Prof. Van Creveld doesn’t know his history, either. The emperor Augustus did not send his legions into Germany to lose them in 9 BC. The German campaigns began quite early in Augustus’ principate, in about 16 BC, when Augustus’ stepsons Tiberius and Drusus began a series of very successful moves against the German tribes, reaching the river Elbe. By Drusus’ death in 9 BC, Germania was part of the Roman empire. Pacification began, and Tiberius was able to tour the new province in 4-5 AD in a show of strength, after which he planned campaigns against the Marcomanni, who lived in what is now the Czech Republic. Quinctilius Varus, an able administrator but no general, was appointed governor of Germania to get taxes out of the province. The Germans under Arminius (or Hermann the German to generations of British schoolchildren) rose in revolt and wiped out Varus’ command of three legions in the Teutoberger Wald in 9 AD, twenty-five years after the German campaigns began. The Romans withdrew from Germany in shock, with Tiberius holding the Rhineland province intact, and the old emperor is said to have wandered his palace at night, crying out, “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!”

Doesn’t quite fit the picture, does it?