"In September AD 9, half of Rome's western army was ambushed in a German forest. Three legions, some 14,000 men under the Roman general Varus, were wiped out by an army of Germanic tribes led by 27-year-old Arminius. The defeat dealt a brutal blow to Rome's imperial pretensions; no other battle stopped the Roman Empire in its tracks. Rome's Greatest Defeat brings to life the battle itself, the historical background, the personalities involved and the implications of defeat." "Drawing on new archaeological evidence, this is the first book to give a full account of one of the most significant and dramatic battles in Europe and its impact on European history, ancient and modern."--BOOK JACKET.