How the Germans Defeated Rome

A History of Mankind (235)

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The second half of Augustus’ reign was full of shocks and disappointments. As his preferred heirs died one after another or were otherwise rendered too controversial to be appointed and the East remained unsettled, the northwest frontier became a source of imperial headaches that would last for centuries.

For the first time in Roman history, frantic military activity and an intense focus on the affairs of a specific region didn’t lead to victories and conquests but, generally speaking, a stalemate with the barbarian tribes north of the Rhine and Danube; Tiberius and his younger brother Drusus campaigned with some success against some of the most warlike tribes, like the Marcomanni and Suebi, built forts and bridges across the Rhine and secured royal hostages from the Germans including a certain Cherusci prince called Arminius, but failed to pacify the northern shore of the river.

Drusus – father to Germanicus, a beloved military-inclined young man, as well as the bookish, un-beloved and physically awkward Claudius, born in 10 BC – died at the age of twenty-nine in 9 BC, soon after a fall from a horse. His passing, and Tiberius’ brief retirement from public life, removed some urgency from operations across the limes¹ into Germania.