8 Places the Romans Failed to Conquer

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius once said, “be like the cliffs against which the waves break and break.” Here are the stories of eight nations who stood like cliffs against the might of Rome and broke the dreams of emperors.

1. Sudan
2. Yemen
3. Scotland
4. Ireland
5. Iran
6. Armenia
7. Poland
8. Germany

Sudan

Amanirenas, the one-eyed warrior queen of the Kush, should be much more famous than she is. During Augustus’s reign (27 BCE–14 CE), Aelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, levied a tax on the kingdom of Kush, which lay in Nubia in modern-day Sudan. Egypt at the time was part of the empire, but the Kush felt they were decidedly not. Enraged by the tax, Amanirenas conducted a raid on Roman territory, advancing past the First Cataract of the Nile and returning home with prisoners, loot, and the head of Augustus (in statue form). Amanirenas buried the stone head of the emperor beneath her palace stairs so that all comers might tread upon the emperor’s shame and laugh.

Her raid launched years of back-and-forth fighting between the Roman legion and the Kush. At times the legion won victories, razing Nubian towns to the ground, but Amanirenas fought back with ferocity and determination. She fought alongside her soldiers on the field, striking fear into the heart of the legion and losing sight in one eye due to a battlefield injury. By 21 BCE, the Egyptian governor gave in to Aminarenas. Her ambassadors secured their people’s sovereignty from Augustus with the Treaty of Samos, which was described as being essentially a Roman surrender. The treaty would last centuries, and Roman troops would never again set foot in conquest south of the land of Egypt. 

Yemen

The Romans thought quite highly of Yemen. Of the three “Arabias” they named, they bestowed upon Yemen the cheeriest name: Arabia Felix, which translates to “Happy Arabia.” They admired the region for its wealth and climate. Of course, that admiration soon grew into ambition. Aelius Gallus, the governor who would go on to provoke the Kush to war, was ordered to march upon Arabia Felix by Emperor Augustus in 26 BCE. He was guided by a Nabataean named Syllaeus, who was in turn guided by conflicting motivations. Nabataea, his own nation, was a client state of Rome, so Syllaeus needed to demonstrate some fealty to the empire; however, it went against Nabataea’s economic interests to let the Romans encroach upon their valuable trading routes through Yemen. 

Syllaeus therefore decided to play a rather tricky game. He did lead Aelius Gallus through the Arabian peninsula—through the most exhausted, deserted, and barren routes. Aelius Gallus’s troops would arrive in Yemen almost dead on their feet, starving, diseased, and horribly weakened by thirst. In this condition, they had no chance of occupying Arabia Felix and were forced to retreat back to Egypt as quickly as they possibly could. Arabia Felix remained happily unconquered (by the Romans, at least). 

Scotland

Caledonia, as it was known then, was a frustrating place to be a Roman commander. Rome tried three times to conquer it—and gave up each time. Contrary to popular belief, the Romans did make it past Hadrian’s wall: They actually managed to make it as far as the Antonine Wall for a few short years. 

The Antonine Wall, unlike Hadrian’s Wall, was well within the area we today know as Scotland. This fortification, which Antoninus Pius ordered the construction of in 140 CE, marked the northern border of the Roman Empire, but it didn’t actually do much to keep the empire safe. The Caledonians happily ignored the wall and continued raiding across it throughout its occupation. Finally, 20 years after building it, the Romans got fed up and retreated back down to Hadrian’s Wall, leaving Scotland wild and free once more.

Ireland

The Roman name for Ireland was Hibernia, or the “land of eternal winter.” It’s not exactly an appealing descriptor. On top of that, the Roman geographer Strabo wrote that the Irish were “more savage than the Britons, being cannibals as well as gluttons. Furthermore, they consider it honorable to eat their dead fathers and to openly have intercourse, not only with unrelated women, but with their mothers and sisters as well.” Taking all that into account, it doesn’t seem as though the Romans had any great desire to occupy Ireland, unless they deemed patricide via cannibalism to be an attractive trait. 

We do know that one powerful general—Agricola, who governed Britannia from 77–84 CE—considered invading Ireland. His son-in-law and biographer Tacitus tells us that Agricola collected information on Ireland from an Irish prince he had befriended. This information led Agricola to believe Ireland could be conquered with just one legion. It appears Agricola never launched this invasion, however. Some historians believe the satirist Juvenal’s writing suggests Agricola landed in Ireland, but the nature of that text leaves it open to interpretation. Whether or not he actually saw Ireland, the archeological record indicates clearly that neither Agricola, nor any subsequent Roman, ever successfully conquered the Emerald Isle. 

Iran

Rome’s wars with Parthia—which ruled the region covering today’s Iran and Iraq—began before the birth of the Roman Empire and lasted past the fall of Parthia itself. Historians identify four major “cycles” of war between the two. While there were periods of peace and diplomacy between these cycles, anti-Parthian sentiment remained a tenet of Roman political life at all times. Parthia humiliated Rome repeatedly, trouncing it at the Battle of Carrhae, pouring molten gold down the throat of the commander Crassus, and just generally mocking and belittling the Romans at every meeting. 

It was considered a true triumph for the ages when Emperor Trajan finally conquered the Parthian capital city of Ctesiphon in 116 CE. But like most of Trajan’s conquests, his occupation of Ctesiphon did not last. Revolt broke out the very same year, and his successor, Emperor Hadrian, abandoned ship. Rome’s retreat from Ctesiphon did not permanently put an end to the conflict between Rome and Parthia—but it did mark the high water point of Rome’s eastern ambitions. Little over a century later, Parthia would fall, defeated not by Rome, but by the Persian rebel Ardashir. Ardashir would become the first Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire. His Sasanian descendants upheld Parthian tradition in one key way: by continuing the long, fruitless centuries of war with Rome.  

Armenia

Rome could never get any of its “conquests” of Armenia to stick. Trajan, for example, got into an occupation in Armenia for three years, only for his successor Hadrian to pull Rome right back out. It wasn’t that the task of conquering this small mountainous nation was outside the military capabilities of the legion. But politically, Armenia was caught up in the endless tug-of-war between Rome and its rival, Parthia. This meant that Rome was more consistently able to control Armenia not through military means, which might (and did) provoke the Parthians, but instead through heavy-handed influence and statecraft. 

Time and time again, Rome sought to ensure the Armenian monarch would be either a direct or a de facto vassal of the empire. Under the Treaty of Rhandeia, for example, Rome agreed that a Parthian prince would sit upon the Armenian throne, but only if the Roman Emperor was the one who nominated him. These kinds of deals led to periods of stability in Armenia during the time of the Roman Empire, but eventually, war between Parthia and Rome would break out again, and Armenia would be swept up in the tumult.

Poland

During Roman times, a people whom archaeologists know as the Przeworsk inhabited what is now Poland. The Romans themselves spoke of a tribal federation named the Lugii; today, historians identify the Lugii with the Przeworsk culture. The Romans do not appear to have tried to subjugate the Lugii. The Emperor Domitian supposedly sent 100 horsemen to support the Lugii in their fight against the Suebi in 92 CE. It seems that, rather than try and tame another fierce set of Germanic peoples, the Romans found it preferable to just bribe the Lugii to keep the peace. However, some historians believe the Lugii eventually became (or perhaps always had been) the Vandals, who would go on to join in on the sack the city of Rome as the Empire fell. 

Germany

Rome pretty notoriously failed to conquer Germany. You might even argue that eventually, Germany instead conquered Rome, seeing as it was Germanic tribes who sacked the Eternal City in 410 CE. Skirmishes with the Germanic tribes had plagued Rome for centuries, interfering with trade and even killing an emperor or two. Rome was prevented from its dream of expanding into and conquering Germanic territory after its crushing loss at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, described succinctly as “one of the most devastating defeats ever suffered by the Roman Army.” At Teutoburg Forest in the year 9 CE, the Germanic leader Arminius routed three entire legions over the course of just four days. The commander of the legions was forced to die by suicide. Victories don’t get too much more decisive than that. The Roman commander Germanicus would seek revenge years later for the blood of the fallen legions, but, shaken and defeated, Rome would never control the lands where their soldiers’ corpses lay.

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