Drusus was one of Rome's bravest generals โ the first to sail the wild northern sea and the first to push deep into the forests of Germany. Then, according to legend, a giant figure appeared in his path and told him his time was up. Whether you believe the story or not, what happened next set the edge of the Roman Empire for hundreds of years.
When Rome first marched up to the banks of the Rhine River, you'd expect the thing stopping them to be some massive rival empire with bigger swords and better war machines. It wasn't. The people who held the lands beyond the river were a simple forest folk. They lived in scattered villages and survived by hunting. Later writers sometimes called them "forest children" โ not because they were small, but because they were tall, strong adults who still met the most powerful army on earth with a kind of fearless, childlike boldness.
The tribes beyond the Rhine lived in scattered forest villages and fought the Roman army with surprise, knowledge of the land, and stubborn courage rather than big organized battles.
An Enemy Rome Couldn't Figure Out
What really unsettled the Romans was how strange these people seemed to them. The clever, calculating Roman mind couldn't make sense of a chieftain who would cut down a dozen enemies in battle without mercy โ but who would also ride, unarmed, into the enemy camp ahead of time just to agree on a fair time and place for the fight, so neither side had an unfair advantage. To the Romans, a mysterious enemy they didn't understand was scarier than a whole forest full of swords.
The Bravest Roman of All
Plenty of Roman generals volunteered for the dangerous job up north, but none was braver than Drusus. He was the first Roman captain to sail the feared Northern Ocean, and he built deep, well-paved trenches on the far side of the Rhine that carried his name for centuries afterward. During the reign of Augustus โ the greatest of the Caesars โ Drusus loaded his men onto flat-bottomed boats, crossed the Rhine, and plunged into the forest. It was brutal going. The path led through thick woods and trackless swamps, and many men were lost along the way. The tribes had a smart way of fighting. When they lined up in front of their villages, the Romans usually won and drove them back. But the next day, as the army struggled forward, trees that had been half cut the day before would suddenly crash down, as if by invisible hands, until a tangle of logs blocked the road for hours. At night, eerie calls echoed from one side of the forest, answered by cries from far away, until the more superstitious soldiers swore the woods were haunted. Still, Drusus pushed on, all the way to the Elbe River in the middle of Germany โ farther than any Roman army had ever gone.