This book gives an account of the Roman attempt to conquer Germany. These campaigns and their failure, are important because they showed that the Roman Empire could not expand indefinitely. Also they are an interesting study of asymmetric warfare.

The account given here focuses on how the Roman military machine functioned, and how it tried to overcome the problems of movement and supply among a hostile population. The book includes a detailed study of the Varus disaster reaching conclusions different from those reached by other authors.

All too often historians ignore military practicalities, in this case by following Tacitus too closely. This book is a small attempt to rectify this.