Around the year 4 A.D., Arminius assumed command of a Cheruscan detachment of Roman auxiliary forces, probably fighting in the Pannonian wars on the Balkan peninsula. He returned to northern Germania in the 7/8 A.D., where the Roman Empire had established secure control of the territories just east of the Rhine, along the Lippe and Main rivers, and now sought to extend its hegemony eastward towards the Weser and Elbe rivers, under Publius Quinctilius Varus, a high-ranking administrative official appointed by Augustus as governor. Arminius soon began plotting to unite various German tribes and to thwart Roman efforts to incorporate their territories into the empire.
Actually, after the failed attempt to conquer Germania that began with the Teutoburg disaster, the Romans pretty much gave up. However, they did have to fight against the Germanic Marcomanni and their allies during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The Marcomannic Wars ended with his death in 180 CE.
"Gladiator" wasn't the most historically-accurate film I've seen. It didn't even get ancient Rome right. As this site points out, the movie begins with a fictional depiction of a supposed final battle in the Marcomannic Wars:
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