Posted on 05/13/2021 8:30:30 AM PDT by LuciusDomitiusAutelian
The Roman legions didn’t often know defeat. Military supremacy is what made the Roman Empire one of the most powerful in history. So the thousands of Roman soldiers who lay dying in the German mud of Teutoburg forest in 9 AD must have, beneath the pain of their wounds and the fear of death, felt a keen surprise. Roman legions didn’t often know defeat, and here three of them were utterly annihilated. This was not something a legionary expected to experience in his career.
(Excerpt) Read more at factinate.com ...
Well thanks, I’m only a diletente though. There are probably real experts on here.
Spartacus was hunted down by Marcus Licinius Crassus. "Crassus" and "Varus" sound a bit alike. Could you be confusing the two?
No problem. Thanks for reading! And there is a TON of it. Throw in the Byzantines and you have nearly 2000 years.
I got the book out and found the passage I was remembering. It was from the chapter entitles, Mutiny on the Frontiers. Prior to the battle of Tutoburg. The Mutiny started in the regular army of Pannonia just after Augustus died and Tiberius had just became Emperor. They were given a suspension of normal duty to mourn the death of Augustus and rejoice at the appointment of the new Emperor.
“Before long easy living and idleness were all the troops wanted, the idea of work and discipline became distasteful’. There was a man called Percennius in the camp. Having become a private soldier after being a professional applause leader in the theatre, he was insolent of tongue and experienced in exciting crowds to cheer actors. The soldiers, simple men, were worried - now that Augustus was dead - about their future terms of service...After dark or in the evening twilight, when the better elements had dispersed to their tents and the riff-faff collected, they talked with him.
Finally Percennius had acquired a team of helpers ready for mutiny. Then he made something like a public speech. ‘Why’ he asked, ‘obey like slaves, a few commanders of companies, fewer still of battalions? Yu will never be brave enough to demand better conditions if you are not prepared to petition - or threaten - an emperor who is new and still faltering. Old men, mutilated by wounds, are serving their thirtieth or fortieth year. And even after your official discharge your service is not finished ; for you stay on with the colours as a reserve, still under canvas - the same drudgery under another name! And if you manage to survive all these hazards, even then you are dragged off to a remote country and “settled” in some waterlogged swamp or untilled mountainside. Truly the army is a harsh, unrewarding profession! Body and soul reckoned at two and a half sesterces a day - and with this you have to find clothes, weapons, tents, and bribes for brutal company-commanders if you want to avoid chores.
‘Heaven knows, lashes and wounds are always with us! So are hard winters and hardworking summers, grim war and unprofitable peace. There will never be improvement until service is based on a contract - pay, four sesterces a day; duration of service, sixteen years with no subsequent recall; a gratuity to be paid in cash before leaving the camp. Guardsmen receive eight sesterces a day, and after sixteen years they go home. Yet obviously their service is no more dangerous than yours. I am not saying a word against sentry-duty in the capital. Still, here are we among tribes of savages, with the enemy actual visible from our quarters!’
Percennius had an enthusiastic reception. As one point or another struck home, his hearers indignantly showed their lash-marks, their white hair, their clothes so tattered that their bodies showed through”.
The mutiny was quelled, Tiberius sent his son Drusus to handle it. The mutineers were put to death. But this all happened AFTER the death of Augustus and the Teutoburg battle and so I suppose the army in certain areas were insufficient.
I really enjoyed the Vikings show. But they compressed several hundred years of the Sagas into 2 generations. While entertaining, it can be very misleading to folks that aren’t history buffs.
Spartacus is actually the 3rd Servile Revolt. The first two both occured on Sicily, the first one grabbed control over a chunk of the island. The second didn’t do as well.
The Kirk Douglas movie is a great film but awful history. Howard Fast an Amrican Communist who later recanted wrote the novel on which the movie is based. The original Spartacus was certainly no crusader for human rights or an egalitarian society. He likely saw nothing wrong with slavery, almost no one did in the classical age. Spartacus just knew he didn’t want to be one.
Tiberius was a piece of work. Doing his thing on Capris. Too bad Drusus died (or murdered), they ended up getting Caligula. A true madman. On his one foreign expedition to Britannia, he had a mutiny. But instead of decimation he had the legions collect sea shells and rocks, and they came back to Rome where the madman held a Triumph for himself and added Britannacus to his long list of names. Just when the Romans thought they were out of the pan, they found themselves in the fire. But strangely, according to what is written and generally accepted, this led to Claudius who had mutiny when sending his legions to cross the English Channel. I’ll have to recheck this but I think he threatened decimation and that was enough to get their sandles on the boats. But he found significant resistance and if it weren’t for the traitorous queen of the Brigantes very well may have been pushed back across the channel. Claudius showed up with Elephants in person well after they had crossed the Thames. Funny how that works. The class dunce pulled off what Caesar couldn’t.
Coming from the “Trust Sessions” jerk wad that’s pretty rich.
Now go hump someone else’s leg.
L
Tomorrow’s post will be Boudica. Great segway!
I’ve always believed the devil unleashed his fury at this time BECAUSE of Jesus birth. The entire time he was here the Roman empire became extremely violent and immoral. After he left it just seemed to explode with that.
Such an interesting time in history.
In all fairness to Julius Caesar, he had bigger fish to fry with the Senate.
Alexander wasn’t too bad either.
The intersection of Rome and Judea is one that has filled libraries. They are literally fighting right now in Judea/Israel. That part of the world has been in a constant state of war and violence for 6,000 years. I happen to be a Christian and I have thought the same thing. I am waiting to post on this subject as it will surely agitate many. Even the Romans left Judea as a protectorate until Titus. Vespasian would have done the same but he was busy cleaning up the mess after Nero and the year of the Three Emperors.
They ever recover that eagle?
Thanks for the pointer to that show. I just brought it up in Netflix.
The deeper you dig into western civilization, the more complicated it gets. Obviously there are entire casts of second string and third string players.
steering armies ain’t trivial.
Q-tards drop the average IQ of any thread they participate in significantly. Dupes for Antifa is all they are.
It took the piss out of Augustus, for sure; never assume that an ally is reliable.
“The deeper you dig into western civilization, the more complicated it gets. Obviously there are entire casts of second string and third string players.”
No doubt. Anything over 200 years old has to be looked at as framework. The soldiers and real players behind the scenes names’ will never be known. Like the stars on the wall at Langley.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.