Well, it seems that Arminius didn't have the last laugh in northern Germania after all![A knife case binder. Photo: C.S. Fuchs]
ARCHAEOLOGISTS say the history books about Roman legions in Europe will have to be revised following the "sensational" discovery of a battlefield in northern Germany this week.
Arrowheads, axes, catapults, spears, coins and lucky charms of the centurions of Rome
who clashed with the Hun tribesmen in the 3rd century AD have been found in a forest. The clash of arms, say experts, would have resembled those portrayed in the Russell Crowe epic Gladiator.
Six hundred artefacts have been dug up so far in what archaeologists are calling "the find of the century".
The detritus of war lies in a patch of land near Northeim, about 50 kilometres from Hanover. The spear tips and arrowheads have the DNA of their victims on them, centuries after they died in a ferocious battle.
What makes the find unique is that it shows Roman armies in action long after the last clash — the great battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD9 when Arminius annihilated three of the seven legions of Rome — was thought to have occurred.
"Evidently the Romans and Germans fought a bloody battle in the third century AD," said archaeologist Petra Loenne. "Some 1000 Roman legionnaires may have been involved in the fight."
Intriguingly, the find includes more than 300 iron projectiles that were fired by powerful Roman torsion weapons known as scorpions, which could catapult heavy darts with a high velocity and deadly accuracy.
It had a range of 300 metres and was portrayed in the opening battle scene of Gladiator.
"The bolts were found densely clustered," said archaeologist Henning Hassmann.
