Arminius

Arminius destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest and ended Roman expansion into Germany. Born around 18 BC, he was the son of a Cheruscan chief, and was taken to Rome as a hostage in his youth. He served in the Roman army as an auxiliary commander, was granted citizenship and equestrian rank, and learned Latin and Roman tactics thoroughly. He returned to Germany around AD 7 or 8 as an officer attached to Publius Quinctilius Varus, the governor, who trusted him completely and dismissed a warning from a rival Cheruscan chief that he was plotting. In September AD 9 Arminius reported a rising in a distant district. Varus marched three legions, the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth, with auxiliaries and a baggage train, off the prepared roads into wooded and boggy country. Arminius left the column to raise his own men and returned with a coalition of tribes. The ambush lasted three or four days along a route where the Romans could not deploy in formation, in rain, with earthworks constructed in advance to funnel them. Between fifteen and twenty thousand men were killed. Varus fell on his sword, and officers were sacrificed at tribal altars. Augustus is said to have beaten his head against a door calling on Varus to give him back his legions, and the numerals were never used again. Germanicus campaigned across the Rhine from AD 14 to 16 and recovered two of the three eagles, and Rome then withdrew to the river permanently. Arminius was killed by his own relatives around AD 21, having been accused of aiming at kingship.

• Lived: 17 BCE – 21 CE
• Nationality: German
• Roles: military_leader, tribal_chief