TheCherusci were aGermanictribe that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwesternGermania in the area of theWeser River and present-dayHanover during the first centuries BCE and CE.Roman sources reported they considered themselves kin with otherIrmino tribes and claimed common descent from an ancestor calledMannus. During the earlyRoman Empire underAugustus, the Cherusci first served asallies of Rome and sent sons of theirchieftains to receiveRoman education and serve in theRoman army asauxiliaries. The Cherusci leaderArminius led a confederation of tribes inthe ambush that destroyed threeRoman legions in theTeutoburg Forest in CE 9. He was subsequently kept from further damaging Rome by disputes with theMarcomanni and reprisal attacks led byGermanicus. After rebel Cherusci killed Arminius in CE 21, infighting among the royal family led to the highlyRomanized line of his brotherFlavus coming to power. Following their defeat by theChatti around CE 88, the Cherusci do not appear in further accounts of the German tribes, apparently being absorbed into thelate classical groups such as theSaxons,Thuringians,Franks,Bavarians, andAllemanni.
Cherusci (Latin:[kʰeːˈrus.kiː]) is theLatinname for the tribe. Both it and theGreek formKhēroûskoi (Χηροῦσκοι) are presumablytranscriptions of an otherwise unattestedOld Germanicdemonym, whoseetymology is unclear. The dominant opinion in scholarship is that it may derive from*herut ("hart"), which may have hadtotemistic significance for the group.[1] Another hypothesis—proposed in the 19th century byJacob Grimm and others—derives the name from*heru- (Gothic:hairus;heoru, a kind ofsword).[2] Hans Kuhn has argued that the derivational suffix-sk- involved in both explanations is uncommon in Germanic. He suggested that the name may therefore be a compound of ultimately non-Germanic origin and connected to the hypothesizedNordwestblock.[3]
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The Cherusci were aGermanictribe living around the centralWeser River in the1st century BCE and1st century CE.[5] They are first attested inJulius Caesar'sCommentaries on the Gallic War. Caesar relates that in the year 53 BCE he crossed theRhine to punish theSuebi for sending reinforcements to theTreveri. In passing, he mentions that the Suebi were separated from the Cherusci by the "Bacenis Forest", a relatively impenetrablebeech forest, possibly theHarz.[6]Pliny grouped them with the nearbySuebi,Chatti, andHermunduri asIrminones, tribes who claimed descent from an ancestor namedMannus.[7]Tacitus later placed them between theChatti and theChauci, generally taken to indicate a territory between theWeser andElbe.[8]
As part of hisGerman campaigns,Drusus marched an army east into the territory of the Cherusci in 11 BCE and was ambushed as he returned west at a narrow pass calledArbalo, probably near modernHameln orHildesheim. The Cherusci were initially victorious but paused their attack, allowing the surviving Romans to break through the encirclement and escape.[9] By that winter, Drusus had recovered enough control that a garrison was stationed somewhere in Cheruscan territory, probably at eitherHaltern orBergkamen inNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[9] The Cherusci continued to resist thecampaigns ofTiberius,L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, andM. Vinicius as late as the "vast war"[10] begun around 2 BCE.
Finally, in CE 4,Tiberius overcame the factions of the Cherusci still hostile to Rome and by the next year he considered the tribe aRoman ally, giving it special privileges. ThechieftainSegimer sent at least two sons who becameRoman citizens and served in theRoman military ascavalryauxiliaries. The elder sonArminius returned as an auxiliary commander underP. Quictilius Varus, who began organizing Germany as the newprovince ofGermania Magna in CE 7. This involved expandedtaxation and demands oftribute, and Arminius began organizing a combined attack on Varus'slegions. A Cheruscan noble namedSegestes attempted to warn thegovernor repeatedly, but Varus ignored him and followed Arminius into an ambush in theTeutoburg Forest and marshes in CE 9. Working together, the Cherusci,Bructeri,Marsi,Sicambri,Chauci, andChatti completely destroyed the17th,18th, and19th Legions; Varus and many of the officersfell on their swords during the battle.[11][12]Cassius Dio reports that Segimer was second in command during the battle but Arminius seems to have acted as chieftain himself soon thereafter. He abducted Segestes's daughterThusnelda and married her.
The Romans encouraged theMarcomanni to attack the Cherusci and launched punitive raids of their own, eventually recovering some of the losteagle standards from the defeated legions. In CE 14,Germanicus raided the Chatti and Marsi with 12,000 legionnaires, 26 cohorts of auxiliaries, and eight cavalry squadrons and systematically laid waste to an area 50miles wide such that "no sex, no age found pity".[13] He then campaigned against the Cherusci,[14] freeing Segestes from captivity and seizing the pregnant Thusnelda.[15][16] Arminius assembled the Cherusci and surrounding tribes while Germanicus marched some men east from the Rhine and sailed others from theNorth Sea up theEms, attacking the Bructeri on their way.[17] These two forces met and then ravaged the land between the Ems and theLippe. When they reached the Teutoburg Forest, they found the bodies of the slain Romans unburied and in placessacrificed on German altars. The army buried the dead for half a day, after which Germanicus stopped the work to return to war against the Germans.[18] Making his way to the Cherusci heartland, Germanicus was attacked by Arminius's men atPontes Longi ("the long causeways") in the boggy lowlands near the Ems. The Cherusci trapped and began to kill the Roman cavalry but the Roman infantry was able to check and rout them over the course of a two day battle. Tacitus considered this a victory[19] although historians such as Wells think it was more likely inconclusive.[20]
In CE 16, Germanicus returned with eight legions and Gallic and Germanic auxiliary units, including men led by Arminius's younger brotherFlavus. Marching from the Rhine and along the Ems andWeser, the Romans met Arminius's forces at the plains ofIdistaviso by the Weser near modernRinteln. Tacitus reports theBattle of the Weser River as a decisive Roman victory:[21][22]
The enemy were slaughtered from the fifth hour of daylight to nightfall, and for ten miles the ground was littered with corpses and weapons.
Arminius and his uncleInguiomer were both wounded but evaded capture. The Roman soldiers proclaimed Tiberius asimperator and raised a pile of arms as a trophy with the names of the defeated tribes inscribed beneath them.[23][24] This trophy enraged the Germans, who ceased retreating beyond theElbe and regrouped to attack the Romans at theAngrivarian Wall.This battle also ended in a decisive Roman victory, with Germanicus supposedly directing his men to exterminate the Germanic tribes. A mound was raised with an inscription reading "The army of Tiberius Caesar, after thoroughly conquering the tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe, has dedicated this monument toMars,Jupiter, andAugustus."[25][26]In the next year, Germanicus was recalled to Rome. Tacitus reports this as partially caused by the emperor's growing jealousy of the general's fame, but permitted him to celebrate atriumphal march on 26 May:
Germanicus Caesar, celebrated his triumph over the Cherusci, Chatti, andAngrivarii, and the other tribes which extend as far as the Elbe.[27]
Germanicus was then moved to theParthian border inSyria and soon died, possibly from poisoning. Arminius was killed in turn by Segestes and his allies in CE 21.
After Arminius's murder, the Romans left the Cherusci more or less to their own devices. In CE 47, the Cherusci asked Rome to sendItalicus, the son of Flavus and nephew of Arminius, to become their chieftain, as civil war had destroyed their other nobility. He was initially well liked but, since he was raised in Rome as a Roman citizen, he soon fell out of favor.[28] He was succeeded byChariomerus, presumably his son, who was defeated by theChatti and deposed around CE 88.[29]
Tacitus (56–c. 120) writes of the Cherusci:
Dwelling on one side of the Chauci and Chatti, the Cherusci long cherished, unassailed, an excessive and enervating love of peace. This was more pleasant than safe, for to be peaceful is self-deception among lawless and powerful neighbours. Where the strong hand decides, moderation and justice are terms applied only to the more powerful; and so the Cherusci, ever reputed good and just, are now called cowards and fools, while in the case of the victorious Chatti success has been identified with prudence. The downfall of the Cherusci brought with it also that of theFosi, a neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their disasters, though they had been inferior to them in prosperous days.[30]
Claudius Ptolemy'sGeography places the Cherusci,Calucones, andChamavi (Καμαυοὶ,Kamauoì) all near one other and "Mount Melibocus" (probably theHarz Mountains).[31]
The later history of the Cherusci is unattested.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Cherusci, a Germanic people, living around the middle Weser. They are the best known of the Germanic opponents of the Romans in the 1st cent. CE.
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