German battlefield yields Roman surprises

In a find that may end up re-writing Roman and European history, archeologists in central German have the remains of a battlefield between the Roman and barbarians dated hundreds of years after it was thought that Romans had abandoned the area.

CNN Article

Now we know why history is so difficult to learn.

It is constantly being rewritten with just about each new discovery.

Good find.

reply to post by jam321

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Yep it keeps changing, information is added and interpretations are altered, nearly on a daily basis. This is good evidence of a Roman punitive raids that use to take place at that time. Orit might have been a German Auxiliary/local levy ally of rome - the unit being destroyed after being formed. The answer is unfortunately lost in time.

Certainly it would have been an interesting tale to hear.

Nice find, are there any maps of the site? Interesting stuff, 3rd century was the beginning of the end of the Romans!

That would be about the time of the "year of three emperors" and the "Revolt on the Rhine" -- or the revolt of Aurelius Carausius -- as Rome starts to fall apart (and will later rise again under Constantine after 300 AD.)
www.historycentral.com...

It's possible that these troops are descendants of the original Roman troops in the area and maintained a loyalty to Rome. This happened in Egypt during the time of Julius Caesar, when the Galbinian (I believe that's who they were) troops, sent to Egypt in the time of Cleopatra's father, were mustered to serve under Caesar. (note: the name may not be correct... I don't have my reference books nearby.) These troops are only rarely mentioned; an outpost such as that where the Romans married German women and their descendants may still have thought of themselves as Roman is a very likely scenario.

...as is the possibility that some of the Germanic tribes, hearing of revolts in other places, decided to kick the Romans out.

Where the Roman empire was is often not that well known. Its civilization leaked over the borders. As demonstrated by the Roman finds in Ireland. There was probably a semi-civilized zone along the Roman Limes and the Danube and Rhine rivers.