Cyclone.

This is coolbert:

As recounted by the Roman historian Cassius Dio the Battle in the Teutoburg Forest:

"Chapters 18-24 of Book 56 of Dio's Roman History"

[56.20.3] "Meanwhile a violent rain and wind came up that separated them [Romans] still further, while the ground, that had become slippery around the roots and logs, made walking very treacherous for them, and the tops of the trees kept breaking off and falling down, causing much confusion."

. . . .

[56.21.3] "They [Romans] were still advancing when the fourth day dawned, and again a heavy downpour and violent wind assailed them, preventing them from going forward and even from standing securely, and moreover depriving them of the use of their weapons. For they [Romans] could not handle their bows or their javelins with any success, nor, for that matter, their shields, which were thoroughly soaked."

First the "violent rain and wind". Then the wagons and baggage train to include the catapulta become mired. Impedimenta abandoned by the legions. Then the bow strings cannot be strung and the shields cannot be lifted, so heavy and sodden with rain. Repeated attacks by the barbarians and ultimate Roman defeat inevitable and absolute.

I recommend highly without qualification or reservation this You Tube video: "Perfect Storms: THE LOST LEGIONS | Full Documentary". The destruction of the three Roman Legions, 9 A.D.. The Battle of the Teutoburger Wald. Germanic tribesmen si, Romans no!

We can reasonably infer the storm as beset the Roman legions was AN EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE! A temperate zone hurricane as moving across the Atlantic from west to east. Wind and rain of prodigious proportions, biblical in scale and nature!

These cyclones do occur on a periodic basis the amount of catastrophic damage immense. Romans caught in such a storm only exacerbating their already tenuous situation. It might even be the German barbarian by observing the cloud formations were able to anticipate the arrival of the storm and took advantage of such extreme inclement weather??

The Romans too entering into the pre-positioned Germani "kill zone" had a bog to their backs. Potentially flooded way beyond normal by torrential downpour. The Roman having entrenched barbarians to the front and an impassable bog to their rear, no line of retreat possible. Curtains as they say!

coolbert.