Editing Cherusci (section)

{{Short description|Germanic tribe in present-day northwestern Germany in the 1st centuries BC and AD}}
[[Image:Roman Empire 125.png|thumb|right|400px|The [[Roman Empire]] under [[Hadrian]] (r.{{nbsp}}117–138), showing the former location of the Cherusci in northwestern Germany]]
The '''Cherusci''' were a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[Germanic tribes|tribe]] that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwestern [[Germania]] in the area of the [[Weser River]] and present-day [[Hanover]] during the first centuries BC and AD. [[Roman historiography|Roman sources]] reported they considered themselves kin with other [[Irminones|Irmino]] tribes and claimed common descent from an ancestor called [[Mannus]]. During the early [[Roman Empire]] under [[Augustus]], the Cherusci first served as [[Roman ally|allies]] of Rome and sent sons of their [[Germanic chieftain|chieftains]] to receive [[Roman education]] and serve in the [[Roman army]] as [[auxilia]]ries. The Cherusci leader [[Arminius]] led a confederation of tribes in [[Battle of Teutoburg Forest|the ambush]] that destroyed three [[Roman legion]]s in the [[Teutoburg Forest]] in AD{{nbsp}}9. He was subsequently kept from further damaging Rome by disputes with the [[Marcomanni]] and reprisal attacks led by [[Germanicus]]. After rebel Cherusci killed Arminius in AD{{nbsp}}21, infighting among the royal family led to the highly [[Romanization (cultural)|Romanized]] line of his brother [[Flavus (son of Segimerus)|Flavus]] coming to power. Following their defeat by the [[Chatti]] around AD{{nbsp}}88, the Cherusci do not appear in further accounts of the German tribes, apparently being absorbed into the [[Late antiquity|late classical]] groups such as the [[Saxons]], [[Thuringians]], [[Franks]], [[Bavarians]], and [[Allemanni]].

{{anchor|Etymology}}