(16 B.C.-21 A.D.)
[Illustration: Hermann.]
Hermann, the Arminius of the Roman historians, the son of Sigimer,
chief of the Cherusci, was born about B.C. 16 or 17. Being sent in
early youth as a hostage to Rome, probably in consequence of the
victories of Drusus, which had established the supremacy of Rome over
the Catti, Cherusci, and other tribes of North Germany, he obtained
the favor of Augustus, and was inscribed among the Roman knights. On
his return to his native country, he resolved to deliver it from the
Romans, whose oppression had become intolerable. Quintilius Varus, a
rapacious man, was then the Roman governor in Germany. He had held
office in Syria, where he had ruled with great harshness; and fancying
that he might act in the same way toward the fierce tribes of the
North, he roused among them a bitter hatred of the Romans.
[Illustration: Hermann's triumph over the Romans.]
They found in Hermann a leader of extraordinary bravery and resource.
He laid his plans with the chiefs of the Catti, Bructeri, and other
tribes that lived between the Rhine and the Albis (Elbe), some of
which broke out into insurrection. Hermann then offered Varus his
assistance in reducing them to subjection, and thus led him to advance
some distance from the Rhine into the interior. Varus began his march
with three legions, six cohorts, and a body of cavalry, and Hermann
served him as a guide through the wilds. The Romans were thus drawn
into an ambuscade in the Teutoburg forest, and found themselves all at
once surrounded by numerous bodies of Germans, who were directed by
Hermann himself. The Romans fought desperately; but being
unacquainted with the localities, and unable to form their ranks owing
to the thickness of the forests and the marshy nature of the ground,
they were defeated after a three days' battle, by the Germans, who
destroyed them in detail. At last, Varus, being wounded and seeing no
chance of escape, fell upon his sword, and the other chief officers
followed his example.
The legions were entirely destroyed, and the cavalry alone cut their
way through the enemy and regained the banks of the Rhine. By this
defeat the Romans lost all their conquests beyond that river; and
although Germanicus some years after again carried their arms to the
Weser, they never established anything like a solid dominion over
those regions. The defeat of Varus occurred, according to various
chronologists, in the year 763 of Rome (A.D. 9). The scene of the
defeat is conjectured to have been in the country of the Bructeri,
near the sources of the Ems and the Lippe. The news of this calamity,
the greatest that had befallen the Roman arms since the defeat of
Crassus, was received with universal amazement and terror. The
despairing cry of Augustus, "Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!"
testified to the consternation even at Rome, where it was expected
that the barbarians would take a terrible revenge for the wrongs they
had suffered.
The fears of invasion, however, were not realized. L. Asprena guarded
the banks of the Rhine, and the Germans were too little united among
themselves to attack the Empire. Augustus in the following year sent
Tiberius to the Rhine with a fresh army; but he does not seem to have
effected anything of importance. Hermann meantime quarrelled with
Segestes, chief of the Catti, whose daughter Tusnelda, he had carried
off and married against her father's consent. When Germanicus, after
the death of Augustus, marched into the interior of Germany to avenge
the defeat of Varus, he was assisted by Segestes, and also by the
Chauci and other tribes. In the first battle against Hermann, his wife
Tusnelda, was taken prisoner by the Romans, and she afterward figured
in the triumph of Germanicus. Germanicus, having reached the scene of
Varus's defeat, paid funeral honors to the remains of the legions; but
Hermann, who was hovering about his line of march, without coming to a
pitched battle, harassed him in his retreat, and occasioned a great
loss to Caecina, the lieutenant of Germanicus.
In the following year, Germanicus advanced again as far as the
Visurgis, or Weser, where he found Hermann encamped ready for battle.
A desperate fight took place, in which Hermann, after performing
prodigies of valor, was defeated, and escaped with difficulty. But the
victory was gained at such cost that Germanicus and his army had to
take refuge in their ships, nor did the Romans ever again attempt the
conquest of the fiercer German tribes.
When Tiberius recalled Germanicus, he observed that the Cherusci,
Bructeri, and other unsubdued tribes, might be left to their own
internal dissensions. He seems to have guessed right.
No sooner had the Romans been driven off, than Hermann had to protect
his people against an internal danger. Maroboduus, the chief of the
Marcomanni, a man of great ambition, had by treachery or by open
fighting, made himself master of several neighboring tribes. Hermann
began to fear his designs, and after the defeat of Varus, warned him
of his peril by sending him the Roman general's head. When Germanicus
finally left the country, Hermann declared war against Maroboduus,
and, being joined by the Semnones and Longobards, defeated him on the
borders of the Hercynian forest, broke up his kingdom, and drove him
from Germany. The fugitive applied to Rome for assistance. Tiberius
then sent his son Drusus into the Illyricum; but the Romans did not
advance beyond the Danube, and Hermann remained unmolested in Northern
Germany. Shortly after, however, Hermann was killed by his own
relatives, being accused, as it would seem, of aspiring to absolute
dominion. He died at the age of thirty-seven, in the twenty-first year
of our era, after being for twelve years the leader and champion of
Germany.