ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. The anti-Roman alliance was led by Arminius, an officer of Varus' auxiliary forces who had acquired Roman citizenship and received a Roman military education.

The Romans' saltus Teutoburgiensis (Teutoburg Pass) is taken to refer to the strip of cultivated land with a width of 220 m which lies between the