My father had read a lot about this battle, but he never mentioned the horror of burning alive in cages. Just to prove we modern humans have not grown more civilized than those Germans, Jordan pilots were recently burned alive by some rebel group a few years ago. I don’t remember the details, but it was horrific.
Re Jordanian pilot:
I remember that incident too.
Re modern:
Human nature doesn’t change; only the technology we use to dispatch and dispose of each other changes.
Knowing how brutally the Romans treated people who resisted their occupation, it’s probably a pretty safe bet that the Germanic “barbarian” tribes had simply had enough of their villages being burned, their children and women carried off as slaves, their elders put to death… and here was at least one chance to repay Rome and vent their hatred.
“When the Saxon began to hate” comes to mind…