Pugna ad Vallum Angrivariorum
About
Days after Idistaviso, Arminius made a last stand behind an earthen tribal boundary wall between the Ems and Weser rivers, and Germanicus's legions stormed it in brutal close fighting. Roman accounts claimed a decisive win that scattered the remaining Germanic coalition for the season. It was the closing battle of Germanicus's three-year campaign of revenge for Teutoburg. Rome still chose to withdraw permanently to the Rhine frontier rather than hold the ground won that day.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →