Accidental time travel into a savage battle between Romans and Germanic tribes. Making good friends and terrifying enemies, adventure and betrayal in a dark forest 2000 years ago.
So, you’re at school and things aren’t great and every night you have these intense dreams, climbing a cliff to find a strange door. The moment you go through the door it is gone and you are in the army. The Roman Army. The one that was massacred two thousand years ago. You find some cool friends, everybody else is trying to kill you. Including a ginger bodybuilder from your own time who wants to change history.
And you cannot wake up.
We all dream, but some dreams are different. Some can steer their dreams to visit the past, look at Cleopatra or attend the games at the Colosseum. It’s harmless, they go, they look, they go back to their own time. But a dream traveller has found a way to go back in time and change history, and history has sent a schoolboy to stop him, for no one can predict what will happen if you change history.
Sammy’s dream lands him in a savage land, with mortal danger around every turn. Can he save the course of history before being killed?
This story is set around the events of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, but it is not about that battle. Very little is known about it, for it happened in a primitive part of the world and those who would normally write these things down were generally killed during the battle.
It also happened very long ago, 9AD, so if Jesus was born in the year 0, as in the year between BC and AD, he would have been 8 or 9 years old. That long ago.
Battle of Teutoburg Forest
The Battle of Teutoburg Forest was one of Rome’s greatest military defeats. There were earlier defeats before Rome became an Empire, and of course, towards the end, the whole Western Empire fell apart.
But this battle was at the height of the Empire, during the reign of Augustus. Rome was pretty confident about their dominance in the known world, which is why the defeat cut so deep.
Three legions were ambushed and almost totally annihilated in an ambush by Germanic tribes in a dark forest The Germanic tribes were considered as savage but primitive by the Romans, but their warlike skills were well known by the Romans.
The Roman forces were commanded by Publius Quintilius Varus.
It consisted of three legions, six cohorts of auxiliary troops and three squadrons of cavalry. There were also huge numbers of non-combat personnel and camp followers.
The Germanic forces consisted of an alliance made up of various tribes, led by Arminius of the Cherusci tribe.
Although much of the written history of this battle was written many years later, it would seem as if the inexperienced Varus was lured into a trap.
The battle lasted three days.
The great body of people making up the Roman Legions as lured into a narrow valley and had to travel along narrow, muddy tracks.
The inexperienced Varus allowed his people to string along a long straggling line up to twenty kilometres long, with soldiers and non-combatants mingled up in a disorganised muddle.
Varus also neglected to send out proper reconnaissance forces to probe the unknown terrain.
A massive storm further disoriented the hapless Romans, and the Germanic tribes were able to attack the Romans’ flanks from the dark forests on either side of the column.
That night the battered Romans were able to set up a fortified camp. The next morning they set off and the Germanic attacks started again. Again the Romans were forced into densely forested areas and their losses mounted.
The final blow came at the foot of modern-day Kalkriese Hill, where the Romans were forced into a narrow passage flanked by the hill and a great swamp on the other side.
In the end, the Roman generals were surrounded. Some fell on their swords, while others were slaughtered as they tried to fight their way out.
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