Evidently the Romans and Germans fought a bloody battle in the third century AD, said archaeologist Petra Lönne. Some 1,000 Roman legionnaires may have been involved in the fight.
Intriguingly, the find includes more than 300 iron projectiles that were fired by powerful Roman torsion weapons known as scorpions (scorpio), which could catapult heavy darts with a high velocity and deadly accuracy. It had a range of 300 and was portrayed in the opening battle scene of the Hollywood movie “Gladiator.”
“The bolts were found densely clustered,” said archaeologist Henning Hassmann.
Historians say the discovery of the battlefield is so significant because it appears to refute the assumption that the Romans withdrew from Germania after their defeat by an alliance of Germanic tribs at the battle of the Teutoburg forest in 9 AD.
This longer article from Spiegel has more details. As best as they can tell, some German’s took a stand on the hill. There, they got pounded by the scorpions and Roman auxiliaries. After pounding the Germans for a while, it seems that the Romans attacked the hill from two different sides of the hill. They seem to think that the Romans won.