Cherusci

The Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-38), showing the location of the Cherusci in northwestern Germany.

The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the northern Rhine valley and the plains and forests of northwestern Germany, in the area between present-day Osnabrück and Hanover, during the 1st century BC and 1st century AD. Subsequently they were absorbed into the tribal confederations of the Franks and Saxons.^[1]

Etymology

The etymological origin of the name Cherusci is not known with certainty. According to the dominant opinion in scholarship, the name may derive from the ancient Germanic word *herut (Modern English hart, i.e. 'deer'). The tribe may have been named after the deer because it had a totemistic significance in Germanic symbolism.^[2] A different hypothesis, proposed in the 19th century by Jacob Grimm and others, derives the name from *heru-, a word for 'sword' (cf. Gothic hairus, Old English heoru)^[3] Hans Kuhn has argued that the derivational suffix -sk-, involved in both explanations, is otherwise not common in Germanic. He suggested that the name may therefore be a compound of ultimately non-Germanic origin, connected to the hypothesized nordwestblock.^[4]

History

The first historical mention of the Cherusci occurs in Book 6.10 of Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico, which recounts events of 53 BC. Caesar relates that he crossed the Rhine again to punish the Suebi for sending reinforcements to the Treveri. He mentions that the Bacenis forest separated the territory of the Cherusci from that of the Suebi. In 12 BC, the Cherusci and other Germanic tribes were subjugated by the Romans.

As Rome tried to expand in northern Europe beyond the Rhine, it exploited divisions within the Cherusci, and for some time the tribe was considered a Roman ally. At this time the tribe was split between Arminius (known in modern German as "Hermann der Cherusker", although his actual Germanic name was more likely Erminaz ^[5]) and Segestes. Arminius advocated breaking allegiance to Rome and declaring independence, while Segestes wanted to remain loyal. By about 8 AD, Arminius had gained the upper hand and began planning rebellion. Segestes repeatedly warned Publius Quinctilius Varus, the governor of Gaul, that rebellion was being planned, but Varus declined to act until the rebellion had broken out.

In 9, in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, an army of allied Germanic tribes under the command of Arminius (the Cherusci, Bructeri, Marsi, Sicambri, Chauci and Chatti) annihilated three Roman legions commanded by Varus. The legions' eagle standards, of great symbolic importance to the Romans, were lost. The numbers of these three legions, Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX, were never used again.

After the mutinies of the German legions in 14, Germanicus decided, at the urging of his men, to march into Germany to restore their lost honor. In 15, after a quick raid on the Chatti, he began a campaign against the Cherusci. He received an appeal to rescue Segestes, who was besieged by Arminius. Segestes was rescued along with a group of relatives and dependents, including Thusnelda, Segestes' daughter and the wife of Arminius. Germanicus spared them and gave them land in Gaul. He then found the site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. His men buried the dead and built a funeral mound.

A series of battles followed. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Romans, Arminius seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Then, in 16, Germanicus defeated Arminius at Idistaviso and in 18 at the Battle of the Angrivarian Walls, but Arminius was not captured by the Romans. In 19, Adgandestrius, a chief of the Chatti, asked Rome for poison to kill Arminius. Tacitus claimed the request was refused on the "noble" grounds that (as related by Tacitus) "Romans take vengeance on their enemies, not by underhanded tricks, but by open force of arms." Arminius increasingly became embroiled in tribal disputes; his opponents accused him of trying to make himself king. In 21 Arminius "succumbed to treachery from his relations" (Tacitus) and a client king was appointed on the Germans by Rome.

Arminius the Cheruscan Monument in New Ulm, Minnesota, USA.

After Arminius' death, the Romans left the Cherusci more or less to their own devices. In 47 AD. the Cherusci asked Rome to send Italicus, the nephew of Arminius, to become king, as civil war had destroyed their nobility. He was initially well liked, but since he was raised in Rome as a Roman citizen he soon fell out of favor.

Under prudent Emperor Hadrian, the Limes fortification was built that closed the gap between the Rhine and Danube to prevent raids subsequent to uprisings in unstable Outer Germany.

Later history of the Cherusci is mostly unknown. In the 4th century AD they perhaps contributed to the formation of the Saxon or the Frank peoples.

See also

Ancient Germanic culture portal

• List of Germanic peoples

References

1. ^ Wilhelm Zimmermann, A Popular History of Germany (New York, 1878) Vol. I, page 170
2. ^ Reallexikon der germanischen Alterturmskunde (1981), vol. 4, pp.430–432, s.v. "Cherusker"; cf also Rudolf Much, Herbert Jankuhn & Wolfgang Lange, Die Germania des Tacitus, Heidelberg: Winter, 1967, p.411.
3. ^ Jacob Grimm, Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1853, vol. 2, p.426.
4. ^ Reallexikon der germanischen Alterturmskunde (1973), vol. 1, pp.420–421, s.v. "Arminius".
5. ^ http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/2385/FAQ.html%23hermann&date=2009-10-25+09:25:32

Sources

• Tacitus, Cornelius and Michael Grant, The Annals of Imperial Rome. New York: Penguin Books, 1989.
• Caesar, Julius et al. The Battle for Gaul. Boston: D. R. Godine, 1980.
• Wilhelm Zimmermann, A Popular History of Germany (New York, 1878) Vol. I
• Max Ihm, Cherusci. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). volume III,2, Stuttgart 1899, Sp. 2270–2272.
• Ralf Günther Jahn, Der Römisch-Germanische Krieg (9–16 n. Chr.). Diss., Bonn 2001.
• Peter Kehne, Zur Lokalisierung, Organisation und Geschichte des Cheruskerstammes. In: Michael Zelle (Hrsg.), Terra incognita? Die nördlichen Mittelgebirge im Spannungsfeld römischer und germanischer Politik um Christi Geburt. Akten des Kolloquiums im Lippischen Landesmuseum Detmold vom 17. bis 19. Juni 2004. Philipp von Zabern Verlag, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3632-2, pages 9–29.
• Gerhard Neumann, Reinhard Wenskus, Rafael von Uslar, Cherusker. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2. Auflage. volume 4, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 1981, pages 430–435.
• Oberst Streccius, Cherusker. In: Bernhard von Poten (Hrsg.): Handwörterbuch der gesamten Militärwissenschaften. volume 2, Bielefeld/Leipzig 1877, page 235.