Allied Germanic peoples , possibly including:. Marcomannic Wars β participating Roman units. RomanβAlemannic Wars. Gothic War β The alliance was led by Arminius , a Germanic chieftain and officer of Varus's auxilia.
Arminius had received Roman citizenship and a Roman military education , thus allowing him to deceive the Romans methodically and anticipate their tactical responses. Teutoburg Forest is considered one of the most important defeats in Roman history, bringing the triumphant period of expansion under Augustus to an abrupt end. It dissuaded the Romans from pursuing the conquest of Germania , and so can be considered one of the most important events in European history.
The provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior , sometimes collectively referred to as Roman Germania , were established in northeast Roman Gaul , while territories beyond the Rhine remained independent. Retaliatory campaigns were commanded by Tiberius and Germanicus and enjoyed success, but the Rhine became the border between the Roman Empire and the rest of Germania.
Rome then made no major incursion into Germania until Marcus Aurelius r. Some of the descendants of the vassal kingdoms , like the Suebi by suzerainty , that Augustus tried to create in Germania to expand the romanitas and the Empire were the ones that invaded Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries. These mostly were against the Gauls , but also included battles with various Germanic tribes. Continental Europe was mostly neglected by Rome for the next two decades, as power struggles wracked the Republic.
The Gauls promptly rebelled, and Roman control was not regained until 28 BC. Octavian, now styled Augustus, aimed to solidify control of Gaul by dividing the region into three smaller provinces that emphasized the strategic importance of the Rhine valley. Troops were kept near the Rhine, [ 16 ] though policy towards the Germanic lands remains unclear. Two main theories exist. The first is that Augustus simply sought to cement the Rhine as the Northern border of the Empire; the second that the border was far more fluid, and that the troops were focused on maintaining order in the Empire more than on preventing Germanic intrusion.
