Draft:Arminius (dialogue)

'Arminius. Dialogus Huttenicus quo humo patriae amantissimus patriae laudem celebravit, more commonly known as Arminius', is a Latin dialogue by the German humanist Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523). It was first published in 1529, six years after Hutten's death.

The dialogue reworks the twelfth dialogue of Lucian, which features Alexander the Great, Scipio Africanus and Hannibal in the court of Minos, where they argue for their positions in the ranking of great generals. Hutten inserts Arminius (18BC – 21 AD) into this scene, and shows Arminius arguing his case for inclusion as one of the greatest generals of all time.

Hutten's dialogue was the first modern text to adapt the Arminius-Hermann theme, and was followed by several other adaptations in German, notably Heinrich von Kleist's Die Hermannsschlacht (1808).

Background
Ulrich von Hutten studied in Italy in 1515, where he became familiar with two classical texts: Tacitus's Annals and Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead.