| Battle: Meuse River | Caesar/Usipetes+Tencteri | 55 |
In winter 56/5 BC two German tribes, the Usipetes and Tencteri, having three years earlier been driven from their homes by the Suebi, crossed the Rhine to settle along the Meuse River. In the spring Caesar joined his legions in Normandy then set out to intercept the Germans. Early negotiations concluded a truce but when an advance guard of Roman horse arrived at the Meuse they were attacked and defeated by a force of German cavalry. When the Germans sent their chiefs to apologise for the incident, Caesar seized them and attacked their camp the following day. Deprived of their leaders and caught by surprise, Caesar drove them back towards the confluence of the Rhine and the Meuse, massacring tens of thousands of men, women and children as a message intended to deter other Germanic tribes from entering Roman territory.
The Germanic Ubii now requested aid against the Suebi and offered their ships to transport Caesar and his army across the Rhine. Caesar instead decided to further impress the Germans by building a substantial bridge across the river. It took his troops only ten days to build a timber bridge on wooden piles driven into the riverbed. Posting a strong guard at either end of the bridge, Caesar led his army across and moved eastwards up the Sieg and then along its tributary the Agger.
Several tribes offered their submission, but the Sugambri retired from their territory with their wealth. Caesar devastated their country and marched into the land of the Ubii, where he learned that the Suebi had collected all their fighting men and were waiting for the arrival of the Romans a few days’ march to the east. But having accomplished all he had intended. Caesar marched back across the bridge and then destroyed it. The first Roman invasion of Germany had lasted eighteen days.
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