Battle of Teutoburg Forest 9AD

[Spasm]

"Quintili Vare, legiones redde!" (Quintillus Varus, give me back my legions) shouted Emperor Augustus when he heard that 3 Roman Legions and their eagles had been lost. Legions XVII, XVIII and XIX - totalling something like 20,000 - were almost completely wiped out by an alliance of Germanic Tribes in the Teutoberg Forest. 

The commander of the Legions committed suicide rather than be captured (as torture and an ugly death would have been his only future in the hands of the Germans) was deceived by a Germanic Roman cavalry officer in his ranks (Arminius) who plotted with the tribes and led the Romans into a constructed ambush. Some 30,000 tribesmen almost certainly joined by several thousand deserting Germanic ranks of the Legions. Arminius slaughtered a great number of the XIX Legion as a prelim to the battle when he rode up with his cavalry on his unsuspecting allies while they were constructing a road.   

Two of the Legion eagles were recaptured by invasions across the Rhine in 15-16AD and the third eagle in 42AD. It was at this time that the battle site was located again by the Romans with the dead given a decent burial. It was reported that a handful of slaves were released in a later raid who were captured in the original battle some 40 years earlier.

The location of the battle site was only fairly recently discovered by an off duty British Officer with an interest in Roman history. He poured over maps and set out with his trusty metal detector. The site now has a museum with the original battlefield laid out as it would have been in 9AD. 

  

 

 

  

Here's the painting I've been working on over the last few weeks to commemorate the Legions push to get back over the Rhine before winter set in. 

There's still a lot of work to do before it's finished. I'm having real problems trying to get it to look like I want it but I suppose that's how you get better, do the stuff you can't do.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Holy Buddah... that is a whole new level...

[Mike McLellan]

Build a road through that? Those guys didn’t even have chainsaws! 

You’ve already captured it. Beautiful!

Mike. 

[Spasm]

Thanks Gents. 

Chris - yes, a new difficult level. Not as difficult as the hard levels on Warface but still have to take it slow to figure out what comes next.

Mike - I expect they had very big and sharp knives.

Good job I'm now trying out these new ones working on canvas. I'm giving it some stick and it's holding up pretty well. Maybe get a few under my belt and I can get on with the more difficult, and bigger, pieces I'd like to do. This one is 1000mm by 450mm but I'd like to double that.

[Spasm]

Maybe didn't hold up as well as I thought. I've killed it.......oh well, move on. 

[Tony]

Bummer!

I'm sure you'll get there sooner rather than later.

[Spasm]

I cut a piece off before binning. I wish the sooner would arrive, it's becoming very frustrating.  

Maybe go back to some sculpture for a while