Barbarians Historical Accuracy: Is Netflix's Barbarians based on a true story? Find out

The new Netflix historical drama series Barbarians arrived on the platform on October 23 and has been winning over the fans ever since. The six-episode series takes viewers all the way back to 9AD and chronicles around the events leading up to the infamous 'Battle of Teutoburg Forest', a battle that became one of the heaviest defeats ever suffered by the Roman Empire. Read on to find out, “Is Barbarians based on a true story?”

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Barbarians Historical Accuracy

Is Barbarians based on a true story?

A report in Radio Times, reveals that much Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, Barbarians is partly based on real history and partly a work of fiction. The showrunners Jan Martin Scharf and Arne Nolting have reportedly aimed for achieving a high level of authenticity in what audiences see on screen. The two lead characters, the Cheruscan prince’s daughter Thusnelda and young Roman officer Arminius, are indeed real historical figured. They are played by Jeanne Goursaud and Laurence Rupp respectively.

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How accurate is Barbarians?

The Cherusci tribe, featured in Barbarians on Netflix was a Germanic tribe and was one of about fifty groups existing at that time. Most of these groups were sworn enemies and were seemingly incapable of uniting against their common foe, the Romans. They remained divided until the intervention of Arminius, originally a son of the noblest house of tribe Cherusci. Arminius was sent to Rome as a tribute in his younger years, where he was given an advanced military education.

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In the following years, he became a trusted adviser to ruthless Roman general Varus, but still secretly kept his allegiances with the Germanic people. He soon hatched a plan to unite their disparate tribes against the Romans for the first time, thus, harnessing their collective hatred towards the Romans. Arminius soon orchestrated an ambush. He fed Varus false reports about a local uprising, thus taking him through a territory that was unfamiliar to his Roman soldiers. 

In time the brave Arminius slipped away to rally the Germanic tribes and led them in victorious attacks on the enemy garrisons. He thus destroyed three Roman legions and stopped the advance of the Roman Empire. Netflix’s Barbarians depicts the conflicted feelings that torture Arminius before his epic betrayal. It also highlights his leadership in the ensuing Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

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In Barbarians, fans see that Cheruscan noblewoman Thusnelda is facing a grave moral dilemma. She belongs to a Germanic tribe but her father is an ally of the Roman Empire. In real history, after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Arminius kidnapped Thusnelda as an act of defiance against her father. He ultimately ended up marrying and having a child with her.

Image Source: Barbarians (Still from Netflix)