a bit OT, 3rd Century battlefield

[Aemilius Paulus]

(another theory is that Germans fought against Germans with captured weapons)

Much more plausible given the lack of iron and just any kind of unimprovised weapons in Germania at that time as well as the reluctance of Romans to venture into Germania, even for punitive expeditions. Romans were still afraid of ambush, and only dared to go into Germania in very large numbers, and very rarely, with more than just one legion.

[Ibrahim]

@AP: it sucks with Arabic though..

anyways, Is there any record of a roman 3rd century AD expidition? if so, it might solve the mystery of the battle.

[Ca Putt]

just read a new article about this:
battle was fought between 190 and 260 ad.
romans were approximately 1000 men
roman force included scorpions or balistas and a lot of archers(syrian?)->syrian arrowheads and heads of larger bolts were found
roman force was retreating from a skirmish, germans cut of thier path over a bank, which the romans took under fire and thus could pass through(tho they lost at least a small part of baggage)-> horseshoes were found; if the germans would have won they would have taken the metall with them

It seems to be that the romans won the battle but eventually lost their army in the dense forests of germania because there is no roman report on it and they most probably would seen to US knowing of their victory^^

[L.C.Cinna]

not necessarily. We know of several punitive expeditions into Germania in the 3rd century and the written sources never give much detail. My guess still is a detachment under Maximinus Thrax but we'll see.