 As proconsul, Germanicus was dispatched with Tiberius to defend the empire against the Germans in AD 11.The two generals crossed the Rhine, made various excursions into enemy territory and, in the beginning of autumn, recrossed the river.The campaigns of Tiberius and Germanicus in Germania in the years AD 11–12, combined with an alliance with the Marcomannic federation of Marbod, prevented the German coalition from crossing the Rhine and invading Gaul and Italy.