A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Cheruscan chieftain, the opponent of Arminius. He was alternately the conqueror and the captive of his great rival. Private injuries embittered their political fend, for Arminius carried off and forcibly married the daughter of Segestes. In A. D. 9 Segestes warned Quintilius Varus of the conspiracy of Arminius, Sigimer and other Cheruscan chiefs against him, and counselled him to arrest them ere the revolt broke out. His warning was disregarded, and Varus perished. In A. D. 14 Segestes was forced by his tribesmen into a war with Rome; but he still corresponded with the enemy, and sent to Germanicus information of the plans and movements of the Cheruscans. His treachery was probably discovered, since the Cheruscans attacked Segestes in his own house, and he was rescued with difficulty by a detachment sent by Germanicus. Segestes was accompanied to the Roman camp by his children, his slaves, and clients. He extenuated his part in the war by pleading his services to Augustus, who had granted him the Roman franchise, and he offered to negotiate peace with the insurgent Germans. Germanicus assigned Segestes a secure dwelling-place in Narbonne, and pardoned his son Sigimundus, who had revolted. The daughter of Segestes, although clinging rather to the cause of her husband, Arminius, than to her father's, was sent with her infant son to Ravenna. (Tac. Ann. 1.55-59 ; Vell. 2.118; For. 4.12.)

[W.B.D]