The Battle That Stopped Rome

Wells, Peter S.

ISBN 10: 0393326438 / ISBN 13: 9780393326437

Published by W. W. Norton, N.Y., 2004

About this Item

SUBTITLED : ` Emperor Augustus Arminius and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest '. In 1987, near Osnabruck Germany, the site of a battlefield dating from A.D. 9, was disclosed largely by the guiding hand of Dr. Wolfgang Schluter. Using archaeological evidence, and accounts of Roman life in Italy, and an understanding of the life and habits of Germanic peoples, these 256 pages recreate a brief time in history. MAPS help give locale. Includes INDEX. Photographs of Iron Age artifacts, some from as far away as Denmark, assist text. Also (interpreted) plans of the ambush and battle. Learn more about : Gallic Wars, Flavus, pilum, Julia Caesar, Tiberius, Cologne, slingstones and Great Bog. Cond : Paper wrapper is black with white (and red) lettering. Front cover graphic is of the ceremonial mask-helmet worn by a Roman soldier and recovered near the battle scene. Volume is tight, bright, square and clean. No names, marks, creases, nor tears. Excellent Roman reference !! Quote (p. 55) : " ._._. an iron bit and chain. With them were a bronze pendant of a type often placed around draft animals' necks and a large bronze bell with an iron clapper. The bell had been stuffed full of straw from oats and peas. Someone had torn ._._._. ." Size: 8vo.

Seller Inventory # 006971

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Battle That Stopped Rome
• Publisher: W. W. Norton, N.Y.
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393326438
• ISBN 13: 9780393326437
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: B/W Plates
• Edition: First Thus.
• Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • History - World

About this title

Synopsis

The previously untold story of the watershed battle that changed the course of Western history.

In AD 9, a Roman traitor led an army of barbarians who trapped and then slaughtered three entire Roman legions: 20,000 men, half the Roman army in Europe. If not for this battle, the Roman Empire would surely have expanded to the Elbe River, and probably eastward into present-day Russia. But after this defeat, the shocked Romans ended all efforts to expand beyond the Rhine, which became the fixed border between Rome and Germania for the next 400 years, and which remains the cultural border between Latin western Europe and Germanic central and eastern Europe today.

This fascinating narrative introduces us to the key protagonists: the emperor Augustus, the most powerful of the Caesars; his general Varus, who was the wrong man in the wrong place; and the barbarian leader Arminius, later celebrated as the first German hero. In graphic detail, based on recent archaeological finds, the author leads the reader through the mud, blood, and decimation that was the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

16 pages of illustrations

About the Author

Peter S. Wells is professor of archaeology at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The Battle That Stopped Rome and The Barbarians Speak. He lives in St. Paul.