The background for my Roman project is the year AD 69, which is also known in history as the "Year of the Four Emperors". Its greatest warlike event - besides the bitter struggle for and in Rome - was the Germanic uprising on the Lower Rhine. The episode is commonly referred to as the "Revolt of the Batavi". During this fateful time, four contenders fought for the throne of the Roman emperor. This short episode in Roman history from August 69 to the end of 70 is almost a cinematic story.
Historical background
In 69 the Roman Empire weakened. The city of Rome had been largely destroyed in a devastating fire and the upper class of the empire was busy poisoning or otherwise killing each other. The uprising in Judea was not quite over and the rebellion in Britain (Boudica) was only a few years ago. Even in Gaul, which had been quiet since Vercingetorix, an uprising broke out, but it could be put down. In Spain, the governor Sulpicius Galba finally fell away from Nero and was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard in Rome shortly after the emperor's suicide. (If it was a suicide...)
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| He only wanted to sing...Nero and the burning city of Rome |
In Germany, the Roman army did not agree with this development and in turn proclaimed the legate Aulus Vitellius, a popular commander, to be emperor. A little later, Galba was murdered in Rome and the Praetorian Guard quickly found a new emperor in Salvius Otho. Thereupon Vitellius decided to move from Germany to Italy with about 60,000 men in order to secure the imperial throne for himself. Incumbent Otho was defeated by Vitellius in the (first) Battle of Bedriacum (near Cremona) and Vitellius actually became emperor.
Six months later, however, he had to face the troops of Mark Antony Primus (Second Battle of Bedriacum), who had sided with the general Flavius Vespasianus, who was the fourth candidate for the imperial throne. After Vitellius was defeated in a strange night battle, Vespasian eventually became the next Roman emperor for ten years. One of his first acts was the suppression of the uprising in Germany.
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| The heirs to the throne: Galba, Vitellius and Vespasian. As you can see: they all look like nice guys. |
The fog is clearing on the Lower Rhine
Around the time when Vitellius left Germany with large parts of the Roman army the Germanic tribes scented the morning air and recognized an opportunity to finally throw off the Roman yoke. The uprising was led by the Germanic nobleman Iulius Civilis, who had served as the leader of Batavi auxiliary troop in the Roman service.
Before that, he and his brother Paulus had fallen out of favor under Emperor Nero and had been imprisoned. His brother was executed. After Nero finally committed suicide Civilis was pardoned by Galba, who, as mentioned above, held the throne for a few weeks. Civilis hurried back to Germany, gathered an army around him and began to fight the Romans. (And by the way: when I hear and read stories like this, I am always amazed at the speed with which these people have covered long distances.) I believe that he saw how shaken the Empire was while he was in Rome and this knowledge was the key factor to start the revolt.
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| Medieval depiction of the battle of the Batavians for Xanten (from: Romanorvm et Batavorvm societas, graphic by Antonio Tempesta 1555-1630). Note the completely wrong representation. Tempesta dressed everyone as they were dressed in his own time, the soldiers look like landsknechts. And he did not know the the Towers of Vetera (Xanten) were not round. Through long periods of history, even educated people had no reliable information about what it actually looked like in ancient times. |
Finally, Vespasian, who had become emperor, put a total of 8 legions on the march to stop the rebellion. One of them was withdrawn from Britain and two from Spain. Given the fact that Rome "only" had 30 legions, one can estimate the importance of the uprising.
One must bear in mind that a successful Germanic uprising would have severely shaken the Roman Empire. The British and the Gauls would certainly have responded to that. There could have been a general rebellion against the Empire all over Europe. So showing any sign of weakness was not an option.
In autumn of 70 the rebellion was over. The overwhelming power of Rome, various lost battles, lack of food, winter, floods, fatigue and even betrayal ensured that the insurgents had to give up their fight after a little over a year. At the end of AD 70, Civilis surrendered and then disappeared from history.
And it became quiet on the Lower Rhine until... but that's a different story.
This is the background for my first ancient campaign. Of course, this episode is of particularly interest for me because a large part of the action took place here or in relative proximity. Normally you always have the feeling that everything about the Roman Empire took place in areas far away. But the Lower Rhine region has played an interesting role several times in the history of the Roman Empire.
In the course of the 69 uprising there were raids, sieges and even 'regular' battles on the Lower Rhine area and in Lower Germany. This is a good starting point not only for making the roman miniatures, but also doing research, reading, developing rules (maybe), making a campaign plan with a local reference and including various excursions and museum visits. All the background stuff people outside the wargame world don't see when they look "only" at the miniature games.
