Period of the Roman Empire :
Germania Libera
Germania Libera is Latin and translates to free Germania



Note : The German words for (modern) "German" and (ancient) "Germanic" are "Deutscher" and "Germane". The term "Germanic" extends not only to the ancestors of the modern Germans, but also to those of the English, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders. France, Lombardy, Catalonia and Andalusia derive their names from Germanic peoples. In order to distinguish both modern German and ancient Germanic, here the term German is only used after 800 A.D., for the inhabitants of the state which developed into modern Germany.

click here for a map of the Roman Empire and its surroundings, A.D. 200; A.D. 300; A.D. 380; A.D. 400; A.D. 420 (N); A.D. 460 (N); A.D. 500


A.) Central Europe in ca. 50 B.C.

The first account containing detailed information on the people inhabiting Central Europe is found in Julius Caesar's comments on the Gallic War. He undertook two short excursions across the Rhine into Germania, thus reporting from personal experience. Shortly before 100 A.D., P. Cornelius Tacitus published his GERMANIA. His description of the simple Germanics was meant to be a mirror on Roman society, criticizing it's many faults.
The Romans clearly distinguished between Celts and Germans, the Celts being on a higher standard of civilization. However, the Romans summarily referred to all Barbarian non-Celtic peoples dwelling to the north of Rhine and Danube as GERMANI. The names of some of these Germanic peoples, Living along or close to the Rhine, are reported, the Chamavi, Sugambri, Bructeri, Cherusci, Chatti.
It is assumed that by the time of Julius Caesar, not all of what is Germany today has been settled by Germans; in the south, along the Danube, Celtic peoples were living. However, Germanic peoples pressed on them, at times expelled them to take over their land, the pressing people themselves pressed by people living further inland. Julius Caesar describes the Gallic Haedui under such pressure, when he arrived on the scene in 58 B.C. The Germanic MARCOMANNI occupied what is Bohemia today. Over time they would take on the name of the Celtic people which inhabited the area before the Germanic conquest - the BOII, a name which would derive both into BAIUWARII (Bavarians) and BOHEMIA. Many placenames in western central and southern Germany are of Celtic origin.
In the first decades of the 1st century A.D., Rome strove to extend it's border to the Elbe river, to subjugate the Germanic peoples living there. These peoples, often at war with each other, had annihilated three Roman legions led by VARUS in the BATTLE OF TEUTOBURG FOREST in 9 A.D., a defeat which made the Romans give up the idea of subjugating Germania Libera the land between Rhine, Danube and Elbe. However, they did not pose a serious challenge to the Roman Empire. Rome gave up it's conquest scheme and established a fortified border along Rhine and Danube. Northeast of it lay Barbarian GERMANIA LIBERA, southwest of it the civilized world.
The Germanic peoples, for the next 150 years, did not pose a threat to the Roman Empire. Their units were to small. The area was not even commercially attractive - there were no towns, the Germanics did not mint any coins, had hardly anything to offer, the most interesting items for the Roman market being AMBER, blond hair, and the Germanics themselves - as slaves. There have been instances, in which heavily indebted Germanicss sold their wives and children into slavery.
There was petty warfare among the Germanic peoples; at times a people hard pressed applied to Rome for permission to cross into the Roman Empire and settled on Roman soil, such as the UBII and BATAVI. The Region on the left bank of the Rhine therefore became known as the provinces GERMANIA INFERIOR (Lower G.) and GERMANIA SUPERIOR (Upper G.).


B.) Germanic Peoples, A.D. 200 - 400

On the other side of the Rhine, early in the 3rd century a major change happened : The petty Germanic tribes merged into larger federations. In the sources, new names appear : the FRANCI, ALAMANNI, SAXONES. The process of forming these federations was violent : the Romans watched on, as the Bructeri were slaughtered by their enemies. In addition, Germanic peoples which originated from Scandinavia, such as the BURGUNDIANS, GOTHS, VANDALS appear south of the Baltic Sea, closing in on the Roman Empire. These peoples were units large enough to undertake raids into the Roman Empire. Although regularly defeated if taken serious, they caused the Roman Empire (which had suffered under frequent civil wars) to take back its frontier ca. 275 : DACIA was given up to the Goths, AGRI DECUMATES to the Alamanni, and the Franks were permitted to keep the lands on the southern bank of the lower Rhine, although the territory formally remained part of the Empire. The Franks were given the status of FOEDERATI.


C.) The Constitution of a Germanic State

The key element which constituted a Germanic people was their LAW. Germanic society was stressed in the nobles, the freemen and the serfs (half-free). Long hair was regarded a symbol of liberty; those who had cut their hair (such as monks) in the eyes of Germanics had given up their liberty, joined the ranks of the serfs. They viewed the Romans (with their short haircuts) as not really free men. The Germanic nobility had an assured status, but it, especially the higher nobility (dukes, kings) did not enjoy absolute authority. First, some peoples for considerable time had no king or duke. During much of the 3rd and 4th century, we know little of the leaders of the Franci and Alamanni; they appear as FEDERATIONS rather than kingdoms. In areas they conquered and settled, the previous population was expelled, killed or enslaved. The arable land was allotted to warrior soldiers in equal shares, in the size of what one farmer could handle.
KINGS had to gain followership by providing them with something - booty or land to settle on. They needed to be successful warriors; with military success, the ranks of their followers swelled. The king was expected to have a certain charisma, in Germanic described as HAIL (fortune, favour of the gods). The Germanics believed that such hail stayed within a family, so they often accepted kingship to be transferred from brother to brother, from father to son. Lack of success, however, was interpreted as lack of hail, and could lead to a quick downfall. Like the SOLDIER EMPERORS of the Later Roman Empire, the Germanic kings were bound to succeed. Alaric seemed to be aware of that, when he, before invading Italy in 410 (after three failed attempts) said "in Italy I seek a kingdom or a grave".
The first successful Germanic kingdom was that of the GOTHS, which in the 3rd and 4th century established an Empire reaching from the Baltic Sea to the lower Danube, eastward to the Don. We have to assume, that numerous other peoples, especially VLACHIANS, as well as unnamed SLAVIC and BALTIC peoples, lived within the Gothic Empire.


D.) Germanics and Romans : a Question of Identity

The earlier Germanic peoples living on Roman soil, the Batavians, Ubians, Treveri, were assimilated into Roman civilization, and their names disappear from the records. The Germanic peoples appearing in the sources from 200 onward, no matter if settling outside the Empire, or, as foederati, within its borders, preserved their identity. They strictly separated from the Romans and kept their institutions, their law and their hierarchy, up. Relations with the Romans were basically restricted to two areas - trade, limited and dominated by the Romans (which, at times, forced the Germanics to pay their debts by selling their wives and children into slavery), and military service; over time, more and more Germanics enlisted in the Roman army, which late in the 4th century was almost entirely Germanic.
The Germanics were warlike; they believed that a warrior who was victoriuos in many battles and finally met his death on the battlefield, would enter VALHALLA, the Germanic version of paradise.The GERMANIC PANTHEON, of which (for this period of history) little is known, is believed to be heavily influenced by Roman mythology.
On the other hand, beginning with WULFILA's return to the VISIGOTHS in 325, Germanic peoples converted to christianity. At the time of the BARBARIC PEOPLE'S MIGRATION (400-430), most of the people settling on Roman soil, the Visigoths, OSTROGOTHS, VANDALS, BURGUNDIANS, were ARIAN CHRISTIANS. When they plundered a Roman city, they spared Catholic churches, so acknowledging a common bond with the Romans who were christians.
The Germanic peoples entering the Roman Empire in 406 following were not, or not openly, seeking to conquer the Empire. Instead, they were striving to become a part of it, by achieving their people to be given the status of federates (foederati) and settled in one of the better provinces, and by themselves being appointed to a powerful office, the most prestigious being that of MAGISTER MILITUM (commander of the Roman forces). Even ALARIC's Visigoths, after the successful sack of Rome in 410, were content with being settled as federates in AQUITANIA in 418. Still in 451 they served as auxiliaries in the Roman army lead by AETIUS in the BATTLE OF CHALONS. Similarly, GAISERIC's Vandals, who had conquered the province of Africa, when sacking Rome in 455, were not conquering an enemy town, but taking a town held by a party they competed with for the most influential position in the Empire (the strongman who opposed Gaiseric was RICIMER, another Germanic (Ostrogoth) who controlled a number of PUPPET EMPERORS. The Barbaric Migrations therefore should be regarded as a continuation of Roman civil wars, in which by now foreign entities were not only involved, but dominated.
It has to be stressed that the Germanics living further north, the Franci, Saxones, Alamanni etc. were still heathen and more traditional. When they conquered a territory, they forced the local population either to leave or enslaved them, distributed the farmland among their warriors, established a purely Germanic civilization.


EXTERNAL
FILES 		Peoples of the Dark Ages, by Mark Furnival
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, article summarizing the archaeological evidence found at Kalkriese, the site of the long sought for Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
DOCUMENTS Tacitus, Germania, from Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Paterculus, Account of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.), from hillsdale.edu


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on February 24th 2006

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