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The termRomano-Germanic describes the conflation ofRoman culture with that of variousGermanic peoples in areas successively ruled by theRoman Empire and Germanic "barbarian monarchies".
These include the kingdoms of theVisigoths (inHispania andGallia Narbonensis), theOstrogoths (inItalia,Sicilia,Raetia,Noricum,Pannonia,Dalmatia andDacia), theAnglo-Saxon kingdoms inSub-Roman Britain, and finally theFranks who established the nucleus of the later "Holy Roman Empire" inGallia Aquitania,Gallia Lugdunensis,Gallia Belgica,Germania Superior andInferior, and parts of the previously unconqueredGermania Magna. Additionally, minor Germanic tribes – theVandals, theSuebi, theBurgundians, theAlemanni, and later theLombards − also established their kingdoms in Roman territory in the West.
Romano-Germanic cultural contact begins as early as the first Roman accounts of the Germanic peoples. Roman influence is perceptible beyond the boundaries of the empire, in the Northern EuropeanRoman Iron Age of the first centuries AD. The nature of this cultural contact changes with the decline of the Roman Empire and the beginningMigration period in the wake of thecrisis of the third century: the "barbarian" peoples ofGermania Magna formerly known as mercenaries and traders now came as invaders and eventually as a new ruling elite, even in Italy itself, beginning withOdoacer's rise to the rank ofDux Italiae in 476 AD.
The cultural syncretism was most pronounced inFrancia. InWest Francia, the nucleus of what was to becomeFrance, theFrankish language was eventually extinct, but not without leaving significant traces in the emergingRomance language. InEast Francia on the other hand, the nucleus of what was to become thekingdom of Germany and ultimatelyGerman-speaking Europe, the syncretism was less pronounced since only its southernmost portion had ever been part of the Roman Empire, asGermania Superior: all territories on the right hand side of theRhine remain Germanic-speaking. Those parts of the Germanic sphere extends along the left of the Rhine, including theSwiss plateau, theAlsace, theRhineland andFlanders, are the parts where Romano-Germanic cultural contact remains most evident.
Early Germanic law reflects the coexistence of Roman and Germanic cultures during theMigration period in applying separate laws toRoman and Germanic individuals, notably theLex Romana Visigothorum (506), theLex Romana Curiensis and theLex Romana Burgundionum. The separate cultures amalgamated afterChristianization, and by theCarolingian period the distinction of Roman vs. Germanic subjects had been replaced by thefeudal system of theThree Estates of the Realm.
