a bit OT, 3rd Century battlefield

[Pontius Pilate]

Ludens is right. Tiberius himself stated that the purpose was to revenge for Teutoburg defeat, to show the Germans what the Romans could do, and to quote "revive the honor of the Roman arms" - his exact words. No Roman emperor after Augustus ever tried to subjugate Germania. They knew it was more than they could hold. Rhine River and the limes were a great defensible frontier, and Germania itself did not have such frontiers. All it had was endless forests, which Romans themselves would often cut down to lessen the chance of surprise attack (this behavior was observed everywhere, not just in Gaul or Germania). Defending conquered Germania would be too much for Roma.

Not only this, but Germania at that time was not such a tempting piece of real estate. British Isles had tin and other metals. Gaul had fertile land, metals, already developed Celtic civilization with numerous useful crafts, while Germania was very sparsely settled in comparison, with very few large settled communities.

very true. Germania had little to no resources that were vaulable to the Romans. agriculture was limited due to the extreme cold and constant attacks made any garrisons too far into the interior indefendable. the army was also incapable of holding onto such a huge area, due to limited manpower. after Augustus, or more accurately the first century AD., Rome pretty much stopped making huge territorial expansions, with some exceptions here and there. there was no were left to go, with the Partians blocking access to the east, Germania to north, and the sahara in Africa.

Google Translate?

well, online translators don't work very well from my experience. they only translate individual words not phrases in a sentence, so you might not get an accuarte translation. I don't know about google translate though.


interesting article by the way.