The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1Mommsen, Theodor
History
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1
Mommsen, Theodor
Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
[20: As Germanicus, coming from the Ems, lays waste the territory
between the Ems and Lippe, that is, the region of Münster, and not
far from it lies the _Teutoburgiensis saltus_, where Varus's army
perished (Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 61), it is most natural to understand this
description, which does not suit the flat Münster region, of the range
bounding the Münster region on the north-east, the Osning; but it may
also be deemed applicable to the Wiehen mountains somewhat farther to
the north, parallel with the Osning, and stretching from Minden to the
source of the Hunte. We do not know at what point on the Weser the
summer camp stood; but in accordance with the position of Aliso near
Paderborn, and with the connections subsisting between this and the
Weser, it was probably somewhere near Minden. The direction of the
march on the return may have been any other excepting only the nearest
way to Aliso; and the catastrophe consequently occurred not on the
military line of communication between Minden and Paderborn itself,
but at a greater or less distance from it. Varus may have marched from
Minden somewhat in the direction of Osnabrück, then after the attack
have attempted from thence to reach Paderborn, and have met with his
end on this march in one of those two ranges of hills. For centuries
there have been found in the district of Venne at the source of the
Hunte a surprisingly large number of Roman gold, silver, and copper
coins, such as circulated in the time of Augustus, while later coins
hardly occur there at all (comp. the proofs in Paul Höfer, _der Feldzug
des Germanicus im Jahre 16_, Gotha, 1884, p. 82, f.) The coins thus
found cannot belong to one store of coins on account of their scattered
occurrence and of the difference of metals, nor to a centre of traffic
on account of their proximity as regards time; they look quite like
the leavings of a great extirpated army, and the accounts before us as
to the battle of Varus may be reconciled with this locality. As to the
year of the catastrophe there should never have been any dispute; the
shifting of it to the year 10 is a mere mistake. The season of the year
is in some measure determined by the fact that between the arrangement
to celebrate the Illyrian victory and the arrival of the unfortunate
news in Rome there lay only five days, and that arrangement probably
had in view the victory of 3d Aug., though it did not immediately
follow on the latter. Accordingly the defeat must have taken place
somewhere in September or October, which also accords with the
circumstance that the last march of Varus was evidently the march back
from the summer to the winter camp.]
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