The Cherusci were a Germanic people who lived in what is now northern Germany during the first centuries BC and AD. Roman authors described them living in an area around the middle of the Weser River, to their west were peoples living near the Ems and Lippe rivers such as the Bructeri, Sicambri and Marsi, and in the west their territory stretched towards the Elbe and the Suebian peoples who lived there, including the Langobardi and Semnones. To their north, also on the Weser, were the Angrivarii, and to the southwest of the Cherusci were the Chatti.
The Cherusci played a leading role in the Germanic revolt against the Roman empire which began in 9 AD, when a coalition led by the Cheruscan noble Arminius ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus, in an attack conventionally known as the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The revolt involved several neighbouring tribes, but Maroboduus, king of the Marcomanni, and the peoples within his sphere of power did not join the revolt. The Roman prince and military leader Germanicus led reprisal campaigns from 14 AD to 16 AD with mixed success, but he did not succeed to destroy the coalitions of Arminius or Maroboduus, or restore lasting Roman control. After this the Roman empire gave up its ambitions of largescale conquest and the creation of Roman provincial government in the region between the Rhine and Elbe. Instead however the empire continued to influence and intervene in the region.
Before the revolt the Cherusci were allies of Rome. Some, including Arminius and his brother Flavus, served in the Roman army, and received Roman citizenship. Several Cheruscan nobles remained loyal to Rome or opposed Arminius at different times, and in various ways. They included his brother Flavus, who continued to serve in the Roman army, and his father-in-law Segestes, who warned Varus of the conspiracy. In 17 AD, after the withdrawal of Germanicus, another Cherusci faction led by the uncle of Arminius, Inguiomerus, defected to Maroboduus, king of the Marcomanni.
Arminius was killed by relatives in AD 21 after being accused of seeking kingship. In 47 AD the Romans sent Italicus, the son of Flavus and the last known member of the Cheruscan royal family, to rule the tribe as king. After their defeat by the Chatti in the late first century AD, the Cherusci disappear from accounts of contemporary Germanic politics. Writing in around 100 AD Tacitus claimed that a policy of peace had been a disaster for the Cherusci.
In modern history the Cherusci and their rebellion became a source of inspiration for the idea of a freedom-loving German race and civilization, which influenced the development of the German national identity.
Name
The English spelling Cherusci is derived from the Latin name for the tribe which is generally presumed to represent an otherwise unattested ethnonym with a Germanic etymology. Several Greek forms are also attested, including Khérouskoi and Khairouskoí (). This raises a question about the first vowel sound, and whether it was long or short. Philologist Günter Neumann argued that the first vowel was certainly short, and the spelling given by Strabo, Khēroûskoi () with a long first vowel, is incorrect. Norbert Wagner however argued that Strabo's version is correct, and that the vowel was long.
There is no consensus about what the name meant. Günter Neumann lists the following traditional proposals, all based on the assumption that the name must be Germanic: Jacob Grimm (died 1863) connected the name with Gothic , Old English , which both referred to kinds of sword. Otto Bremer in 1886 associated the name with Old High German , meaning "hairy". Neumann rejected this because presupposes a long vowel, whereas he considered the first vowel of Cherusci short. Rudolf Much in 1893 connected the name with Germanic * meaning "stag", represented in modern languages by examples such as English , and German . Friedrich Kluge (died 1926) compared the word to Old High German , Old English , and Old Norse , "quick, clever", and, through an assumed ablaut variant, interpreted Cherusci as "the clever ones".
Hans Kuhn in contrast argued that the word was not originally Germanic, and that the suffix is uncommon in Germanic. He proposed that the name was a survival from the non-Germanic, non-Celtic language stratum that he associated with the so-called Nordwestblock.
More recently Norbert Wagner argued that the name was originally Celtic, and meant "dark-coloured", but in this scenario the first consonant has been changed from a k-sound to a fricative sound under the influence of Germanic.
Descriptions in classical sources The Cherusci are first attested in Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, concerning his invasion of northern Gaul in 58-52 BC. He mentioned that the powerful Suebi were protected from the Cherusci by the "Bacenis Forest" (), a large and difficult-to-penetrate forest, sometimes identified with the Harz. The word apparently derived from the Germanic word for beech trees.Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 6.10.
Strabo, writing about 20 AD, listed the Cherusci first as one of the more settled and non-nomadic Germanic peoples, together with the Chatti, Gamabrivii and Chattuarii. A second part of this list was described as being peoples closer to the ocean: the Sugambri, Chaubi, Bructeri, Cimbri, Cauci, Caülci and Campsiani. He also connected them to a list of tribes who were plundered by Germanicus and then marched in procession in Rome in 17 AD. The others listed with them in that context were Caülci, Campsani, Bructeri, Usipi, Chatti, Chattuarii, Landi, and Tubattii.Strabo, Geography, 7.1
Pliny the Elder writing in about 70 AD categorized the Cherusci as one of Germanic group called Irminones, who live inland. In the same group he included Suebi, Chatti, and Hermunduri, tribes who claimed descent from a common ancestor. citing Pliny, Natural History, 4.28.
To their west, Dio Cassius described the Cherusci lands in 11 BC as stretching over the Weser river. It was possible to walk into it from the territory of the Sicambri which was south of the Lippe.Dio Cassius, Roman History, 54.33 Tacitus, writing much later in about 100 AD, described the Cherusci of his time living to the east of the point where the Chauci and Chatti had come to share a border.Tacitus, Germania, 35 Also in this later period, the northwestern neighbours of the Cherusci, the Angrivarii, had recently expanded southwestwards into the lands of the Bructeri.Tacitus, Germania, 33 Unlike the Cherusci, Tacitus listed the Angrivarii among the Germanic peoples who had now come to be surrounded by the Chauci and Chatti.Tacitus, Germania, 34
Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography places the Cherusci west of the Elbe, and north of "Melibokus" mountains which might refer to the Harz Mountains or Thuringian Forest. citing Ptolemy, Geography 2.11.10.
To their east it seems that the Cherusci came near to the Elbe river. Vibius Sequester, using old sources which are now lost, referred to the Elbe dividing the Cherusci from the Suebi, but it is difficult to determine which period this information came from and which Suebic people is referred to.
History Campaigns of Drusus and Tiberius A generation after they were first mentioned by Caesar, the Cherusci came into contact with the Roman empire in 11 BC. This occurred in the early phases of the Roman Germania Wars of 12 BC–16 AD, led by Caesar's political heir, the first Roman emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BC—14 AD), and eventually ended by the second emperor Tiberius. Drusus the elder, stepson of Augustus, who governed Roman Gaul from 13 BC initiated the first invasions against the Sicambri, Usipetes and Tencteri who lived near the Rhine, west of the Cherusci, and had made attacks across the river into Gaul.
In 11 BC, in his second campaign across the Rhine, according to Cassius Dio Drusus first subjugated the Usipetes, then bridged the Lippe, and then crossed the entire country of the Sicambri without problem while the Sicambri were engaged in a campaign against the neighbouring Chatti, who had not yet joined the Sicambrian alliance. Drusus and his forces entered the land of the Cherusci but stopped at the river Weser, and then decided to turn back, not only because of a shortage ofsupplies, and the approach of winter, but also because a swarm of bees in the camp was seen as an omen. Local Germanic enemies harassed the Romans on the march, and managed to trap them in confined terrain. In the so-called Battle of Arbalo they only failed to destroy the Romans because of over-confidence and lack of discipline when the Romans seemed defeated., , citing Dio Cassius, Roman History, 54.33, Pliny, Natural History, 11.55, and Julius Obsequens, Book of Omens, 72 It is not known for sure whether the Cherusci were involved in this battle, or where exactly the battle happened. Lanting and van der Plicht believe the attackers were probably Sicambri.
In 10—9 BC Drusus campaigned at least once across the Rhine. It seems that in 10 BC he first defeated the Usipetes, before overrunning the territory of the Tencteri and Chatti, who were apparently both part of the Sicambrian alliance now. Probably in 9 BC, in the continuation of this campaign, Drusus also defeated the Marcomanni, and a powerful alliance of the Sicambri, Cherusci and Suevi. The accounts of the primary sources are as follows: Florus: "Drusus was sent into the province and conquered the Usipetes first, and then overran the territory of the Tencturi and Catthi. He erected, by way of a trophy, a high mound adorned with the spoils and decorations of the Marcomanni. Next he attacked simultaneously those powerful tribes, the Cherusci, Suebi and Sicambri, who had begun hostilities after crucifying twenty of our centurions".Florus, Roman History, 2.30.24-25 Orosius: "Drusus, in Germany, first subdued the Usipetes, then the Tencteri and Chatti. He almost exterminated the Marcomanni. Later, he conquered the strongest nations, [...], such as the Cherusci, Suebi, and Sugambri, all in a single war (bellum), but also with great difficulty."Orosius, 6.21.15-16 Dio Cassius: "Drusus [...] invaded the country of the Chatti and advanced as far as that of the Suebi, conquering with difficulty the territory traversed and defeating the forces that attacked him only after considerable bloodshed. From there he proceeded to the country of the Cherusci...".Dio Cassius, Roman History, 55.1 In 9 BC at the end of this campaign Drusus died.
In 8 BC Augustus and future emperor Tiberius, the brother of Drusus, came north. According to Dio Cassius, Tiberius crossed the Rhine and all the Germani except the Sicambri made overtures of peace. However Augustus refused to make a truce unless the Sicambri did, and when Sicambri envoys arrived they were captured, and they all died in capitvity. Other classical sources say that Tiberius forced large numbers of Suebi and Sicambri to be moved west of the Rhine, within the Roman empire. citing Dio Cassius, Roman History, 55.6.2 The terms of the Cherusci submission are not known, but Roman writers thereafter treated the Cherusci as a dependent and ostensibly friendly people.