Germanicus in the context of "Battle of the Teutoburg Forest"

The Roman campaigns in Germania (12 BC – AD 16) were a series of conflicts between the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. Tensions between the Germanic tribes and the Romans began as early as 17/16 BC with the Clades Lolliana, where the 5th Legion under Marcus Lollius was defeated by the tribes Sicambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri. Roman Emperor Augustus responded by rapidly developing military infrastructure across Gaul. His general, Nero Claudius Drusus, began building forts along the Rhine in 13 BC and launched a retaliatory campaign across the Rhine in 12 BC.

Drusus led three more campaigns against the Germanic tribes in the years 11–9 BC. For the campaign of 10 BC, he was celebrated for being the Roman who traveled farthest east in northern Europe. Succeeding generals would continue attacking across the Rhine until AD 16, notably Publius Quinctilius Varus in AD 9. During the return trip from his campaign, Varus' army was ambushed and almost destroyed by a Germanic force led by Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest; Arminius was the leader of the Cherusci, had previously fought in the Roman army, and was considered by Rome to be an ally. Roman expansion into Germania Magna stopped as a result, and all campaigns immediately after were in retaliation of the Clades Variana ("Varian Disaster"), the name used by Roman historians to describe the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and to prove that Roman military might could still overcome German lands. The last general to lead Roman forces in the region during this time was Germanicus, the adoptive son of Emperor Tiberius, who in AD 16 had launched the final major military expedition by Rome into Germania.

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38–9 BC), commonly known in English as Drusus the Elder, was a Roman general and politician. He was a patrician Claudian but his mother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius; the father of the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus; paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.

Drusus launched the first major Roman campaigns across the Rhine and began the conquest of Germania, becoming the first Roman general to reach the Weser and Elbe rivers. In 12 BC, he led a successful campaign into Germania, subjugating the Sicambri. Later that year he led a naval expedition against Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast, conquering the Batavi and the Frisii, and defeating the Chauci near the mouth of the Weser. In 11 BC, he conquered the Usipetes and the Marsi, extending Roman control to the Upper Weser. In 10 BC, he launched a campaign against the Chatti and the resurgent Sicambri, subjugating both. The following year, while serving as consul, he conquered the Mattiaci and defeated the Marcomanni and the Cherusci, the latter near the Elbe. His Germanic campaigns were cut short in the summer of 9 BC by his death after a riding accident.

Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (/kəˈlɪɡjʊlə/), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder, members of the first ruling family of the Roman Empire. He was born two years before Tiberius became emperor. Gaius accompanied his father, mother and siblings on campaign in Germania, at little more than four or five years old. He had been named after Gaius Julius Caesar, but his father's soldiers affectionately nicknamed him "Caligula" ('little boot').

Germanicus died in Antioch in AD 19, and Agrippina returned with her six children to Rome, where she became entangled in a bitter feud with Emperor Tiberius, who was Germanicus' biological uncle and adoptive father. The conflict eventually led to the destruction of her family, with Caligula as the sole male survivor. In 26, Tiberius withdrew from public life to the island of Capri, and in 31, Caligula joined him there. Tiberius died in 37, and Caligula succeeded him as emperor, at the age of 24.

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (/taɪˈbɪəriəs/ ty-BEER-ee-əs; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his wife, Livia Drusilla. In 38 BC, Tiberius's mother divorced his father and married Augustus. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus's two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus's successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat and one of the most successful Roman generals. His conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.

Early in his career, Tiberius was happily married to Vipsania, daughter of Augustus's friend, distinguished general and intended heir, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. They had a son, Drusus Julius Caesar. After Agrippa died, Augustus insisted that Tiberius divorce Vipsania and marry Agrippa's widow, Augustus' own daughter (Tiberius's step-sister) Julia. Tiberius reluctantly gave in. This second marriage proved scandalous, deeply unhappy, and childless; ultimately, Julia was sent into exile by her father. Tiberius adopted his nephew, the able and popular Germanicus, as heir. On Augustus's death in 14, Tiberius became princeps at the age of 55. He seems to have taken on the responsibilities of head of state with great reluctance and perhaps a genuine sense of inadequacy in the role, compared to the capable, self-confident and charismatic Augustus.

The Cherusci were a Germanic 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 BCE and CE. Roman sources reported they considered themselves kin with other Irmino tribes and claimed common descent from an ancestor called Mannus. During the early Roman Empire under Augustus, the Cherusci first served as allies of Rome and sent sons of their chieftains to receive Roman education and serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries. The Cherusci leader Arminius led a confederation of tribes in the ambush that destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in CE 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 CE 21, infighting among the royal family led to the highly Romanized line of his brother Flavus coming to power. Following their defeat by the Chatti around CE 88, the Cherusci do not appear in further accounts of the German tribes, apparently being absorbed into the late classical groups such as the Saxons, Thuringians, Franks, Bavarians, and Allemanni.

Publius Vitellius was a first-century Roman commander under Germanicus. He was the son of the eques Publius Vitellius, and belonged to the gens Vitellia. The emperor Vitellius was his nephew.

The Treveri (Gaulish: *Treweroi) were a Germanic or Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle in modern day Germany from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fringes of the Silva Arduenna (Ardennes Forest), a part of the vast Silva Carbonaria, in what are now Luxembourg, southeastern Belgium and western Germany; its centre was the city of Augusta Treverorum (Trier), to which the Treveri give their name. Celtic in language, according to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. They contained both Gallic and Germanic influences.

Although early adopters of Roman material culture, the Treveri had a chequered relationship with Roman power. Their leader Indutiomarus led them in revolt against Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars; much later, they played a key role in the Gaulish revolt during the Year of the Four Emperors. On the other hand, the Treveri supplied the Roman army with some of its most famous cavalry, and the city of Augusta Treverorum was home for a time to the family of Germanicus, including the future emperor Gaius (Caligula). During the Crisis of the Third Century, the territory of the Treveri was overrun by Germanic Alamanni and Franks and later formed part of the Gallic Empire.

Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.

Agrippina was one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the great-granddaughter of Augustus (the first Roman emperor) and the daughter of the Roman general Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. Her father, Germanicus, was the nephew and heir apparent of the second emperor, Tiberius. Agrippina's brother Caligula became emperor in AD 37. After Caligula was assassinated in AD 41, Germanicus' brother Claudius took the throne. Agrippina married Claudius in AD 49.

The Triumphal Arch of Orange (French: Arc de triomphe d'Orange; Occitan: Arca Triomfala d'Orange) is a triumphal arch located in the town of Orange, southeast France. There is debate about when the arch was built, but current research that accepts the inscription as evidence (27 BC–AD 14) favours a date during the reign of emperor Augustus. It was built on the former via Agrippa to honor the veterans of the Gallic Wars and Legio II Augusta. It was later reconstructed by emperor Tiberius to celebrate the victories of deceased general Germanicus over the German tribes in Rhineland (c. 20–27 AD). The arch contains an inscription dedicated to emperor Tiberius in AD 27. Along with the Roman Theatre of Orange, the Triumphal Arch was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981 because of its exceptional preservation.