Editing Arminius (section)

==Return to Germania==
[[File:Magna Germania before the battle of the Teutoburg Forest.png|300px|thumb|Magna Germania in AD 9. The yellow legend represents the areas controlled by the [[Roman Republic]] in 31 BC, the shades of green represent gradually conquered territories under the reign of [[Augustus]], and pink areas on the map represent tributary tribes.]]
Around the year AD 4, Arminius assumed command of a Cheruscan detachment of Roman auxiliary forces, probably while fighting in the [[Pannonians|Pannonian]] wars on the [[Balkan peninsula]]. He returned to northern Germania in AD 7 or 8, where the Roman Empire had established secure control of the territories just east of the [[Rhine]], along the [[Lippe]] and [[Main (river)|Main]] rivers, and was now seeking to extend its hegemony eastward to the [[Weser]] and [[Elbe]] rivers, under [[Publius Quinctilius Varus]], a high-ranking administrative official appointed by [[Augustus]] as governor. Arminius began plotting to unite various Germanic tribes in order to thwart Roman efforts to incorporate their lands into the empire. This proved a difficult task, as the tribes were strongly independent and many were traditionally enemies of each other.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Between AD 6 and 9, the Romans were forced to move eight legions, of the eleven present in Germania east of the Rhine, to crush [[Bellum Batonianum|a rebellion]] in the [[Balkans]],<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/v_alaudae.html | date = September 2010 | title = Legio V Alaudae | publisher = www.livius.org | access-date = 26 March 2020 | archive-date = 26 April 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150426044251/https://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/v_alaudae.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> leaving Varus with only three legions to face the Germans. This was still 18,000 troops, or 6,000 men per legion. An additional two legions, under the command of [[Lucius Nonius Asprenas (suffect consul AD 6)|Lucius Nonius Asprenas]], were stationed in [[Moguntiacum]].<ref>Syme, p. 60</ref> Arminius saw this as the perfect opportunity to defeat Varus.<ref>Velleius Paterculus, ''Compendium of Roman History'' 2, 109, 5; [[Cassius Dio]], ''Roman History'' 55, 28, 6–7</ref>