ARMINIUS, the Latinized form of the name HERMANN, or more probably ARMIN (17 B.C.—A.D. 21), the German national hero. He was a son of Segimer, a prince of the tribe of the Che rusci (q.v.), and in early life served in the Roman armies. Return ing to find his people chafing under the yoke of the Roman gov ernor, Quintilius Varus, he fomented rebellion, and, in the autumn of A.D. 9, surprised Varus in the Teutoburger Wald, and utterly destroyed three legions. This disaster caused panic at Rome and forced the Romans to withdraw their frontier from the Elbe to the Rhine. Then in A.D. 15, Germanicus Caesar led the Romans against Arminius, and captured his wife, Thusnelda. An indecisive battle was fought in the Teutoburger Wald, where Germanicus narrowly escaped the fate of Varus, and in the following year Arminius was defeated. But the campaigns had been so costly that Germanicus was recalled, and the Romans gave up for ever the idea of the Elbe frontier. The hero's later years were spent in fighting against Marbod, prince of the Marcomanni, and in dis putes with his own people. He was murdered in A.D. 21.
In 1875 a great monument to Arminius was completed. This stands on the Grotenburg mountain near Detmold. Klopstock and other poets have used his exploits as material for dramas.
Much discussion has taken place with regard to the exact spot in the Teutoburger Wald where the great battle between Arminius and Varus was fought. There is an immense literature on this subject, and the following may be consulted:—T. Mommsen, Die Ortlichkeit der Varusschlacht (1885) ; E. Meyer, Untersuchungen fiber die Schlacht im Teutoburger Walde (1893) ; A. Wilms, Die Schlacht im Teuto burger Walde (5899) ; F. Knoke, Das Schlachtfeld im Teutoburger Walde (1899) ; E. Dunzelmann, Der Schauplatz der Varusschlacht (1889) ; and P. Hofer, Die Varusschlacht (1888). For more general accounts of Arminius see: Tacitus, Annals, edited by H. Furneaux (Books I. and II.) (1884-91) ; 0. Kemmer, Arminius (1893) ; F. W. Fischer, Armin and die Romer (1893) ; W. Uhl, Das Portrait des Arminius (1898) ; F. Knoke, Die Kriegszuge des Germanicus in Deutschland (1887) ; and W. A. Oldfather and H. V. Cantor, "The Defeat of Varus," in Univ. of Illinois studies in the Social Sciences (Urbana, Ill., 1915).