Segestes was a nobleman of the Germanic Cherusci tribe during the 1st century AD.
Biography[]
Segestes was born in present-day Hanover, Germany to the Cherusci tribe. Of noble birth, Segestes was a staunchly pro-Roman leader of the Cherusci people, seeking to maintain the Cherusci's alliance with the Roman Empire at all costs, even as his people called him a traitor. His daughter Thusnelda rebelled against him by marrying Arminius against Segestes' will, as he had instead betrothed her to Reik Hadgan of the Chatti. In 9 AD, Segestes warned the Roman governor Publius Quinctilius Varus of the brewing Germanic rebellion against him, but Segestes was not believed, and Varus and his three legions subsequently perished at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Segestes and Hadgan proceeded to plot against Arminius, who had become the leader of the Germanic patriots, and, in 15 AD, Segestes openly turned against Arminius when Germanicus invaded northern Germany. Segestes received Roman assistance in lifting Arminius' siege of his stronghold, and he gave the captured Thusnelda over to Germanicus as a wife. In 17 AD, Germanicus displaced Thusnelda and her brother Segimundus at his victory parade in Rome, with Segestes as an honored spectator. In 21 AD, Segestes succeeded in assassinating Arminius, and Germanicus eventually gave Segestes residence in Gallia.
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