Angrivarii Rampart (16 AD)

Following the catastrophe at the Teutoburger Wald, Augustus dispatched a series of punitive expeditions into Germany. In 14 AD, Tiberius became emperor and assigned his adopted son Germanicus Julius Caesar to the German province. In AD 16, Arminius decided the …

16

222

Following the catastrophe at the Teutoburger Wald, Augustus dispatched a series of punitive expeditions into Germany. In 14 AD, Tiberius became emperor and assigned his adopted son Germanicus Julius Caesar to the German province. In AD 16, Arminius decided the time had come to destroy another Roman army. He deployed his Germanic army to ambush Germanicus at a point in a plain between a forest and a deep, broad stream. His infantry waited behind an old boundary rampart while he deployed his cavalry in the woods, waiting to charge out onto the Roman rear. Germanicus was a far better tactician than Varus. He scouted well and did not fall for the trap, sending auxiliary infantry into the forest to occupy the German cavalry while his legions attacked the ramparts. The first Roman attempt at the ramparts was repulsed, so Germanicus ordered forward his engines and light troops to soften up the Germanic position. The second attack broke through the rampart and the Germans behind the ramparts fled. The battle then shifted to the woods where the fighting went on until dusk. Arminius withdrew in the darkness and the Roman cavalry pursuit was indecisive. Germanicus had won a tactical victory with little strategic impact. Arminius had survived with a depleted but intact army to continue the fight. In the following year, the Emperor Tiberius decided to abandon Germany and fix the limit of the Roman Empire at the Rhine. Roman expansion was at an end, and the Germanic tribes remained free, with dramatic implications for the future of Europe.

Porta Westfalica, Germany

Germanicus Julius Caesar was a popular and prominent general of the Roman Empire, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4, he was adopted by his paternal uncle, Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor a decade later. As a result, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family which he was related to on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii was further consolidated through a marriage between himself and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the older brother of Claudius, the father of Caligula, and the maternal grandfather of Nero.

Wikipedia: Germanicus

German

Roman

Germanic Wars Augustus To Nero