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Gold/Mining/Energy : Harken Energy Corporation (HEC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Traveling Man who wrote (3807)	12/12/1998 12:28:00 PM
From: jackie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5504

Traveling Man, Sorry I'm so late in getting back to you on this. Known as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, this was one of the greatest military disasters in Roman history. At the time, Augustus was making plans to subdue Germany all of the way to the Elbe River. Interesting to see it was the same goal of the western allies after crossing the Rhine in WWII. Geography is destiny, for countries as well as O&G companies. It seems there were a lot of raids across the Rhine against Roman forces, including the destruction of the 5th Legion. To initiate this strategy, Augustus gave Varus the 17th, 18th, and 19th Legions, plus 3 calvary squadrons and 6 additional cohorts. At full strength, a legion contained 6,000 men, organized into 60 centuries of 100 each, or 10 cohorts of 600 men each. Varus had easily 30,000 men under his command, 50 percent of all Roman forces along the Rhine. This figure does not include the camp followers. After spending time on the Weser River during the year 9 CE, Varus decided to return to the West side of the Rhine. This, against intelligence suggesting the Germans would attack. While crossing a pass at the base of a mountain known as Kalkrieser Berg, the Germans fell on the Romans. Led by a former Roman officer named Arminius, or Hermann, the Germans used Roman tactics against the Romans. This included earthen embankments set ahead of the advancing Romans. The Romans allowed themselves to be spread out over several miles, losing their advantage in set piece combat. Weather favored the Germans, as it was rainy and soaked and loosened the Roman equipment, heavily dependent on leather. The battle lasted three days and only about 1,000 Romans survived. The three eagles were captured. Varus made many mistakes. He ignored intelligence. He played into the German advantages in man to man combat as opposed to unit to unit, which the Romans excelled in. The Roman armies should have remained in camp for better weather. It's interesting to see Harken is hunkering down during the bad period of time we're going through now, rather than expending resources finding a commodity no one wants now. They'll want it later, of course. It's just a matter of time. History had a lot to say about the story of Varus, but not the location. Some 60 sites had been proposed down through the years as possible locations of the battlefield. In the late 80's this all changed when a British officer discovered a cache of Roman coins with a metal detector. Since then, remains of the embankments used by the Germans have been found, along with armor, medical utensils, and other elements of Roman manufacture. You can visit the battle site at the village of Kalkriese, a few miles North of Osnabruck in Northern Germany. There is a converted barn being used to house the findings now, with plans for a new structure. I had the opportunity to visit the site in September and it was well worth the effort. I have some pictures of the excavations underway if you'd care to see them. It was hard to lose even a single legion in the days of Roman superiority. Yet, Varus managed to lose three. He did it with poor leadership. When one walks through the woods where the Romans must have walked before the ambush, it is easy to see how they left themselves open to German assault. HEC has been the target of complaints about there not being more progress on the properties, pipelines, drilling, commercialization etc. I think they are doing the wise thing now. Hold on to your cash and wait for the right time to strike. There are some other ideas I have regarding what HEC might be doing, but I've already taken up a lot of space here. If you ever get the chance, visit this amazing archeological site. Regards, Jack