Why Attacking a Sleeping Roman Army Was a Death Trap — Transcript

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1. 0:01Germany in the year 15 AD, inside a
2. 0:04Roman army camp in the middle of the
3. 0:05night, a horse breaks loose from its
4. 0:07rope. It bolts through the camp, and the
5. 0:09soldiers who hear it decide the Germans
6. 0:11have broken in. They run for the gates.
7. 0:14Most of them choose the rear gate, the
8. 0:16one facing away from the enemy.
9. 0:18Their general is a veteran named
10. 0:19Caecina, in his 40th year as a soldier.
11. 0:22He gives orders, and nobody listens. He
12. 0:25pleads. He tries force. Then he goes to
13. 0:28the gateway and lies down across it.
14. 0:31Anyone who wants to leave will have to
15. 0:33step on him.
16. 0:34Nobody does.
17. 0:39>> It's a horse.
18. 0:43>> These men have reasons to be afraid. For
19. 0:452 days, a German army has been killing
20. 0:47them in a marsh. They have no tents, no
21. 0:49bandages, and most of their tools are
22. 0:51gone. Tonight's wall is a heap of earth
23. 0:54they scraped together that evening. At
24. 0:56first light, the Germans come for that
25. 0:58wall, expecting an easy kill.
26. 1:01By dusk, the broken army is the German
27. 1:04one.
28. 1:05So, how does an army this frightened
29. 1:07become deadly the moment it's attacked
30. 1:09where it sleeps?
31. 1:10One German could have answered that. He
32. 1:13had already wiped out three Roman
33. 1:14legions, and he argued against going
34. 1:16anywhere near this camp.
35. 1:18His own side overruled him.
36. 1:21Two days earlier, those frightened men
37. 1:23were an army of four legions, roughly
38. 1:2520,000 soldiers marching home. For
39. 1:28years, Rome has been trying to conquer
40. 1:30Germany, the land beyond the river
41. 1:31Rhine.
42. 1:33This summer's campaign is over, and
43. 1:35Caecina has one job left: get his men
44. 1:38back to the Rhine, where Roman territory
45. 1:40begins. His way home is the long
46. 1:42bridges, a single narrow road raised
47. 1:45above a marsh built years before and now
48. 1:47falling apart. But a German army knows a
49. 1:50faster way and gets there first. It
50. 1:52fills the woods on both sides of that
51. 1:54road, and its leader is the last man a
52. 1:57Roman wants to meet in a forest.
53. 1:59He is Arminius, a German chief. Six
54. 2:02years earlier, in a place called the
55. 2:04Teutoburg Forest, he caught a Roman
56. 2:06general named Varus with three legions
57. 2:08strung out on the march and destroyed
58. 2:11all three.
59. 2:12Earlier in this very campaign, a Roman
60. 2:14army found the place. Whitening bones,
61. 2:17broken weapons, skulls fixed to the
62. 2:19trees. This channel has told that story
63. 2:21in full. What matters here is what
64. 2:24Arminius took from it. A Roman army can
65. 2:26be killed if you catch it moving. And
66. 2:29here is another Roman army moving.
67. 2:33Before Caecina's army and its wagons can
68. 2:35cross, the road has to be repaired. With
69. 2:37deep mud and streams on every side, the
70. 2:40Germans attack while the Romans are
71. 2:41working. It's a bad place to wear armor.
72. 2:44The Romans flounder in slime under the
73. 2:46weight of it, while Arminius's men, who
74. 2:48are used to fighting in marshes, reach
75. 2:50them with long lances.
76. 2:52Only nightfall ends it. Then the Germans
77. 2:54divert the streams in the hills and the
78. 2:56water runs down over everything the
79. 2:58Romans repaired that day.
80. 3:02That night the Germans feast and the
81. 3:04valleys fill with their singing. On the
82. 3:06Roman side, the fires burn low. Men lie
83. 3:09awake beside the wall or wander between
84. 3:12the tents.
85. 3:14Caecina does sleep and Tacitus, the
86. 3:16Roman historian who tells this story,
87. 3:18gives us his dream. Varus, the dead
88. 3:21general whose army Arminius destroyed,
89. 3:23>> [music]
90. 3:23>> rises out of the marsh covered in blood.
91. 3:26He calls to Caecina and holds out a hand
92. 3:28as if to pull him down, too.
93. 3:31Caecina pushes the hand away.
94. 3:33In the morning, his army nearly ends up
95. 3:35the way Varus's did. At dawn, the men
96. 3:37guarding the sides of the column leave
97. 3:39their posts and hurry for dry ground and
98. 3:41the column comes apart. Arminius waits
99. 3:44until the baggage wagons are stuck fast
100. 3:46in the mud. Then he attacks, shouting to
101. 3:49his men that this is Varus and his
102. 3:51legions all over again. The Germans go
103. 3:53for the horses, which slip in the blood
104. 3:56and the mud and throw their riders.
105. 3:58Caecina's own horse is stabbed under
106. 4:00him. He goes down and he is almost
107. 4:02surrounded before one of his legions
108. 4:04gets between him and the Germans. What
109. 4:06saves the army is its luggage. The
110. 4:08Germans stop killing to grab the loot.
111. 4:12>> Ooh.
112. 4:13Free stuff.
113. 4:16>> By evening, the legions have dragged
114. 4:18themselves onto open firm ground. It's
115. 4:21the most useful thing the baggage has
116. 4:23done all day.
117. 4:24Speaking of free stuff, a like and a
118. 4:26subscribe cost you nothing and they keep
119. 4:29this channel going.
120. 4:30On that firm ground, Caecina's men,
121. 4:32hungry and with most of their tools
122. 4:34lost, do what a Roman army did at the
123. 4:36end of every day's march. They dig. On a
124. 4:39normal evening, that meant a ditch, a
125. 4:41wall of piled-up earth, and a fence of
126. 4:44stakes on top. Tonight, it means
127. 4:46whatever they can manage. One Roman
128. 4:48general put it this way, "A camp is a
129. 4:50shelter for the winner and a refuge for
130. 4:53the loser." Tonight, nobody needs
131. 4:55telling which they are. And that is the
132. 4:57moment Arminius stops attacking.
133. 5:00He has been winning for 2 days. Now, his
134. 5:03enemy is behind a wall of fresh earth
135. 5:05and he wants to wait.
136. 5:07He has a reason. Arminius knows exactly
137. 5:10what is behind that wall because he used
138. 5:12to sleep behind one.
139. 5:14Before he turned on Rome, he fought in
140. 5:16its army and everything he learned there
141. 5:18tells him the same thing.
142. 5:20Don't attack it.
143. 5:24He knows a Roman army builds one of
144. 5:26these every single evening wherever it
145. 5:28stops. Every foot soldier carries the
146. 5:31tools for it. A saw, a basket, a
147. 5:33pickaxe. Modern estimates put the
148. 5:35building at around 3 hours. 3 hours of
149. 5:38digging after a full day's march.
150. 5:41>> You're joking.
151. 5:45>> A Roman general named Corbulo used to
152. 5:48say that the pick was the weapon that
153. 5:49beat the enemy.
154. 5:51Corbulo was not the one holding it. He
155. 5:54knows about the empty strip. Just inside
156. 5:56the wall, the Romans leave a wide belt
157. 5:58of bare ground all the way around.
158. 6:01Spears and arrows thrown over the wall
159. 6:03in the dark mostly land there, short of
160. 6:05the tents, and it gives the army room to
161. 6:07line up behind its own wall.
162. 6:11And he knows what the night is like in
163. 6:13there. Guards on the wall and men
164. 6:15walking from post to post through the
165. 6:17dark checking that every one of them is
166. 6:19awake. And a guard caught asleep, an
167. 6:22officer touches him once with a wooden
168. 6:24club, then the rest of the camp beats or
169. 6:26stones him, usually to death.
170. 6:32So, a Roman army never fully sleeps.
171. 6:34Part of it is always awake with
172. 6:36excellent reasons to stay that way.
173. 6:39But, Arminius also knows the one
174. 6:40weakness of a Roman camp.
175. 6:42In the morning, it goes away. It takes
176. 6:45three trumpet calls. At the first, the
177. 6:47tent comes down. At the second, the
178. 6:49baggage is loaded. And the third hurries
179. 6:52the stragglers. Then, according to one
180. 6:54man who watched them do it, the Romans
181. 6:56set fire to the camp so that no enemy
182. 6:58could use it.
183. 6:59They could always build another.
184. 7:02And an army on the road has no wall.
185. 7:05That is how he destroyed Varus.
186. 7:08It is what he is counting on now.
187. 7:10Tomorrow, Caecina's army has to march
188. 7:12out back into wet, broken ground where
189. 7:15he has mauled it twice. All he has to do
190. 7:18is wait for the trumpets.
191. 7:20Outside the Roman camp, Arminius argues
192. 7:22for waiting, and his uncle argues back.
193. 7:24The uncle's name is Inguiomerus, and he
194. 7:27wants to surround the camp and storm it.
195. 7:29He has his reasons. It will be easier.
196. 7:32It will be more prisoners, and the
197. 7:33plunder won't be damaged.
198. 7:36>> Free stuff.
199. 7:39>> The warriors like the uncle's plan
200. 7:41better.
201. 7:42The man who destroyed three legions on
202. 7:45the march is overruled. They will attack
203. 7:47the camp at first light.
204. 7:50Inside the Roman camp, this is the night
205. 7:52of the horse. The panic at the gate ends
206. 7:54when the officers explain that it was a
207. 7:56false alarm. Then Caecina gathers his
208. 7:59men and gives them a plan.
209. 8:01Nobody runs. Nobody attacks. Everyone
210. 8:04waits behind the wall while the Germans
211. 8:06climb it. Then, on one signal, the whole
212. 8:08army charges out of the gates at once.
213. 8:11It asks the men who ran from a horse to
214. 8:13stand still while an army climbs their
215. 8:15wall. Then Caecina takes the officers'
216. 8:17horses, starting with his own, and gives
217. 8:20them to his bravest soldiers. They will
218. 8:22ride out first, and the foot soldiers
219. 8:24will follow.
220. 8:26At first light, the Germans come. They
221. 8:28fill in the ditch. They throw wicker
222. 8:30panels across it, and they reach for the
223. 8:32top of the wall. Up there, they can see
224. 8:34only a few Roman soldiers, and those few
225. 8:37look frozen with fear.
226. 8:39After the night those men have had, it
227. 8:41can't have been hard to look that way.
228. 8:43>> [music]
229. 8:43>> This is what the uncle promised. More
230. 8:45and more Germans climb into the ditch
231. 8:47and onto the wall. Behind that wall,
232. 8:49Caecina's whole army is standing still.
233. 8:53They're doing the hardest thing their
234. 8:54general has asked of them, [music] which
235. 8:56is nothing.
236. 8:59When the Germans are thick on the
237. 9:00defenses, the signal is given.
238. 9:05Horns and trumpets sound. The Romans
239. 9:07pour out of the gates.
240. 9:10>> Oh.
241. 9:12>> [screaming]
242. 9:13>> They hit the Germans from behind. The
243. 9:15attackers are packed against the wall of
244. 9:17earth, facing the wrong way. The ditch
245. 9:19and the wall haven't stopped the
246. 9:20Germans. They've held them in one place
247. 9:23while the open ground behind gave a
248. 9:24whole army room to line up and choose
249. 9:27its moment.
250. 9:28It is everything Arminius knew about a
251. 9:30Roman camp happening to his uncle.
252. 9:34That was the trap. A Roman army in its
253. 9:37camp only looked asleep.
254. 9:41For 2 days these men have been dying in
255. 9:42mud. Now they have something to shout at
256. 9:45the Germans. Here there are no woods and
257. 9:47no swamps, only level ground. The
258. 9:50Germans came for a few half-armed men.
259. 9:53What they get is the noise of the horns
260. 9:55and the flash [music] of weapons on
261. 9:56every side and it breaks them. Arminius
262. 9:59gets out of the fight unhurt. His uncle
263. 10:01gets out of it badly wounded. For the
264. 10:03rest, the killing goes on as long as the
265. 10:05daylight and the Romans' anger lasts.
266. 10:11The legions come back to their camp at
267. 10:12dusk. They have more wounds than before
268. 10:15and no more food.
269. 10:17That night the victory was enough.
270. 10:20And Caecina did his one job. His army
271. 10:23reached the Rhine. On the march Arminius
272. 10:25had destroyed one Roman army and nearly
273. 10:28a second. Then his own side attacked a
274. 10:30Roman army in its camp, the place where
275. 10:32it slept.
276. 10:34It was the one thing he had argued
277. 10:35against.
278. 10:38>> I said, "Wait."
279. 10:44>> The night before a Roman general lay
280. 10:46down in a gateway to keep frightened men
281. 10:48inside a wall of earth. Outside that
282. 10:50wall they had been losing for 2 days.
283. 10:53Behind it they won and won.