Arminius - Traitor or Patriot?

[Speedy]

I am currently reading a very interesting book, "ROMES GREATEST DEFEAT - Massacre In The Teutoburg Forest" by Adrian Murdoch and was interested to know peoples opinions of Arminius.

[Blademaster]

He betrayed his word, which was to the Roman Empire when he became a citizen of Rome.

[Officer of Engineers]

Rome betrayed him.

[Blademaster]

How did Rome betrayed him?

[BoomerAlpha]

I beleive he was an oportunist
Sorry about the mis-spelling

[Officer of Engineers]

How did Rome betrayed him?

By treaty, Arminius's people were to provide troops for the Empire. They were used as "cannon fodder" instead.

[Polybius]

Arminius assimilated the Roman culture and he was the object of envy by the establishment of his time

[Merovee]

I voted all three because it depends on which perspective you view him as. Hermann was certainly a hero.

[clackers]

A much less admirable figure who pretty much handed Bengal over to Robert Clive and the East India Company:

Mir Jafar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[pate]

"Varus, give me back my legions!"

Rome: Total War has a scenario battle where you can attempt to win as the Romans (I've found it impossible every time I've tried it...) I think you may even be able to command the German troops (never tried it, didn't sound like a challenge after playing as the Romans...)

I knew it was an ambush, but just did a tiny bit of reading up on the history of it. Seems to me that Arminius was more of an opportunist. Romans at the time viewed the Germans as barbarians right? Why did they trust the guy? Because he had been a hostage in his youth? The "Stockholm Syndrome" hadn't been invented yet.

[astralis]

bring out the dead kitten recipes!

well, now that i'm here-- the words "traitor" and "patriot" is pretty amusing to me, as who here is a roman citizen or a member of arminius's tribe?

[zraver]

bring out the dead kitten recipes!

First ingrediant



Tender Kitten Stew


All you need is:
four young fresh kittens
three large onions

100 g real butter (or olive oil if you prefer)
bottle of dry white wine
fresh sprig of rosemary;
three cloves of garlic;
pepper and salt;



First grab a few kittens from the landing, or buy them off the babuskas in the metro. Then chop the onions in rings and crush the garlic cloves. Heat the butter in a large frying-pan it starts to get brown and then add the onions and garlic. Let these fry on full heat for a few minutes.
Then chop each kitten into medium-sized chunks (not too small!).
Add the chopped kittens to the fried onions an garlic. Keep stirring for five minutes till the eyes of the kittens get waxy. Then add the wine and rosemary and close the lid. Let the kittens simmer away in the frying-pan for about one hour. The stew is ready when the tails come off quite easily.

Bon appetit!

[cyppok]

I always thought these people that went to Rome and got educated were ahem "hostages" like Arminius and thus their loyalty was more or less forced.