(AD 9), battle fought in late summer in which three Roman legions and auxiliary troops under Publius Quinctilius Varus were ambushed and annihilated east of the Rhine by German tribes led by Arminius, a chief of the Cherusci. It is generally believed that this disaster prevented the Romanization of Germany between the Rhine and the Elbe.

The Teutoburger Wald (Teutoburg Forest), southeast of what is now Bielefeld, Ger., was named in the 17th century and thus is anachronistic. The archaeological discovery of the remains of a Roman army that was on the march has placed the battle near present-day Kalkriese, 10 miles (16 km) north of Osnabrück. The modern monument to Arminius, the Hermannsdenkmal, is at Detmold, 44 miles (70 km) southeast of this site.