The Great Illyrian Revolt

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Great Illyrian revolt was the biggest war of all Illyrian tribes against Roman occupation, in 6-9 BC.

In 6 AD, several regiments of Dalmatae, a warlike Illyrian tribe, were gathered in one place to prepare to join Augustus' stepson and senior military commander Tiberius in a war against the Germans. Instead they mutinied, and defeated a Roman force sent against them. The Dalmatians were soon joined by the Breuci, another Illyrian tribe that supplied several auxiliary regiments. They gave battle to a second Roman force from Moesia. They lost, but inflicted heavy casualties. The rebels were now joined by a large number of other Illyrian tribes. At risk was the strategic province of Illyricum, recently expanded to include the territory of the Pannonii, an Illyrian tribe based on the west bank of the Danube who were subjugated by Rome in 12-9BC. Illyricum was on Italy's eastern flank, exposing the Roman heartland to the fear of a rebel invasion.

Augustus ordered Tiberius to break off operations in Germany and move his main army to Illyricum. When it became clear that even Tiberius' forces were insufficient, Augustus was obliged to raise a second task force under Tiberius' nephew Germanicus, resorting to the compulsory purchase and emancipation of thousands of slaves to find enough troops, for the first time since the aftermath of the Battle of Cannae two centuries earlier. The Romans had now deployed no less than 15 legions and an equivalent number of auxilia i.e. c150 regiments, including c50 recruited from Roman citizens both free-born and freed slaves (Roman law accorded citizenship to the freed slaves of Roman citizens). In addition they were assisted by a large number of Thracian troops deployed by their king Rhoemetalces, a Roman amicus (ally)h[›] a grand total of c200,000 men.

They faced further reverses on the battlefield and a bitter guerrilla war in the Bosnian mountains. It took them three years of hard fighting to quell the revolt, which was described by the Roman historian Suetonius as the most difficult conflict faced by Rome since the Punic wars two centuries earlier. Tiberius finally quelled the revolt in 9 AD. This was just in time: that same year Arminius destroyed Varus' three legions in Germany. The Roman high command was in no doubt that Arminius would have formed a grand alliance with the Illyrians.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Illyrian_revolt

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.Reserved.

[Quantumf8]

Would this happen to be the revolt of Bato? He was an illyrian of the.. Dasitates(I believe I'm wrong on the spelling?). Wasn't there another Bato in like Pannonia/modern day croatia or thereabouts? A Bosnian romp would certainly be very interesting to implement in TAM

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Yep, there were 2 Batos ... One Bato was from Dalmatia, the other from Pannonia:

Bato I, or Baton of Dalmatia was the warlord of Illyrian tribe Daesitiates, in the Great Illyrian revolt against Roman Empire, in 6-9 CE.

Background

He was probably born between 35 and 30 BCE in upper Bosnia, then belonging to the to Illyrian Daesitiates. Bato was a member of the Daesitiates tribe, whose homeland was central Bosnia, and at the critical point in time he chose to lead his people in their struggle against their occupiers; the Romans.

From 33 BCE the Daesitiates were under Roman rule as an autonomous civitas peregrini. The Civitas of Daesitiates was part of provincia Illyricum with its capital in Salona on the Adriatic coast. Baton was member of a distinguished native family, and as an adult he was probably a political and military official of Daesitiates, which was ruled by an elected public assembly.

Revolt

In 6 CE Romans planned to attack the Marcomanic kingdom and for that Augustus ordered the mobilisation of Illyrian auxiliary forces. But in spring the same year Illyrian forces in Bosnia rebeled with Baton as their leader. In the panonian region of Illyricum, Breucos peoples also rose in rebellion. The Breucos chief, also named Baton, became leader of the Pannonian rebels. These two centres of resistance united in autumn 6 CE, and the two Batons became war leaders of an allied Illyrian rebel army.

Rome sent 15 legions and the same number of auxiliares, allies and mercenary forces crush the Illyrians, amongst them many roman veterans. The supreme commander of all roman forces was Tiberius. After two years of war, in the summer of 8 CE Baton the Breucos surrendered his forces to Tiberius on the bank of the Bosnia river, but soon after he was captured by Baton the Daesitiates, whose assembly put the Breucos leader to death. The next year Tiberius and Germanicus launched an operation against the Daesitiates forces. After fierce battles in September of 9 CE, only a few days before the Battle of Teutoburg forest, Baton and the Daesitiates surrendered to Tiberius. When Tiberius asked Baton and the Daesitiates why they had rebeled, Baton is reputed to have answered : "You Romans are to blame for this ; for you send as guardians of your flocks, not dogs or shepherds, but wolves".

Baton of Dalmatia spent the rest of his life in the Italian town of Ravena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_of_Dalmatia