]IERMANN, the Arminius of the Roman historians, tho son of Sigimer, chief of the Cherueci, was born about B.C. 36 or 17. Being sent in early youth as a hostage to Rome, probably in consequence of the victories of Drusus, which land established the supremacy of Rome over the Catti, Clierusci, and other tribes of North Gerniany, he obtained the favour of Augustus, and was inscribed among the Roman knights. On his return to his native country, he conceived the project of delivering it from the Romans, whose oppression had become intolerable. Quintilius l'arus, a rapacious man, was then the Roman governor in Germany. Hermann pretended to be his friend, while at the same time ho kept up a secret understanding with the chiefs of the Catti, Bructeri, and other tribes that lived between the Rhine and the Albis (Elbe), some of which broke out into intuit. rection. Hermann offered Varna his assistance in reducing them to subjection, and thus enticed him to advance some distance from the Rhine into the interior. Yarns began his march with three legions, six cohorts, and a body of cavalry, and Hermann served him as a guide through the forests. The Romans were thus drawn into an ambuscade, and found themselves all at once snrrounded by numerous bodies of Germans, who were directed by Hermann himself. The Romans fought desperately ; but being unacquainted with the localities, and unable to form their ranks owing to the thickness of the forests and the marshy nature of the ground, they remained exposed for two days to the missiles of the Germans, who destroyed them in detail. At last, Yarns, being wounded and seeing no chance of escaping, run himself through with his sword, and the other chief officers followed his example. The legions were entirely destroyed, and the cavalry alone cut their way through the enemy and regained the banks of the Rhine. By this defeat the Romans lost all their conquests beyond that river; and although Germanicus some years after again carried their arms to the Weser, they never established anything like a solid dominion over those regions. The defeat of Yarns occurred, according to various chronologists, in the year 763 of Itome (a.n. 9). The scene of the defeat is conjectured to have been in the country of the Bructeri, near the sources of the Ems and the Lippe. The news of this calamity, the greatest that had befallen the Roman arms since the defeat of Cranium, caused much alarm at Rome.
The fears however which were entertained that the Germans might invade Gaul, were not realised. L. Asprena guarded the banks of the Rhine, and the Germans were too little united among themselves to attack the empire. Augustus in the following year sent Tiberius to the Rhine with a fresh army, who does not seem to have effected any thing of importance. Hermann meantime quarrelled with Segestes, chief of the Catti, whose daughter Tusnelda ho had carried off, and married against her father's consent. When Germanicus, lifter the death of Augustus, marched into the interior of Germany to avenge the defeat of Yarua, he was assisted by Sogestes, and also by the Chanel and other tribes. [GmucAxicus.) In the first battle against Hermann his wife Tusnelda was taken prisoner by the Romans, and she afterwards figured in the triumph of Germanicus. Germanicus having reached the scene of Varus's defeat, paid funeral beuoura to the remains of the legions; but Hermann, who was hovering about his line of march, without coming to a pitched battle, harassed him in his retreat, and occasioned a great loss to Ctccina, the lieutenant of Germanicos. (Tacitus, 'Annal.,'L) In the following year Gormanicus advanced again as far as the Visurgis, or Weser, where ho found Hermann encamped ready for battle. A desperate fight took place, in which Hermann, after performing prodigies of valour, was defeated, and escaped with difficulty. When Tiberius recalled Germanicus, he observed that the Cherusel, Bructeri, and other unsubdued tribes might be left to their own internal dissensions. lie seems to have guessed right, for a war broke out soon after between Hermann on one side and Maroboduus, king of the Suovi, on the other, who was accused of aspiring to absolute dominion. The Semnones and the Langobards joined Hermann, who defeated Maroboduus on the borders of the Hervnian Forest, and obliged him to seek refuge among the Marcomanni, from whence he applied to Rome for assistance. Tiberius then sent his son Drusus into the Illyricum; but the Romans did not advance beyond the Danube, and Hermann remained uninoleited in Northern Germany. Shortly after however Hermann was killed by his own relatives, being accused, as it would seem, of aspiring to absolute dominion. He died at the age of thirty-seven, in the twenty first year of our sera, after being for twelve years the leader and champion of Germany.