Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC, whose name appears prominently in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Before their conflict with the Romans, Ariovistus and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani in defeating their rivals, the Aedui. They then settled in large numbers into conquered Gallic territory in the Alsace region. They were defeated however, in the Battle of Vosges and driven back over the Rhine in 58 BC by Julius Caesar.
While known primarily for his conflict with Caesar, Ariovistus is one of the earliest named figures associated with the peoples the Romans later categorized as Germani. Caesar portrays Ariovistus as a violent and threatening invader in Gaul; however, modern scholars recognize that this depiction reflects Roman political motives in as much as it does historical fact. Like other major ancient Germanic figures, Ariovistus remains a pivotal figure for understanding early Greco-Roman conceptions of "barbarian" identity, frontier politics, and the complex dynamics of early Germanic ethnography.
