[Liberty1970]

They had a re-enactment/commemoration of the battle up in New Ulm, MN (where they have the famous “Herman the German” statue) back in September that some of my cousin’s kids were in. Looked like they had fun with it judging from the pics. Not every day you get to run around screaming and waving an axe at everyone. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. September, 9 A.D., Kalkriese Hill, northern Germany: the Germanic warriors waited in grim silence. Three Roman legions, commanded by General Publius Quintilius Varus, advanced across the Rhine into Anglo-Saxon territory. The Romans hoped to expand Roman power, Roman law, and Roman culture. The Germans hoped to preserve their Teutonic laws and institutions and their way of life.  Probably neither side realized that the Battle of Teutoburg Forest would decide the course of Western law and Western civilization for millennia to come.  And now, in the year 2009, the 2,000th anniversary of the battle, very few Americans have even heard of the battle, and fewer still understand its significance. The facts are quite different. The Romans had occupied the area for some time already. Arminius, the "Teutonic" commander, got his military training and experience fighting *for* the Romans, and all his relatives did also. After the ambush and massacre of three Roman legions, another Roman army was moved into the area to hunt him down. They didn't succeed in getting him directly, but defeated him, and he never threatened Rome again. Within a few years, Arminius was killed by some of his relatives. Roman rule and occupation continued and expanded into what is now western and southern Germany. The destruction of the three Roman legions was a fact not preserved in any folkloric tradition, and was only rediscovered as classical sources became widely known again in recent centuries. Eventually this battle became a bit of a prop for German nationalism. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[PzLdr]

Considering that our legal system comes from the Romans more than the Germans; resulting in Germany's continuance into tribalism far longer than the rest of Europe [all those German states], a weakened Germany that drew the attention of neighbors for centuries [Sweden, France, etc], the rise of Prussia [an Army with a state-and we all know how that turned out]; I don't think the West should be doing hossanahs to Hermann [Arminius]

And as the author noted in passing, Arminius was a Roman citizen. He betrayed his country for his tribe. And the personal ambition the author tends to omit got Arminius killed by the members of that selfsame tribe.

European history would have been much different, and I think better, if Germany had been absorbed into the roman Empire.

[1066AD]

forced him to sign the Magna Charta, which guaranteed the ancient God-given rights of Englishmen.

. . . which in 2008 were essentially surrendered to the quasi-democratic European Union by the revolting Labour government led(?) by Gordon Brown, a paranoid Scot.

[Lucretia Borgia]

Greetings from New Ulm, eh!

[iowamark]

It is unclear at what point in history the Germans developed this Teutonic common law. Some believe it existed even before the Indo-European migrations, while others believe it did not take shape until after the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the British Isles. This author believes the Teutonic common law was largely developed at least before the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

In other words, this is all one man's fantasy.

[xaviermiami]

I hope our military is doing a better job of teaching our officers Western military tradition that what The Colonel has expressed. “Saved the West”?
Does the colonel believe then, that Western military principles of shock battle, discipline, superior tactic and technology, armour(value of soldier’s lives), superior organization, artillery, soldier-engineers(Caesar’s bridge across the Rhine, Hadrian’s wall engineers were the ancestors of army corps of engineers), pension system, civic militarism, rank & chain of command were more present, indeed founded by the Roman legions or by Northern barbarians?

Our own government/political buildings which were designed by the founders ( Jefferson Memorial, Supreme Court, Capitol Building, etc..would the colonel agree that they resemble more, are in fact designed to look like Roman temples and political structures ( Pantheon, Forum, Parthenon) or Germanic-village huts?

When our founders were establishing our Republic—did they quote Cicero, Cato, Marcus Aurelius, Scipio Africanus, Socrates or Arminius and other said Germanic/barbarian chieftains?

Did they look to the model of the Roman republic, “Res-Publica” or Athens in crafting law or the law of the Teutoburg forest( which history has barely chosen to remember)

The colonel cites a certain law of free men in the Northern lands of antiquity but that is inevitable because they naturally lacked broad civic, political and military organization; They were barely a few steps above hunter-gatherers.
I can only assume by reading his other cited examples of great leaders like Alfred that the colonel is speaking more
out of a hopefulness driven by ethnic-chauvinism( likely Northern European descent) than reason.