Varus
Specifically named Officers of Varus’ Staff
Coin bearing the likeness of Varus, from the city of Achulla (Province of Africa) in today’s northern Tunesia, where Varus was Proconsul Publius Quinctilius
Varus was born in 47 BC the son of a respected family of the Roman nobility. After studying law he married Claudia, a niece of Augustus. Marrying into the family of the emperor cleared the way to an outstanding political career. He went through all the high-ranking positions of a man of his social standing. In the year 22 BC, at the age of 25, he was already Quaestor in Achaia. Nine years later he became a consul, and in the year 6 or 7 BC he became a proconsul and governor of the province of Africa. At that time the city of Achulla struck a coin with his likeness – a privilege that was usually reserved for the emperor. Thanks to this circumstance, we have an approximate idea of his appearance at that time. The likeness, which we can assume bore some similarity to his actual appearance, shows him around the age of 40. He has closely cropped hair and heavy eyebrows above commanding eyes, a prominent nose, full lips and a thick neck, all attributes of an aggressive physical type and an epicure. Varus apparently had a pronounced affinity for money and money-making schemes. Thus, in Gaul he owned several large estates, a single one of which brought in 400,000 sesterces annually. Since he was an imperial governor with an army of 5 legions as well as 12 lictors, his annual salary was a million sesterces. For the sake of reference, a simple legionnaire was paid 900 sesterces yearly.
In the year 4 BC he became imperial governor in Syria. Here he again enriched himself monumentally, inspiring the saying “He arrived poor in a rich land and he departed rich from a poor land.” In the same year, following the death of King Herod, he led several harsh punitive expeditions against rebellious Jews in Palestine. At the time of the outbreak of the Pannonic Rebellion in 6 AD, Augustus granted him the greatly coveted office of proconsul. He had to thank more than just his kinship to the emperor for such a high and influential position -- he apparently had made a name for himself on account of his despotic nature and the severity of his rule. He seemed just the man to control the “Germanic barbarians.”
Velleius Paterculus, a former officer on the staff of Augustus’ successor Tiberius, described him as a man of placid and phlegmatic character, domestically inclined, physically and intellectually sedentary. He was not a military man and most certainly not a leader in the field, but rather a bon vivant who was fonder of the pleasures of the table than the rigors of war.
This description contradicts the harsh and violent style that Varus demonstrated in pursuing the state interests of Rome, and it indicates a duality in his nature. This veteran combat officer blamed Varus alone for the subsequent debacle in the case of Arminius.
His soldiers called him “old saber legs” because he was bow-legged. In soldiers’ lingo this was not necessarily an unfriendly nickname and may well have indicated a certain fondness.
He exemplified the desk-bound “paper-pushing” officer and administrative official. As a trained jurist he was concerned primarily with legal matters. This was the professional area in which he felt most secure and confident of his ability to line his own pockets. In military matters he was inferior to his combat-experienced officers and completely dependent on them.
It was Roman policy to first subdue “barbarians” or non-Roman peoples militarily and then control them through a civilian administration. Thus they would be “re-educated” to think as Romans, so that the conquered nations would finally act in the interests of Rome, on their own volition. After this, the “pacified” territory could be converted into another Roman province and incorporated into the Empire. In Gaul these methods and the subsequent “Romanization” had been almost entirely completed.
Rome had a great deal of experience in such matters. Rome knew that vanquished peoples, and especially their rulers, all too easily adopt the value system of the victors in all superficial details, and it was not unusual for initial rejection of the victors to turn into self-castigation and self-hatred. And of course Rome also understood that this process was helped along by the carrot-and-stick approach of alternating punishments and rewards.
Now that all Gaul and the Germanic regions left of the Rhine had been “pacified,” it was time for Germania right of the Rhine to be brought under control as well.
There were already numerous fortifications and staging areas connected by roads initially leading to the Weser and then to the Elbe. For the time being, however, Rome did not control these regions outright. It was Varus’ assigned task to develop and exercise such control.
Varus was the highest military and civilian official in northern Germania. Vested with extensive and comprehensive powers of attorney, he was authorized to wage war independently of the emperor. He could enter into treaties, enforce Roman law, integrate territory into the Roman economy, impose taxes, collect tribute and conscript men from the indigenous population. If Varus’ official instructions had been passed down to us, it would no doubt include the following points, as we learn from historical reports of those days:
Military penetration of the region, spreading out from forts and staging areas;
The introduction and administration of Roman law;
The imposition of taxes and requisitioning of natural resources;
The introduction of forced labor;
The establishment of military style police checkpoints;
The re-education of the indigenous population.
The creation of a secret intelligence service;
Harsh methods of enforcement of Roman sovereignty and laws;
The immediate application of military force against any and every form of resistance.
In their totality, the implementation of these measures meant the complete subjugation, gagging and control of the Germanic peoples along with the loss of all self-determination. This would have been followed by the dissolution of their folkways, language and culture as part of the superimposition of Roman civilization. Total integration and absorption would have followed. Such was the declared aim and goal of Roman colonizing.
When Varus arrived in the land of the Cheruskans,* he had complete confidence in himself and his mission.
Footnote: * Cheruskan territory extended from the eastern parts of Westfalen to the Harz, and on its northern and southern borders to the Kyffhäuser Mountains].
Since Tiberius had first begun the political negotiations with Duke Segimer, the father of Arminius, three years before, the Cheruskans had been known as “Friends of the Roman Nation.” Thus the first step toward subjugation had already been taken. The most influential members of the Cheruskan nobility, who were expected to assist the Roman takeover, had been favored with generous gifts and impressive Roman titles, and they responded by acting very friendly towards Rome. On several occasions the Roman armies had even dispensed with maintaining their winter quarters, which was a sign of the secure and friendly relations existing between Romans and Cheruskans. From his previous colonialist experiences, Varus was no doubt accustomed to mutinies, assassinations and bloody uprisings. He probably considered this assignment in the Ems-Weser region relatively safe and did not anticipate that his brutal methods might evoke resistance that could not immediately be suppressed. His task was clear enough: the Emperor and the Senate had assigned him, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the great honor and distinction of taming this unspoiled land, which was ignorant of Roman culture and customs. He would now open it for exploitation and integrate it into the civilized world. He had plenty of experience in this sort of thing. His ambition prompted him to carry out this task as quickly and thoroughly as possible, as he had done with great success in other regions. The barbarians needed only to be introduced to the blessings of Roman law, Roman order and Roman civilization, and they would soon be thinking and acting like Romans.
He knew next to nothing about the Germanic peoples. For him they were subhuman creatures that had “nothing but the voices and appendages of humans.”
At most he had had some contact with the Germanic auxiliary officers among the troops. Beyond military duty and carrying out orders, however, he had no interest in their backgrounds. According to all reports, the Germanic national character was completely foreign to him. He was familiar with neither the mentality of the Germans nor their religion nor their code of honor. Above all, he had no concept of their fierce drive to be free and independent.
At first, the Germans conducted themselves rather passively. They met the Romans with indifference rather than rejection. The more they experienced the initial effects of “integration” and became clear about Rome’s true intentions, however, the less willing they were to bow to increasing pressure.
When Augustus needed money for his Balkans campaign, he imposed war taxes on the entire Empire, including the regions governed by Varus. The taxes took the form primarily of raw materials and natural products, which Varus intended to collect using the same ruthless methods he had used in the Near East.
We can hardly imagine the bitterness with which the unfettered and independent Germanic tribesmen responded to the increased tributes demanded by the foreign occupiers.
The Germans lived in bands among which the individual members themselves oversaw the distribution and disposition of goods within the framework and for the benefit of the entire tribe. Consequently they were willing to pay tribute only voluntarily, if at all. The logic of Rome’s collecting taxes in one corner of its empire in order to finance wars in another distant corner – wars that did not concern them in the least -- was incomprehensible to the Germans, and they could not be forced into instant compliance.
Rome suddenly began requisitioning food and fodder for its army, and the Germans had to place ships and wagons at their disposal as well. They were required to give up their beloved horses and submit to socage without objection and without regard for their own economic necessities -- even during harvest season! At a time when their own food supply was precarious, these were very harsh demands. The unconditional and unreasonable requirement to deliver commodities promptly, at arbitrary dates, was particularly irksome to them.
The Roman administration had long lists of requisitioned products and natural resources that were intended for Rome or the pockets of Roman officials, including those of Varus. According to reports handed down to us, these lists included animal hides, skins and leather; goose down; wool; soap.* [THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING HERE IN TRANSLATION]
Footnote 1 Seipu, a Celtic-Germanic invention, a mixture of fine beech wood ash and goat’s fat.]; women’s hair for wigmakers in Rome
Footnote 2 [Blond and red were very fashionable among the high-ranking ladies in Roman society].
Other items were poultry; sheep; swine; oxen; wild game; wood; wax for casting bronze figures; pitch for torches and ship construction; oats; barley; rye; wheat; flax; hemp; hay; salt and honey, to name just the most important items.
Apparently the reports of Varus’ arrogant and overbearing nature were well founded. He seems to have believed that he could handle the Germans with the same methods of colonialist rule as he had applied to other subdued nations. He thought he could treat the Germans with the same tyranny to which peoples in Africa and the Orient were accustomed -- and enrich himself in the process.
Apparently he believed that “barbarians” had to be subdued by laws and harsh punishments and by force of arms when necessary. In his view, any resistance on their part was the result of excessive generosity and permissiveness. He firmly believed that “barbarians” could interpret generosity and permissiveness only as weakness. A favorite expression of his was “You cannot feed raspberries to a wild wolf.”
His fatal mistake was probably the excessive haste with which he carried out the harsh measures, which were highly unpopular to begin with. It seems he was acting from overblown ambition. He was simply not capable of proceeding gradually and cautiously, which would have been in the interest of Rome. Over time, a gradual approach would have modified the drastic measures somewhat.
As the supreme Roman authority, Varus was also the highest judge, and this position brought with it instant and arbitrary power. Combined with his control of military power as supreme military commander, such a system included every possibility of force, arbitrariness and cruelty. The exercise of all this power and authority lay entirely in the personal discretion of the governor. In addition, we have to consider that under Roman law the verdict of the judge alone was absolute and without appeal. Among the Germans, by contrast, there was a so-called “legal community” that passed justice on the accused in open meetings. Today we would call this a “democratically based” kind of justice in contrast to the much more formalized Roman procedures. At any rate, the Germanic custom tended to protect the accused from erroneous or unjust verdicts resulting from personal caprice.
Varus, the highly trained institutional jurist, was probably unaware that the Germans did not feel bound by Roman law, even if it was “the best in the world.” He would have been surprised to learn that they considered Roman law as “more cruel than weapons.”*
Footnote: * According to the Roman author Florus.
The execution of Roman justice was something else that was entirely new to the indigenous Germans. Perhaps they could have become accustomed to some of the lesser punishments such as forfeiture of some possessions, arrest in chains or sitting in the stocks. The next degree of severity however, such as flogging with rods, which could be imposed even for a tardy or incomplete delivery of tribute, seemed to them demeaning as well as cruel. Even worse were the tortures that were applied at the merest suspicion of deceit, including the even more cruel amputation of fingers or hands. Capital punishment could take the form of flogging to death, hanging, or beheading. Rome’s ultimate punishment, crucifying, was entirely incompatible with Germanic culture and character. Under Roman law, the imposition of severe punishments, traditionally done by means of rod and axe, were vested in the hands of the lictors, who carried fasces** as symbol of their authority.
Footnote: ** A bundle of rods with axe head
Thus the 12 lictors assigned to Varus became exterior symbols of coercion and the power to punish.
The Roman governors believed they could “pacify” the freedom loving Germans by imposing extremely harsh punishments. Such measures, while effective in the Orient, failed in Germania.
Varus’ greatest misreading of the Germanic character was probably his assumption that the more the “barbarians” were beaten and demeaned, the more they would fear and respect Rome. His experiences in Africa and Syria, made under very different conditions, might have contributed to this erroneous conclusion. Among the Germans he achieved the exact opposite: he aroused their determined opposition. At the beginning, Varus might not have been entirely mistaken with his deprecatory assertions that the Germans were pig-headed, stubborn, irresolute and divided among themselves; but he could not or would not acknowledge their virtues. Thus he remained unaware of their growing anger, and the growth of wild hatred “against everything that wore a toga.” At some point their fury had to be released.
The Roman authors themselves posed the question of how Varus could have fallen victim to such a gigantic deception as that practiced by Arminius. In all their reports, Varus appears as a mistrustful and crafty politician who knows every trick in the book. He was also a talented businessman with many years of experience in “public service.” Thus it is unlikely that it was simple naiveté that brought such dire consequences upon him. To a much greater extent it was his overwhelming contempt for the Germans. He considered such an uprising as occurred in Pannonia as simply impossible, out of the question. He knew that dissention was rife among the Germans. This would inevitably produce traitors, and betrayal was the surest method for smothering uprisings in the cradle. He was banking on petty betrayals; but that such a man as Arminius, acting on behalf of a great national cause, could deceive him -- this was beyond his powers of his imagination.
Even though he had little sympathy for Germans in general, he had great confidence in Arminius. Varus set great store by him because he saw in him not just a young Cheruskan duke, but rather a Roman-bred and Roman- educated commander of auxiliaries who, as a Roman knight, was his social equal. He could converse with him in fluent Latin; he admired his wit; and he had heard a great deal about the valor with which Arminius had distinguished himself as an officer in numerous Roman campaigns. Furthermore Arminius’ brother Flavus was also serving in the Roman army and also noted for his valor. Arminius’ brother-in-law Segimund occupied the position of high Roman priest in Cologne. The rest of his family, as well as many of his kin, openly sympathized with Rome. Arminius, too, was considered a follower of Rome by many of his countrymen.
Varus had no reason to consider Arminius as anything but completely loyal to Rome.
Cordial relations existed also in the comradely connections between Varus and his officers, who often came together for wine and revelry. In addition to this, Arminius had soon become indispensable on Varus’ staff because he was intimately familiar with the situation in Germania. He was a very astute adviser with an inordinate talent for organization. The basis for taxation had to be made known, official decrees distributed and enforced down to the last isolated farmsteads in forest and mountain. Arminius probably played a major role in the organization of the Roman tax administration and it is even possible that he headed it. Thus Varus could be absolutely certain that the Roman tax policies would be carried out precisely and with the greatest harshness. It is quite likely that Arminius was even more hated by parts of the local population than was Varus.
Varus probably assumed that Arminius was seeking his own advantage just as he was, and thus had full confidence in him. At the end, this confidence was so great that he could not be persuaded by the serious accusations of Segestes.
This unshakable confidence is the main prerequisite for success of the plan developed secretly by Arminius and nearly betrayed by Segestes. The plan goes into operation with the decampment of the Roman troops for their winter quarters on the Rhine and it begins to take visible shape with the feint of a “rebellion of a distant tribe” which lures Varus away from the safety of the main road into an impassable landscape. Before long the army is hopelessly wedged in and surrounded by a furious, hate-filled enemy that cannot be contained anywhere. With Arminius in the lead, the Germanic auxiliaries then join in the attacks on the Romans. The catastrophe ends in the complete annihilation of his entire force. Bitterly disappointed, Varus then recognizes the utter hopelessness of his position and realizes that he has failed in his mission. Velleius depicts the depth of his depression by observing that “he had a stronger will to die than to fight”. In keeping with the tradition of the Roman officer, Varus then kills himself by hurling himself on his sword. He is 56 years old when he dies.
Before the last camp defenses are overrun, several loyal servants along with the few survivors of his bodyguard attempt to burn his body. The body must not fall into the hands of the barbarians, who would defile it. But the rain extinguishes the fire, so they hastily bury it in a shallow grave. After storming the camp and overcoming the last resistance, the Germans find and exhume the half burned body.
Arminius then orders Varus’ head to be cut off. He dispatches messengers to carry the bloody trophy to King Marbod in an attempt to persuade him that it is time for the Cheruskans and Markomans to unite and fight against Rome together.
King Marbod does not respond positively to Arminius’ invitation, however. He promptly sends the head to Emperor Augustus in Rome. This can indicate only that he is signaling to Rome that he intends to stay out of the conflict and remain loyal to Rome.
We do not know how Rome reacted to this, but its response must have been cool. The entire episode was extremely embarrassing to Rome, who made Varus the scapegoat responsible for the whole debacle. He who had been highly celebrated was now persona non grata and his name was no longer mentioned in public. Universal criticism of Varus was also directed against Augustus, who had placed such an incompetent in control of all Germania. But Varus was not the first and certainly would not be the last unsuccessful historical figure that posterity would attempt to banish in the silence of taboo...
We can assume that Varus’ head was interred in his family tomb without great fanfare.
Notwithstanding the devastating official verdict of Varus’ political wisdom, at the end he exhibited unflinching control and grandeur as a Roman and an officer. We cannot blame him because at the end he lacked the experience and decisiveness that great military leaders such as General Caecina showed in seemingly hopeless situations. His conduct in the battle, taking the necessary and energetic measures, should be acknowledged. When he threw himself on his sword, he was already seriously wounded. He chose death in battle. He died as a Roman.
Specifically named Officers of Varus’ Staff
Lucius Asprenas: Varus’ nephew and deputy.
On Varus’ orders he was supposed to relieve the threatened staging areas. Instead, he assigned himself to the “lower winter camp” (Castra Vetera?) as soon as he learned of his uncle’s defeat. It is said that he enriched himself from the property of the annihilated legions.
Lucius Eggius: Prefect (Chief Officer) of Camp I, also Commander of the XVIIth Legion.
Lucius Caedicius: Prefect of Fortress Aliso. He escaped from the trap at Teutoburg through cunning and succeeded in making his way back to the Rhine.
Cejonius: Prefect of Camp II. He chose the infamy of imprisonment over death on the battlefield.
Vala Numonius: Colonel and commander of the cavalry. He reportedly failed to stand fast and abandoned the foot soldiers in an attempt to reach the Rhine with his mounted squadrons. He rode into an ambush and was annihilated with his entire command.
Marcus Caelius: Centurio (Captain) of the XVIIIth Legion. He commanded one of 6 companies that made up a cohort (550 men.) He was killed at age 53 along with his servants Privatus and Thiaminus. His brother, Publius Caelius, erected in his honor at Fort Vetera in Xanten a stone monument that is considered direct evidence of the Varus battle. The captain is depicted in complete uniform with short mail shirt, military decorations and the Vitis (grape vine) that was the insignia of the centurions. If Caelius was commander of the First Century of the First Cohort, he belonged to the select group of officers that had risen from the ranks and was entitled to voice and counsel on the staff of a legion. In the portrait he is wearing an oaken wreath about his temples, which was a high distinction awarded for outstanding valor such as rescuing a citizen in mortal danger (Corona Civica.) About his neck he is wearing a legionnaire’s focale (scarf) along with an officer’s woolen cloak (paludamentum), golden honor rings (torques), fraternity decorations (phalerae) on leather netting, and bracelets (armillae.)
Caldus Caelius: Perhaps the son of the Centurion M. Caelius. He is a young officer who, after being captured, killed himself with the chains binding his hands.
14 Tribunes: These were army officers who served only a short time. The sons of noble Roman families, they surrendered because they expected to be ransomed, which is what occurred.