Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Roman officer, annihilated three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), Prince and Chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci Teutons

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 24, 2021
158 Comments on Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Roman officer, annihilated three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), Prince and Chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci Teutons

Magna Germania in AD 9. The yellow legend represents the areas controlled by the Roman Republic in 31 BC, the shades of green represent gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas on the map represent tributary tribes.

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (Varusschlacht), Otto Albert Koch (1909)

View over the Teutoburg Forest

This Roman sculpture of a young man is sometimes identified as Arminius

Temple of Walhalla, Aerial View

Walhalla, seen from the Danube, Bavaria

360 degrees panorama view inside the Walhalla memorial, Germany

Depiction of King Sæberht of Essex from John Speed‘s map of the Heptarchy (The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, 1611)

Westminster Abbey

1906 plan of Westminster Abbey showing Sæberht’s putative tomb by the entrance of the south ambulatory.

The Roman Empire began to withdraw its Germanic territorial expansion ambitions almost immediately after Arminus led the crushing defeat of three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD (Caesar Augustus was then Emperor of Rome). Rome managed, however, to rule most of the lands it occupied previously for the next 180 years, but eventually withdrew from Germania altogether shortly thereafter (around 180 AD).

Rome literally lost the famous Legio IX Hispana (9th Spanish Legion) sometime after 120 AD, when all records about its whereabouts ceased to exist. Theories abound about its disappearance, but one of the most compelling is that it was overrun and slaughtered wholesale by Picts as it marched through the south-central region of Scotland. (The Eagle (2011 Film) portrays this scenario in a rather captivating fashion.) Moreover, the construction of Hadrian’s Wall commenced in 122 AD, so the possibility may one day prove to possess more of a historical foundation than the current controversy suggests. Nevertheless, Hadrian was terrorized so badly by some exceedingly malevolent force of human nature to motivate him to incur such an exceedingly exorbitant cost at the Roman Empire’s expense. It could be that Rome purposefully expunged the records of the hideous massacre to hide the shame of such a military debacle.

In Edwin Creasy’s book, entitled The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851), the Battle of Teutoburg Forest ranks as the fifth most important in human history. Well, later on, maybe such ensuing battles, such as the Allied invasion of Normandy during WW11, would rank above it. But, in my historical view, Arminius’s victory at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest altered the course of human civilization for the better in my estimation.

Six Roman Legions (25,000 soldiers in total) under the command of Julius Caesar defeated Ariovistus, Arminius’s agnatic great-grandfather, and his Seubi army (around 15,000 warriors) at the Battle of Vosges in 58 BC. The decisive defeat prevented the planned Seubi peoples (approximately 125,000) migration into Roman Gaul forevermore.

King Sæberht of Essex, Founder of Westminster Abbey (585 – 614) was an agnatic descendant of Arminius. The first East Saxon monarch converted to Christianity, he founded a monastery on the present-day site of Westminster Abbey. Sledd, his father, was the first Anglo-Saxon king of Essex.

The Temple of Walhalla in Bavaria is a memorial to celebrated and distinguished people of Germanic origin since the time of Arminius. He, of course, holds the first position in the two rows of plagues dedicated to those whose likeness and/or physical image is historically unavailable. Here are few others that he’s related to:

Alaric I (370 – 410) 1st King of Visigoths

Athaulf (370 – 415) King of Visigoths, Alaric’s brother-in-law

Theodoric I Balthus (393 – 451) King of the Visigoths of Alaric I

Hengest Wihtgilsson von Sachsen, 1st Jute King of Kent (414 – 488), brother of Horsa

Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, 1st Christian Ruler of Gaul

Pepin of Herstal (635 – 714) Duke and Prince of the Franks, Charles Martel’s father

Charles Martel (676 – 741) Duke and Prince of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne

Charlemagne (742 – 814) King of Franks and Lombards, Emperor of the Romans

Alfred The Great (849 – 899) 3rd King of England, grandson of Ecgberht, King of Wessex (770 – 839)

Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria (died 937)

Ragnar Lodbrok (765 – 830) was the 18th great-grandson, but not in agnatic descent, of Arminius.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

View Archive

158 replies on “Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Roman officer, annihilated three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), Prince and Chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci Teutons”

[…] Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Prince of Teutons 4GGF […]

Share this:

Related

By Steven Wood Collins

158 replies on “Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Roman officer, annihilated three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), Prince and Chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci Teutons”

Leave a comment