Publius Quinctilius Varus

Background and early career

Varus was born into the gens Quinctilia. Although he was a patrician by birth, his family, though aristocratic, had long been impoverished and was unimportant. His paternal grandfather Sextus Quinctilius Varus was a senator. His father, also named Sextus Quinctilius Varus, was a senator who had served as a quaestor in 49 BC. This Sextus aligned with the Senatorial Party in the civil war against Gaius Julius Caesar. Although Sextus survived the defeat, it is unknown whether he was involved in the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar. Sextus committed suicide after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. The mother of Varus is unknown. Varus had three sisters. They were probably all younger based on when they started having children, so it seems likely he was born at least four years before his father’s suicide.

Despite Varus’ father political allegiances, he became one of the supporters of the heir of Julius Caesar, Octavian. When Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died in early 12 BC, Varus delivered his funeral eulogy. His political career was boosted and his cursus honorum finished as early as 13 BC, when he was elected consul with Tiberius, the stepson and successor of Augustus.

Marriages and children

Varus married Vipsania Marcella Agrippina, a daughter of Agrippa, at an unknown date before 13 BC. Varus became a personal friend to Marcus Agrippa and Tiberius. The historian Josephus says (in a section of his Antiquities whose manuscript tradition Walther John believed to be corrupt) that the son of Varus served under him during his command in Syria. If true, that son would have to be a son by a prior marriage and not the son by his last wife, Claudia Pulchra.

Vipsania Marcella disappears from history. It is unknown whether she died or was divorced. Varus married again to Claudia Pulchra. She was a daughter of Claudia Marcella Minor and the Roman consul of 12 BC, Marcus Valerius Messalla Appianus. Her maternal grandparents were the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor and Octavia the Younger, sister of Augustus. Hence she was a grand-niece of Augustus. His marriage to Pulchra shows that Varus still enjoyed political favor. Pulchra bore Varus a son, also called Publius Quinctilius Varus. Through their son, they may have had further descendants.

Political career

In 8-7 BC, Varus governed the province of Africa. Later he went to govern Syria from 7/6 BC until 4 BC with four legions under his command, where he was known for his harsh rule and high taxes. The Jewish historian Josephus mentions the swift action of Varus against a messianic revolt in Judaea after the death of Roman Client King Herod the Great in 4 BC. After occupying Jerusalem, he crucified 2000 Jewish rebels and may have thus been one of the prime objects of popular anti-Roman sentiment in Judaea. (Josephus, who made every effort to reconcile the Jewish people to Roman rule, felt it necessary to point out how lenient this judicial massacre had been.) Indeed, at precisely this moment the Jews, nearly en masse, began a full-scale boycott of Roman pottery (Red Slip Ware). Thus, the archaeological record seems to verify mass popular protest against Rome because of Varus' cruelty.

It is possible that the long running dispute over the historicity of the narrative in Luke's Gospel chapter 2 about the birth of Christ at the same time as a census held "whilst Quirinius was governor of Syria" is to be explained simply by a mistaken spelling by the Gospel author.The problem with "Quirinius" is that he became governor only when Archelaus, son and part-heir of Herod, was deposed by the Romans in AD 6 but both Luke and Matthew indicate that Jesus was born before the death of Herod 10 years earlier. However, if Luke had intended to write "Quinctilius" - an easy mistake to make - then the problem goes away altogether for he was indeed the governor at just the right time.

Following the governorship of Syria, Varus returned to Rome and remained there for the next few years. Between 10 BC and 6 AD Tiberius, his brother Drusus, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Germanicus conducted long campaigns in Germania, the area north of the Upper Danube and east of the Rhine, in an attempt at achieving a further major expansion of the Roman Empire together with a shortening of its frontier line. They subdued several Germanic tribes, such as the Cherusci. In 6 AD, Tiberius declared Germany pacified, and Varus was appointed to govern Germania. Tiberius, who would later rule as Emperor, left the region to suppress the Great Illyrian Revolt.

Augustus made Publius Quinctilius Varus the first "officially appointed" governor of the newly created Roman province of Germania in 7 AD.

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and death

In September 9 AD Varus was preparing to leave his summer headquarters in Vetera (today Xanten) and march the three legions with him, the Seventeenth, the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth, to Moguntiacum (Mainz today), when news arrived from the Germanic prince Arminius (a Roman citizen and leader of an auxiliary cavalry unit) of a growing revolt in the Rhine area to the West. Ignoring a warning from Segestes not to trust Arminius, Varus marched his forces behind the latter's lead.

Not only was Varus' trust in Arminius a terrible misjudgement, but Varus compounded it by placing his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and those of the Germanic tribesmen maximized -- because he expected no ambush and very little trouble in intimidating the rebels. Arminius and the Cherusci tribe along with other allies, had skillfully laid an ambush, and in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in September at Kalkriese (East of modern Osnabrück), the Romans marched right into it.

The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the infantry manoeuvres of the legions impossible to execute and allowed the Germans to defeat the legions in detail. On the third day of fighting, the Germans overwhelmed the Romans at Kalkriese Hill, North of Osnabrück. Accounts of the defeat are scarce, due to the totality of the defeat, but Velleius Paterculus testifies that some Roman cavalrymen abandoned the infantry and fled towards the Rhine, but they were intercepted by the German tribesmen and killed. Varus himself, upon seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to Bohemia as a present to King Marbod of the Marcomanni, the other most important Germanic leader, whom Arminius wanted to coax into an alliance, but Marbod declined the offer and sent the head on to Rome for burial.

Some captured Romans were caged and burned alive (see Edward Gibbon); others were enslaved or ransomed. Tacitus and Florus report that the victorious Germanic tribes tortured and sacrificed captive officers to their gods on altars that could still be seen years later. The Romans did later recover the lost legions' eagles, two of them in 15, 16 and the third in 42. The Romans never again conquered the Germans east of the Rhine despite the expeditions of Germanicus in 15-16, and a few later conflicts.

Aftermath

So great was the shame, and the ill luck thought to adhere to the numbers of the Legions, that XVII, XVIII and XIX never again appear in the Roman Army's order of battle. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest was keenly felt by Augustus, darkening his remaining years. According to the biographer Suetonius, upon hearing the news, Augustus tore his clothes, refused to cut his hair for months and, for years afterwards, was heard, upon occasion, to moan, "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!" (Quintili Vare, legiones redde!). Roman historians referred to the battle as the clades Variana ("Varian disaster").

Gibbon describes Augustus' reaction to the defeat as one of the few times the normally stoic ruler lost his composure. Varus' political legacy in Rome was destroyed, and the government blamed him for the defeat. His son's chances for a political career were ruined. Tiberius himself fell under severe criticism for recommending Varus as the governor of Germania. Tiberius, according to Gaius Stern, was forced to sacrifice his friend and former brother-in-law to save his career. Furthermore, Varus himself had been one of the figures on the Ara Pacis, but the figure is lost today.

Stern has proposed that common citizens vandalized the Ara Pacis by damaging Varus in anger over their lost loved ones, leaving the regime, who had blamed Varus, uncertain as to whether or not to fix the damage. Approximately 40 years after Varus' death, a general under Claudius (a grandnephew of Augustus) Pomponius Secundus, raided Germany and by chance rescued a few POWs from Varus’ army. Claudius welcomed them home after so many years, and their sad stories aroused much pity.

In fiction

It doesn't mention the fact that historically, the battle lasted for some three days, in which the Romans were subjected to attacks day and night; of the three legions, some 20,000–36,000 men - anywhere between 16,000 and 20,000 died. Some were enslaved, and some were ransomed back. Nor that the fight didn't quite end with that battle.

In this depiction, the battle is given much more detail- Varus is still apparently alive by nightfall of the first day- the process repeats again; a pattern of running daytime attacks, followed by a prolonged night attack by the Ghost Warriors. Varus also seems to have survived the second day- by the third day, the legions have been broken up, and isolated. Varus, not wanting to be taken- and knowing his likely fate, he literally 'falls on his sword'. Varus' head is also sent to Augustus in this version.