Teutoburg Forest

Probably not a lot changed. They did defeat the Celts in Caledonia, but still didn't think it worth keeping. Probabaly much the same in Germania.
 
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Probably not a lot changed. They did defeat the Celts in Caledonia, but still didn't think it worth keeping. Probbaly much the same in Germania.
Nah, they were pushing for colonization of that general area of Germania at the time. Border moves east and Romans raid deeper eastwards than what we think of now.
 
Nah, they were pushing for colonization of that general area of Germania at the time. Border moves east and Romans raid deeper eastwards than what we think of now.


Yet the Romans made numerous incursions into Germany after Teutoburg, but never thought it worth reconquering. No reason why winning one battle should have made any long term difference.
 
Nah, they were pushing for colonization of that general area of Germania at the time. Border moves east and Romans raid deeper eastwards than what we think of now.

The question is if this would have changed any thing in long term about the fate of the Roman empire. In my opinion, probably not much, because Rome's weakness came out of itself and not from outside. Granted, instead of Germanic tribes which prey upon the Roman empire, you'd have a partially latinized population of "Germano-Romans". The outside invasions were what brought the vat to run over, not what filled it in the first place.
 
This is something I once looked into...

... If Varus had held Arminius to battle and defeated him, Germania could have been occupied as far as a far more defensible frontier from the Elbe through the Harz Mountains to the Erzgebirge and the Danube.

That may have been Augustus's plan and (read Strabo) might have been achievable. The knock-on effects would be that the Imperial Limes would have needed fewer Legions and Britannia (and Hibernia) might have been completely held. I imagine the Legio XX Valeria Victrix staying in Inchtuthil in Caledonia, the Legio IX Hispana in Eboracum, the Legio XIV near Dublin and Legio II in Isca. No Irish Question - only the Pax Romanum.

Thoughts?
 
Yet the Romans made numerous incursions into Germany after Teutoburg, but never thought it worth reconquering. No reason why winning one battle should have made any long term difference.

Losing three legions is a pretty devastating blow at that point. Of course that doesn't mean that the colonisation was inevitable if the battle had been won. A single confrontation is just that. But it would have been likely - Augustus had it all mapped out. It wasn#t really a question of whether or not Germania would have been valuable, but simnply one of a project that was already under way. Why should Augustus give up something that could earn him prestige if nothing stood in his way?

'One battle' also applies to the Germanic tribes, of course. We may simply see further uprisings, and if one not too much later succeeds, we could simply be asking 'WI Tiberius hadn't lost the battle of the Amisius'. Persojnally I doubt it, though. A defeat of Arminius could stifle the anti-Roman faction for a generation, and a generation is all it takes. The next uprising might see sieges, the destruction of cities and the slaughter of Romans, but Rome could not simply give them up once the cities had been built and the colonisers settled.
 
The Romans controlled larger parts of Germania kept conquering more. After the battle, the border was pushed back to the Rhine river, and stayed that way.
So much would be changed in this TL. Perhaps even preanting the lion's share of the Barbarian invasions.
 
Augustus had it all mapped out. It wasn#t really a question of whether or not Germania would have been valuable, but simnply one of a project that was already under way. Why should Augustus give up something that could earn him prestige if nothing stood in his way?


Augustus had only five years left to live. It may have been his pet prtoject but was it anyone else's? Nonee of his successors thought the effort worth renewing, despite Arminius bing long dead.
 
Augustus had only five years left to live. It may have been his pet prtoject but was it anyone else's? Nonee of his successors thought the effort worth renewing, despite Arminius bing long dead.

True, Tiberius might still choose to give it up. But consider he didn't give up the Balkans, which were very tentatively controlled at the time. It makes a big difference whether you inherit, to all intents and purposes, a war of conquest or a conquered territory with its army of occupation.
 
see also
Varus Dies Before Battle of Teutoburg Forest (
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1 2 3) Anaxagoras

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest 9 AD:A Roman Victory
NIK PARMEN

WI the Romans expanded into Germania. (
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1 2 3) sebeck

The Empire of Germanicus - a Roman TL (
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1 2 3 4 5) Onkel Willie
 
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