Folkwin is believed dead but has actually been enslaved. Arminius leads Varus and three Roman legions into the Teutoburg Forest — and into history. Thusnelda makes a bloody sacrifice to preserve the alliance.
Is Netflix's Barbarians based on a true story? Much like The Last Kingdom, Barbarians is partly based on real history and partly a work of fiction, but showrunners Jan Martin Scharf and Arne Nolting have aimed for a high level of authenticity in what we see on screen.
The show is very loosely based on the historical events leading up to and surrounding the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, in which an alliance of several Germanic tribes won a crushing victory against the Romans and destroyed three whole Roman legions.
Folkwin is the father of Thusnelda's childFolkwin Wolfspear (David Schütter) is a member of a Germanic tribe and he has a romantic relationship with Thusnelda who is married to Arminius.
In May 15 AD, Thusnelda was captured by Germanicus, who commanded the invasion of Germania. Arminius grieved his loss of Thusnelda deeply and did not marry again. According to Tacitus, Arminius was "driven to frenzy" by the loss of his wife.
Five years later, Arminius was killed on the orders of rival Germanic chiefs. Although Arminius could not keep unity among the Germanic tribes, the loss of Roman legions in the Teutoburg forest had a far-reaching effect on the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire.
The Romans were able to "conquer" large parts of Germania, briefly. They were unable to HOLD it for any length of time. The reason stemmed from the region's "backwardness." There was no central government or central power through which the Romans could operate. There were no cities (except the ones the Romans built).
To keep such a large number of men in order, it was divided up into groups called 'legions'. Each legion had between 4,000 and 6,000 soldiers. A legion was further divided into groups of 80 men called 'centuries'. The man in charge of a century was known as a 'centurion'.
Too, Arminius was killed by his own relatives or kinsmen (Tacitus, II. 88), not by his in-laws (or Segestes).
Barbarians season one left us with the cliffhanger that Thusnelda, wife of Arminius but lover of Folkwin Wolfspeer (an invention of the series and not a real person from history), was pregnant with Folkwin's child.
The Roman Empire would launch no other major incursion into Germania until Marcus Aurelius (r.
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
| Date | circa September 9 CE |
|---|
| Result | Germanic victory |
| Territorial changes | Romans established a limes in the Rhine |
Invasions by Barbarian tribes
Rome had tangled with Germanic tribes for centuries, but by the 300s “barbarian†groups like the Goths had encroached beyond the Empire's borders. The Romans weathered a Germanic uprising in the late fourth century, but in 410 the Visigoth King Alaric successfully sacked the city of Rome.| Sack of Rome (410) |
|---|
| The Sack of Rome by the Barbarians in 410 by Joseph-Noël Sylvestre, 1890 |
| Date 24 August 410 AD Location Rome Result Decisive Visigothic Victory |
| Belligerents |
| Visigoths | Western Roman Empire |
The Roman Empire of the 1st century AD is renowned as one of the most deadly and successful fighting forces in history. But even the greats sometimes suffer defeats, and in 9 AD, in the forests of Germany, the Roman army lost a tenth of its men in a single disaster.
Rome would not have stopped there either until the entire world was Roman. If the entire world had become Roman the entire world would have followed Christianity and there would not have been any Crusades for the promise lands of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
