Only years later does Ari, now known as Arminius, return to his homeland. The childhood friends soon become secret lovers, for the chieftain’s daughter has been promised to another. While Ari and his brother are handed over to the Romans as a token of peace by their father, a Cherusci tribe chieftain, the spearman Folkwin and Thusnelda stay back in the village. © Netflix / Photo: Katalin Vermes“Barbarians” entwines the events leading up to the battle with the fates of three friends: Folkwin (David Schütter), Ari (Laurence Rupp), and Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursaud) have been bound by an oath since childhood. Archeologists have identified the site of the days-long bloodbath as being close to Bramsche-Kalkriese in the Osnabrück region, where excavations have unearthed numerous finds from the battlefield. General Publius Quinctilius Varus fell on his sword in shame. Their cunning ambush cost at least 15,000 Romans their lives – an eighth of the Roman army.
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Led by Arminius, a chieftain of the Cherusci tribe who is also known as Hermann, an alliance of Germanic tribes destroyed three Roman legions plus their auxiliaries in the year 9 AD – despite the fact that the rebels were far fewer in number than their adversaries. The massacre had far-reaching consequences, abruptly put the brakes on the expansionary pretensions of the Roman Empire in Germania, and proved a turning point in the history of the entire continent.
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What is far more surprising is that it has taken until now for a TV production to feature the legendary battle that saw the Roman Empire suffer a previously unimaginable defeat. Tension? Not really – after all, we know only too well who butchered whom during the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest back in the day, which leaves little scope for spoilers.
However, while this conventionally produced bloodfest would love to be as cool as “Vikings” or as wild as “Britannia”, it has the clunky feel of a swashbuckling community theater production.
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This wouldn’t even be such a problem if the series had at least surprised the viewer with some original ideas and entertaining plot twists, or didn’t take itself quite so seriously. A risky ménage-à-trois, rolling heads and the obligatory crucifixion were also served up, naturally. The happy anticipation did not last long, as “Barbarians” soon proved to be not nearly as original as its PR campaign: worse still, the six-part history lesson turned out for the most part to be an inane historical soap opera, its characters sporting a hip grimy look complete with chicly draped furs, rakishly braided shaggy hairstyles and no shortage of blood spatter.
It all got off to such a promising start: shortly before the series launch, Netflix admen garnered nods of smiling acknowledgment from many film critics by releasing press material in Latin. Nonetheless, it is not only the lame dialogs that exude the musty odor of long-forgotten Latin classes. Now, Netflix’s first epic historical series “Barbarians”, which sees the streaming service devote six episodes to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, is anything but dry. “Arminius really thrashed old Varus – 9 AD is the date to remember” is a very rough translation of a mnemonic taught to German schoolchildren that will doubtless reawaken memories of dry history lessons for anyone who had to study the ancient world and the Annals of the Roman scholar Tacitus.
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