Arve, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from La Trove University.

I'm your host, Matt Smith, and with me today is Dr. Emma Southen, historian and author

of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

This is Episode C-L-X-X-I-I, Arminius.

There were a few enemies of the Romans who had as much success as Arminius.

One of the Gomani who fought at their side, he was able to unite the disparate tribes,

lure three Roman legions into a trap, and defeat them at the Battle of Tudorburg Forest.

His success and later resistance would leave the area largely free of Roman influence.

Here's Emma Southen.

Arminius is a member of the Cherisky royal family, who are a Germanic tribe in Germany,

who were originally kind of allied with the Romans when the Romans first entered Germany,

and Arminius joins the Roman army along with his brother, is given this Roman name Arminius,

because the Romans don't call anybody by their name, they Latinise them.

And fights alongside them for a couple of years, from about six to nine, C-E, and then

gets quite friendly with the general over there.

His name is Quiktilius Varius, and then betrays him, turns against him, having learned

a lot of good Roman tricks, and goes on to slaughter the three Roman legions in the infamous

Battle of the Tudorburg Forest.

Killing Quiktilius Varius, eliminating three legions worth of men, and causing Augustus

to spend a couple of months banging his head against the wall, screaming, Quiktilius Varius,

give me back my legions, at which point he then becomes a massive thorn in the side of

the Romans.

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