Map of the Roman Empire and "the free Germania", Magna Germania, in the early 2nd century

History

Germania was inhabited by different tribes, the vast majority Germanic but also including some Celtic, Baltic, Scythian, and proto-Slavic. The tribal and ethnic makeup changed over the centuries as a result of assimilation and, most importantly, migrations. The Germanic people spoke several different dialects.

The classical world knew little about the people who inhabited the north of Europe before the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century BC the Greeks were aware of a group they called Celts (Keltoi). Herodotus also mentioned the Scythians but no other barbarian tribes. At around 320 BC, Pytheas of Massalia sailed around Britain and along the northern coast of Europe, and what he found on his journeys was so unbelievable that later writers refused to believe him. He may have been the first Mediterranean to distinguish the Germanic people from the Celts. Caesar described the cultural differences between the Germanic tribesmen, the Romans, and the Gauls. He said that the Gauls, although warlike, could be civilised, but the Germanic tribesmen were far more savage and were a threat to Roman Gaul and so had to be conquered. His accounts of barbaric northern tribes could be described as an expression of the superiority of Rome, including Roman Gaul. Caesar's accounts portray the Roman fear of the Germanic tribes and the threat they posed. The perceived menace of the Germanic tribesmen proved accurate. The most complete account of Germania that has been preserved from Roman times is Tacitus' Germania.

Map showing the distribution of the Germanic tribes in Proto-Germanic times, and stages of their expansion up to 50 BC, AD 100 and AD 300. The extent of the Roman Empire in 68 BC and AD 117 is also shown.

Tacitus wrote in AD 98:

For the rest, they affirm Germania to be a recent word, lately bestowed. For those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani. And thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by fear and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were universally called Germani.^[5]

Regions

Germania was defined by Rome as having two regions: Lesser Germania, west and south of the Rhine, occupied by the Romans, and Greater Germania (Magna Germania) east of the Rhine. The occupied Germania was divided into two provinces: Germania Inferior (Lower Germania) (approximately corresponding to the southern part of the present-day Low Countries) and Germania Superior (Upper Germania) (approximately corresponding to present-day Switzerland and Alsace). The Romans under Augustus began to conquer and defeat the Germania Magna in 12 BC, having the Legati (generals) Germanicus and Tiberius leading the Legions. By AD 6, all of Germania up to the River Elbe was temporarily pacified by the Romans as well as being occupied by them. The Roman plan to complete the conquest and incorporate all of Magna Germania into the Roman Empire was frustrated when Rome was defeated by the German tribesmen in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. Augustus then established the boundary of the Roman Empire as being the Rhine and the River Danube.

Modern Use

"Germany" in English and similar names in other languages are derived from "Germania," though the country's own inhabitants call it "Deutschland". Several modern languages continue to use the name "Germania" including Hebrew (??????), Italian, Greek, Romanian, and Russian.

References

Bibliography

See also

• Roman Roads in Germania
• Roman Iron Age
• Germanic Europe
• Germanic peoples
• Limes Germanicus
• Scandinavia

External links

• Germania (Roman provinces)
• 
• Tacitus' Germania at the Latin Library (text in Latin)
• Tacitus' Germania (text in both Latin and English)

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