UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDIES
IN THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
VOL IV. NO. 2 JUNE 1915
BOARD OF EDITORS
ERNEST L. BOGART JOHN A. FAIRLIE
LAURENCE M. LARSON
Published by the University of Illinois
Under the Auspices of the Graduate School
Urbana, Illinois
Copyright, 1915
By the University of Illinois
WILLIAM A. OLDFATHER, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Classics, University of Illinois
AND
HOWARD VERNON CANTER, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Illinois
The present monograph is the outcome of a certain dissatisfactionfelt with the traditional view as expressed in someof the literature which appeared six years ago on the occasionof the nineteen-hundredth anniversary of the battle of theTeutoburg forest. The principal theses as here presented werejotted down at the time, and although a variety of circumstancesprevented their immediate elaboration, they were notforgotten, collections of literature were made from time to time,as occasion offered, and the general course of argument outlined.In 1912 Mr. Cyrus S. Gentry, then a graduate studentin this university, working under the supervision of Mr. Oldfather,prepared and submitted, in partial fulfilment of therequirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Classics, athesis entitled: “The Effect of the Defeat of Varus upon theImperial Policy of Rome regarding the Northern Frontier.”We desire to express our thanks to Mr. Gentry for kind permissionto use some of his collections of material. The presentwork is, however, a wholly independent production, being muchmore extensive and detailed, and differing substantially in planand scope. Active work upon the present study was begun byus in cooperation in the spring of 1914, and continued, withintermissions, to the present time.
In the first part, which deals with the traditional view, wehave gone into some detail in the presentation and criticismof current explanations, with the hope that, as a review of presentand past opinion, it may not be without value, even if ournew interpretation fail to receive general acceptance. A certainamount of repetition in the two parts of the monographhas thus been rendered unavoidable, but though this may attimes prove tiresome, it contributes to the clearness of the argument,which is, after all, the chief consideration.
To some it may perhaps seem unfortunate that a discussionof such a subject as this should appear at a time when theGerman nation is involved in a momentous conflict. We do not[vi]so feel. Disinterested scholarship should not be affected bytransitory or even permanent emotions. We are confident thatour work has not been so affected. That we have been compelledin scientific candor to destroy a certain glamor which has beenattributed to an early period of German history, has not thesligh