The etymological origin of the name Cherusci is not known with certainty. According to the dominant opinion in scholarship, the name may derive from the ancient Germanic word *herut. The tribe may have been named after the deer because it had a totemistic significance in Germanic symbolism. A different hypothesis, proposed in the 19th century by Jacob Grimm and others, derives the name from *heru-, a word for "sword". Hans Kuhn has argued that the derivational suffix-sk-, involved in both explanations, is otherwise not common in Germanic. He suggested that the name may therefore be a compound of ultimately non-Germanic origin, connected to the hypothesized Nordwestblock.
History
The first historical mention of the Cherusci occurs in Book 6.10 of Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico, which recounts events of 53 BC. Caesar relates that he crossed the Rhine again to punish the Suebi for sending reinforcements to the Treveri. He mentions that the Bacenis forest separated the territory of the Cherusci from that of the Suebi. In 12 BC, the Cherusci and other Germanic tribes were subjugated by the Romans. They appear to have been living in the same homeland when Tacitus wrote, 150 years later, describing them as living east of the Chauci and Chatti. This is generally interpreted to be an area between the riversWeser and Elbe. As Rome tried to expand in northern Europe beyond the Rhine, it exploited divisions within the Cherusci, and for some time the tribe was considered a Roman ally. At this time, the tribe was split between Arminius and Segestes. Arminius advocated breaking allegiance to Rome and declaring independence, while Segestes wanted to remain loyal. By about 8 AD, Arminius had gained the upper hand and began planning rebellion. Segestes repeatedly warned Publius Quinctilius Varus, the governor of Gaul, that rebellion was being planned, but Varus declined to act until the rebellion had broken out. In 9 AD, in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, an army of allied Germanic tribes under the command of Arminius annihilated three Roman legions commanded by Varus. The legions' eagle standards, of great symbolic importance to the Romans, were lost. The numbers of these three legions, Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX, were never used again. After the mutinies of the German legions in 14 AD, Germanicus decided, at the urging of his men, to march into Germany to restore their lost honor. In 15 AD, after a quick raid on the Chatti, they invaded the lands of the Marsi in 14 AD with 12,000 legionnaires, 26 cohorts of auxiliaries, and eight cavalry squadrons. According to Tacitus, an area of 50 Roman miles wide was laid to waste with fire and sword: "No sex, no age found pity." A legion eagle from Varus's defeat, either from the XVII or XVIII, was recovered. Then, he began a campaign against the Cherusci. He received an appeal to rescue Segestes, who was besieged by Arminius. Segestes was rescued, along with a group of relatives and dependents, including Thusnelda, Segestes' daughter and the wife of Arminius. Germanicus spared them and gave them land in Gaul. He then found the site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. His men buried the dead and built a funeral mound. A series of battles followed. After major casualties on the Romans, Tiberius forbid further campaigns. This effectively led to the withdrawal of the Roman troops until the collapse of the Roman Empire. After Arminius' death, the Romans left the Cherusci more or less to their own devices. In 47 AD, the Cherusci asked Rome to send Italicus, the nephew of Arminius, to become king, as civil war had destroyed their nobility. He was initially well liked, but since he was raised in Rome as a Roman citizen, he soon fell out of favor. Tacitus writes of the Cherusci of his time :
Dwelling on one side of the Chauci and Chatti, the Cherusci long cherished, unassailed, an excessive and enervating love of peace. This was more pleasant than safe, for to be peaceful is self-deception among lawless and powerful neighbours. Where the strong hand decides, moderation and justice are terms applied only to the more powerful; and so the Cherusci, ever reputed good and just, are now called cowards and fools, while in the case of the victorious Chatti success has been identified with prudence. The downfall of the Cherusci brought with it also that of the Fosi, a neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their disasters, though they had been inferior to them in prosperous days.
Claudius Ptolemy in his Geography, describes the Χαιρουσκοὶ and Καμαυοὶ as living near each other and also near to "Mount Melibocus" and to the Calucones, who lived on both banks of the Elbe. The later history of the Cherusci is mostly unknown. In the fourth century AD, they perhaps contributed to the formation of the Saxon people.
