventually move to learning about Macedonia and Phillip II & Alexander / Post-Alexander and I still know nothing about Napoleon.

longest. sentence. ever.

@@stevenholmes4322 there was plenty of punctuation.

To your point, this would be the inspiration for Henry V going through his camp before Agincourt to sound out his men. Whether it was the King's idea or the Bard's we may not know.

@@stefstokman3593 yo! Thanks

they also made up a large part of roman marines and navy ! only irish made up more % of roman navy and marines !

They along with some of my Frisian ancestors also made up the Batavian Guard for the Emperor himself...

@@philmccracken7520 Irish ? But Rome never conquered ireland. Could you please tell me more ? You sir have awake my curiosity.

@@philmccracken7520 but the irish were not conquered by the romans

@@jacopofolin6400 could have been mercenaries or something from when Rome occupied England?

Perfect!

A fitting description. They are just as evil :p

@@sfp2290 boo hoo

Yes indeed, but who I wonder is playing 'Luke' and 'Darth Vader'?

@@riccardocirielli Germanoids seething. The closest they ever got to Roman supremacy was LARPing as Romans, and even then didn't come close.

only two doomstacks? pffft weak economy

You call 20k income weak but I call em stingy and cocky

The way the Series ended slightly suggested for a continuity and a second season, so we can only hope we will get one.

Netflix would have to subvert the truth to make it woke. Germanicus would have to be a nubian women. Etc.

@@datsunlambchops4624 They didn't done this to Barbarian European filmakers are not that woke.

@@datsunlambchops4624 shut up

@@ignacio1171 smart guy. 👌 you should read a book or 10 about subversion and propaganda.

Will there be a season 2 when they all get slaughtered?

@@NautilusSSN571 ya I think it was confirmed shortly after it ended. There's even a scene where Arminius sees a wolf and you can tell he's worried because he knows what that signifies.

@@rc59191 Good, that's what I wanted to see.

I want to know what they will do of Arminius' brother, he is very important to the topic, but wasn't shown in the series...

What’s the show called

I always thought they stayed out of Germany due to fear, but they penetrated deep into those lands after Tuetoberg

I had heard about it. The next one is going to be good.

This sounded more like a slaughter than a battle

@@jonbaxter2254 That's what I thought too!

@@blockmasterscott Its a pretty common misconception. That they stayed out after Teutoburg. No, this is the roman empire we are talking about, such insult couldnt go with impunity. And with a capable commander such as Germanicus, they destroyed the lands of the tribes involved. But the cost of maintaining a province east of the Rhine far outweighted its benefits, and was very risky due to the fierceness of the germanic tribes.

Yeah, I’d like to know more about that tree.

The first Battle of the war the Battle of Teutoburg forest was won by the germans, which gave them enough hope to stay motivated after several defeats at Idistaviso and Battle at the Angriivarii Walls.

Well the was done to the tree as the barbarians considered trees to be linked to spirits/gods of the forests and since they ate, hanged and bleached the bones of those that fell at Teutoborg. And with that Rome was linking the deafeat of the barbarians to the gods of the barbarians.

Imagine the sight An uprooted oak, alone in a burned clearing, half buried again into the earth. It is completely covered in weapons, armor, shields, standards, all of them torn from the bodies of the dead and nailed to it. You get closer The names of all the tribes that rose against Rome are written on it. None could escape it's vengeance, all their weapons lay rusty and abandoned, those who wielded them, long dead. What a powerful message

@Golf Uckerself Nah, he was not a traitor. He was taken as a hostage by Rome.

Today was something else indeed

My man watches Greek dovahhatty based

Yeah I'm thinking about that too 🤔

He may have overestimated how much damage they took in the first engagement. The Romans had a very good system to collect Intel but Arminius was probably working off rumours.

Yeah, I am interested in that too. I can understand they they were maybe running out of supplies. So they might have needed quick victory. But still.

Arminius planned a sneak attack on the camp to soften and disorganize the Romans. The spot didn't have many exits, which was how he planned to trap and slaughter the Romans But Getmanicus snuffed it out. Arminius found a Roman army already deployed and ready... and instead, that place with few exits became a couldren of slaughter for the Germans instead. As they were now forced to fight face to face.

Yep the intent was to catch them encamped and unprepared and give them a good trashing not a pitched battle but he found them in position and arranged for a battle and as he knew he could not pull of a organized retreat battle ensued

If only bazbattles and history marche uploaded today...

BROOO!!!

Or Historia Civilis!!

OSP

Gotta add Historia Civilia to that list u got, won't regret it

Disagreed. Too much germanic propaganda

He would have build something for sure :D

He would have built a wall around him.

He would have fortified his position, classical Caesar

Built a wall. Sent a messenger to the nearest Roman armies or allies, waited it out until reinforcements arrived, then won the battle.

Arminius won in the beginning because he was trusted by Varus

Well - they still never conquered much of the territory and established one of the most heavily defended borders of their empire to protect themselves. The thing about the regions east of the Rhine was that the Romans usually faced off against fairly small coalitions in comparison to the overall landmass. Basically; the argument goes that while Rome avenged its legions, it is quite evident that her enemy was not beaten, just pushed back. Arminius is certainly a symbolic rival for many of the tribal leaders that unified to face off against the invaders but he is also just one of many enemies Rome faced off against over the centuries.

"the Romans didn't have to go THAT hard" Their gladius could argue with that.

@@Arcaryon They had no reason to conquer them. Still, they crossed the rhine everytime they wanted (like with the emperor Maximine the trace) & they even forced recruitments in those lands everytime they wanted, showing they owned those places. So, Roman Empire just chose to rule german tribes without to spend money & time to build a fixed colony there. For 400 years after this battle they had no problems thought, only when the roman empire collapsed in itself the barbarians from everywhere were able to invade it.

@@christiandocchio5596 "They had no reason to conquer them." Varus had lost THREE Legions and that was already considered to be a devastating cost. Germanicus needed EIGHT legions and THREE separate campaigns just to break Armenius alliances. To argue that they had no reason is therefore false - they literally stationed multiple legions at this border along the rhine. The idea that "controlling some parts of the border region = they chose to not rule directly" is also so far stretched that I don't think we seriously have to entertain it any further. The Romans had some influence but again, they also maintained gigantic armies in the area to control the local borders for 400 years - which is not exactly "ruling from afar" it's "we have no other choice but to literally station tens of thousands of soldiers there since once we stop, all hell breaks loose." People give Rome both too much and too little credit. Yes, they were influential, no, their influence was not nearly as large as people think but still substantial. Not to mention that the local troops founded entire border _cities_ . To argue that the Roman forces didn't create colonies therefore doesn't make sense - Cologne for example, which: "(Cologne) was founded and established in Germanic Ubii territory in the 1st century CE as the Roman Colonia Agrippina, hence its name." . There also was no formal "deditio" and Armenius made the claim to have resisted Rome until his death and we don't even know how successful Germanicus really was because we mainly have Roman sources. This guy on Quora ( Carl Richard Archie ) summed it up pretty well when replying to the question "What if Germanicus had completed the conquest of Germania?" "In general he did…sort of. However, he conquered mostly nothing. As he advanced, the Germans mostly moved out of the way and only showed up to fight on a few occasions. I believe most of these grand battles were mere skirmishes intended to justify the enormous expense and effort, to get revenge for the destruction of three legions. The Romans sugar coated the hell out Germanicus’ campaigns. In truth, it was wasted effort before Germanicus, wasted effort during Germanicus and wasted effort after Germanicus.( ... ) . Underneath Tacitus’ sugar coat, Tacitus relates of a series inconclusive campaigns, which includes a naval catastrophe. Germanicus was ordered to declare victory and come home." The Germanic tribes resited a conquest and Rome got a propaganda victory. Everyone was happy and little had changed - hence 400 years of legions being stationed at the border and minimal Germanic raids - there was little movement on this part of the empire because neither the Germanic tribes nor the Romans saw the need for war. The tribes were content as long as they were left alone and the Romans as long as they didn't have to fend of any invasions.

15:50 Not nearly as much as his women.

@@Marinealver thats a DANK comment there bro. 👌🤣😂🤣👌

@@Marinealver Not as much as Roman women in 410 and 455 and 476.

what is that reference?

We will be trying to get the next one out in a timely manner. Likely in the next few weeks

@@InvictaHistory you're the best! Thanks!

The gods have giv'n other cause to moan. For look how many _optimates_ remain In Samos, or the shores Dulichian, Shady Zacynthus, or how many bear Rule in the rough brows of this island here: So many now my mother and this house At all parts make defamed and ruinous; *And she her hateful nuptials nor denies* Nor will dispatch their importunities, Though she beholds them spoil still as they feast All my free house yields, and the little rest Of my dead sire in me perhaps intend To bring ere long to some untimely end.'-Odyssey, George Chapman, 1:380-392

@@lemurgulliver8249 what

@@Develpup The optimates were an ancient gladiator team. The Emporor Marcus Auraleus specifically had to specifically avoid these guys to get anything done.

Lol

Nitpick here: the 2nd Germanic consonant shift hadn't happened yet, they would have said something more like "what"

@@anneonymous4884 Yeah, I admit that the translation is modern German.

@@thoriniioakenshield yeah and I know why you wrote it that way.

This was historically an insignificant battle. Althought many soldiers were involved in.It was more about pride than about a long term strategy.The risk reward of an expedition in northern england or nothern Germany was insane. We know from Tacitus and other sources that roman soldiers did not like to fight in northern countries.They had to walk one month trought forests cold and rain moors unpaved kind of roads to get to a place where barbarians lived.And they despised them.And walk another month back home .And all without Pizza Spaghetti Mozzarella.So the Rhein river was the Adrian wall of continental Europe.Instead , going to Rome for the barbarians was like going to the Caribbean for a New Yorker.We have uncountable descents of northern Populations toward south and the risk reward for the trip was more interesting.Althout playing home for the romans was easier against unorganised barbarians.But it was not easy against sensational people like Hannibal.

It's hard to imagine. Flat out life and death fighting for hours. And you can't let up because as soon as you do the enemy will sense that and press in even more, taking advantage of your slackening. Bloodbath.

@@4thamendment237 Crazy mate isn't it, really is crazy!

@no step on snek! I've read up on some of them, but when you have so many people. Like when the Mongols invaded, a standing army of 800k men, I know a lot were garrison troops, but still that's crazy.

Raised up in a military family and seeing Roman ruins as a child, I'm loving this

3 legions was less than 1/5th of a full army. Hannibal slaughtered 16 legions at just Cannae alone. The Cimbri also slaughtered 16 legions in a single sitting. Rome often lost more than 3 legions in battles. The Gauls performed the exact same ambush and slaughtered a larger number of legions in almost the exact same way. The Romans lost 3 legions worth of men every other Teusday. A measly 3 legions was nothing. For some reason this relatively insignificant event gets overhyped a lot. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I'm pretty sure this was the work of Germanicus. His best skill was overhyping his own accomplishments.

@@tylerdurden3722 my friend, mine is what it's called "joke", and a quote from witcher 2

@@tylerdurden3722 3 legions is c35k men right? That's a pretty significant loss. Obviously not fatal for Rome but still unpleasant. I think the nuance is that it happened after the Gaul war and the roman civil war -both of which also had high casualties. So the dead were stacked up in a short period.

Talking seriously, rome under augustus had 28 legions, 168k legionaries, losing 3, 18k, 30k under some account, added the retinues and auxiliaries, was a loss of ~11% of the best roman units available, that due to the lack of conscription, high time necessary to train from scrap and money necessary was a significant blow, wich for some time compromised roman ability to conduct annexing operations

@@dottormetile777 Under Augustus, retired veterans had to serve a compulsory duration as reservists. This reserve of the most hardened veterans could be called upon during times of emergency. Under Augustus there were a scary amount of these retired veterans. Hannibal killed 200 000 and captured 50 000. Slain enough senators, officers and two consuls to fill a bag with their rings. Caused several Italian allies to defect. I wonder what percentage of active manpower that constituted? Legions 18 and 19 had been wiped out before in North Africa (with the captured also massacred)...and both eagle standards lost. The eagle standards were recovered and both Legions were rebuilt. Which was kinda normal...nothing to write home about. Later these exact same legions got completely destroyed again in the Teutonberg Forrest. Roman soldiers were very superstitious and considered these numbers cursed. So different numbers were used (including the 17th legion this time) to prevent soldiers from being demoralized by a "cursed numbers" . So the legions were easily rebuilt, just with different numbers. At least one of these rebuilt legions even accompanied Germanicus. No problem. One of the reasons the Legions mutineed was because Tiberius didn't want to expand the empire. Soldiers didn't want to sit in camps. Germanicus wanted to expand into Germania so the soldiers wanted Germanicus to become Emperor, while Tiberius didn't want expansion into Germania. So, the soldiers mutineed partly because Tiberius wouldn't let the army do its thing in Germania. Those 3 legions were rebuilt (just with different numbers), no problem whatsoever. Though freshly recuited, by the time of the campaign they were capable enough to partake in Germanicus' war, no problems whatsoever. The whole Teutonberg Forrest was grossly overhyped by Germanicus' PR efforts and later by German nationalists.

Holy shit, what? There's going to be a second season?!

@@adanzavala4801 Yep! I don't think theres a release date yet but netflix renewed for a second season almost immediately after the first.

Nice

I'm sure that He will be a great villain!!!

@@alejandrosakai1744 hero

Replace Rome with cabal of senators that live at the expense of Rome and are those commendations really that valuable? That became the question latter on and the more blatant the senatorial corruption or the incapability of the emperor the greater the need for change. That’s what gave rise to the empire and later on forced the military to fix the political situation to deal with ad hoc problems in the first place.

That later became the king of the Cherusci, when the pro-Roman faction got rid of Arminius.

Hahahaha, good one

Reference to RTS deathballs?

Hadrian truly was a based man

The barbarians that took down the empire centuries later actually hadn't settled in the area yet. They were either still in central Asia, Scandinavia & the Baltics.

@@michaelweston409 They weren't in today's Germany, though. That was the point.

That’s probably an excuse from Tiberius who feared Germanicus’ fame

@@LuisBrito-ly1ko nah Tiberius was a experienced General who fought himself in Germania. He wasnt dumb, and after he ordered Germanicus back Arminius was still strong enough to fight a huge war against the marcomanni. A lot of the things we know about all this are pure propaganda by Tacitus, who tried to portray Germanicus as good as possible, while portraying Tiberius as bad as possible. Germanicus wasnt the halfgod Tacitus tried to make him, and Tiberius wasnt some jealous guy who stopped total victory. He way more likely stopped an endless war which from this point on wouldnt have gained anything

@@flyingstock5979 Considering how they go and conquer Britannia later, Germania wasn’t going to be, by any means, an endless war. And considering how Arminius’ life ends, it was just a matter of time. The Marcomanni’s strength at the time is unknown, so we can only consider that after two catastrophic defeats against the Romans, the tribes under Arminius were just the shadow of themselves. Hence why they needed to unite against one Germanic tribe. In the long run, having the borders on the Elbe would have been far more beneficial for the Empire, considering what was to come next.

And yet arminius thought that it was worth it to fight for such savages. Just look at what the romans had built by then and what the germans did, barely making small strongholds. How was arminius so blind?

@@adanzavala4801 Arminius would've never become something more than a competent general in siding with the Romans while in the German lands he could have become a king, in the end even that didn't work out for him.

Maybe the other tribal chieftains forced his hand with a inflated ego after there win in teutoburg

@@canohernandez6428 that seems most likely.

He did try to ambush the romans but the problem is Germanicus isn't Varus. Germanicus may not be the best general but he his competent and is quickly able to predict and stop Armenius from doing another ambush. Also, Germanicus is straight up burning everything in his way, including farms, preventing the germans from using them. And Armenius's allied tribes wanted an open battle. So at this point, Armenius is out of options. His options are 1. To ambush the romans. (Failed, Germanicus is able to adapt to the Germanian ambushes). 2. Try and wait the romans out since they are away from their territory, while the Germanians have homeland advantage. (Also failed because Germanicus is able to build a steady supply line. Also Germanicus has destroyed every allied tribes on his way to Armenius, and destroyed every source of resources Germanians can take) 3. Fight Romans in an open field battle, which is what the other tribes suggested. So Armenius is pretty much out of options and is forced to fight Germanicus in an open field battle. These are my insights tho, so I might be wrong

Generals are more bias but have more subjects that they cover.

@@CA-jz9bm Bias indeed, i don't think they like Germans and Russians that much, still the variety of events they cover puts them a head above the rest imo. Invicta is great at what it does too.

@@bronicage5666 actually i think it's the inverse where Invicta is biased against romans

​@@CA-jz9bm I had no clue they were biased! How so?

@@rav9066 I might be wrong but there's a lot of pandering to modern day politics on their channel. That is, names, labels, or accounts attributed to controversial topics or places (the less said, the better). I like their Islamic generals and battles series but it's rife with that stuff, in a not good way. At least Invicta tries to make it clear when something might be propaganda, ala history written by the victors. I personally don't mind, mind you, but I can see how it could be off putting.