The Romance between Arminius and Thusnelda

This beautifully carved and wonderfully subtle Neo-classical relief tells the story of Thusnelda, the 1st century AD Germanic Princess who was a heroine of nineteenth-century German nationalism. She had been betrothed to another when she was abducted by Arminius whom she married. She would be delivered by her treacherous father, Segestes, to the victorious Roman army and brought to Rome as a captive by Germanicus,where Thusnelda gave birth to Arminius's son, Thumelicus. Germanicus celebrated his triumph in Rome in 17 AD and paraded Thusnelda and her son in the streets with her limbs chained alongside a great number of Germanic prisoners. Thusnelda walked along the street as a trophie,suffering huge humiliantion brought by the romance with Arminius. Arminius would never see his wife again, nor his son.