Battle of the Teutoburg Forest Context and Background 12 B.C. Augustus, with Gaul now firmly in hand 1, has dispatched his adopted son Drusus (father of the Emperor Claudius) to conquer and pacify Germania barbara (trans-Rhenic Germany). The campaign, despite determined resistance from the Germans, is a success; the Empire, by the conclusion of the campaign, has added to 3. Germania Superior is now a nominal province of the Roman Empire, administered by the ex-consul Publius Quinctilius Varus. The picture that we have of this man is of a soft and greedy lifer, able perhaps to govern a peac...