Several different regions called Germania in the Roman era
Germania (/dʒərˈmeɪni.ə/jər-MAY-nee-ə;Latin:[ɡɛrˈmaːni.a]), also more specifically calledMagna Germania (English:Great Germania),Germania Libera (English:Free Germania), orGermanicBarbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces ofGermania Inferior andGermania Superior, was ahistorical region in north-central Europe during theRoman era, which was associated by Roman authors with theGermanic peoples. According to Roman geographers, this region stretched roughly from theRhine in the west to theVistula in the east, and to theUpper Danube in the south, and the known parts of southernScandinavia in the north. Archaeologically, these people correspond roughly to theRoman Iron Age of those regions.
TheLatin nameGermania means "land of theGermani", but theetymology of the nameGermani itself is uncertain. During theGallic Wars of the 1st century BC, the Roman generalJulius Caesar encounteredGermani originating from beyond theRhine. He referred to their lands beyond the Rhine as "Germania". West of the Rhine, the prosperousRoman provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, sometimes collectively referred to as "Roman Germania", were established in northeastRoman Gaul, while territories east of the Rhine remained independent of Roman control. The Roman emperors also sought to expand east of the Rhine to theElbe, but these efforts were hampered by the victory ofArminius at theBattle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.
From the 3rd century AD, Germanic peoples moving out of Magna Germania began encroaching upon and occupying parts of Roman Germania. This contributed to thefall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, after which territories of Roman Germania were captured and settled bymigrating Germanic people. Large parts of Germania subsequently became part of theFrankish Empire and laterEast Francia. Thename of Germany in English and many other languages is derived from the nameGermania.
"The nameGermany, on the other hand, they say, is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to inspire terror."[1][2]
InLatin, the nameGermania means "lands where people calledGermani live".[3] Modern scholars do not agree on the etymology of the nameGermani.Celtic,Germanic,Illyrian and Latin etymologies have been suggested.[4]
The main source on the origin of the namesGermania andGermani is the bookGermania (98 AD) byTacitus.[2] Tacitus writes that the nameGermania was "modern and newly introduced". According to Tacitus, the nameGermani had once been applied only to theTungri, west of the Rhine, but it became an "artificial name" (inventonomine) for supposedly-related peoples east of the Rhine.[1][2] Many modern scholars consider Tacitus's story to be plausible, but they are unsure whether the name was commonly used byGermani to refer to themselves.[4][5][6][2]
The boundaries of Germania are not clearly defined, particularly at its northern and eastern fringes.[7] Magna Germania stretched approximately from theRhine in the west to beyond theVistula river in the east, and from theDanube in the south and northwards along theNorth andBaltic seas, includingScandinavia.[8][9][10][11]Germania Superior encompassed parts of modern-day Switzerland, southwest Germany and eastern France, whileGermania Inferior encompassed much of modern-day Belgium and Netherlands.[7]
In hisGeography (AD 150), the Roman geographerPtolemy provides descriptions of the geography of Germania.[12] Modern scholars have been able to localize many of the place names mentioned by Ptolemy, and associated them with place names of the present day.[13]
Germania was inhabited by a large number of peoples, and there was not much unity among them.[14] It appears that Germania was not entirely inhabited byGermanic peoples.Hydronymy provides evidence for the presence of another Indo-European group, which probably lived under Germanic domination.[15]
Map of the Roman province ofGermania Antiqua (marked in yellow), from 7 BC to AD 9
During theGallic Wars of the 1st century BC, the Roman generalJulius Caesar came into contact with peoples originating east of the Rhine. In hisCommentarii de Bello Gallico, Caesar refers to these peoples as the Germani, and the lands from where they originated as Germania.[12] The Romans appear to have borrowed the name from theGauls.[17] Having defeated the Germanic chieftainAriovistus inGaul, Caesar builtbridges across the Rhine and conducted punitive expeditions in Germania.[18] He writes the area was composed of numerous Germanic states, which were not entirely united.[19][20] According to Caesar, the GallicVolcae Tectosages had once crossed the Rhine and colonized parts of Germania, but had since become militarily inferior to the Germani.[21] He also writes that Germani had once crossed the Rhine into northeast Gaul and driven away its Gallic inhabitants, and that theBelgae claimed to be largely descended from these Germanic invaders.[22]
"There are still to be seen in the groves of Germany the Roman standards which I hung up to our country's gods... [O]ne thing there is which Germans will never thoroughly excuse, their having seen between the Elbe and the Rhine the Roman rods, axes, and toga... If you prefer your fatherland, your ancestors, your ancient life to tyrants and to new colonies, follow as your leader Arminius to glory and to freedom..."[23]
In the late 1st century BC, the Roman emperorAugustus launchedcampaigns across the Rhine, and incorporated areas of Germania as far east as theElbe into theRoman Empire, creating the short-lived Roman province ofGermania Antiqua in 7 BC, with further aims of establishing a greater province of Magna Germania, with headquarters atColonia (modern-dayCologne). The Roman campaign was severely hampered by the victory ofArminius at theBattle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9.[12] The outcome of this battle dissuaded the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania, and is thus considered one of the most important events inEuropean history.[24] The Rhine eventually became the border between the Roman Empire and Magna Germania. Areas of northeastGaul bordering the Rhine remained under Roman control, and are often referred to as "Roman Germania". FourRoman legions were stationed there, and a Roman fleet, theClassis Germanica, was also established. The area was effectively governed asRoman provinces.[12]
Areas of Germania independent of Roman control were referred to as "Magna Germania".[12] Modern scholars sometimes refer to the Magna Germania as "Free Germania" (Latin:Germania Libera) or GermanicBarbaricum.[25] As parts of Romansocial engineering efforts, large numbers of Germani, includingUbii andSicambri, were settled within Roman Germania in order to prevent revolts by resident Gauls. Roman Germania became characterized by a mixed Celtic, Germanic and Roman population, which became progressivelyRomanized.[12][7]
By the mid 1st century AD, between eight and ten Roman legions were stationed in Roman Germania to protect the frontiers. From AD 69 to AD 70, Roman Germania was heavily affected by theRevolt of the Batavi.[12] Tacitus writes that the leader of the revolt,Gaius Julius Civilis, recruited a vast amount of warriors from his self-described "kinsmen" all over Germania, and hailed Arminius for having liberated Germania from slavery.[26][27][28] Civilis' rebels seized Colonia (modern-dayCologne), capital of Roman Germania and home of the Germanic Ubii, who according to Tacitus were considered traitors by other Germani for having "forsworn its native country".[28][29] After initially seeking to raze all of Colonia to the ground, the forces of Civilis declared the city returned "into the unity of the German nation and name" and "an open city for all Germans".[30][29] Although initially declaring the rebels and "other Germans" their "kinsmen by blood", the Ubii, a Germanic Tribe eventually assisted the Romans in recapturing the Colonia.[12][30]
Map of theRoman Empire and Magna Germania in the early 2nd century AD
In the late 1st century AD, under the leadership of theFlavian dynasty, the provinces of Germania Inferior (headquartered at Colonia) and Germania Superior (headquartered atMogontiacum) were created out of Roman Germania and other eastern parts ofRoman Gaul. They hosted a large military force and carried out lucrative trade with Magna Germania, which greatly contributed to the wealth of Roman Gaul.[31][7]Germania (98 AD) by Tacitus provided vivid descriptions of the peoples of Magna Germania.[12]
In the late 1st and early 2nd century AD, the Romans reoccupied areas lying between the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers. This area became known as theAgri Decumates.[7] Additional numbers of Germani were settled by the Romans within this area.[12] The Roman fortifications on the border with Magna Germania were known as theLimes Germanicus. The 3rd century AD saw the emergence of several powerful Germanic confederations in Magna Germania, such as theAlemanni andFranks.[12] TheCrisis of the Third Century included raids on Roman Germania by Alemanni and Franks, and the area briefly became part of theGallic Empire established by the usurperPostumus.[12] Around 280 AD, the Agri Decumates were evacuated by the Romans and occupied by Alemanni.[7]
UnderDiocletian (3rd century AD), Germania Superior was renamedGermania Secunda, while Germania Inferior was renamedMaxima Sequanorum. Both provinces were under theDiocese of Gaul. The provinces of Roman Germania continued to be subjected to repeated Alemannic and Frankish attacks.[31] In the late 4th century AD and early 5th century AD,Gothic Wars in theBalkans forced the Romans to withdraw troops from Roman Germania. In 406, a large number of people fleeing theHunscrossed the Rhine from Magna Germania into Roman Germania and Gaul, leading to the eventual collapse of Roman rule there, and the emigration of large numbers of Romans, particularly Roman elites. Roman Germania was subsequently occupied by Alemanni and Franks.[12] During subsequent centuries, peoples of Germania played a major role in dismembering what was left of theWestern Roman Empire.[7] Large parts of Germania, including all of Roman Germania, were eventually incorporated into theFrankish Empire.[12]
From the 1st to the 4th century AD, Magna Germania corresponds archaeologically to theRoman Iron Age.[32] In recent years, progress in archaeology has contributed greatly to the understanding of Germania. Areas of Magna Germania were largelyagrarian, and display archaeological commonalities with each other, while being strongly differentiated from that of Roman Germania, largely due to the absence of cities and independentcoinage.[33] Archaeological discoveries testify to flourishing trade between Magna Germania and the Roman Empire.Amber was a primary export out of Magna Germania, while Roman luxury goods were imported on a large scale. Such goods have been found as far as Scandinavia andWestern Russia.[34]
^abcdMurdoch 2004, p. 55. "[T]he origins of the name “Germani” are uncertain. Our main source for this, as for so much about Germany at this period, is Tacitus, whose Germania, subtitled On the Origin and Geography of Germany (De origine et situ Germanorum) was completed toward the end of the first century. He suggests that the name is a modern invention. “It comes from the fact,” he tells us in the second chapter of the Germania, “that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to inspire terror.” It is as plausible an explanation as any..."
^James & Krmnicek 2020, pp. XI, XVII. "Augustus, Rome's first emperor, tried to conquerGermania ("land of the people(s) calledGermani") but failed....Germania means "lands where people calledGermani live". The etymological origins of the wordGermanus remain obscure. It might well, as Tacitus claimed (Germania 2), originally have been the name of one small group, which was picked up by the Greeks and Romans, perhaps following Gaulish usage, and applied to any other foreign neighbours considered similar in language and other aspects of culture."
^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."
^James & Krmnicek 2020, p. XII. "In recent decades, a vast amount of new information has been discovered and published about the peoples and cultures of the region, both inside the empire (inGermania Superior,Germania Inferior, and other nearby provinces) and beyond the imperial frontiers inGermania Magna ('Great Germany' or central EuropeanBarbaricum). This vast and (especially to the east and north) ill-defined and fluid region spanned what today comprises multiple modern countries from the Netherlands to Poland, and from Scandinavia to the Danube..."
^Wolfram 1999, p. 466. "Germania, an area, roughly speaking, between the oceans in the north and the Danube in the south, the Rhine in the west and the Vistula in the east. This ancient Germania also included Scandinavia, which was considered to be an island in the Baltic Sea."
^Davidson 1988, p. 5. "What the Romans knew as Germania was the area between the Rhine and the Danube, extending possibly as far as the Vistula, and including in north Denmark and the southern parts of Norway and Sweden."
^Heather 2007, p. 53. "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... [Germanic] expansion did not annihilate the indigenous, non-Germanic population of the areas concerned, so it is important to perceive Germania as meaningGermanic-dominated Europe."
.png)
