The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest… brought to a shuddering halt the expansion of the Roman Empire…
Last year, in Vienna, we visited the salt mines at Hallstatt and the site beside the Danube where the Venus of Willendorf was discovered. This year, it has been another archaeological feast that has mixed the archaeology of the Roman frontier with a series of seminars and lectures in the University of Vienna.
On 8 September AD 9, three Roman legions were destroyed at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This, one of the key events in European history, brought to a shuddering halt the expansion of the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. Thereafter, the prospect of defeating the Germanic tribes ended, and for 450 years most of the northern border was fixed on the rivers Rhine and Danube. Known as the Roman limes, this defensive line stretched over 3,000km and bristled with auxiliary forts, legionary fortresses, and watchtowers. Only when the Emperor Trajan seized Dacia, modern Romania, from AD 101, did the formal frontier move beyond the mighty Danube River in eastern Europe.
