The story of this place
In 9 AD, the Germanic chieftain Arminius — raised and trained in Rome — lured the Roman general Varus and three legions into an ambush in boggy, forested country. Over several days of running slaughter, some 15,000–20,000 Roman soldiers were wiped out; Varus fell on his sword, and the emperor Augustus was said to have beaten his head against the wall crying 'Varus, give me back my legions!' The catastrophe ended Roman expansion east of the Rhine and shaped the frontier of Europe for centuries. The battlefield was lost for 2,000 years until, in the 1980s, a British officer's metal-detector finds at Kalkriese revealed slingshot, coins and a Roman cavalry mask, pinpointing the site now marked by a striking museum and park.