1. Arminius was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, in which three Roman legions under the command of general and governor Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed.
Arminius learned Latin and served in the Roman military, which gained him Roman citizenship, and the rank of eques.
Arminius sought to become a king and was assassinated in 21.
In German, Arminius was traditionally distinguished as or.
Arminius learned to speak Latin and joined the Roman military with his younger brother Flavus.
Arminius served in the Roman army between AD 1 and 6, and received a military education as well as Roman citizenship and the status of equite before returning to Germania.
Around the year AD 4, Arminius assumed command of a Cheruscan detachment of Roman auxiliary forces, probably while fighting in the Pannonian wars on the Balkan peninsula.
Arminius began plotting to unite various Germanic tribes in order to thwart Roman efforts to incorporate their lands into the empire.
Arminius saw this as the perfect opportunity to defeat Varus.
Roman attempts to reconquer Germania failed, although they did eventually manage to break Arminius' carefully coordinated alliance.
At some point after the battle, Arminius married a Germanic princess named Thusnelda.
Arminius's father was the Cheruscan prince Segestes, who was pro-Roman.
Arminius deeply grieved the capture of Thusnelda and did not marry again.
Tacitus recorded that Arminius was "driven to frenzy" by the loss of his beloved wife.
Arminius, with his naturally furious temper, was driven to frenzy by the seizure of his wife and the foredooming to slavery of his wife's unborn child.
Arminius faced opposition from his father-in-law and other pro-Roman Germanic leaders.
Arminius died two years later in 21, murdered by opponents within his own tribe who felt that he was becoming too powerful.
Arminius was not the only reason for Rome's change of policy towards Germania.
Italicus, nephew of Arminius, was appointed king of the Cherusci; Vangio and Sido became vassal princes of the powerful Suebi, etc.
The first literary adaptation of the Arminius story came in 1520 with Ulrich von Hutten's Latin dialogue Arminius, which inserts the Germanic leader into a reimagining of the twelfth chapter of Lucian's satirical Dialogues of the Dead; a debate between Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Scipio Africanus before the underworld judgment seat of Minos over who most deserves the position of history's greatest general and military strategist.
Arminius argues his own claim and calls upon Tacitus to bear witness, and ultimately wins the case and the eloquent praise of Minos.