What tactics could the Romans have used to avoid the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and the loss of 3 legions ?
Context :
The legionnaires followed along rudimentary trails that meandered among the Germans' farmsteads, scattered fields, pastures, bogs and oak forests. As they progressed, the line of Roman troops—already seven or eight miles long, including local auxiliaries, camp followers and a train of baggage carts pulled by mules-became dangerously extended.
Varus and his troops were entering a passage between a hill and a huge swamp known as the Great Bog that, in places, was no more than 60 feet wide. As the increasingly chaotic and panicky mass of legionnaires, cavalrymen, mules and carts inched forward, Germans appeared from behind trees and sand-mound barriers, cutting off all possibility of retreat. Rather than face certain torture at the hands of the Germans, he chose suicide, falling on his sword as Roman tradition prescribed. Most of his commanders followed suit, leaving their troops leaderless in what had become a killing field.
>"An army unexcelled in bravery, the first of Roman armies in discipline, in energy, and in experience in the field, through the negligence of its general, the perfidy of the enemy, and the unkindness of fortune was exterminated almost to a man by the very enemy whom it has always slaughtered like cattle" Velleius Paterculus, a survivor.
Did the Roman Army systematically loose when it had no choice over the time and place of the engagement ? I'm seeing a parallel between fighting germanic tribes hiding in forest and the conquest America. Of course, legionnaires lacked the mobility of the spanish musket infantry or the US cavalry, but does it really all comes down to that ? Mobility ?
What do you think about the French commercial strategy in New France ? Setting Forts, trading with the native, making alliance and make them fight each other. Could it have been adapted to Germania by Rome ?
Daniel Edwards
Why exactly did teutoburg change history? Only the Romans cared that they got btfo by g*rms
Andrew Allen
>Why exactly did teutoburg change history?
Brody Myers
It could have been avoided with the use of scouts, not sure why he never utilized them. Maybe due to the fact that his Germanic right hand, Arminius, told him to cross the passage.
John Gutierrez
Intergrate the Germans more completely, just like they did in Gaul by uniting them against a common enemy (migrating Celts that didn't accept Roman hegemony). There were too many sandals on the ground in Germany.
Tyler Ortiz
They got what they deserved, they trusted a G*rm.
Lincoln Lewis
Choosing the battlefield is a huge advantage but the Romans could and did adapt to unfavorable situations. It would be rare for ANY army to lose when it gets to choose the ground, since badly outmatched forces would choose not to fight at all.
Benjamin Bailey
Had the Romans not been BTFO, they were planning on conquering Germany. This would have prevented the Völkerwanderung, whihc in turn would have changed history in ways that are impossible to predict.
You have to consider that Germania at this time was essentially one huge forest, which was very, well empty. No cities to conquer, the first German cities were actually founded by the Romans, like e.g. Aachen, Cologne or Trier. The Germans were primitive tribesmen and had little to offer to the Roman Empire.
Consider also that the northern european climate is not very attractive for people who are used to the mediterranean. You might want to read what Roman historian Tacitus wrote about Germania, the land and its inhabitants:
