Roman battlefield found deep inside Germany

[L C Cinna]

If the finds are of battle that involved 1000 legionaries and a comparable number of germanics, I would think that the operation of romans so far from the limes involved many more over broader/grander thrust into hostile territory. Any indication or opinions of how big such a search and destroy army would have to be?

not necessarily very big if the enemy was surprised or beaten before that.

the first punishment action Germanicus conducts (Tacitus Annales liber I 49-52) is a rather big one (but that was after the Romans had suffered the Varus desaster and had not campaigned in Germania since then). According to Tacitus 12.000 Legionaries plus 26 auxiliary cohorts and 8 alae.

He divided the legionary troops into 4 columns sent out to destroy everything in an area of around 35km "all around". So if we divide that and subtract a little to include guards and soldiers with other duties each column contains around 2.500 legionaries.

I guess the best time to conduct such operations would be after a victory, when the tribes were weakened. the Germanics had no standing army, so groups/alliances formed to attack and plunder some Roman towns and dispersed again after they returned or after they were beaten.

So I'd say wait till the Germanics come, defeat them near the limes and then their land is more or less open. You could split your forces, burn their villages, and kill, enslave and whatever else you feel like doing without expecting too much resistance once they are not united anymore.

usually cavalry does that job in antiquity but a combination is always good, especially when you want to penetrate deeper and cause more devastation. I guess the Syrians which participated in this operation were quite usefull (after all villages tend to be in the open
:wink: )