Customer Reviews

QUEST FOR THE LOST ROMAN LEGIONS: Discovering the Varus Battlefield

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

HERMANN THE GERMAN
Most of us in the USA have little idea of the impact of Arminius (Hermann) on the soul of German history. Nor do many realize that up to 9AD the Romans were actively patrolling modern Germany as far as the River Elbe. In fact the Romans acted as if they already owned the land EAST of the R. Rhine as far as the River Weser using their very strong military, tax-gathering and commercial presence centered at Minden (on the Weser).

For whatever reason(s) the Germans were done with Romans however and its clear that Arminius grossly outclassed the politically reliable Varus on the field of battle that Summer. This is more noteworthy given Varus' previous military successes in Syria and the fact that Arminius destroyed not two, but three heavy infantry Legions in a running battle that lasted for 3 or 4 days. Major Clunn, MBE, using extraordinary determination and a military eye for lay of the land, rediscovered the final battle site of the 17th, 18th and 19th Legions, in a killing ground that's been lost to history for 1700 years.

VARUSSCHLACHT - FOUND AT LAST
The Kalkriese site is no lager, fortlet or commercial way station as was made amply clear in an personal interview with Major Clunn. Major Clunn neatly demonstrated how landscape descriptions in the Histories of Cassius Dio were used to locate Kalkriese. Kalkriese was a prepared ambush / battle site from which few Romans emerged alive. Even those who did left evidence of their denouement in a peculiar starburst pattern on the far side of the ambush that when mapped pointed back to the trap between the Kalkriese hillside palisades and the bog.

The Kalkreise site has yielded a thousand of as yet uncleaned artifacts that appear to mirror the composition of those military weapons, plate armor, shield bosses and iron handles, belt fittings, marked lead sling bullets, straw stuffed animal bells, Parade Mask, helmets, broken pila, entrenching tools and human bones already on display at the Varusschlacht Museum at Kalkriese, near Osnabruck. Even if ALL the thousands of remaining artifacts are merely hobnails, we know from previous excavations that soldiers shoes used nearly a 100 hobnails each. I am convinced that many, many Roman Legionaries died in battle at Kalkriese. And Major Clunn wraps the tedium of hard work with a dramatized account of the last days of the Legions. Altogether the "The Quest..." makes interesting reading.

One thing I missed was the outcome of Major Clunn's search for the place where Drusus died. This has not received a public accounting but through no fault of the Major's. The publisher decided to cut that story to keep the focus on the Legions. Since that is still Major Clunn's story, I'll leave to him to reveal the details.

Another interesting bit of history mentioned is the "Hermann (Arminius) the Cherusker Monument" in New Ulm, Minnesota. This monument to the man (now in the National Register) who so ably marked German History mirrors the one build in Germany at Detmold.

For Historians & Re-enactors - RECOMMENDED.

I visited the Varus Battle site and museum in 2003 and came across an earlier version of this book and was fascinated then and now.

"The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions" relates one of the more amazing archeological journeys and detective work in modern times. It traces one man's tenacity, pursuing a theory in what the author calls "the long, exhilarating, and often frustrating journey to document where Varus and his men met their end".

Major Clunn, at the beginning of the events in 1987 stationed with the British Rhine Army in the Osnabrück area, is an amateur archaeologist and military historian, a combination well suited to the task he set himself. He had been intrigued by the assertion of the 19th century German historian Theodor Mommsen that coins found in the Kalkriese area indicated a specific topographic gap as the location of the Varus Battle. This assertion had always been met with deep skepticism by archaeologists and historians up to our era, whereas Clunn's military historian expertise led him to giving more credence to the claim. After he found several coins himself, pin-pointing the 9 AD time frame, he contacted the local archaeological authorities to gain official permission to continue his excavations. This was granted to him, although Wolfgang Schlüter, the man in charge, very much doubted that anything would come of it.

The results are now known to anyone interested in Roman and/or military history.

The two men eventually began to work closely together, even when Major Clunn was stationed in other parts of Germany and in London. Upon his retirement, Major Clunn settled in the Osnabrück area, and he continues to involve himself in Kalkriese and other archaeological research projects related to the subject. He received various awards in Germany, recognizing his work, as well the British OBE for his services to Anglo-British relations.

The book, based on his diaries and other records, tells a gripping tale! From early beginnings of just finding coins the story moves on to the exciting find of three pearl shaped stones which turned out to be sling shot pieces, to co-operation with Dr. Schlüter's team, to the famous silver battle mask and other military objects, and finally bones of slain soldiers, much of which can be seen now at the Kalkriese/Varusschlacht Museum. Along the way, the author made friends with local farmers and land-holders on whose properties he did his excavations, sometimes assisted by his children, as well as with other archaeologists and historians. The reader follows the story from day one and shares the author's "exhilaration and frustration" as it unfolds. There are a number of surprises here which I will not reveal, as it would spoil the suspense; therefore, this is not a lengthy review.

Interspersed in the narrative is an imaginative fictional re-telling of the events leading to the battle and the battle itself, based on ancient historians, various archaeological finds, and Major Clunn's knowledge of the topography, thereby fleshing out the story.

Visits to the archaeological site of Varus's winter camp near the town of Haltern and similar locations round out the picture.
To any aficionado of archaeology, let alone military history, this is a thoroughly entertaining read.

There are also excellent explanatory maps as well as photos and illustrations of archaeological objects.

The book would have profited from a German-speaking "reader" though: there are a number of misspellings of names and locations.

It is difficult to agree with other chaps here that have cheered without any reservation and with so much hoopla this book by Tony Clunn. I agree it is certainly an interesting book and the author could truly boast of having produced an original script, an history book with part of it about his actual labors searching for the lost legions of Varus and the other, mixed with the first, presented in cursive letters, as a fictional narrative where historical and/or not so historical dramatis personnae incarnate what investigation and accurate search know by now about the battle.
But there is a reservation I feel it must be mentioned: being, as it is, a book organically and esentially asociated with geography because the first and esential question is, after all, "where this happened?", it comes as a nasty surprise the almost absolute lack of maps and geographical references to follow the prose of Mr Clunn. There is not even ONE useful map or drawing about the supposed area of the battle, even less of its specifics, its hills, woods, ravines, etc; what's more, the many verbal citations of places, towns, areas etc, lack also of any material reference, so I can imagine that even german readers not familiar with the lanscape of that specific area of Germany have lot of problems to understand the march of Varus troops, the place of the ambushes and the shape and location of the final slaughter field.
The book does not lack photos. Many of them are of the coins and artifacts found, even of the people searching for them in the field. Why was not possible to add some maps? A drawing of the total area of the battle? Perhaps an aerial photography? Was the author compelled NOT to do so due to some german laws or prohibitions about the shape of his territory? At least by now any restriction existent in the time Clunn wrote, if they existed at all, should have been vanished. An edition as the one I have, published this year 2005, should have added something of the sort.
So, just three stars mainly because of that big hole and perhaps, also, due to some deep slackening of the prose and general interest when Clunn abandon his imaginative pen as racounteur and becomes again kind of an amateur archeologist.

Tony Clunn's book is based on archaeological evidence and the Roman texts written by Tacitus and Dio who chronicled that in 9 A.C.E., a Germanic chieftain named Arminius, annihilated twenty thousand Romans in the battle of the Teutoborg Forest. This is one of the most devastating defeats that the Romans ever suffer in their history. This defeat effectively stops the expansion of Roman civilization east of the Rhine River leaving the lands east of the river undeveloped economically, politically, and culturally. The book does a good job of shedding light on the lives of the Roman Emperor Augustus, the Roman general Varus who suffers the defeat, and the German chieftain Arminius who successfully ambushed the Romans. Clunn also details the archaeological work done in the field, the action on the battlefield, and how the course of history changed in Europe because of this Roman defeat.

Clunn's writing style makes this book read like a novel. I found it very enjoyable. I recommend this book for anyone interested in European and Roman history.

I really wanted to give this book 5 stars. My imagination had long been captured by the topic of Arminius' defeat of three Roman legions under Varus in 9 AD, especially after reading Theodor Mommsen's account of the events in a reprint of "The Provinces of Rome" (which I highly recommend to Roman history enthusiasts though I think it is long out of print). So when I heard about Tony Clunn's book I knew immediately I had to have it. And it is excellent in most respects - a first hand account of a dedicated amateur's relentless search for the exact location of the destruction of Varus' legions. I read this through almost at a single sitting - it was that compelling, at least for me.

However, there are a couple of glitches that keep me from awarding 5 starts. First, the maps are inadequate. Much of the story relates the author's patient explorations of farmer's fields with a metal detector. As the story unfolds, a clear pattern of Roman artifacts (primarily coins) emerges. Unfortunately, no detailed map of the area of these searches is included, at least not one showing the locations of many of the author's "breakthrough" finds. There is a map of the overall Kalkriese region, but it is so poorly reproduced as to be unreadable. There are also a couple of decent sketch maps of the route taken by Varus and the location of his troops' final destruction, but ultimately I was left hungry for more.

Also, on occasion, I felt that the text was a bit disjointed, and it wasn't always clear why Clunn decided to search in different locations, sometimes far removed from the actual location of the battle. Possibly this is because the copy I read was an English language version published in the UK and purchased from the .uk Amazon site. Other reviewers have noted that the German language version is expanded.

Finally, I wasn't 100% enamored of the fictionalized retelling of the story which is woven into the modern day narrative. I found it a bit melodramatic and dubious at times.

But these are minor quibbles - the author's fresh writing style, his obvious enthusiasm for his quest, and the irresistible fascination of the subject matter itself all combine to make this an excellent read - highly recommended. [...]

Major Clunn deserves credit for a well-written narrative - he does equally well in recounting his own explorations and in spinning out (admittedly) speculative history.

To denigrate his speculations as "historical fiction" is nonsense. All of the accounts of Varus, Arminius and this battle are almost entirely speculative (fictitious, I guess) -- for example, the expensive fiction of the Hermannsdenkmal. Perhaps we ought to allow some leeway to the man who, after untold thousands of failures and nearly two thousand years, solved the riddle of the site of that battle.

The absence of maps is a warranted critique. Yet, the absence forced me to read this book with constant reference to MS Live Earth and Google Maps. I cannot overstate how much more I learned by proceeding in this fashion -- incomparably more than I would have learned by reference to a few two-dimensional and static maps in a book. So, even in this, the author deserves my praise and appreciation.

In summary, this book provided me with one of my most enjoyable reading experiences in long time, and it is very highly recommended.

How did he know that discovering a cold iron mask in an obscure field would blow to oblivion the previous interpretation of German National folk lore. "In quest of the lost Legions" gives devastating proof of the destruction of the Legions of Varus by Arminius Germanicus in the forests of the Teutoberger Wald, north of Osnabrück at Kalkriese. (Was an EXPO-2000 site). Major (Retd) Tony Clunn MBE tells a riveting story of excitement to uncover the incredible finds that even today are still further coming to light. This is not a dehydrated technical account but an authentic analysis of the authors journals, comprehensible thriving illustration of scientific research, energetical report of archaeological life and a fictional narrative based on the real discoveries.

Despite the title, only about a third of this book's over 300 pages of main text deals with the actual modern-day quest for Varus' lost legions. The remaining roughly two thirds, written in italics, is historical fiction - an imaginative reconstruction of the events leading up to and including the annihilation of Varus' legions. This historical fiction is based on the writings of ancient historians, mainly Tacitus and Cassius Dio, as well as the modern-day finds which have been made thanks to the author's unrelenting (and incredibly successful) efforts to find the Varus battlefield. Although some parts of the fictional reconstruction are clearly unknowable, e.g., private conversations, etc., and are thus clearly fiction, while other parts are generally accepted as historical fact, it is not clear where the dividing line resides. Nevertheless, the historical fiction is extremely well written and is most exciting to read. The archaeological explorations and discoveries are sufficiently detailed and also well written, notwithstanding the fact that a few additional maps would have helped the reader in better following some of the author's geographical discussions. This book should not only appeal to history buffs with a fascination for ancient Roman campaigns and general readers who crave a great action/adventure story, but also to metal detector enthusiasts like the author. Indeed, the author's main field instrument is a metal detector with which he has fulfilled any metal detector enthusiast's wildest dreams.

I was eagerly looking forward to reading this book, and learning more about the battle in the Teutonbergerwald. Most of my knowledge of this event comes from Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God, plus history studies in college - I knew enough to be familiar with the story, but not enough to have gotten into any real detail. I had high hopes for this book...

The first thing that struck me was the author's use of fictional characters and accounts to give the reader a sense of time, place, and events. In a purported nonfiction work, that bothered me. As I read a bit more, I decided that although I wasn't thrilled with the idea, it was working. Then about 1/2-2/3 of the way through, the amount of 'fictionalized' writing started to greatly exceed the amount of NF, and I very quickly became disenchanted with the narrative device again. It didn't help that I feel that the author sensationalized the actual battle - it was pretty graphic and grisly. Yes, it's a battle and battles are not pretty things, but I don't believe that NF should exploit that sad fact - and I felt that this did. That was my first major complaint about this book. On the other hand, this fictionalized writing did good service in showing that the Romans were far from being innocent parties in this situation. Varus was presented as being (very believeably, if you're familiar with the era) arrogant, prejudiced, power-hungry, and overconfident. That did make me stop and think, which was a good thing. It was also a good thing in that the fictional writing pointed out (no idea how true it was) that there were probably plenty of warning signs of the impending rebellion, but Varus chose to ignore them.

The nonfiction part started out well, and was very interesting and informative. It was written based on journals kept by the author during those years. As the story went on, that became more and more apparent in the tone of the writing and soon got 'old'. Many times the author would make a comment that so-and-so mentioned something in conversaton that gave him the 'clue' to make another discovery or something similar - but never told the gist of the coversation or what that tidbit of information was. It turned into almost a guessing game. Annoying... Also, although the author was intimately involved in the research for a number of years, the writing gave what I felt was undue prominence to his investigations. The author was very good about praising the professional team(s) doing the archaeology, but he gave very little mention of their findings, and seemed to focus on their pleasure at HIS findings (which were undoubtedly important, but this didn't come across as a balanced perspective). Again - annoying... Finally I noted a couple of idle comments that struck me as not being completely factual - particularly the comment towards the end where the author says he wants to find the Eagle of the XVII Legion (which his historical fiction shows as being smuggled out of the battle and lost in the marshes). Sorry, a quick Google shows that the Eagles of the XVIII and XIX Legions were recovered during Tiberius' reign and the XVII Legion's Eagle was recovered in 41 AD under Claudius. So, he's a few years too late!

To summarize, overall I wasn't particularly impressed with the writing. Generally speaking, the book was factual, and the NF portions interesting, if a bit weighted towards the author's own contributions. The fictionalized portions took over the book in the last half, and were pretty 'intense' for a NF book. There were a few, relatively minor, inaccuracies here & there. I would have preferred this type of book to be much more scholarly (even if it was not written by a professional historian), and for it to be a little more specific on some accounts. I think that if you're interested in the battle of the Teutonbergerwald, there should be more 'scholarly' books available now, as the discovery is over a decade old. Unfortunately, I don't feel that I could recommend this book.

Note on Kindle formatting: Very good.

This is an exceptional book, perhaps even a unique book, deeply moving yet archaeologically precise and correct. Major Tony Clunn is to be commended for his achievement.

The last time I had such praise for a book was Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, which involved another slaughter, but that is a historical novel. One expects a lot of emotionalism from a novel, but not from a book detailing the progression of archaeological digs. The major purpose of a historical novel, or any novel for that matter, is to tell a story in such an entertaining way that the reader keeps turning the pages, and then likes is well enough to recommend it to friends. In the process, the reader should learn something about the historical era, but the author's first purpose is to entertain, not teach history, so details may be changed to make a good story. That includes characters and events.

Perhaps the most exceptional thing about the Major Clunn's book is that the author is an amateur archaeologist, not a professional, an accomplished and especially competent one, yes, but an amateur nevertheless. The details he recounts, both material and emotional, are simply amazing. This is made possible because from his first visit to the area, he kept detailed notes and diaries, something most non-professionals wouldn't bother with. What I find most unique about this book is how the author was able to stitch together a detailed and totally believable tapestry telling the story of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest by weaving in various actual discoveries from several digs in almost the same exact sequence they were discovered. Absolutely stunning!

It's a great book as it is, but I have a couple of suggestions for improving the next edition. More and better detailed maps would be a big help in orientating a reader unfamiliar with the area and in visualizing the course of the battle. More photographs and an enlarged glossary that included more German terms would also make the going easier..

In conclusion, anyone interested in Roman history, early German tribes, archeology, German history or civilization-changing battles should own this book.