Avey and welcome to Emperor's of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Barry Strauss, a Bryce and Edith

M. Baumer professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, an author of many

best-selling books, most recently 10 Caesars, Roman

emperors from Augustus to Constantine. This is episode CXLV, Battle of the Tudorburg Forest. In 9 CE, three Roman legions were walking through Germany

when they were ambushed in what would become one of the most notorious defeats throughout Rome's history. The loss of

the legions were a crippling blow to Rome's plans of expansion and redrew the

borders in the province. Here's Barry Strauss. The Battle of Tudorberg Forest is a completely fascinating engagement from the point of view of military history and practice and has lessons for us in modern warfare today. But also from the point of history it's remarkable

it was a true turning point in the history of Germany, Rome, Europe, and the world.

If the Romans hadn't suffered their crushing defeat at the Tudorburg Forest,

they would have been able to continue the policy that was well underway

of turning Germany into a province, is Germany between the Rhine and the Elba rivers

instead because of this huge defeat they had to give up on that policy. They didn't do so overnight. They made

an effort, though not a very well funded effort, not a very serious effort to retake Germany. Within a few years they gave up and ever

afterwards northern Germany east of the Rhine remained independent and out of Roman control and that had huge

consequences for history down to the present day.

Trudenburg Forest was also a slap in the face to the Emperor Augustus because it had been his policy to conquer Germany.

He had been the force behind this effort that had been going on for decades, and now it all came tumbling down. A true stain on his record towards the end of his life.

And finally, it's quite a remarkable story about the leader of the German effort at the Tudorberg Forest.

Arminius, the German tribal leader who was also a Roman citizen and an equestrian at that. He was the man who had carried this operation out and

done so quite brilliantly. So all around quite interesting and by the way also one other

point it is now a fascinating story in

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