Demonstrating his military skills and leadership qualities in his early twenties, Germanicus would serve in the Dalmation War and later served under Tiberius in Germania. In 14 AD, after the death of Augustus, Germanicus was made commander of all the legions in Germania.

Germanicus would now face the emboldened German tribes, who having ambushed and destroyed three legions in the Teutoburg Forest, were determined to remove the Romans from their soil. Germanicus and his legions successfully prosecuted their campaigns against the German tribes, eventually recovering two of the three eagles lost by the legions in the Teutoburg.

Germanicus' success and popularity no doubt influenced Emperor Tiberius' recall of Germanicus to Rome and subsequent posting to Syria where, in Antioch, he was poisoned and died in 19 AD.