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The Germanic peoples (Template:Lang-lat; Template:Lang-de), or in older publications sometimes Teutonic peoples (Template:Lang-lat), are a category of north European ethnic groups, first mentioned by Graeco-Roman authors; and many of them are believed to have spoken similar Germanic languages. Starting with Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), Roman authors placed their homeland, Germania, between the Lower Rhine and the Vistula, and distinguished them from other broad categories of peoples better known to Rome, especially the Celtic Gauls to their southwest, and "Scythian" Sarmatians to their southeast. Greek writers, in contrast, consistently categorized the Germanic peoples east of the Rhine as Gauls. There is no evidence that the Germanic peoples called themselves or their lands "Germanic".

Broader definitions of the "Germanic peoples" include peoples who were not known as Germani or Germanic peoples in their own time, but who have been proposed to be part of the same group of cultures, especially because of their use of Germanic languages, although not all scholars agree that this is a useful approach. By further extension, "Germanic peoples" is a term which can even include the medieval or modern speakers of diverse Germanic languages. The languages of the Germanic peoples in the time of Caesar have left only fragmentary evidence, and the first long texts which have survived are written in languages of new peoples outside Germania: the Gothic languages from the region that is today Ukraine (now extinct), and Old English in England. Languages in this family are widespread today in Europe, and have dispersed worldwide, the family being represented by major modern languages such as English, Dutch, Nordic languages and German.

Apart from language, proposed connections between the diverse Germanic peoples described by classical and medieval sources, archaeology, and linguistics are the subject of on-going debate among scholars:

• On the one hand there is doubt about whether Roman-era Germanic peoples were all unified by any single unique shared culture, collective consciousness, or even language. Furthermore, the idea that even the Germanic-speaking groups maintained any meaningful idea of shared origins has been criticized by scholars such as Walter Goffart, and become the subject of vigorous debate.
• On the other hand, there is a connected debate concerning the extent to which any significant Germanic traditions apart from language survived after Roman times, when new mixed peoples formed new political entities in many parts of Europe, some of which can be seen as precursors of modern European nation states such as the English and French. Such proposed connections back to medieval and classical barbarian nations were important to many of the Romanticist nationalist movements which developed in Europe in modern times. The most controversial of these has been "Germanicism" which saw especially Germans as heirs of Europe-conquering Germanic peoples, and which helped inspire Nazism.

In the 21st century genetic studies have begun to look more systematically at questions of ancestry, using both modern and ancient DNA. However, the connection between modern Germanic languages, ethnicity and genetic heritage is thought by many scholars to be unlikely to ever be simple or uncontroversial. Guy Halsall for example writes:

The danger, barely addressed (at best dismissed as a purely ‘ideological’ objection), is of reducing ethnicity to biology and thus to something close to the nineteenth-century idea of race, at the basis of the ‘nation state’.

Definitions of Germanic peoples

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Since the first surviving discussion of the topic by Julius Caesar, the definition of what makes any people or peoples "Germanic" has not been perfectly clear, involving several criteria. This remains relevant because his writings, and a small number of writings from his time and soon after - Strabo (about 63 BCE - 24 CE), Pliny the Elder (about 23 – 79 CE), and especially Tacitus (about 56 – 120 CE) - are still the basis of most modern scholarly debate concerning the various ways in which Germanic peoples are sometimes proposed to have been connected, such as language, clothing, hairstyles, law, weaponry and religion. Attempts to unite all or some of these peoples more objectively, based strictly upon the latest linguistic and/or archaeological criteria, have created new concepts which overlap with the old ones. However this has not ended debate and uncertainty concerning the origins and backgrounds of either the Roman-era Germanic peoples (such as the Marcomanni), or the post-Roman Germanic peoples (such as the Franks).

Roman ethnographic writing, from Caesar to Tacitus

According to all available evidence, the theoretical concept of the Germanic peoples as a large grouping distinct from the Gauls, whose homeland was east of the Rhine, originated with Julius Caesar's published account of his "Gallic Wars". Importantly for all future conceptions of what Germanic means, Caesar was apparently the first to categorize distant peoples such as the Cimbri and the large group of Suebian peoples as "Germanic". The Suevians and their languages, which had perhaps never been called Germanic before then, had started expanding their influence in his time, as Caesar experienced personally. Caesar's categorization was in the context of explaining his battle against Ariovistus, who had been a Roman ally, and who led mixed forces which included significant Suebian contingents. Rome had suffered previously from northern wandering peoples, notably the Cimbri, who they had previously categorized as Gauls. Caesar instead categorized the Cimbri together with the peoples allied under Ariovistus as "Germanic", apparently using an ethnic term that was more local to the Rhine region where he fought Ariovistus. (Modern scholars are undecided about whether the Cimbri were Germanic speakers.) Caesar presented a domino theory whereby these peoples from beyond the Gauls would create a repeat of past invasions into Italy. He proposed that these could be stopped by his conquest of Gaul, and defending the Rhine as a boundary against these Germani.

Several Roman writers followed Caesar's tradition, partly defining the Germanic peoples of their time geographically, by their presumed homeland. This "Germania magna", or Greater Germania, was seen as a large wild country roughly east of the Rhine, and north of the Danube, but not everyone from within the bounds of those rivers was ever described by Roman authors as Germanic, and not all Germani lived there. The opening of the Germania of Tacitus gave a rough definition only:

Germania is separated from the Gauls, the Rhaetians, and Pannonii, by the rivers Rhine and Danube. Mountain ranges, or the fear which each feels for the other, divide it from the Sarmatians and Dacians.

The northern part of Greater Germania, including the North European Plain, Scandinavia, and the Baltic coast were presumed to be the original Germanic homeland by early Roman authors such as Caesar and Tacitus. Modern scholars also see this as the area from which Germanic languages dispersed. In the east, Germania magna's boundaries were unclear according to Tacitus, although geographers such as Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela took it to be the Vistula. For Tacitus it stretched somewhat further: to somewhere east of the Baltic sea in the north, and its people blended with the "Scythian" (or Sarmatian) steppe peoples in the area what is today Ukraine in the south. In the north, greater Germania stretched all the way to the relatively unknown Arctic Ocean. In contrast, in the south of Greater Germania nearer the Danube, the Germanic peoples were seen by these Roman writers as immigrants or conquerors, living with other peoples who they had come to dominate. Matching this description best, various Suebian Germanic-speaking peoples from the Elbe river region pushed into the Hercynian forest regions where the Gaulish Volcae, Helvetii and Boii had lived.

Roman writers who added to Caesar's theoretical description, especially Tacitus, also at least partly defined the Germani by other criteria such as their economy, religion, clothing and language. Caesar had previously noted that the Germani had no druids, and were less interested in farming than Gauls, and also that Gaulish (lingua gallica) was a language the Germanic King Ariovistus had to learn. Tacitus mentioned Germanic language at least three times, all concerning eastern peoples whose ethnicity was uncertain, and such remarks are seen by some modern authors as evidence of a unifying Germanic language. His comments are not detailed, but they indicate that there were Suebian languages within the category of Germanic languages, and that customs varied between different Germanic peoples. For example:

• The Marsigni and Buri, near today's southern Silesia, were Suebian in speech and culture and therefore among the Germani in a region where he says non-Germanic people also lived.
• The peoples (gentes) of the Aesti, on the eastern shores of the Baltic sea, had the same customs and attire as the Germanic Suebians although "their language more resembles that of Britain". (They are seen today as speakers of Baltic languages, a language group in the same Indoeuropean language family as Germanic and Celtic.)
• Already mentioned above, the Peucini called by some Bastarnæ, are like Germani in their speech, cultivation, and settlements. (However, Livy says that their language was like that of the Scordisci.)

Before Caesar

Origin of the "Germanic" terminology

The etymology of the Latin word "Germani", from which Latin Germania, and English "Germanic" are derived, is unknown, although several different proposals have been made. Even the language from which it derives is a subject of disagreement.

Whatever it meant, the name probably originally applied only to a smaller group of people, the so-called "Germani cisrhenani", whose Latin scholarly name means simply the Germani who live on the western side of the Lower Rhine.. Ironically however, while Caesar and Tacitus saw this smaller people as Germanic in the broader sense also, they do not fit easily with the much broader definitions of "Germanic" used by them or modern scholars. A significant complication for all attempts to define the Germanic peoples using either the Rhine, or language, are therefore these original Germani. Tacitus (Germania, 2) reported that these Germanic peoples in Gaul, ancestors of the Tungri in his time, were the first people to be called Germani. According to Tacitus, their name had transferred to peoples such as those within the alliance of Ariovistus, as a name which scared potential enemies.

Caesar described how the country of these Germani cisrhenani stretched well west of the Lower Rhine, into modern Belgium, and it had done so long before the Romans came into close contact. Neither Caesar nor Tacitus saw this as clashing with their broader definitions, because they believed these Germani had moved from the east, where the other Germani lived. Nevertheless, Caesar reported that they were already there during the Cimbrian War (113–101 BCE), generations before Roman involvement in the area. The early Germani on both sides of the Lower Rhine were however distinguished from the Suebian Germani, by Caesar, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo. Strabo said that the Germani near the Rhine differed little from the Celts. Pliny the Elder and Tacitus reported a tradition that the Lower Rhine Germani could be distinguished as "the Istaevones" from the "Ingaevones" on the North Sea coast, and the "Herminones", who included the Suebian peoples, living inland of these groups. Modern historical linguists and archaeologists have also come to doubt that these western Germani spoke a Germanic language as defined today, or shared the same material culture, at least at the time of their first contact with Caesar and the Romans. Caesar himself refers to them also as Gauls.

Written evidence before Caesar

Unfortunately, all surviving written evidence implying the concept of "Germanic" from before Julius Caesar is doubtful and unclear. There are two or three cases to consider.

• One is the use of the word Germani in a report of lost writings by Posidonius (about 135 – 51 BCE), by the much later writer Athenaios (around 190 CE), however this word may have been added by the later writer, and if not, probably referred to the Germani cisrhenani. (It only says that the Germani eat roasted meat in separate joints, and drink milk and unmixed wine.)
• A commemoration in Rome of a triumph in 222 BCE by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, over Galleis Insubribus et Germ. This victory in the Alpine region at the Battle of Clastidium over the Insubres is known from other sources to have involved a large force of Gaesatae. It is believed by many scholars that the inscription should originally have referred to these Gaesatae.
• A third author sometimes thought to have written about the Germani is Pytheas of Marseille, who wrote about northern Europe, however his works have not survived. Later reports of his writings show that he wrote about the areas and tribes later called Germanic but do not necessarily show that he called them Germanic. (For example Pliny the elder says he described the Baltic sea and mentioned a large country of "Guiones", often interpreted as the Gutones, described by Tacitus. Their land included an estuary that is one day's sail from an island where amber was collected, which in turn neighbours the Teutones.)

After Caesar however, Roman authors such as Tacitus followed his example in using the Germanic terminology to refer retroactively to peoples known to the Romans or Greeks before Caesar. As already noted, the Cimbri had previously been described as Celtic or Cimmerian, and Greek writers continued to do so, while in contrast Caesar described them as Germanic. Tacitus and Strabo both proposed with some uncertainty that the Bastarnae, a large people known to the Graeco-Roman world before Caesar, from the region of what is now Ukrainian Galicia and Moldava, might also have had mixed Germanic ancestry, and according to Tacitus, even a Germanic language. Pliny the Elder categorized them as a separate major division of the Germani like Istvaeones, Ingvaeones, and Irminones, but also separate from an eastern group which contained the Vandals and Gutones both in what is now Poland. (Livy, however, said they spoke a language like the Scordisci.)

Archaeological evidence

Archaeologists divide up the area of Roman-era Germania into several material cultures. At the time of Caesar, all were strongly influenced by the La Tène culture which was present in the south and west, from southern Poland to southern Germany, and from Switzerland to the Lower Rhine, and associated with Celtic-speaking Gauls. These peoples, who included the Germani cisrhenani, are in general considered unlikely to have spoken Germanic languages as defined today, though some may have spoken unknown related languages, while many probably spoke Celtic dialects.

Concerning Germanic-speakers and Suevi within these regions, the relatively well-defined Jastorf culture, matches well with the areas described by Tacitus, Pliny the elder and Strabo as Suevian homelands on the River Elbe, southern Denmark, and stretching east on the Baltic coast. It also neighboured related cultures in Scandinavia, Poland, and northern Germany.

Later Roman "Germanic peoples"

The theoretical examination of Germanic peoples in his time by Tacitus, which have been very influential in modern times, may never have been commonly read or used in the Roman-era. It is clear in any case that in later Roman times the Rhine frontier (or Limes Germanicus), the area where the first Germani had once lived, and where Caesar had first come in contact with Suevians and Germani cisrhenani, was the normal "Germanic" area mentioned in writing. Walter Goffart has written that "the one incontrovertible Germanic thing" in the Roman era was "the two Roman provinces of 'Germania,' on the middle and lower course of the Rhine river" and: "Whatever 'Germania' had meant to Tacitus, it had narrowed by the time of St Jerome to an archaic or poetic term for the land normally called Francia". Edward James, similarly wrote:

It seems clear that in the fourth century 'German' was no longer a term which included all western barbarians. Ammianus Marcellinus, in the later fourth century, only uses Germania when he is referring to the Roman provinces of Upper Germany and Lower Germany; east of Germania are Alamannia and Francia.

Far from the Rhine, the Gothic peoples in what is today Ukraine, and the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles, were not directly called Germanic in any surviving text, but in at least a few cases, erudite writers linked them to the old Germanic peoples named by Tacitus and Ptolemy, who had both specifically mentioned the Angles for example. Very notably for the history of the concept "Germanic", Jordanes wrote the earliest surviving account of Gothic origins, which specifically connected them to the Gutones of Tacitus. This continues to cause debate among scholars, because while this account is confused and mistaken, typical of a whole genre of such origins stories, this particular aspect of Jordanes, connecting the Goths to earlier Germania, matches linguistic and archaeological evidence. However, Walter Goffart in particular has criticized modern scholars for often taking Jordanes seriously when the genre of origins stories as a whole is much bigger, and other origins myths are not taken seriously.

The poet Sidonius Apollinaris, living in what is now southern France, described the Burgundians of his time as speaking a "Germanic" tongue and being "Germani". However, Wolfram proposed that this word was chosen not because of a comparison of language, but because the Burgundians had come from the Rhine region, and even argued that the use of this word by Sidonius might be seen as be seen as evidence against Burgundians being speakers of East Germanic, given that the East Germanic speaking Goths, also present in southern France at this time, were never described this way.

Medieval "Teutonic languages"

Medieval writers used Caesar's old geographical concept of Germania, which, like the Frankish kingdoms, used the Rhine as a frontier marker. However they did not commonly refer to any contemporary Germani. For example Louis the German (Ludovicus Germanicus) was named this way because he ruled east of the Rhine.

Writers using Latin in West Germanic-speaking areas did recognize that those languages were related (Dutch, English, Lombardic, and German). To describe this they referred to "Teutonic" words, seeing it as a Latin translation of Theodiscus, a word they also used, which was taken from Germanic. This was word that West Germanic speakers used to refer to themselves, and the source of the modern words Dutch and Deutsch. Romance language speakers and others such as the Welsh were contrasted using words based on an older word Walhaz (the source of "Welsh", Wallach, Welsch, Walloon). A small number of writers were influenced by Tacitus, known at Fulda Abbey, and used terminology such as lingua Germanica instead of theudiscus sermo.

On the other hand among the many different origins myths of the new peoples, for example that the Franks came from Troy, there were authors who connected some of the new peoples to Scandinavia, and the peoples once described by Tacitus. This went back to origins myths made in late antiquity, such as those of Paul the Deacon for the Lombards, or Jordanes for the Goths (see above). Frechulf of Lisieux, for example, was aware of the story published by Jordanes, and noted that some believed that the Goths might belong to the "nationes Theotistae", like the Franks, and that both the Franks and the Goths might have come from Scandinavia.

Modern "Germanic" concepts and "Germanism"

There was a renewal of interest in Tacitus in the 15th century "with spectacular results" especially in Germany. It continues to be an important influence, and often read together with Jordanes' Getica, which was written much later, but which declared connections between the Goths, and the Germanic peoples near the Baltic sea, described by Tacitus.

Tacitus's ethnography won the attention it had formerly been denied because there now was a Germany, the "German nation" that had come into existence since the Carolingians, which Tacitus could now equip with a heaven-sent ancient dignity and pedigree.

In this context, in the 19th century, Jacob Grimm helped define and popularize the concept of Germanic languages as those Indoeuropean languages which underwent the "First Germanic Sound Shift" also known as Grimm's law. He proposed that the predecessor from which these languages derived must have been spoken by the early Germanic peoples. Furthermore he popularized a detailed narrative of these Germanic speakers clinging valiantly to their supposed Germanic civilization over the centuries.

The subsequently popular modern assertion of strong cultural continuity between Roman-era Germani and medieval or modern Germanic speakers, especially Germans, made an equation between objectively-defined language categories, assumed to be families with family trees, rather than mixtures, with not only other aspects of culture, but also racial distinctions. This romanticist, nationalist approach has been rejected in its simplest forms since approximately World War 2. For example, the once common habit of referring to Roman-era Germanic peoples as "Germans" (and Deutsche as opposed to Germanen) is discouraged by many modern historians, and modern Germans are no longer presented as the primary successors of the Roman-era Germanic peoples. Some historians now question whether there was any unifying Germanic culture even in Roman times, and secondly whether there was any significant continuity at all apart from language, connecting the Roman era Germanic Peoples with the new ethnic groups who formed in late antiquity. On the other hand, the possibility of a significant "core of tradition" (Traditionskern) surviving from Roman Germanic peoples into new medieval Germanic speaking peoples such as the Franks, Alamanni, Anglo-Saxons, and Goths, continues to be defended by other historians. This Traditionskern concept is associated for example with the Vienna School of History. Critics of the approach include Walter Goffart and others associated with him and Toronto University.

As has been pointed out by historians commenting on this continuing debate, the shared use of Germanic languages at least demonstrates a minimal link which some Anglo-Saxons and Goths must have had to Germania.

Languages

It is believed that most of the early Germanic peoples used Germanic languages. This language family, named in modern times after the Roman era peoples, and defined by the "First Germanic Sound Shift" also known as Grimm's law, is a branch of the wider Indo-European language family. Modern scholars, such as historians, archaeologists, philologists and religious scholars, often define Germanic peoples as speakers of Germanic languages. On the other hand, the Germanic tribes of the Lower Rhine, among whom lived the first tribes to be called Germani such as the "Germani cisrhenani", probably did not speak Germanic languages, and they were culturally Gaulish. Early Germanic-speaking peoples, in contrast, possibly shared traits other than language, such as religion, customs, costumes, weapons and law, such as mentioned by Tacitus.

The urheimat of the Germanic languages is thought to have corresponded roughly to the archaeological Jastorf culture in southern Denmark and northern Germany, although older origins, or larger origin areas have also been proposed. Indo-European languages are believed to have been brought to this area thousands of years earlier by the Corded Ware culture around 2,800 BC, which had a local variant known as the Battle Axe culture. Germanic contains many distinctive features from other Indo-European languages, which have been explained by the Germanic substrate hypothesis. By 750 BC, archaeological evidence suggest that Germanic languages were spoken in an archaeologically uniform area in southern Scandinavia and along the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts from the Rhine to the Vistula. By 250 BC, it is believed that these languages had been divded into North Sea Germanic, North Germanic, Weser-Rhine Germanic, Elbe Germanic and East Germanic languages. In modern scholarship, the Germanic languages are divided into West Germanic, North Germanic, and East Germanic languages. The East Germanic languages were spoken by Goths, Vandals, Gepids, Burgundians and related groups, and are today extinct. The East Germanic languages were spoken by Goths, Vandals, Gepids, Burgundians and related groups, and are today extinct. North Germanic and West Germanic languages on the other hand, are still widely spoken.

Subdivisions

By the 1st century CE, the writings of Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, and Tacitus indicate a division of Germanic peoples into large groupings who shared ancestry and culture. (This division was also appropriated into a modern terminology attempting to describe the divisions of later Germanic languages. See Ingvaeones, Herminones, Istvaeones.)

Tacitus, in his Germania, wrote that:

In the ancient songs...they celebrate Tuisto, an earth-born god. To him they attribute a son, Mannus, the forefather and founder of their people, and to Mannus three sons, after whom were named the Ingvaeones, nearest to the Ocean, the Herminones in the interior, and the remainder Istvaeones.

Tacitus also specifies that the Suebi are a very large grouping, with many tribes within it, with their own names. The largest, he says, is the Semnones, who he says, "claim that they are the oldest and the noblest of the Suebi." He goes on to remark that the Langobardi are fewer, but despite being "surrounded by many mighty peoples" they managed to defend themselves "not by submissiveness but by battle and boldness; and in remoter and better defended areas live the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, the Suardones, and Nuithones.

Pliny the Elder, on the other hand, names five races of Germans in his Historia Naturalis, not three, by distinguishing the two more easterly blocks of Germans, the Vandals and further east the Bastarnae, who were the first to reach the Black Sea and come into contact with Greek civilization. He is also slightly more specific about the position of the Istvaeones, though he also does not name any examples of them:

There are five German races; the Vandili, parts of whom are the Burgundiones, the Varini, the Carini, and the Gutones: the Ingævones, forming a second race, a portion of whom are the Cimbri, the Teutoni, and the tribes of the Chauci. The Istævones, who join up to the Rhine, and to whom the Cimbri belong, are the third race; while the Hermiones, forming a fourth, dwell in the interior, and include the Suevi, the Hermunduri, the Chatti, the Cherusci, and the Peucini, who are also the Basternæ, adjoining the Daci.

The remote Varini are listed by Tacitus as being in the Suebic or Hermionic group by Tacitus, above, but by Pliny in the eastern Vandalic or Gothic group, so the two accounts do not match perfectly.

These accounts and others from the period often emphasize that the Suebi and their Hermione kin formed an especially large and mobile nation, which at the time were living mainly near the Elbe, both east and west of it, but they were also moving westwards into the lands near the Roman frontier. Pomponius Mela in his slightly earlier Description of the World, places "the farthest people of Germania, the Hermiones" somewhere to the east of the Cimbri and the Teutones, and further from Rome, apparently on the Baltic. Strabo however describes the Suebi as going through a period where they were pushed back east by the Romans, in the direction from which they had come:

the nation of the Suevi is the most considerable, as it extends from the Rhine as far as the Elbe, and even a part of them, as the Hermonduri and the Langobardi, inhabit the country beyond the Elbe; but at the present time these tribes, having been defeated, have retired entirely beyond the Elbe.

By the end of the 5th century the term "Gothic" was used more generally in the historical sources for Pliny's "Vandals" to the east of the Elbe, including not only the Goths and Vandals, but also "the Gepids along the Tisza and the Danube, the Rugians, Sciri and Burgundians, even the Iranian Alans."

On a geographic basis, modern scholars often divide the early Germanic peoples into North Germanic peoples, East Germanic peoples, North Sea Germanic peoples, Elbe Germanic peoples and Weser-Rhine Germanic peoples. They are also often divided on a linguistic basis. In this case, the North Germanic and East Germanic peoples constitute distinct branches, while the North Sea Germanic, Elbe Germanic and Weser-Rhine Germanic peoples belong to a third West Germanic branch.

History

Origins

The Germanic peoples is believed to have emerged during the Nordic Bronze Age, which developed out of the Battle Axe culture in southern Scandinavia. During the Iron Age various Germanic tribes began a southward expansion. In western Europe, where this is best attested, this was at the expense of Celtic peoples, and led to centuries of sporadic violent conflict with ancient Rome.

The earliest sites at which Germanic-speaking peoples per se have been documented are in Northern Europe, in what now constitutes the plains of Denmark and southern Sweden. However, in even this region, the population had been, according to Waldman & Mason, "remarkably stable" – as far back as Neolithic times, when humans first began controlling their environment through the use of agriculture and the domestication of animals. Given this stability, the population of the region necessarily preceded the arrival in Europe of the precursors of the Germanic languages – which most likely began with the Corded Ware culture.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence from a period known as the Nordic Bronze Age indicates that a common material culture existed between the Germanic tribes that inherited the southern regions of Scandinavia, along with the Schleswig-Holstein area and the area of what is now Hamburg, Germany. During the 2nd millennium BCE, the Nordic Bronze Age expanded eastward into the adjacent regions between the estuaries of the Elbe and Oder rivers. Additional archaeological remnants from the Iron Age society that once existed in nearby Wessenstedt also show traces of this culture. Exactly how these cultures interacted remains a mystery but the migrations of early proto-Germanic peoples are discernible from the remaining evidence of prehistoric cultures in Hügelgräber, Urnfield, and La Tene.

Climatic change between 850 BCE and 760 BCE in Scandinavia and "a later and more rapid one around 650 BCE might have triggered migrations to the coast of eastern Germany and further toward the Vistula.

The cultural phase of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age in Europe (c. 1200–600 BCE in temperate continental areas), known in contemporary terms as the Hallstatt culture expanded from the south into this area and brought the early Germanic peoples under the influence of early Celtic (or pre Celtic) culture between 1200 BCE and 600 BCE, whereupon they began extracting bog iron from the available ore in peat bogs. This ushered in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. Stretching from central France all the way to western Hungary and then from the Alps to central Poland, the Hallstatt culture also constructed sophisticated structures and the archaeological remains across parts of France, Germany and Hungary suggest their trade networks along the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and up and down central Europe's river valleys were fairly elaborate as well.

As early as 750 BCE, archeological evidence gives the impression that the proto-Germanic population was becoming more uniform in its culture. The Germanic peoples at the time inhabited southern Scandinavia and the Northern Sea and Baltic coasts from modern-day Netherlands to the Vistula. As this population grew, it migrated south-west, into coastal floodplains due to the exhaustion of the soil in its original settlements.

Prehistory

Archaeological evidence in some of the regions creates an ethnographic problem in clearly delineating the indigenous people based strictly on Roman classification. Nonetheless, there are scholars who assert that there was an eventual linguistic "Germanization" that occurred during the 1st century BCE through something they call the "elite-dominance" model. Archaeologists are unable to make definitive judgments which accord the observations of the Roman writer Tacitus. Enough cultural absorption between the various Germanic people occurred that geographically defining the extent of pre-Roman Germanic territory is nearly impossible from a classification standpoint.

Germanic tribes are hard to distinguish from the Celts on many accounts simply based on archaeological records. Some recognizable trends in the archaeological records exist, as it is known that, generally, West Germanic people while still migratory, were more geographically settled, whereas the East Germanic peoples remained transitory for a longer period.

South. In the period leading up to the first substantial Roman impact on the Germanic peoples, most or all of the south of the future Germania is thought to have been culturally Celtic, and inhabited by peoples referred to as Gaulish by Graeco-Roman authors, who they contrasted with Germani. In terms of archaeologically relevant material cultures these peoples are categorized as part of the La Tène material culture which is associated with Celtic peoples as far away as Iberia, the British Isles and Italy. In fact, the southern German region is probably part of the original area from which not only the La Tène culture, but also its precursor the Halstatt material culture (approximately 1200-450 BCE) dispersed around much of Europe. The Halstatt culture in turn is thought to have developed from a local variant of the widespread Urnfield culture which dispersed around Europe during the Bronze age, probably bringing the first European Indo European languages from the east, precursors to both Germanic and Celtic languages.

Northeast. Although they eventually became more widespread, the original area from which Germanic languages dispersed is thought to have been originally in the northeast of Germania, on the Baltic sea, and distant from both the Rhine and Danube rivers which came to be seen as boundaries of the Germanic region. They are associated with the Jastorf material culture which spread into the Elbe region where Roman authors later report Suebian peoples. At the time of Caesar's wars against the Germani near the Rhine, Suebian peoples were still seen as intrusive, and their presence near the Rhine and Danube was new. Later Roman authors such as Tacitus, Pliny and Strabo continued to associate those peoples with the region of the Elbe river. While the Jastorf and La Tène material cultures are distinct, the limited evidence found so far has given only limited help in going beyond the classical written record.

Northwest. The linguistic situation in the northwest of Germania near the lower Rhine is unclear today, because evidence is limited. The Romans referred to several of the peoples living in that region, even west of the Rhine, as Germani. However, the Romans did not necessarily intend this as a linguistic category. It has furthermore been proposed that some of the peoples in this area had originally used Indo-European dialects distinct from both Germanic and Celtic. They had clearly come under the influence of both Celtic Gauls, and Germanic speaking Suebian peoples by the Roman era, at which point the area also came to be heavily influenced by Roman culture.

Three settlement patterns and solutions come to the fore, the first of which is the establishment of an agricultural base in a region which allowed them to support larger populations; second, the Germanic peoples periodically cleared forests to extend the range of their pasturage; thirdly (and the most frequent occurrence), they often emigrated to other areas as they exhausted the immediately available resources.

West Germanic peoples eventually settled in central Europe and became more accustomed to agriculture and it is those people that are described by Caesar and Tacitus. Meanwhile, the East Germanic people continued their migratory habits.

Possible earliest contacts with the classical world

Bastarnae, the bravest nation of all

One of the earliest known written records of the Germanic world in classical times was in the lost work of Pytheas, who travelled to Northern Europe some time in the late 4th century BCE, and his observations about the geographical environment, traditions and culture of the northern European populations became one of the main sources of information for later historians – often the only source. Along with the records of a couple of other classical writers (namely Polybius (2nd century BCE) and Posidonius (c. 135 BCE – c. 51 BCE), the work of Pytheas on the Celts and early Germans influenced scores of future geographers, historians and ethnographers.

In Eastern Europe, the Roman-era peoples known as the Bastarnae and Peucini were described by Roman authors as living in the territory east of the Carpathian Mountains north of the Danube's mouth in the Black Sea. They were variously described as Celtic or Scythian, but Tacitus said they were similar to the Germani in language. According to some authors then, they were the first Germani to reach the Greco-Roman world, and the Black Sea area. The Bastarnae are mentioned in historical sources going back as far as the 3rd century BCE all the way through the 4th century CE.

In 201–202 BCE, the Macedonians under the leadership of King Philip V, conscripted the Bastarnae as soldiers to fight against the Roman Republic in the Second Macedonian War. They remained a presence in that area until late in the Roman Empire while some settled on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea which is why the name Peucini is also associated with the Bastarnae. King Perseus enlisted the service of the Bastarnae in 171–168 BCE to fight the Third Macedonian War. By 29 BCE, they were subdued by the Romans and those that remained began merging with various tribes of Goths into the second century CE.

Historian Thomas Burns references the Bastarnae but only as an aside from the Latin poet Claudian, claiming that they were among "the oldest of the various Scythian people". Burns further elaborates in stating that there are no "specific references" to the Bastarnae and that remarks about them by Claudian and later third century writers "must give us pause" for the mention of such people might merely have been a "convenient poetic device." Historian Peter Heather disagrees with this position and identifies the Bastarnae as one of the Germanic tribes and asserts that they once "dominated substantial tracts of territory at the mouth of the Danube." Along similar lines, the late classical scholar, Theodor Mommsen, recognized the Bastarnae and placed them in the geographic regions of Moldavia and Bessarabia during the reign of Tiberius. This is the same region where Tacitus placed them. Another historian of antiquity, J. B. Bury, counted the Bastarnae along with the Goths, Vandals, Gepids, Burgundians, Lombards, Rugians, Heruls and Scirii among the East Germanic peoples.

Cimbrian War

Late in the 2nd century BCE, Roman sources recount the migrations of the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones into Gaul, Italy and Hispania. This cultural confrontation resulted in the Cimbrian War between the Roman Republic and the Germanic tribes; particularly those of the Roman Consul under Gaius Marius.

The Cimbri crossed into Noricum (Austria) in 113 BCE looking for food and usable land when they confronted and defeated a Roman army at the Battle of Noreia. A combined force of Cimbri and Teutoni squared off against additional armies from Rome in 107 (Battle of Burdigala, 105 (Battle of Arausio) and 102 BCE (Battle of Tridentum), vanquishing them in the process. Their further incursions into Roman Italy were thrust back by the Romans at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BCE, and the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BCE.

Encounter with Julius Caesar

Earlier Germanic invasions were written up by Caesar and others as presaging of a danger for the Roman Republic, a danger that should be controlled.

Julius Caesar describes the Germani and their customs in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, though in certain cases it is still a matter of debate if he refers to Northern Celtic tribes or clearly identified Germanic tribes. Caesar notes that the Gauls had earlier dominated and sent colonies into the lands of the Germans, but that the Gauls had since degenerated under the influence of Roman civilization, and now considered themselves inferior in military prowess.

have neither Druids to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report. Their whole life is occupied in hunting and in the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they devote themselves to fatigue and hardships. Those who have remained chaste for the longest time, receive the greatest commendation among their people; they think that by this the growth is promoted, by this the physical powers are increased and the sinews are strengthened. And to have had knowledge of a woman before the twentieth year they reckon among the most disgraceful acts; of which matter there is no concealment, because they bathe promiscuously in the rivers and use skins or small cloaks of deer's hides, a large portion of the body being in consequence naked.

They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large portion of their food consists in milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one a fixed quantity of land or his own individual limits; but the magistrates and the leading men each year apportion to the tribes and families, who have united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think proper, and the year after compel them to remove elsewhere. For this enactment they advance many reasons-lest seduced by long-continued custom, they may exchange their ardor in the waging of war for agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive estates, and the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions; lest they construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold and heat; lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause divisions and discords arise; and that they may keep the common people in a contented state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an equality with the most powerful.

Caesar was wary of these barbaric people of Germania and invoked the threat of expansions such as that by Ariovistus' Suebi as justification for his brutal campaigns to annex Gaul to Rome in 58–51 BCE.

An intense Roman militarization, greater than ever before, was begun under Caesar to deal with the barbarian tribes along the frontier — particularly since he feared that the Celtic Gauls between Rome and the Germanic people would not be able to defend themselves.

One major Celtic people who were forced from their homeland in modern southwest Germany and Bohemia were the Boii, a migration which had major impacts on Rome and many other peoples. Later, Caesar's attention in 58 BCE was drawn to the movements of the Boii's old neighbours the Helvetii, another population group forced into Gaul from the direction of modern southwest Germany and western Switzerland. When the Gaulish Arverni and Sequani elicited assistance from the Germanic Suebi (who came to them from east of the Rhine into Gaul) against their Aedui enemies in 71 BCE, the Suebi essentially remained in situ and were able to expand further into the territory along the periphery of the Roman frontier. Meanwhile, Celtic culture and influence in Gaul began to wane during the first century BCE as a result.

It was Caesar's wars against the Germanic people that helped establish and solidify the use of the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman military campaigns was to protect Trans-Alpine Gaul from further incursions of the Germanic tribes by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.

Early Roman Empire period

Roman expansion along the Rhine and Danube rivers resulted in the incorporation of many indigenous Celtic societies into the Roman Empire. Lands to the north and east of the Rhine emerge in the Roman records under the name Germania. Population groups from this area had a complex relationship with Rome; sometimes the peoples of Germania were at war with Rome, but at times they established trade relations, symbiotic military alliances, and cultural exchanges with one another.

Romans made concerted efforts to divide the Germanic tribes when the opportunity presented itself, encouraging intertribal rivalry so as to diminish the threat of an otherwise formidable enemy. Over the following centuries, the Romans sometimes intervened, but often took advantage as their neighbors slaughtered one another using Roman-influenced techniques of war. More instances of Germani fighting Germani appear in the works of Tacitus than between Romans and Germani.

In the Augustean period there was—as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River—a first definition of the "Germania magna" from the Rhine and Danube rivers in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North. In 9 CE, a revolt of their Germanic subjects headed by Arminius resulted in a decisive defeat of Publius Quinctilius Varus and the destruction of three Roman legions in a surprise attack at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest), which caused withdrawal of the Roman frontier to the Rhine. Occupying Germany had proven costly and Arminius' attack helped bring about the end of 28 years of Roman campaigning across the North European plains. Both Arminius and another contemporary Germanic warrior king named Maroboduus, attempted to rule these warrior-based peoples in autocratic fashion but were deposed or outright killed through the treachery of other warrior-nobles, who strove for their own glory.

During the reign of Augustus, Germanic warriors, particularly men of the Batavi, were recruited as personal bodyguards to the Roman emperor, forming the so-called Numerus Batavorum. In 69 AD, the turbulent Year of the Four Emperors, Gaius Julius Civilis, a Roman military officer of Batavian origin, orchestrated the Revolt of the Batavi. The revolt lasted nearly a year and while it was ultimately unsuccessful, Civilis managed to evade Roman capture.

"Let Syria, Asia Minor, and the East, habituated as it is to despotism, submit to slavery... Freedom is a gift bestowed by nature even on the dumb animals. Courage is the peculiar excellence of man, and the Gods help the braver side." - Gaius Julius Civilis

At the end of the 1st century, two provinces west of the Rhine called Germania inferior and Germania superior were established by the Emperor Domitian, having previously been military districts, "so as to separate this more militarized zone from the civilian populations farther west and south". Important medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and Speyer were part of these two "militarized" Roman provinces.

"Neither the Samnites nor the Carthaginians nor Spain nor Gaul nor even the Parthians have taught us more frequent lessons. The freedom of the Germans does indeed show more aggression than the despotism of the Arsacids." - Tacitus

The Germania by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, an ethnographic work on the diverse group of Germanic tribes outside of the Roman Empire, is our most important source on the Germanic peoples of the 1st century.

Germanic expansions during early Roman times are known only generally, but it is clear that the forebears of the Goths were settled on the southern Baltic shore by 100 CE.

According to historian Thomas Burns, major hostilities between the external Germanic peoples of the north and Rome did not commence in "earnest" until the reign of Trajan (CE 98—117), who used the "full weight of Roman might" to attack the Dacians.

There is not upon the Face of the Earth, a bolder, or a more indefatigable Nation than the Germans... et upon encounter, they are broken and destroyed through their own undiciplined temerity, even by the most effiminate of men

In the absence of large-scale political unification, such as that imposed forcibly by the Romans upon the peoples of Italy, the various tribes remained free, led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders. Once Rome faced significant threats on its borders, some of the Germanic tribes who once guarded its periphery chose solace within the Roman empire itself, implying that enough assimilation and cross-cultural pollination had occurred for their societies not only to cooperate, but to live together in some cases.

The 4th century Gothic Thervingi are most famous among scholars of classical Rome and pre-modern Europe because the majority of them sought asylum inside the heart of the Roman Empire in 376 CE.

Conflict and co-existence with the Roman Empire

By the middle to late second century CE, migrating Germanic tribes like the Marcomanni and Quadi pushed their way to the Roman frontier along the Danube corridor, movements of people which resulted in conflicts known as the Marcomannic Wars; these conflicts ended in approximately CE 180.

By the early 3rd century AD, larger confederations of Germanic people appeared, groups led by tribal leaders acting as would-be kings. The first of these conglomerations mentioned in the historical sources were the Alamanni (a term meaning "all men") who appear in Roman texts sometime in the 3rd century CE. This change indicated that the tribalism of the Germanic people was being abandoned for consolidated rule.

While the Germanic tribes were consolidating and expanding, Rome adapted itself due to the arrival of the Germanic tribes. Emperor Severus Alexander was killed by his own soldiers in CE 235 for example (for negotiating peace with the tribes of Germania through diplomacy and bribery against the wishes of his men) and the general Maximin elected in his place. Maximin was himself not Roman but was ethnically the child of a Germanic Alan and a Goth. Military expediency trumped aristocratic privilege when it came to securing the Empire and a series of professional military emperors followed as a result.

The first recorded great migration of a Germanic tribe occurred sometime at the end of the 2nd century when the Goths left the lower Vistula for the shores of the Black Sea. For the next couple hundred years, the restless Goths were a menace to the Roman Empire. Between the 2nd and 4th centuries the Goths slowly filtered deeper into the south and eastwards, making their way to what is now Kiev and pressuring Rome in the process. Around CE 238, the Goths make their first clear impact on Roman history, having moved from the Baltic sea to the area what is modern Ukraine. Sometime in CE 250, the Gothic king Kniva employed the assistance of the Bastarnae, Carpi, various Goths, and the Taifali when he eventually laid siege to Philippopolis; he followed this victory up with another on the marshy terrain at Abrittus, a battle which cost the life of Roman emperor Decius and inaugurated a series of consecutive barbarian invasions of the northern Balkans and Asia Minor.

Close to the same time that the Goths were fighting the Romans in the Balkans, there is also the first mention of the Franks around CE 250. Perennial internal conflicts among several successive emperors of both the eastern and western Empire during the 4th century CE resulted in civil wars and damaged the overall quality of the Roman army; the fighting also depleted the elite from within their officer corps. To compensate for their losses the Romans recruited inferior untried Roman civilians and sought replacements from across the frontier region by militarily proficient barbarian troops, a development which further strengthened the position of the Germanic peoples.

Attempting to control the periphery of the Roman empire meant finding innovative ways of dealing with the Germanic people, so the Romans enlisted them as foederati (federates) and by the late fourth century, the majority of the Roman military was made up of Germanic warriors. Federating whole tribes of Germanic people into the Empire marked a whole new phase of encroachment and facilitated the fragmentation of Rome from within its own borders.

In 260 AD, as the Crisis of the Third Century reached its climax, Postumus, a Germanic soldier in Roman service, established the Gallic Empire, which claimed suzerainty over Germania, Gaul, Hispania and Britannia. Postumus was eventually assassinated by his own followers, after which the Gallic Empire quickly disintegrated.

Among the Romans, the Germanic presence in the military was so extensive for example, that the word barbarus became a synonym for "soldier" and the imperial budget of the military was known as the ficus barbarus. Barbarians (Germanics) composed the mobile army of emperor Constantine with many of them, particularly the more organized ones like the Franks and Alamanni, reaching levels of high command. Constantine credited the military victories which enabled his rise to power to his Germanic troops, and is said to have recruited 40,000 Goths alone, who were tasked with guarding Constantinople. By this time, conventional Roman troops where rapidly losing military value. Despite Germanic peoples in many cases being enemies of the Romans, Germanic warriors in Roman service enabled the Roman Empire to survive longer than it would under other circumstances. Earlier accounts from Julius Caesar and Tacitus suggest ancient Germanic warriors considered themselves superior to the Romans. Suebian king Ariovistus and the Frisian kings Malorix and Verritus are recorded by Roman historians boasting of supposed Germanic military superiority. An example of Germanic prominence in the Roman army shows in the fact that in CE 350 the Frankish general Claudius Silvanus was the high military commander of Gaul. Warriors and leaders among the Germanic peoples had an advantage over their Roman counterparts as they knew and could dexterously traverse both worlds, whereas the Romans despised barbarian culture and customs and were unable to secure trust amid the Germanic soldiers on their payrolls. In this way, the ethnic and regional ties within the evolving bureaucratic Roman-Germanic world began to favor the barbarians.

Roman Britannia was contemporaneously under constant threat during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE by northern Picts as well as the Germanic Saxons who sailed from north of Gaul to the eastern coast of the British Isles. Late in CE 367, the Roman garrisons in Britannia collapsed as the Germanic barbarians poured into the region from all directions. Attempting to permanently reestablish control on Britannia, the emperor Valentinian I sent an experienced Roman commander who was able to beat the invaders back after a year-long war and gain control of Londonium, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, for the Germanic invaders had burned down standing settlements, ravaged cities on the isles, interrupted trade and annihilated entire Roman garrisons. By the middle of the 5th century, the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons began to dominate the once Roman Britannia.

During the fourth and fifth centuries CE Roman emperors did their best to stave off the advance of the Germanic tribes. While the rulers in the Eastern Empire were able to endure the frequent clashes without serious consequences to their territorial dominion, this was not the case in the Western Roman Empire.

For upwards of two centuries, the Roman emperors fought and confined the Germanic tribes to Rhine-Danube frontier and in far-away Britain, but all that changed in CE 378 when the Visigoths destroyed as much as two-thirds of the Roman army of the East under emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople. Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus referred to the damage inflicted by the Germanic tribes at Adrianople as an "irreparable disaster" and ended his account of Roman history with this battle. Subsequent historians like Sir Edward Gibbon (among others) ascribe a similar significance to this event and call the Battle of Adrianople a watershed moment between the ancient world and the medieval one that followed; for not only did this battle reveal Rome's weakness to the Germanic tribes and inspire them accordingly, never again were they to leave Roman soil. Evidence of the trauma suffered at the hands of the ransacking Visigoths shows up in the writings of the former bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who wrote about melting down golden church plates early in his episcopate so as to help the victims of the calamity at Adrianople.

Migration Period

The Germans, our ferocious and implacable foe

The arrival of the nomadic Huns along the Black Sea corridor in CE 375 further caused a Germanic exodus across the Roman border. Germanic people from the northern coasts of Europe had been making their way into Britain for several centuries before the larger-scale incursions took place. Some Germanic tribes, in particular the Gepids and the Ostrogoths, joined the Huns, and played a prominent role in the Hunnic Empire, where Gothic became the lingua franca. These Germanic tribes fought with Attila against the Western Roman Empire and other Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, in which Attila was defeated. After the death of Attila soon afterwards, a coalition of Germanic tribes led by the Gepid king Ardaric broke loose from Hunnic control at the Battle of Nedao.

Faced with the Hunnic onslaught, several Germanic tribes migrated westwards, taking them to Great Britain and far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and northern Africa. Over time, this wandering meant intrusions into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated with the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Roaming tribes of Germanic people then began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader, expanded outwards. Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards made their way into Italy; Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, and Visigoths conquered much of Gaul; Vandals and Visigoths also pushed into Spain; Vandals additionally made it into North Africa; the Alamanni established a strong presence in the middle Rhine and Alps. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes, in Sweden the Geats and Gutes merged with the Swedes. In the British Isles, the Angles merged with the Saxons and other groups (notably the Jutes), as well as absorbing some natives, to form the Anglo-Saxons (later known as the English). Essentially Roman civilization was overrun by these variants of Germanic peoples during the 5th century.

A direct result of the Roman retreat was the disappearance of imported products like ceramics and coins, and a return to virtually unchanged local Iron Age production methods. According to recent views this has caused confusion for decades, and theories assuming the total abandonment of the coastal regions to account for an archaeological time gap that never existed have been renounced. Instead, it has been confirmed that the Frisian graves had been used without interruption between the 4th and 9th centuries and that inhabited areas show continuity with the Roman period in revealing coins, jewellery and ceramics of the 5th century. Also, people continued to live in the same three-aisled farmhouse, while to the east completely new types of buildings arose. More to the south in Belgium, archaeological evidence from this period indicates immigration from the north.

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Some of the Germanic tribes are frequently credited in popular depictions of the decline of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Many historians and archaeologists have since the 1950s shifted their interpretations in such a way that the Germanic peoples are no longer seen as invading a decaying empire but as being co-opted into helping defend territory the central government could no longer adequately administer.

When the Roman Empire refused to allow the Visigoths to settle in Noricum for instance, they responded by sacking Rome in CE 410 under the leadership of Alaric I. Oddly enough, Alaric I did not see his imposition in Rome as an attack against the Roman Empire per se but as an attempt to gain a favorable position within its borders, particularly since the Visigoths held the Empire in high regard. Alaric certainly had no intentions to destroy the great city which was symbolic of Roman power, but he needed to pay his army and the spoils of the city not only afforded the ability to do that, its wealth made him "the richest general in the empire." For the next year, Alaric extracted vast sums from the city; this included 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 5,000 pounds of oriental pepper, gilded statues from the Forum, and even the one-ton solid silver dome which Constantine once placed over the baptismal basin next to the Lateran basilica. Not only was Alaric able to bleed Rome, he also established a Gothic confederation consisting of Theruingian and Greuthungic peoples, and he played the eastern and western Roman Empires off against one another for his benefit.

While Germanic tribes overran the once western Roman provinces, they also continued to strive for regional ascendancy closer to Rome's center; meanwhile the threat along the periphery from the Huns created additional difficulties for the Empire. Sometime during the 4th or 5th century CE, the Bastarnae were defeated by the Huns, ending their regional domination.

Individuals and small groups from Germanic tribes had long been recruited from the territories beyond the limes (i.e., the regions just outside the Roman Empire), and some of them had risen high in the command structure of the army. The Rhine and Danube provided the bulk of geographic separation for the Roman limes. On one side of the limes stood 'Latin' Europe, law, Roman order, prosperous trading markets, towns and everything that constituted modern civilization for that era; while on the other side stood barbarism, technical backwardness, illiteracy and a tribal society of fierce warriors. Then the Empire recruited entire tribal groups under their native leaders as military officers. Historian Evangelos Chrysos argues the implications concerning the recruitment of the barbarians into the Roman army during the migration period were enormous and relates that:

it offered them experience of how the imperial army was organized, how the government arranged the military and functional logistics of their involvement as soldiers or officers and how it administered their practical life, how the professional expertise and the social values of the individual soldier were cultivated in the camp and on the battlefield, how the ideas about the state and its objectives were to be implemented by men in uniform, how the Empire was composed and how it functioned at an administrative level. This knowledge of and experience with the Romans opened to individual members of the gentes a path which, once taken, would lead them to more or less substantial affiliation or even solidarity with the Roman world. To take an example from the economic sphere: The service in the Roman army introduced the individual or corporate members into the monetary system of the Empire since quite a substantial part of their salary was paid to them in cash. With money in their hands the "guests" were by necessity exposed to the possibility of taking part in the economic system, of becoming accustomed to the rules of the wide market, of absorbing the messages of or reacting to the imperial propaganda passed to the citizens through the legends on the coins. In addition the goods offered in the markets influenced and transformed the newcomers' food and aesthetic tastes and their cultural horizon. Furthermore Roman civilitas was an attractive goal for every individual wishing to succeed in his social advancement.

Assisting with defense eventually shifted into administration and then outright rule, as Roman government passed into the hands of Germanic leaders. Odoacer (who commanded the German mercenaries in Italy) deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the West in CE 476. Odoacer ruled from Rome and Ravenna, restored the Colosseum and assigned seats to senatorial dignitaries as part of the process of consolidating his rule.

The presence of successor states controlled by a nobility from one of the Germanic tribes is evident in the 6th century – even in Italy, the former heart of the Empire, where Odoacer was followed by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, who was regarded by Roman citizens and Gothic settlers alike as legitimate successor to the rule of Rome and Italy. Theodoric ruled from CE 493–526, twice as long as his predecessor, and his rule is evidenced by an abundance of documents. Under the Ostrogoths a considerable degree of Roman and Germanic cultural and political fusion was achieved. Germanic kings worked in-tandem with Roman administrators to the extent possible to help ensure a smooth transition and to facilitate the profitable administration of once Roman lands. Slowly but surely, the distinction between Germanic rulers and Roman subjects faded, followed by varying degrees of "cultural assimilation" which included the adoption of the Gothic language by some of the indigenous people of the former Roman Empire but this was certainly not ubiquitous as Gothic identity still remained distinctive. Theodoric may have tried too hard to accommodate the various people under his dominion; indulging "Romans and Goths, Catholics and Arians, Latin and barbarian culture" resulted in the eventual failure of the Ostrogothic reign and the subsequent "end of Italy as the heartland of late antiquity."

According to noted historian Herwig Wolfram, the Germanic peoples did not and could not "conquer the more advanced Roman world" nor were they able to "restore it as a political and economic entity"; instead, he asserts that the empire's "universalism" was replaced by "tribal particularism" which gave way to "regional patriotism".

The Germanic peoples who overran the Western Roman Empire probably numbered less than 100,000 people per tribe, including approximately 15,000-20,000 warriors. They constituted a tiny minority of the population in the lands over which they seized control. Among these tribes, the Ostrogoths in Italy and the Visigoths in Spain are recorded to have enacted laws against intermarriage in order to preserve their identity.

The entry of the Germanic tribes deep into the heart of Europe and the subsequent collapse of the western Roman Empire resulted in a "massive disruption" to long established communication networks, a system that had in many ways "bound much of the continent together for centuries." Trade networks and routes shifted accordingly, Germanic kingdoms and peoples established boundaries and it was not until the appearance of the Arabs in Iberia and into Anatolia that Europeans began reestablishing their networks to deal with a new threat.

Early Middle Ages

The transition of the Migration period to the Middle Ages proper took place over the course of the second half of the 1st millennium. It was marked by the Christianization of the Germanic peoples and the formation of stable kingdoms replacing the mostly tribal structures of the Migration period. Some of this stability is discernible in the fact that the Pope recognized Theodoric's reign when the Germanic conqueror entered Rome in CE 500, despite that Theodoric was a known practitioner of Arianism, a faith which the First Council of Nicaea condemned in CE 325. Theodoric's Germanic subjects and administrators from the Roman Catholic Church cooperated in serving him, helping establish a codified system of laws and ordinances which facilitated the integration of the Gothic peoples into a burgeoning empire, solidifying their place as they appropriated a Roman identity of sorts. The foundations laid by the Empire enabled the successor Germanic kingdoms to maintain a familiar structure and their success can be seen as part of the lasting triumph of Rome.

In continental Europe, this Germanic evolution saw the rise of Francia in the Merovingian period under the rule of Clovis I who had deposed the last emperor of Gaul, eclipsing lesser kingdoms such as Alemannia. The Merovingians controlled most of Gaul under Clovis, who, through conversion to Christianity, allied himself with the Gallo-Romans. While the Merovingians were checked by the armies of the Ostrogoth Theodoric, they remained the most powerful kingdom in Western Europe and the intermixing of their people with the Romans through marriage rendered the Frankish people less a Germanic tribe and more a "European people" in a manner of speaking. Most of Gaul was under Merovingian control as was part of Italy and their overlordship extended into Germany where they reigned over the Thuringians, Alamans, and Bavarians. Evidence also exists that they may have even had suzerainty over south-east of the British Isles. Frankish historian Gregory of Tours relates that Clovis converted to Christianity partly as a result of his wife's urging and even more so due to having won a desperate battle after calling out to Christ. According to Gregory, this conversion was sincere but it also proved politically expedient as Clovis used his new faith as a means to consolidate his political power by Christianizing his army.

When Merovingian rule eventually weakened, they were supplanted by another powerful Frankish family, the Carolingians, a dynastic order which produced Charles Martel, and Charlemagne. The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day, CE 800 represented a shift in the power structure from the south to the north. Frankish power ultimately laid the foundations for the modern nations of Germany and France. For historians, Charlemagne's appearance in the historical chronicle of Europe also marks a transition where the voice of the north appears in its own vernacular thanks to the spread of Christianity, after which the northerners began writing in Latin, Germanic, and Celtic; whereas before, the Germanic people were only known through Roman or Greek sources.

In the British Isles, the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes reigned over the south of Great Britain from approximately 519 to the tenth century until the Wessex hegemony became the nucleus for the unification of England.

Scandinavia was in the Vendel period and eventually entered the Viking Age, with expansion to Britain, Ireland and Iceland in the west and as far as Russia and Greece in the east. Swedish Vikings, known locally as the Rus', had ventured deep into Russia, where they founded the state of Kievan Rus'. In cooperation with Crimean Goths, the Rus' destroyed the Khazar Khaganate and became the dominant power in Eastern Europe. They were eventually assimilated by the local East Slavic population. By CE 900 the Vikings secured for themselves a foothold on Frankish soil along the Lower Seine River valley in what is now France that became known as Normandy. Hence they became the Normans. They established the Duchy of Normandy, a territorial acquisition which provided them the opportunity to expand beyond Normandy into Anglo-Saxon England. The subsequent Norman Conquest which followed in CE 1066 wrought immense changes to life in England as their new Scandinavian masters altered their government, lordship, public holdings, culture and DNA pool permanently.

The various Germanic tribal cultures began their transformation into the larger nations of later history, English, Norse and German, and in the case of Burgundy, Lombardy and Normandy blending into a Romano-Germanic culture. Many of these later nation states started originally as "client buffer states" for the Roman Empire so as to protect it from its enemies further away. Eventually they carved out their own unique historical paths.

Post-migration ethnogeneses

The interactions of the migrating Germanic peoples and the deteriorating Roman empire formed the basis of the history and society of most of Western Europe from the Early Middle Ages and up to the present day.

The Goths and Vandals were linguistically assimilated to their Latin (Romance) substrate populations. Evidence exists that for 2nd- and 3rd-century Goths as well as for 4th- and 5th-century Lombards that significant population displacement throughout Roman-occupied Europe occurred. This quite likely contributed to their linguistic assimilation. An exception to this pattern was the Crimean Goths, who preserved their dialect into the 18th century). Burgundians and Lombards were assimilated into both Latin (French and Italian) and Germanic (German-speaking Swiss) populations.

Early Medieval Germanic peoples were often assimilated into the walha substrate cultures of their subject populations. Thus, the Burgundians of Burgundy, the Vandals of Northern Africa, and the Visigoths of France and Iberia, lost some Germanic identity and became part of Romano-Germanic Europe. For the Germanic Visigoths in particular, they had intimate contact with Rome for two centuries before their domination of the Iberian Peninsula and were accordingly permeated by Roman culture. Likewise, the Franks of Western Francia form part of the ancestry of the French people.

The Viking Age Norse people split into an Old East Norse and an Old West Norse group, which further separated into Icelanders, Faroese and Norwegians on one hand and Swedes and Danes on the other. In Scandinavia, there is a long history of assimilation of and by the Sami people and Finnic peoples, namely Finns and Karelians. In today's usage, the term "Nordic peoples" refers to the ethnic groups in all of the Nordic countries.

In Great Britain, Germanic people coalesced into the Anglo-Saxon (or English) people between the 8th and 10th centuries.

The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in Anglo-Saxon (or English) displacement and cultural assimilation of the indigenous culture, the Brythonic-speaking British culture, causing the foundation of a new kingdom, England. As in what became England, indigenous Brythonic Celtic culture in some of the south-eastern parts of what became Scotland (approximately the Lothian and Borders region) and areas of what became the Northwest of England (the kingdoms of Rheged, Elmet, etc.) succumbed to Germanic influence c.600—800, due to the extension of overlordship and settlement from the Anglo-Saxon areas to the south. Cultural and linguistic assimilation occurred less frequently between the Germanic Anglo-Saxons and the indigenous people who resided in the Roman dominated areas of England, particularly in the regions that remained previously unconquered. Anglo-Saxons occupied Somerset, the Severn valley, and Lancaster by c. 700 where they remained dominant. Over time, the Anglo-Saxons, with their distinct culture and language, displaced much of the extant Roman influence of old.

On the European continent, East Francia developed into the Kingdom of Germany, which became the most important part of the Holy Roman Empire proclaimed by Otto I in 962 AD.

Demographics

During late antiquity, there was a massive population increase in Germania as a result of improvements in agricultural production. Philologist Francis Owen estimates that there were around 4,000,000 Germanic people at the dawn of the Migration Period. Herwig Wolfram estimates that the largest Germanic tribes of the Migration Period consisted of about 100,000 people, including 15,000-20,000 warriors. In the barbarian kingdoms they established in the former Western Roman Empire, these Germanic tribes constituted only a tiny minority of the total population.

Physical characteristics

Tacitus described the Germanic people as ethnically uniform or "unmixed" with "a distinct character" and he even generalized them by claiming that "a family likeness pervades the whole." He also reported that the peoples of Germany have fierce blue eyes, red hair, and large bodies" that rendered them capable of "violent" outbursts, unable to tolerate heat or thirst but well accustomed to the cold.

Tacitus writes in Germania that the early Germanic peoples looked universally the same, having "fierce blue eyes, red hair and large frames." He repeats this description in the Agricola, stating that the inhabitants of Caledonia were big and red haired, suggesting a Germanic origin. On account of this, Tacitus suggested that the Germanic peoples were an "indigenous people, very little affected by admixture with other races through immigration or intercourse". Philologist Francis Owen notes that when Tacitus refers to the Germanic peoples having "red hair", this also includes blond hair.

The reemergence of inhumation during the Migration period has enabled researchers to examine the physical type of the Germanic peoples at this time. Archaeological research has lent support to the observations of Tacitus with regards to the physical appearance of early Germanic peoples. The observations of Tacitus are substantiated by other Roman writers and by depictions of Germanic warriors on Roman columns.

There is little evidence of any large-scale migration into Scandinavia since the arrival of the Corded Ware culture, and the physical type of the Germanic people since then has therefore remained largely the same.

Culture

Early Germanic culture is though to represent a fusion of Indo-European and indigenous Northern European elements. This fusion appears to have been facilitated by the expansion of the Corded Ware culture into Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC, and to have been completed by the emergence of the Nordic Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC. It is from the Nordic Bronze Age from which early Germanic culture largely derived.

Germanic peoples are primarily characterized as speakers of Germanic languages. Their historical literature revolved around the lives of their gods and ancestors, and was historically transmitted orally by professional poets. Some of this literature was written down in the Middle Ages. In the early centuries AD, Germanic peoples devised a Runic script, which was eventually replaced with the Latin alphabet.

Early Germanic peoples practiced Germanic paganism, a polytheistic ethnic religion primarily derived from Proto-Indo-European religion. Odin eventually emerged as the leading deity of the Germanic pantheon. By the end of the Middle Ages, the Germanic peoples had all been converted to Christianity, although elements of Germanic paganism has survived in Germanic folklore.

Early Germanic culture was characterized by a rigorous code of ethics which emphasised independence, individuality, honesty and loyalty. Society was hierarchical, being divided into warriors, independent farmers and slaves respectively, with warriors being in the position of power. Society was organized along tribal lines, and the membership of the individual in an extended family, the Sippe, played a major role in determining the position of the individual in society. Germanic peoples had various forms of kingship, although the power of the king could be curtailed by the freemen in the tribal assembly, known as the thing. In Germanic law, guilt was often determined through a trial by ordeal or trial by combat, and capital punishment was meted out for certain crimes against the community.

Archaeological research has revealed that the early Germanic peoples were primarily agricultural, although husbandry and fishing were important sources of livelihood depending on the nature of the environment. They carried out extensive trade with their neighbours, notably exporting amber, slaves, mercenaries and animal hides, and importing weapons, metals, glassware and coins in return. They eventually came to excel at craftsmanship, particularly metalworking. In many cases in fact, ancient Germanic smiths and other craftsmen produced products of higher quality than the Romans.

Germanic villages were typically small and often composed of individual households. An important centre in the village was the mead hall, in which the chieftain arranged lavish feasts for his followers. During times of trouble certain Germanic tribes would embark on mass-migrations and temporarily embrace a semi-nomadic way of life.

Early Germanic peoples had a diverse diet composed of cereal products, cheese, milk and meat. They consumed a number of fermented drinks, such as ale, mead, beer and wine, which played an important role in Germanic social life. Certain warlike Germanic tribes are recorded as being teetotalers.

Early Germanic society was patriarchal, although women played a more significant role in their community than in other contemporary societies. The early Germanic peoples were mostly monogamous, and married relatively late. Wives handled the daily management of the household, which was composed of the immediate family and slaves. Slaves in early Germanic culture were treated much more humanely than in other contemporary societies.

Although their societies appear to have been remarkably peaceful in the Bronze Age, the introduction of iron radically changed Germanic society, which thereafter became heavily characterized by war. Germanic warfare initially emphasized offensive infantry warfare, although they would eventually also excel at horse-powered-warfare and naval warfare as well. In a series of Germanic Wars, Germanic peoples would eventually overwhelm the Western Roman Empire and establish themselves as a dominant minority in its place.

With the Christianization of the Germanic peoples in the Middle Ages and the submergence of the various tribes into centralized states, Germanic culture lost most of its unique character. Germanic languages continues to be spoken however, and traces of Germanic culture can still be found in Germanic folklore.

Genetics

It is suggested by geneticists that the movements of Germanic peoples has had a strong influence upon the modern distribution of the male lineage represented by the Y-DNA haplogroup I1, which is believed to have originated with one man, who lived approximately 4,000 to 6,000 years ago somewhere in Northern Europe, possibly modern Denmark (see Most Recent Common Ancestor for more information). There is evidence of this man's descendants settling in all of the areas that Germanic tribes are recorded as having subsequently invaded or migrated to.

Haplogroup I1 is older than Germanic languages, but may have been present among early Germanic speakers. Other male lines likely to have been present during the development and dispersal of Germanic language populations include R1a (R1a1a-Z284), R1b (R1b-P312; R1b-U106), a genetic combination of the haplogroups found to be strongly-represented among current Germanic speaking peoples. Peaking in northern Europe, the R1b-U106 marker seems particular interesting in distribution and provides some helpful genetic clues regarding the historical trek made by the Germanic people.

Haplogroup I1 accounts for approximately 40% of Icelandic males, 40%–50% of Swedish males, 40% of Norwegian males, and 40% of Danish Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups. Haplogroup I1 peaks in certain areas of Northern Germany and Eastern England at more than 30%.

Later Germanic studies and their influence

The Renaissance revived interest in pre-Christian Classical Antiquity and only in a second phase in pre-Christian Northern Europe. The Germanic peoples of the Roman era are often lumped with the other agents of the barbarian invasions, the Alans and the Huns, as opposed to the civilized "Roman" identity of the Holy Roman Empire.

Early modern publications dealing with Old Norse culture appeared in the 16th century, e.g. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Olaus Magnus, 1555) and the first edition of the 13th century Gesta Danorum (Saxo Grammaticus), in 1514. Authors of the German Renaissance such as Johannes Aventinus discovered the Germanii of Tacitus as the "Old Germans", whose virtue and unspoiled manhood, as it appears in the Roman accounts of noble savagery, they contrast with the decadence of their own day.

The pace of publication increased during the 17th century with Latin translations of the Edda (notably Peder Resen's Edda Islandorum of 1665). The Viking revival of 18th century Romanticism created a fascination with anything "Nordic" in disposition. The beginning of Germanic philology proper begins in the early 19th century, with Rasmus Rask's Icelandic Lexicon of 1814, and was in full bloom by the 1830s, with Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie giving an extensive account of reconstructed Germanic mythology and composing a German dictionary (Deutsches Wörterbuch) of Germanic etymology. Jacob Grimm also coauthored with his brother Wilhelm, the famous Grimm's Fairy Tales. Apart from linguistic studies, the subject of what became of the Roman era Germanic tribes, and how they influenced the Middle Ages and the development of modern Western culture was a subject discussed during the Enlightenment by such as writers as Montesquieu and Giambattista Vico.

Later still, the development of Germanic studies as an academic discipline in the 19th century ran parallel to the rise of nationalism in Europe and the search for national histories for the nascent nation states developing after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. A "Germanic" national ethnicity offered itself for the unification of Germany, contrasting the emerging German Empire with its neighboring rivals of differing ancestry. The nascent belief in a German ethnicity was subsequently founded upon national myths of Germanic antiquity. These tendencies culminated in a later Pan-Germanism, Alldeutsche Bewegung which had as its aim, the political unity of all of German-speaking Europe (all Volksdeutsche) into a Teutonic nation state.

Contemporary Romantic nationalism in Scandinavia placed more weight on the Viking Age, resulting in the movement known as Scandinavism. The theories of race developed in the same period, which used Darwinian evolutionary ideals and pseudo-scientific methods in the identification of Germanic peoples (members of a Nordic race), as being superior to other ethnicities. Scientific racism flourished in the late 19th century and into the mid-20th century, where it became the basis for specious racial comparisons and justification for eugenic efforts; it also contributed to compulsory sterilization, anti-miscegenation laws, and was used to sanction immigration restrictions in both Europe and the United States. Following World War II, as a response to political influences of the past, government support for the study of ancient Germanic history and culture was significantly reduced both in Germany and Scandinavia.

Historical Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the Germanic peoples, ended with Christianization in the 11th century. Elements of Germanic paganism survived into post-Christianization folklore, and today new religious movements exist which see themselves as modern revivals of Germanic Heathenry.

See also

• List of Germanic peoples
• Early Germanic culture
• Nordic race
• Slavs
• Balts
• Thracians
• Illyrians
• Italic peoples

Notes

1. Goffart (2006, p. 5): "'German' was basically a Roman word, used by authors in the early Empire as a shorthand term for many of the northern barbarians. The peoples surveyed by Tacitus or those of the Migration Age were fragmented At best, they spoke dialects that our linguists call 'Germanic'. 'German'and 'Germanic' are entrenched in writings about the Migration Age barbarians." Müller (1998, p. 14-15): "Die germ. Sprachgemeinschaft ist heirbei naturgemäss in Rechnung zu stellen, doch scheint es schwer, die Bedeutung der ihr zugrundeliegenden Prozesse (Lautverschiebung) anders als im linguistischen Horiziont zu werten und sie nicht als Antizipation der Ethnogenese zu verstehen." Todd (2004, p. 11), concerning the Jastorf culture and Germanic languages writes, "to what extent the progenitors of these cultures were 'Germanic' or 'proto-Germanic' is much more problematic". Also: "It might be thought that the early Germanic languages should throw light on the ethnogenesis of their speakers, but this is a field fraught with extreme difficulty." Goffart (1989, p. 112-113): "The many tribes considered Germanic by moderns include quite a few with uncertain claims to speaking Germanic dialects."
   "Gothonic" was the preferred term of the Danish writer Gudmund Schütte, before World War 2, and "Early Germans" was for example used in for a book title by Malcolm Todd, (Todd 2004). For criticism of such terminology see for example Wolfram (1988, p. 10-13), Halsall (2014).
2. Wolfram (1997, p. 5-6): "Caesar saw from personal experience that a third group of peoples existed as a separate ethnic entity between the Celts and the Sarmatian-Scythian steppe peoples." Müller (1998, p. 14): "Der Germ.-Begriff ist eine ethnologische Ordnungskategorie in ant. Tradition und Denkweise zur Bezeichnung einer Grossgrupper zw. Kelten und 'Skythen', eine klassifikatorische Sammelbezeichnung wechselnden Umfangs."
3. Strabo even believed that the Romans called them germani as a way of calling them the "genuine" Gauls. (Pohl (2004, p. 51); Strabo, Geography, 7.1.2).
4. Todd (2004, p. 8-9): "There is no evidence that they called themselves 'Germani' or their land 'Germania'.". Müller (1998, p. 14): "Es is weder wahrscheinlich noch zu erweisen, dass ihm eine Selbstbenennung und ein Bewusstsein einer gesamtgerm. Identität entsprechen (es sei denn in gewissen Grade sekundär unter röm. Einfluss)."
5. Halsall (2014, p. 520), using the Gothic peoples as an example: "Linguistically, we can justify a grouping on the basis that all these peoples spoke a related form of Indo-European language, whether East, West or North Germanic. Such a modern definition, however, does not equate with the classical idea of the Germani." Goffart (2006, p. 222): "No discernible benefit comes from out being reminded again and again in modern writings that many of these barbarians at each other's throats probably spoke dialects of the same language. The G-word can be dispensed with."
6. See footnotes above, and detailed discussions by for example Müller (1998, p. 14-15). Liebeshuetz (2015, p. 97) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFLiebeshuetz2015 (help) argues against other authors that they shared a language and some common culture, but writes: "We cannot of course know whether or not these people felt any sense of Germanic solidarity, or to use modern jargon, a sense of Germanic identity. But the fact that the Latin Germani does not appear to have had a Germanic equivalent, strongly suggests that there was no generally shared sense of Germanic identity."
7. See for example Wolfram (1988, p. 10-13), Halsall (2014).
8. Pohl (2004, p. 52-53): "Caesars Definition was freilich unscharf. Er ging zwar davon aus dass de Rhein Gallien von Germanen trennte doch musste er anderseits zur Kenntnis nehmen, dass auch in Nordostgallien Germanen wohnten. Keiner der antiken Autoren differenziert freilich zwischen der territorialen und der ethnischen Auslegung des Germanennamens." Pohl (2006, p. 100): "What matters here is the way in which Tacitus employed his criteria. Obviously, they do not add up to any transparent method of logical order."
9. Goffart (2006, p. 49-50): "the unearthed Germania gave birth to the modern discipline of "Germanic antiquity," called germanische (or deutsche) Altertumskunde. "The collapse of the Third German Reich in 1945 did not ruin deutsche Altertumskunde but dealt it a blow." More limited positions, however, are still very firmly anchored."
10. Pohl (2006, p. 103): "what modern philology has accustomed us to see as one family of languages or even a single language was, with all its variants, not an instrument by which all its native speakers could easily comprehend each other." Pohl (2004, p. 9-10): "Die Sprachwissenschaft kann weiterhin nach bestimmten Kriterien, etwa de 1. Lautverscheibung, die Entstehung der germanischen Sprache(n) definieren und grob zeitlich und räumlch einordnen. Selbst wo sich dabei beachtliche Überschneidungen mit dem Verbreitungsgebiet einer archäologischen Kultur ergeben können (wie der eisenzeitlichen, vorrömischen Jastorf-Kultur mit Zentrum an der Unterelbe), kann diese Bevölkerung archäologisch nicht ohne weiteres als 'Germanen' definiert werden."
11. Tacitus, Germania, 1: "Germania omnis a Gallis Raetisque et Pannoniis Rheno et Danubio fluminibus, a Sarmatis Dacisque mutuo metu aut montibus separatur".
12. Caesar, Gallic Wars 6.24; Tacitus, Germania 28; Heather (2012, p.6,p.53).
13. Wolfram (1995, p. 6) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFWolfram1995 (help); Caesar, Gallic Wars, 1.47, 6.21.
14. Liebeschuetz (2015, p.95 n.4; p.97) for example argues that Tacitus described the Germani as united by language.
15. Tacitus, Germania, 43:"Marsigni et Buri sermone cultuque Suebos referunt: Cotinos Gallica, Osos Pannonica lingua coarguit non esse Germanos, et quod tributa patiuntur." For the position of the Buri, there is also reference in Ptolemy's Geography of Germany.
16. Tacitus, Germania, 45: "Aestiorum gentes , quibus ritus habitusque Sueborum", lingua Britannicae propior".
17. Tacitus, Germania, 46 "Peucini, quos quidam Bastarnas vocant, sermone cultu sede ac domiciliis ut Germani agunt".
18. See for example Todd (2004, p. 8-9) and Müller (1998, p. 80). The latter gives a detailed summary of some of the many proposals. Wolfram (1988, p. 5), for example, thinks "Germani" must be Gaulish. But there is no consensus.
19. Müller (1998, p. 4-5); Petrikovits (1999)
20. Roymans (2014, p. 29): "The archaeology of the Late Iron Age argues for a north-south articulation of the northwest European continent, in which the Rhine does not function as a cultural boundary. On the contrary, groups in the southern Netherlands and northern Belgium as well as in Hessen and southern Westphalia were strongly influenced by the La Tène culture, as is shown by the presence of central places, sanctuaries, specialist glass and metalworking, and the adoption of coinage."
21. Caesar, Gallic War, 6.34, for example, refers to the main tribe of these Germani, the Eburones as Gauls.
22. See for example Müller (1998, p. 2-4) which goes through all of these.
23. See for example Polverini (1994, p. 2)
24. See map at Müller (1998, p. 145).
25. Concerning the archaeological evidence, for the Gothic peoples see Heather (2012, p. 120). For the Anglo-Saxons see Halsall (2007, p. 198).
26. Wolfram (1997, p. 259) cites his letter 5, to his friend Syagrius. In contrast, the use of this word by Sidonius is mentioned differently for example by Liebeschuetz (2015, p. 157), citing Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm. 12.4.
27. Goffart (2006, p. 48): "A whole library of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship can be evoked to show that a "Germanic antiquity" existed in parallel to its Greco-Roman counterpart."
28. Heather (2007, p. 49) "Germanic-speaking groups dominated most of central and northern Europe beyond Rome's riverine frontiers. The Germani, as the Romans called them, spread all the way from the Rhine in the west (which, before the Roman conquest, had marked an approximate boundary between Europe's Germanic and Celtic speakers) to beyond the River Vistula in the east, and from the Danube in the south to the North and Baltic Seas... While the territory of ancient Germania was clearly dominated in a political sense by Germanic-speaking groups, it has emerged that the population of this vast territory was far from entirely Germanic. The more one moved south and east through the region during the Roman period, the more likely it is that Germanic-speakers constituted a politically dominant force in very mixed societies."
29. Rosenwein (2018, p. 21): "The Romans called all these peoples “barbarians,” though, borrowing a term from the Gauls, they designated those beyond the Rhine as “Germani”—Germans. Historians today tend to differentiate these peoples linguistically: “Germanic peoples” are those who spoke Germanic languages." Hachmann (1971, p. 49): "he Germani defined by modern scholars as a population group in central and northern Europe speaking Germanic languages or dialects."
30. Pohl (2006, p. 100); Liebeschuetz (2015, p. 96) (law).
31. Schmidt (1991, pp. 129–133): The Battle Axe culture was succeeded by the Nordic Bronze Age, which was in turn succeeded by the Jastorf culture. Proto-Germanic is believed the have emerged as a separate branch of Indo-European in either the Nordic Bronze Age or the Jastorf culture. Polomé, Fee & Leeming (2006): "These are people whose languages... derive from the same Indo-European branch... The Germanic people emerged in the early Iron Age “Jastorf” culture in what is now Scandinavia and northern Germany at the beginning of the sixth century b.c.e., although Bronze Age rock carvings in Scandinavia suggest a much earlier birth."
32. The Cherusci people are the progenitors of Arminius, who once a Roman general, betrayed his erstwhile Roman legions by attacking them using the combined forces of Germanic tribes in 9 CE at Teutoburg Forest, a move which ended the Roman Empire's efforts to expand east of the Rhine.
33. See: Plin. Nat. 4.28
34. See: Pomponius Mela, Description of the World, trans. F.E. Romer (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998), 109–110, 3.31–3.32
35. Geography 7.1
36. Ancient authors we know by name who saw Pytheas' text were Dicaearchus, Timaeus, Eratosthenes, Crates of Mallus, Hipparchus, Polybius, Artemidorus and Posidonius, as Lionel Pearson remarked in reviewing Hans Joachim Mette, Pytheas von Massalia (Berlin: Gruyter) 1952, in Classical Philology 49.3 (July 1954), pp. 212–214.
37. A preserved report from the Governor of Moesia indicates that Nero released a notable number of Bastarnae captives in recompense for their tribal King's willingness to submit before the Roman standards.
38. Plutarch writes of these Cimbrian warriors with "sky blue" colored eyes, see: Truces et cærulei oculi. -- Germ. IX. Plutarch (in Marius, XI). Cited from Francis B. Gummere, Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892), 58 fn.
39. "Proximity to our provinces and familiarity with seaborne imports bring the Gauls many things to use and keep, so they gradually grew accustomed to defeat, losing many battles and not even claiming to be the Germans' equals in courage now."
40. "ur men inquired and heard Gauls and merchants describing the Germans' huge bodies, their incredible strength, and their experience in arms. They had often encountered them and could not stand the sight of them or endure their gaze. Great fear suddenly seized our whole army..."
41. The tribal Helvetii lend their namesake to the formal epithet for the nation of Switzerland – the Helvetic Confederacy (or Helvetia). See: The Encyclopædia Britannica (2015), "Helvetii". Stable URL: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Helvetii
42. The texts of the chronicler Marcellinus demonstrate that, at the very least, military cooperation between the Germanic tribes and the Romans took place at times since he makes reference to a "pactum vicissitudinus reddendae".
43. "By the late fourth century Germanics constituted most of the Roman military."
44. "In basic organization, values, tactics, and weaponry, the “Roman” army had become largely Germanic."
45. "Constantine credited his victories against Maxentius in 311–312 principally to his barbarian troops, who were honoured on the triumphal Arch of Constantine in Rome. In opposition to him, Licinius mustered drafts of Goths to strengthen his army. Goths were also brought in by Constantine, to the number of 40,000, it is said, to help defend Constantinople in the latter part of his reign, and the palace guard was thenceforward composed mostly of Germans, from among whom a great many high army commands were filled. Dependence on immigrants or first-generation barbarians in war was to increase steadily, at a time when conventional Roman troops were losing military value."
46. "Germanic peoples were the scourge of the Western Empire. Nevertheless, it was only with German help that the empire was able to survive as long as it did. The Roman army received an ever-growing number of recruits from the German tribes..."
47. "If caesar wished, let him join battle, but he should know what strength unbeaten Germans possessed, a people tested in arms, now living in the open fourteen years."
48. "In point of valour and integrity, the Germans, they said, were second to no people on earth."
49. "In the polylingual camp of Attila, Gothic had the rank of a lingua franca...."
50. Recent academic work from the likes of Peter Heather supports this argument. See: Heather, Peter. (2012) Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Conversely, historian Bryan Ward-Perkins paints a different picture altogether. Ward-Perkins states that, "The invaders were not guilty of murder, but they had committed manslaughter." The two titles alone speak to their divergent positions.
51. "The barbarians were everywhere a small minority. They established themselves on the great estates and divided the land to the benefit of the federates without doing much harm to the lower classes or disturbing the economy."
52. "Despite the collapse of imperial rule in Spain, Roman influence remained strong. The majority of the population, probably about six million, were Hispano-Romans, as compared with 200,000 barbarians."
53. "is people could not legally intermarry with Romans."
54. "The Visigothic king was theoretically ruler of only his own people, whereas the Hispano-Romans continued to profess allegiance to a rapidly vanishing imperial authority. A Roman law that prohibited intermarriage between the two peoples was, however, abolished in the late 6th century."
55. For a period of upwards of 1,300 years since the Frankish king Clovis was converted to Christianity (he ruled Gaul in what eventually became modern France), eighteen monarchs of France have been Christened with a French derivation of his Latin name Ludovicus or "Louis" in modern French. See: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (New York: Penguin, 2011), p. 324.
56. "The rigorous ethics of early Germanic society, based on trust, loyalty, and courage, and the perhaps somewhat idealized picture of the moral code given by Tacitus, had a divine sanction..."
57. "Some smiths were able to rework iron into high-quality steel and make sword blades with a core of softer steel for flexibility and harder steel on the exterior to keep a sharp edge, far finer weapons than those used in the Roman army at the time."
58. "Furthermore, the skills of Germanic smiths and other craftsmen were as good as, or better than those found inside the Roman empire."
59. New Phylthatetic Relationships for Y-chromosome Haplogroup I: Reappraising its Phylogeography and Prehistory," Rethinking the Human Evolution, Mellars P, Boyle K, Bar-Yosef O, Stringer C, Eds. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, 2007, pp. 33–42 by Underhill PA, Myres NM, Rootsi S, Chow CT, Lin AA, Otillar RP, King R, Zhivotovsky LA, Balanovsky O, Pshenichnov A, Ritchie KH, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Kivisild T, Villems R, Woodward SR.
60. For more on the historical trek of European anti-Semitism and how scientific racism contributed to the Holocaust, see: Mosse, George L. Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.
61. "In Germany...the first need was to detach prehistoric studies from the political influences of the pre-war period. German archaeologists, like their Scandinavian colleagues though sometimes for different reasons, have had to make do with very slender financial resources."

References

1. Todd 2004, p. 11.
2. Halsall 2014, p. 518.
3. Müller, 1998 & p.6 col.2. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMüller1998p.6_col.2 (help)
4. Pohl 2006, p. 11.
5. Liebschuetz 2002, p. 59-60. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLiebschuetz2002 (help)
6. Ptolemy, Geography, 3.5 and 2.10. Pomponius Mela, Description of the World, 31.
7. Caesar, 2.4.
8. Strabo, Geography, 7.1.2.
9. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, Book 4.
10. Pliny the elder, Natural History, 4.27(/"13") and 37.11(/"7").
11. Strabo, Geography, 7.3.17; Tacitus, Germania, 46; Pliny, Natural History,4.28.
12. Livy, History of Rome, 40.57.
13. ^ Goffart 2006, p. 49.
14. Goffart (2006, p. 187) and Goffart, 1989 & Rome's Fall and After, p. 112-113) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFGoffart1989Rome's_Fall_and_After (help).
15. James, 2009 & 29. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJames200929 (help)
16. Goffart (2006, p. 46-47); Goffart (1989, p. 29).
17. Wolfram 1997, p. 11.
18. Goffart (2006, p.278 & 282); Goffart (1989, p. 153).
19. Goffart 2006, 43, pp.48ff.
20. Halsall 2017, p. 18. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHalsall2017 (help)
21. Liebeschuetz 2015, 94ff.
22. ^ Germanic languages: The Emergence of Germanic Languages, Encyclopædia Britannica Online: "Archaeological evidence suggests that about 750 bce a relatively uniform Germanic people was located in southern Scandinavia and along the North Sea and Baltic coasts from what is now the Netherlands to the Vistula River. By roughly 250 bce they had spread south, and five general groups are distinguishable: North Germanic in southern Scandinavia, excluding Jutland; North Sea Germanic, along the North Sea and in Jutland; Rhine-Weser Germanic, along the middle Rhine and Weser; Elbe Germanic, along the middle Elbe; and East Germanic, between the middle Oder and the Vistula rivers... This five-way division of Germanic peoples is based on archaeological evidence, and, while it agrees to some extent with deductions that can be made from the early linguistic evidence, the correspondence between archaeological and linguistic groupings is not completely straightforward."
23. ^ Murdoch & Read 2004, p. 1: "The aim of this volume is to provide some insights into aspects of the culture of the Germanic world... find some kind of common Germanic origin, get closer perhaps to the origins of that branch of the Indo-European language family whose speakers are known by the useful Roman name of Germani... How, then, does one investigate the concept of what is Germanic? The word is rooted in language and ethnology, of course, rather than in geography, and the original homeland, the Urheimat of the Germani is not Germany in any modern sense, but (as far as it can be determined at all) probably what is now Scandinavia and the North Sea and Baltic coastal areas."
24. Tacitus 2009, p. 38 .
25. Tacitus 2009, p. 57 .
26. Tacitus 2009, p. 58 .
27. Ozment 2005, pp. 20–21.
28. ^ The Imperial Teutonic Order.
29. Murdoch & Read 2004, p. 5.
30. ^ History of Europe: The Germans and Huns, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
31. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 296–297.
32. Kinder & Hilgemann 2004, p. 109.
33. Bury 2000, p. 5.
34. Germanic peoples, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
35. Cunliffe 2011, p. 309–316.
36. Verhart 2006, pp. 81–82.
37. Hachmann, Kossack & Kuhn 1962, pp. 183–212.
38. Verhart 2006, pp. 175–176.
39. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 301.
40. Bury 2000, p. 6.
41. Heather 1973. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHeather1973 (help)
42. Bury 2000, pp. 6–7.
43. Bury 2000, pp. 7–9.
44. Denniston 1962, p. 369.
45. Burns 2003, pp. 51–52.
46. ^ Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 61.
47. Todd 2004, p. 23.
48. ^ Burns 1994, p. 103.
49. Heather 2005, p. 49. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHeather2005 (help)
50. ^ Mommsen 1968, p. 229.
51. Williams 1998, p. 184.
52. Bury 2000, p. 15.
53. Ozment 2005, p. 58fn.
54. Woolf 2012, pp. 105–107.
55. Cunliffe 2011, pp. 369–371.
56. Caesar 2019, pp. 156, 6.24.
57. Caesar 2019, pp. 29, 1.39.
58. Caesar 2019, pp. 153–154, 6.20–6.21.
59. Pagden 2001, p. 22.
60. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 302.
61. Todd 2004, p. 22.
62. Todd 2004, pp. 22–23.
63. Wolfram 1997, pp. 36–37.
64. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 301–302.
65. Ozment 2005, p. 19.
66. Pohl 2002, p. 16.
67. Cunliffe 2011, p. 384.
68. Todd 1999, pp. 32–33. sfn error: no target: CITEREFTodd1999 (help)
69. Goldsworthy 2016, pp. 201, 210, 212.
70. Goldsworthy 2016, p. 210.
71. Tacitus 1873, p. 150 .
72. Boatwright, Gargola & Talbert 2004, p. 360.
73. Tacitus 2009, p. 37 .
74. Burns 2003, p. 183.
75. Seneca 1776, p. 218.
76. Heather 2012, p. 594.
77. Bury 2000, p. 10.
78. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 304.
79. Geary 1999, p. 109.
80. Collins 1999, pp. 2–3.
81. Bury 2000, p. 16.
82. Bury 2000, pp. 16–33.
83. Kishlansky, Geary & O'Brien 2008, p. 166.
84. Todd 2004, p. 140.
85. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 304–305.
86. Collins 1999, p. 46.
87. Bury 2000, p. 61.
88. Wolfram 1997, pp. 46–49.
89. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 305–306.
90. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 321–322.
91. ^ Ancient Rome: The Barbarian Invasions, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
92. Caesar 2019, p. 28.
93. Tacitus 1832, p. 48.
94. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 306.
95. Pohl 1997, pp. 34–35.
96. Bauer 2010, p. 45.
97. Bauer 2010, pp. 45–46.
98. Bury 2000, pp. 129–130.
99. Davies 1998, pp. 231–232.
100. Katz 1955, p. 88.
101. Katz 1955, pp. 88–89.
102. Brown 2012, p. 128.
103. Williams 1998.
104. Manco 2013, p. 204.
105. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 26.
106. Wolfram 1997, p. 142.
107. James 1995, pp. 60–67. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJames1995 (help)
108. Drinkwater 2007, p. 81.
109. Kendrick 2013, pp. 60–63.
110. Pagden 2001, p. 37.
111. Bloemers & van Dorp 1991, pp. 329–338.
112. Ward-Perkins 2005, p. 134.
113. Davies 1998, p. 229.
114. Bury 2000, pp. 65–66.
115. Brown 2012, p. 294.
116. Brown 2012, pp. 294–295.
117. Collins 1999, pp. 53–54.
118. Davies 1998, p. 232.
119. Heather 2005, p. 154. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHeather2005 (help)
120. Roberts 1997, pp. 146–147.
121. Chrysos 2003, pp. 13–14.
122. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 307.
123. Ward-Perkins 2005, p. 64.
124. O'Donnell 2008, p. 105.
125. Santosuo 2004, pp. 13–15.
126. O'Donnell 2008, pp. 105–107.
127. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 308.
128. Ward-Perkins 2005, pp. 69–70.
129. Ward-Perkins 2005, p. 72.
130. Wolfram 1988, p. 332.
131. Wolfram 1997, p. 308.
132. ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 7: "hese tribes were surprisingly small: fifteen to twenty thousand warriors—which means a total of about one hundred thousand people in a tribe—was the maximum number a large people could raise... These people are likewise presented as conquerors of the Roman Empire, even though they constituted a vanishing minority within it."
133. ^ Spain: Visigothic Spain to c. 500, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
134. Theodoric, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
135. Cunliffe 2011, p. 442.
136. Cunliffe 2011, pp. 442–444.
137. Heather 2014, pp. 58–59.
138. Heather 2014, pp. 61–68.
139. Pohl 1997, p. 33.
140. Kitchen 1996, pp. 19–20.
141. Kitchen 1996, p. 20.
142. Bauer 2010, p. 172.
143. James 1995, pp. 66–67. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJames1995 (help)
144. Bauer 2010, p. 173.
145. Kitchen 1996, pp. 24–28.
146. Bury 2000, p. 239.
147. James 1995, p. 60. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJames1995 (help)
148. Morgan 2001, pp. 61–65.
149. Roberts 1996, pp. 121–123.
150. Derry 2012, pp. 16–35.
151. Clements 2005, pp. 214–229.
152. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 310.
153. Vasiliev 1936, pp. 117–135.
154. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 310–311.
155. Sykes 2006, pp. 227–228, 264–266.
156. Geary 1999, p. 110.
157. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 330–331.
158. Heather 2012, pp. 587–588.
159. Menéndez-Pidal 1968, p. 19.
160. Wickham 2009, pp. 150–155.
161. Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 311-312.
162. Heather 2007, p. 87: "he population of Germanic-dominated Europe increased massively over these Roman centuries."
163. Owen 1960, p. 133.
164. Tacitus 2009, p. 39 .
165. ^ Owen 1960, pp. 179–183.
166. ^ Owen 1960, pp. 183–209.
167. Owen 1960, pp. 225–262.
168. Owen 1960, pp. 209–225.
169. Owen 1960, pp. 153–166.
170. ^ Germanic religion and mythology, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
171. Owen 1960, pp. 147–150.
172. ^ Owen 1960, pp. 166–174.
173. Owen 1960, pp. 174–178.
174. Metalwork: Teutonic Tribes, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
175. Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 324.
176. MacDowall 2000, p. 16. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMacDowall2000 (help)
177. Owen 1960, pp. 139–143.
178. Owen 1960, pp. 133–139.
179. Owen 1960, pp. 143–147.
180. Owen 1960, pp. 152–153.
181. Owen 1960, pp. 150–153.
182. Owen 1960, pp. 119–133.
183. Owen 1960, pp. 192.
184. Owen 1960, p. 270.
185. Manco 2013, p. 208.
186. Manco 2013, pp. 209–210.
187. McDonald 2005.
188. McGrath 2015, pp. 146–151. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGrath2015 (help)
189. Burns 2003, pp. 3–9, 14–23, 331.
190. Golther 1908, p. 3. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGolther1908 (help)
191. Strauss 1963, pp. 229–230. sfn error: no target: CITEREFStrauss1963 (help)
192. Mjöberg 1980, pp. 207–238. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMjöberg1980 (help)
193. Chisholm 1911, p. 912. sfn error: no target: CITEREFChisholm1911 (help)
194. Kramer & Maza 2002, pp. 124–138. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKramerMaza2002 (help)
195. Jansen 2011, pp. 242–243. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJansen2011 (help)
196. Jansen 2011, pp. 242–249. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJansen2011 (help)
197. Mosse 1964, pp. 67–87. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMosse1964 (help)
198. Mosse 1964, pp. 218–225. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMosse1964 (help)
199. Smith 1989, pp. 97–111. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSmith1989 (help)
200. Derry 2012, pp. 27, 220, 238–248.
201. Weikart 2006, pp. 3–10, 102–126. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWeikart2006 (help)
202. Oxenstierna 1967, p. 3. sfn error: no target: CITEREFOxenstierna1967 (help)

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• Liebeschuetz, Wolf (2015). East and West in Late Antiquity: Invasion, Settlement, Ethnogenesis and Conflicts of Religion. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-28952-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maas, Michael (2015). "Barbarians: Problems and Approaches". In Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190277536. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Magocsi, Paul Robert (2018). Historical Atlas of Central Europe: Third Revised and Expanded Edition. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 1487523319. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. New York: Penguin, 2011. ISBN 978-0-670-02126-0
• Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• McDonald, J.D. (2005). "Y Haplogroups of the World (PDF map)" (PDF). University of Illinois. Retrieved 22 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Menéndez-Pidal, Ramón (1968). Manual de Gramática Histórica Español. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. ISBN 84-239-4755-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mommsen, Theodor (1968). The Provinces of the Roman Empire: The European Provinces. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. ASIN B000J0J1ZQ. ISBN 0226533956. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Morgan, Kenneth (2001). The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280135-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Müller, Rosemarie, ed. (1998), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde
• O'Callaghan, Joseph F. "Visigothic Spain to c. 500". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
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• Owen, Francis (1960). The Germanic People. New York: Bookman Associates. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Pagden, Anthony (2001). Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, From Greece to the Present. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-679-64096-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Partridge, Eric (1966). Origins: Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. London: Routledge & K. Paul. ISBN 978-0-7100-1934-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pasley, Malcolm (1982). "Germanic and German". Germany: A Companion To German studies. Methuen. pp. 4–6. ISBN 9780416336603. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Petit, Paul; MacMullen, Ramsay. "Ancient Rome: The Barbarian Invasions". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
• Petrikovits (1999), "Germani Cisrhenani", in Beck (ed.), Germanenprobleme in heutiger Sicht, De Gruyter
• Pohl, Walter (1997). "The Barbarian Successor States". In Leslie Webster; Michelle Brown (eds.). The Transformation of the Roman World, AD 400–900. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 978-0-7141-0585-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pohl, Walter (2002). Die Völkerwanderung: Eroberung und Integration (in German). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 3-17-015566-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pohl, Walter (2004), Die Germanen, Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte, vol. 57
• Pohl, Walter (2006), "Telling the Difference; Signs of ethnic identity", From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms
• Polomé, Edgar Charles; Fee, Christopher R.; Leeming, David Adams (2006). "Germanic mythology". In Leeming, David Adams (ed.). The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199916481. Retrieved 3 January 2020. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |subscription= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pop, Ioan Aurel (1996). Romanians and Hungarians from the 9th to the 14th century. Romanian Cultural Foundation. ISBN 9735770377. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pop, Ioan Aurel (1999). Romanians and Romania: A Brief History. East European Monographs. ISBN 0880334401. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Price, T. Douglas (2015). "The Germanic Tribes". Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings. Oxford University Press. pp. 253–255. ISBN 9780190231972. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Polverini, Leandro (1994). "Germani in Italia prima dei Cimbri". Germani in Italia.
• Ringe, Don (2006), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, vol. 1 (2 ed.)
• Roberts, J. M. (1996). A History of Europe. New York: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-9658431-9-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roberts, J. M. (1997). A Short History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511504-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Robertson, Orrin W. (2003). "The Germanic Language Family". Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages. Routledge. ISBN 9781134849000. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rosenwein, Barbara H. (2018). "The Barbarians". A Short History of the Middle Ages (5 ed.). University of Toronto Press. pp. 21–24. ISBN 9781442636224. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roymans, Nico (2014). Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power : The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire.
• Santosuo, Antonio (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare. New York: MJF Books. ISBN 978-1-56731-891-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (1776). Seneca's Morals. Gilb. Martin & Sons. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schmidt, Karl Horst (1991). "The Celts and the Ethnogenesis of the Germanic People". Historische Sprachforschung. 104 (1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: 129–152. JSTOR 40849016. Retrieved 3 February 2020. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |layurl=, |laydate=, |nopp=, and |laysource= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schulze, Hagen (2001). Germany: A New History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00545-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schutte, Gudmund (2013). Our Forefathers. Translated by Young, Jean. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107674783. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Spaeth, John Duncan Ernst (1921). Old English Poetry. Princeton University Press. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Speidel, Michael P. (2004). Ancient Germanic Warriors: Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas. Routledge. ISBN 1134384203. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stümpel, Gustav (1932). Name und Nationalität der Germanen. Eine neue Untersuchung zu Poseidonios, Caesar und Tacitus (in German). Leipzig: Dieterich Verlag. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sykes, Bryan (2006). Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland. London: Bantam Press. ISBN 978-0-393-06268-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tacitus, Cornelius (1832). Arthur Murphy (ed.). The Historical Annals of Cornelius Tacitus. Vol. Vol. III. Philadelphia: L. Johnson. OCLC 28482775. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tacitus, Cornelius (1873). The History of Tacitus. Translated by Alfred John Church and W J Brodribb. London: Macmillan&Company. OCLC 154131285. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tacitus, Cornelius (2009). Agricola and Germany. Translated by Anthony R. Birley. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19953-926-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem, 1190–2012". The Imperial Teutonic Order.
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• Todd, Malcolm (2004), The Early Germans, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1-4051-1714-1 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Vasiliev, Alexander A. (1936). The Goths in the Crimea. Medieval Academy of America. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Verhart, Leo (2006). Op Zoek naar de Kelten, Nieuwe archeologische ontdekkingen tussen Noordzee en Rijn (in Dutch). Utrecht: Matrijs. ISBN 978-90-5345-303-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4964-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ward-Perkins, Bryan (2005). The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280728-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Well, Colin (1996). "Celts and Germans in the Rhineland". In Miranda Green (ed.). The Celtic World. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-14627-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Wickham, Chris (2009). The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400–1000. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-670-02098-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Williams, Derek (1998). Romans and Barbarians. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-19958-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Murdoch, Brian; Read, Malcolm Kevin (2004). Early Germanic Literature and Culture. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 157113199X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wolfram, Herwig (1988). History of the Goths. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05259-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08511-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Woolf, Greg (2012). Rome: An Empire's Story. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-932518-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Caesar, De Bello Gallico, on Perseus website, with English and Latin http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001

Further reading

• Aston, Florence (1915). Stories From German History: From Ancient Times To The Year 1648. George G. Harrap and Company. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Beck, Heinrich and Heiko Steuer and Dieter Timpe, eds. Die Germanen. Studienausgabe. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 1998. Xi + 258 pp. ISBN 3-11-016383-7.
• "Germans". Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
• Bosworth, Joseph (1848). The Origin of the English, Germanic and Scandinavian Languages and Nations: With a Sketch of Their Early Literature. Longman. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gummere, Francis Barton (1892). Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture. D. Nutt. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |registration= and |subscription= (help)
• Hayes, Carlton Huntley (1909). An Introduction To The Sources Relating To The Germanic Invasions. Columbia University. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hinds, Kathryn (2010). Early Germans. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 978-0761445159. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Krüger, Bruno . Die Germanen [The Germanic Peoples] (in German). Vol. 1. Akad.-Verlag. ISBN 978-0761445159. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thompson, E. A. (1965). The Early Germans. Clarendon Press. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Todd, Malcolm (1975). The Northern Barbarians, 100 B.C.-A.D. 300. Hutchinson. ISBN 0091222206. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |subscription= and |registration= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Udolph, Jürgen. Namenkundliche Studien zum Germanenproblem. DeGruyter, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-014138-8

• Use dmy dates from July 2012
• Germanic peoples
• 2nd-millennium BC establishments
• Indo-European peoples