In preparation for the trip I checked on the computer what the easiest route would be from Nijmegen, The Netherlands, to Kalkriese (near Osnabrück, Germany). There were in fact two: one entirely by highway, in a left hook through the Netherland;, the other, as I saw on the map, was a right hook over the Wesel, which would take us past Haltern, which houses a museum on the Roman camps of the same campaigns. That made picking a route so much easier! We chose the latter route.

Fellow historian and long time college friend Remi Hartel joined me on this trip, and after a drive of some two hours, we reached the small village of Haltern.

Heading for Haltern Right in the town centre is an open field, with a white building at the other end. Upon walking across the field, we saw that the building has glass windows in the form of pup-tents on its roof. Even closer to the museum -- for this building was the museum, of course -- we noticed that we had to cross a fossa, or dry moat, to get to the entrance. Inside it appeared that this moat isn't there just for the atmosphere of a Roman museum. It lies where the fossa of a Roman two-legion summer camp used to be.

Haltern (Castra Secunda or Second Camp as it was imaginatively named) was one in a series of marching camps stretching from Nijmegen and Xanten along the Lippe river in the direction of the Elbe. This was one of the main routes for Augustus campaigns to conquer the tribal lands of the Germans. A more southern one started in Xanten and a naval route was available through Drusus’ canal and the modern lake IJssel to the North Sea.
Two camps were built in Haltern, both Augustan and none was occupied after 9 CE. A large camp measuring 614 by 560 meters, roughly square, was big enough for a taskforce of the size of two legions. Another more permanent camp was later established on top of the earlier. This camp of 560 by 380 meters was smaller and is a more perfect rectangle than the other one. Nearer to the Lippe river was a small naval fortress with a number of boathouses and barracks.

Entrance to this very new and modern museum is not expensive, and the excellent, well-illustrated museum guidebook is a steal, although it's only in German. The museum has a small collection of books for sale and a pleasant cafeteria, which we later used to fortify ourselves for the onward trip to Kalkriese. The exhibition itself consists of one large hall which is separated into smaller parts by large glass displays containing many artefacts, and a large (about 2 square meters) diorama of a Roman camp and some smaller models. The set-up of these displays is nicely done, the background is well used and much is illustrated with drawings and doctored images from Marcus Junkelmann's books (at least, they sure looked like it). There is also a complete leather tent and a pottery oven that has been lifted whole out of the ground just as it was found and then put on display.

Being a modern museum, it just had to have something multimedia, and here it is something, or rather someone, very special -- none other than Marcus Caelius, primus pilus of Legio XIIX, who has a tale to tell. Miraculously he has learned German (and only German, it seems).

Sitting with headphones in front of an excellent copy of his tombstone, we heard the spirit of this valiant soldier tell the story of their campaign and ultimate defeat. He roamed the fields for over 1900 years until he found a warm place in this museum, but managed to catch a permanent cold in the meantime which made him sneeze and sniff a lot!

This is the text on his epitaph, which was found in Xanten:

M(arcus) Caelius M(arci) l(ibertus) Privatus //
M(arcus) Caelius M(arci) l(ibertus) Thiaminus //
M(arco) Caelio T(iti) f(ilio) Lem(onia)
Bon(onia) // |(centurioni) leg(ionis) XIIX
ann(orum) LIII / [ce]cidit bello Variano
ossa / [i]nferre licebit p(onendum) c(uravit)
Aelius T(iti) <f=E>(ilius) / Lem(onia) frater fecit
CIL 13, 08648 = AE 1952, 0181 = 1953, 0222 = 1955, 0034

(The first two lines record the names of Marcus Caelius' freedmen, Marcus Caelius Privatus and Marcus Caelius Thiaminus) To Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, of the tribe Lemonia, from Bononia, first centurion of the eighteenth legion. At the age of 53 he fell in the Varian War; the bones (of his freedmen) may be interred here. His brother Caelius, son of Titus, of the tribe Lemonia, erected (this tombstone).

By the way, inscriptions of the three Varian legions are very scarce. Some inscriptions of the 18th and 19th legions exist, but none that can be definitely shown to be of the 17th. The above is by far the most famous of the surviving inscriptions. The trouble with the others is that they might well be Republican. Of the ones I could find these certainly belong to the German campaigns:

D(is) M(anibus) / T(ito) Val(erio) Goliarae / mil(iti) in Germ(ania) l/eg(ionis) XIIX(!) Octav/ia Elae marito / optimo / [f(aciendum) c(uravit)] (EDH HD000545 = AE 1983, 0599). - To the spirits of the dead. For Titus Valerius from Goliara, soldier of the eighteenth legion in Germania, Octavia from Ela had this erected for her very good husband.

Prin(ceps) leg(ionis) XIX (EDH HD010732 = AE 1975, 0626 = AE 1969/70, 0444)
Princeps of the nineteenth legion. This inscription was found in Cologne, so probably belongs to the Augustan Legio XIX.