In 9 AD, Rome lost three entire legions in a German forest in a matter of days. Then it lost the battlefield itself for almost 2,000 years. The Roman commander was Publius Quintilius Varus. His trusted guide was a German chieftain named Arminius, who had served in the Roman army and held Roman citizenship. Arminius told Varus there was a revolt that needed putting down and led him and his army on a route through rough, wooded country. Then he switched sides and sprang the trap. Around 15,000 to 20,000 Roman soldiers, plus camp followers, were strung out for miles in mud and rain. The Germans hit them over and over for several days. Almost no one got out. Varus took his own life. When the news reached Rome, the historian Suetonius says Augustus banged his head against a door, shouting "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!" The numbers of the three legions, the 17th, 18th, and 19th, were never used again. Six years later a Roman army came back to the site. Tacitus wrote that they found bleached bones lying where men had fallen, and skulls nailed to the trees. Then the location was forgotten. For centuries, scholars argued about where it happened. Hundreds of locations were proposed. In 1987, a British Army officer named Tony Clunn was stationed in Germany and went out with his metal detector near a village called Kalkriese. He found Roman silver coins. Then more coins. Then lead sling bullets. Archaeologists have been digging there ever since. Most experts believe it's the place, though some still debate it. They found a long earth wall the Germans built along the edge of a hill, with a bog on the other side. The Romans were funneled into a narrow strip between the two, with men hidden behind the wall. They found pits of human and mule bones, buried years after the battle, which lines up with the Roman army's return. They found a mule's bell stuffed with grass, maybe so it wouldn't ring. And they found the iron face mask of a Roman cavalry helmet, once covered in silver. It had been stripped of almost all of it. The coins helped settle the date. None of them were minted after 9 AD. One of Rome's worst defeats ever was found by a soldier with a metal detector on his day off.