13. Spend Time Together – In Battle!
While women have typically served deferential and domestic roles throughout history, a few European tribes did not follow the rules. The women of the Teutons, a proto-Germanic tribe from Jutland in what is now Denmark, followed their husbands on battles and raids. They helped tend to the wounded, ran the camps, cooked food and provided general support. The women also appeared to be trained in arms and were willing to fight when necessary.
The Roman chronicler Plutarch wrote that Roman legionaries invaded a Teutonic camp only to find women wielding axes and swords fighting back against their troops viciously. The Teutons were notoriously fierce enemies, both the men and women, which led to the Latin phrase furor Teutonicus meaning fury of the Teutons. One can only imagine the surprise of Roman soldiers, from a society in which women were of relatively low status, being attacked by women wielding weapons and fighting as violently as their men.
The women of the Teutons were also noted as incredibly devoted to their men and chaste in their dealings with other peoples. The Romans decimated the male Teutons at the Battle of the Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC. The women were captured and begged to be allowed to become servants of Vesta, the virginal goddess of the hearth, to avoid rape and enslavement by the Romans. When their request was denied, the women engaged in mass suicide rather than being enslaved.
