FATEFUL CHOICES · SEP, AD 9 · GERMANIA
Varus reads the warning
September, AD 9. Three Roman legions are about to march into the Teutoburg Forest, guided by a trusted German officer named Arminius who has secretly raised all Germania against them. The night before, at dinner, a loyal chieftain warns the governor to arrest his guide. In our timeline Varus laughed it off as a family feud. This is the timeline where he listens.
You are reading the timeline that almost was · notes marked THE RECORD are real history
AD 9 · THE LAST DINNER
The camp on the Weser is packing for winter quarters, and Publius Quinctilius Varus, governor of the new Germania, is at dinner with his German friends. One of them is the young nobleman Arminius: citizen of Rome, knight of Rome, commander of Rome’s German auxiliaries. He has spent the summer quietly raising every tribe between the rivers for a massacre. Another, the old chieftain Segestes, leans over the wine and tells Varus exactly that. He offers his own proof: arrest us all tonight, himself included, and see which chiefs’ warriors rise by morning. In our timeline Varus smiled, because Arminius had stolen Segestes’ daughter, and family grievance explains everything.
In the timeline recorded here, the governor puts down his cup and looks at his guide too long.
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