[00:06] Of all the so-called barbarians the 
Romans did battle with over the centuries,
[00:11] none have made as lasting an impact on the 
history of Europe as the Germanic peoples.
[00:17] They terrorized the Empire for centuries, 
before conquering its Western half in 476AD,
[00:24] arguably ending the era of Antiquity, and 
ushering in the middle ages. In this video,
[00:30] we will shine the spotlight on them, exploring 
their culture and society, while telling the
[00:36] history of the earliest origins of the Ancient 
Germanic peoples, the greatest enemy of Rome.
[00:42] Shoutout to Netflix and its new historical TV 
Series Barbarians for sponsoring this video.
[00:48] Barbarians is a brand-new TV series set in the 
Antiquity with a backdrop of the famous battle
[00:54] of Teutoburg forest in which the legions of the 
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tribes led by the former Roman auxilia Arminius.
[01:05] This dramatization of the events of 9 AD 
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[01:44] So, who were the ancient Germanic peoples? 
In short, they were a collection of iron-age
[01:50] tribes that lived in the rugged forests west 
and north of the Rhine and Danube rivers
[01:56] during mid to late antiquity, best known for 
their long and complicated relationship with
[02:02] the Roman Empire, with whom they traded, 
integrated with, and most importantly, made
[02:08] war on. Broadly speaking, they are ancestrally 
related to many peoples in Europe today,
[02:14] including the Dutch, Swiss, Austrians, Flemish, 
Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and of course,
[02:21] the modern Germans - all of whom are 
speakers of modern Germanic dialects.
[02:27] In 98AD, the historian Tacitus completed a 
book titled De Origine et situ Germanorum,
[02:34] more commonly known as Germania, a Roman 
survey of the history and culture of their
[02:40] Germanic foes. This tome provides us with the 
most valuable window into Germanic culture,
[02:46] and will be referred to throughout this video. 
Let us begin with a quote: “Undivided Germany
[02:53] is separated from the Gauls, Rhaetians and 
Pannonians by the rivers Rhine and Danube,
[02:58] from the Sarmatians and Dacians by mutual fear 
of mountains, and the rest of it is surrounded
[03:04] by ocean. As for the Germans themselves, I should 
suppose them to be native to the area … who would
[03:10] have left Asia or Africa or Italy to look for 
Germany? With its wild scenery and harsh climate,
[03:17] it is pleasant neither to live in nor 
look upon unless it be ones' home.”
[03:22] As condescending as his account is, Tacitus 
was not entirely incorrect. By his time,
[03:29] the various Germanic tribes had been living in 
their traditional territories for at least a
[03:34] millenia or two. However, their true origins are a 
little more complex than the chronicler suggests,
[03:41] and the key to understanding it lies in 
linguistics. The Germanic languages are
[03:46] part of the Indo-European linguistic 
family, and therefore share a common
[03:52] ancestor with almost all the languages of 
Europe, Northern India and Western Asia.
[03:58] As of now, the leading is the Kurgan Hypothesis, 
which postulates that the Proto-Indo-European
[04:05] language was spoken by a nomadic Europid people 
who inhabited the Pontic Steppe from at least
[04:11] the 6th millennium BC. Known titularly as the 
Kurgan People, or alternatively the Yamnaya,
[04:19] they were hardy seasonal livestock herders, 
and were probably among the first humans to
[04:24] domesticate the wild horse- first as 
food, and later, as transportation.
[04:30] Around the 4th millennium BC, these pastoralists 
are said to have utilized the advantage given to
[04:37] them by their four-legged friends to expand out of 
their steppe homeland, and across a huge swathe of
[04:44] the Eurasian landmass, displacing or intermixing 
with the indigenous peoples already living there.
[04:51] Over many centuries, the Proto-Indo-European 
tongue spoken by these various branches of
[04:57] Yamnaya migrants gave rise to the early versions 
of Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and of course, German.
[05:04] Proto-Germanic languages and cultures were 
said to have emerged as a distinct branch of
[05:10] Indo-European during the bronze age, contained 
to the northern coast of modern Germany,
[05:16] the Jutland peninsula, and 
the southern tip of Sweden.
[05:20] In the late iron-age, they expanded 
from the Rhine to the Vistula rivers,
[05:25] bordering the Celtic peoples to the west, and 
the Scytho-Sarmatian horse lords to the east.
[05:31] Early Germanic society was predominantly rural. 
Unlike their Proto-Indo-European ancestors, they
[05:38] mostly lived sedentary lives in small to mid sized 
villages. The economy of these villages revolved
[05:46] mainly around the rearing of goats, sheep and 
cattle, and the cultivation of grain. Ample lush
[05:52] wilderness meant that hunting and foraging played 
a significant role in their lifestyle as well.
[05:59] They were never a single nation, and instead a 
spectrum of many independent tribes with similar
[06:05] but differing cultures and languages. Among 
these were larger confederations, like the Suebi,
[06:12] Marcomanni, and Alemanni, and the political 
map of ancient Germania was ever-shifting
[06:17] as independent factions splintered out of 
larger tribes, larger tribes swallowed up
[06:23] smaller tribes, and loosely organized 
alliances came together and fell apart.
[06:29] As one can imagine, these factions 
were all highly martial in nature.
[06:34] Tacitus claimed that while Kingship in 
Germania was determined by bloodline,
[06:39] it was the subordinate war-leaders, 
who were the real power in their tribe.
[06:44] In turn, the war-leaders only remained in power 
as long they could continue to deliver victories
[06:50] for their people, and were promptly ousted 
if they showed cowardice or incompetence.
[06:56] Let us now expand upon what this 
warrior culture looked like.
[07:01] Unlike the chariot-riders of Gaul to their west, 
and the mounted archers of Sarmatia to the east,
[07:07] the Ancient Germanic peoples possessed little 
to no cavalry, as horses were a symbol of luxury
[07:14] reserved for Kings and nobles. As such, Germanic 
armies were made predominantly of infantry.
[07:21] Quality metal was a luxury, so iron panoply 
was reserved for tribal leaders and their
[07:27] inner circle. The common warrior was usually 
clad only in linen or leather, and naked
[07:33] from the waist up. They wielded javelins, 
lances and short spears called “frameae”,
[07:40] which required comparatively less iron to forge. 
They protected themselves with long, oval or
[07:46] rectangular shields in which was embedded a hard 
iron shield-boss, which could be used to bash
[07:53] the enemy to deal blunt-force damage. However, 
what the Germanic peoples lacked in equipment,
[07:59] they made up with ferocious and fearless fighting. 
Tacitus’ remarked on their stigma of spinelessness
[08:07] with grim commentary: “traitors 
and deserters are hung from trees.
[08:12] Cowards and poor fighters are plunged in the mud 
of the marshes with a hurdle over their heads.”
[08:19] Despite the bellicose nature of the Germanic 
peoples, there were avenues for non-violent
[08:24] diplomacy among them. The most prominent 
of these were great inter-tribal gatherings
[08:30] known as hustings, or simply as the “thing”. 
According to Tacitus, these assemblies would
[08:36] take place only when the moon was neither new 
nor full. The summoned tribes would arrive
[08:43] and once there, they would take their seats while 
girded with their weapons. Kings and Chiefs would
[08:49] speak one by one, in order of importance 
based on age, birthright and battles won.
[08:56] As the leaders made various proposals, the crowd 
would groan loudly if they disapproved, and clash
[09:03] their spears enthusiastically if they approved. 
It was through gatherings like these that issues
[09:09] of land rights and resource distribution were 
settled, and political alliances were created
[09:15] among tribes. Tacitus also mentions the role 
of priests during these gatherings, who acted
[09:21] as powerful mediators between tribes, with the 
authority to “force obedience” to keep the peace.
[09:29] Let us use this as a segway to discuss the nature 
and role of religion in early Germanic society.
[09:35] By far the best known variant of Germanic 
Paganism lies in the mythology of the Viking age,
[09:42] which was adhered to by the Norsemen in the early 
medieval era even as the rest of their Germanic
[09:48] cousins eventually adopted Latin Christianity. 
However, we should not assume that Norse Paganism
[09:54] was the exact same as the rites practiced by 
their ancestral relatives of antiquity, after all,
[10:01] they were separated by over 700 years. With that 
said, anyone familiar with the Viking Pantheon
[10:08] would certainly find some familiar faces among 
the Gods of the Suebi, Alemanni, and Marcomanni.
[10:14] On the subject of Germanic faith, Tacitus 
had this to say: “Of the Gods, they worship
[10:21] Mercury the most, to whom on certain days they 
count even the sacrifice of human life lawful.
[10:27] Hercules and Mars they appease with animal life as 
is permissible.” The deities the Roman historian
[10:34] mentions are distinctly Olympian in nature, 
but Tacitus was actually drawing parallels
[10:40] between native Germanic Gods, and the Greco-Roman 
Pantheon. “Mercury” in this case was Wodanaz- an
[10:48] early form of Odin, thus associated as both 
he and Mercury were messengers for the gods,
[10:54] and guides between the mortal world and the 
afterlife. “Hercules” was probably Donar, who
[11:01] like the ancient Greek hero was a great warrior, 
adventurer and beast slayer. His mighty hammer
[11:07] was associated with Hercules’ club. As one might 
have guessed, Donar was an early form of Thor.
[11:15] Meanwhile, “Mars” was equated to Tyr. A 
minor deity by the time of the Viking age,
[11:21] but a highly important patron of 
war and wisdom during antiquity.
[11:26] Although Tacitus compared him to the Roman 
God of war, he was most likely derived from
[11:31] the Proto-Indo-European Dieus, the same God from 
which the Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter evolved
[11:38] from. So while it is easy to dismiss Tacitus’ 
rebranding of Germanic Gods into Roman ones,
[11:45] they were actually more interconnected than 
most realize. Not referenced by Tacitus,
[11:50] but found in the archeological records are other 
aspects of Germanic mythology, including the
[11:56] proto-versions of the goddess of love, beauty, 
fertility Freyja and Yggdrasil, the world tree.
[12:04] We know very little about how the Germanic 
peoples carried out their religious rites,
[12:09] but according to Tacitus, human sacrifice appears 
to have been practiced. Ancient bodies found in
[12:15] the bogs of Northern Germany show evidence of 
ritual slaughter. Tacitus also claimed that
[12:21] Germanic priests read divinations based on 
the flight patterns of birds, the casting of
[12:26] runes written on tree bark, and the behaviour of 
sacred white horses, “never soiled by mortal use”.
[12:34] Meanwhile, two golden horns found in Southern 
Denmark, feature engravings of dancing warriors
[12:40] adorned in horned helmets. This likely depicts 
some form of a seasonal cycle, where ceremonies
[12:47] were held according to the transition 
between spring, summer, autumn and winter.
[12:52] It is here that we will delve into the Germanic 
peoples’ interactions with the Roman world,
[12:58] a multi-layered, centuries long relationship that 
would, in time, come to define the fate of both
[13:05] cultures. For centuries, it was the Celtic peoples 
that stood as a buffer between Germania and Rome,
[13:13] but by the late 2nd century BC, the long struggle 
between the Gallic Tribes and the growing Republic
[13:20] had begun to turn to the latter’s favour.
[13:23] By 118BC, the Romans had managed to subdue 
a portion of Southern Gaul into the province
[13:30] of Gallia Narbonensis, and made the Celtic 
federation of Noricum into their client state.
[13:36] As the Latins creeped north, so too did the 
Germans begin marching south. Around 120BC,
[13:44] either crippling floods or freezing in the 
southern Jutland peninsula compelled the Cimbri
[13:50] and Teutones tribes to begin a mass migration, 
sending 200,000 warriors along with their families
[13:57] barrelling into Noricum. Thus, the Roman and 
Germanic worlds met for the first time, and
[14:03] was almost immediately defined by bloodshed. We 
have covered the Cimbrian war in a previous video,
[14:10] so we won't go into detail here. In summary, 
the Romans were able to win a pyrrhic victory,
[14:16] at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, and a 
wakeup call to the true ferocity of their new foe.
[14:24] The next major clash between these two 
civilizations began sometime in the 60sBC,
[14:31] when one King Ariovistus of the Suebi crossed 
into eastern Gaul with an army of 15,000 warriors.
[14:38] Originally there to help the Celtic 
Sequani tribe fight their Aedui rivals,
[14:43] the Suebian leader became enamoured with the 
fertile lands he had arrived in, turning on his
[14:49] Gallic allies and seizing their realm for himself. 
Meanwhile, Roman governor Gaius Julius Caesar
[14:56] was at the height of his ambition. Hot off the 
tails of subduing the migrating Helvetii tribe,
[15:02] he turned his attention to Ariovistus. 
While the Germanic King was originally
[15:08] labeled a friend of Rome, both he and Caesar 
lusted for the spoils of war and in 58BC,
[15:15] they clashed at the Battle of Vosges in a struggle 
for dominance over Eastern Gaul. Caesar won a
[15:22] decisive victory and continued the conquest of 
Gaul culminating at the Siege of Alesia in 52BC.
[15:30] With this, the Roman border was 
moved right up to the Rhine river.
[15:35] All of a sudden, the tribes of Germania looked 
westward and saw not a squabbling Gallic tribes,
[15:41] but the strongest army in the ancient world, 
professional and unyielding. The death of the
[15:47] Republic and birth of the Principate coincided 
with a new era in Roman-Germanic relations.
[15:55] When the first Emperor Augustus came to power, he 
extended Rome’s territory up to the Danube river.
[16:02] Thus, a direct frontier between Rome and Germania 
was established along the key rivers of the Rhine
[16:07] and Danube, a frontier that would remain 
more or less deadlocked for the centuries.
[16:13] In the following years, back and forth struggle 
continued. In 16BC, the Emperors’ stepsons
[16:21] Tiberius and Drusus launched an invasion into the 
Alps east of the Rhine, subduing many tribes. The
[16:28] Germanic peoples never gave up an inch of land 
without a fight, and that same year, the Tencteri,
[16:34] Usipetes and Sugambri inflicted a crushing defeat 
upon the Fifth Legion “Gallia” on the banks of the
[16:40] lower Rhine. Tiberius pushed back, and according 
to Roman sources, had managed to subdue the whole
[16:47] of Germania into an obedient province by 6BC. 
This would last a grand total of 15 years,
[16:55] before the Cherusci prince Arminius pulled off 
a devastating ambush on three Roman Legions led
[17:02] by Publius Quinctillus Varus at Teutoburg Forest 
in 9AD. So absolutely crushing was this defeat,
[17:10] that many historians consider it the worst 
military disaster in Roman history. Following
[17:16] this, Rome retreated from Germania, and gave 
up on ever trying to directly rule the region.
[17:23] The reason Arminius was able to defeat the Empire 
was in part due to his background. Born as the son
[17:30] of a Germanic Chieftain, he had been sent to Rome 
as a hostage and served in the Imperial military,
[17:36] learning all there was to know about 
Roman tactics and military doctrine.
[17:41] While Arminius would eventually return to his 
roots and become Rome’s principal nightmare,
[17:47] he was one of many Germanic peoples who had 
spent their life cooperating with the Empire.
[17:53] His life was a testament to the fact that as much 
as the Romano-Germanic story was defined by war,
[18:00] so too was it defined by diplomacy, 
trade, and cultural integration.
[18:06] The principal means by which Rome maintained 
diplomacy with their war-like neighbours
[18:11] was a policy of divide and control. As we covered 
earlier, the Germanic peoples were locked in
[18:18] inter-tribal struggles and as a result, 
the Romans were often able to use hostages,
[18:24] bribes and alliances with specific tribes to keep 
the spears of Germania pointed at each other,
[18:30] rather than at Rome. Many Germanic peoples soon 
realized that doing business with Rome was far
[18:37] more profitable than making war on them. Between 
the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, trade between the
[18:44] two cultures boomed, concentrated at border 
forts along the Rhine and Danube frontier.
[18:51] Thousands upon thousands of Roman artifacts 
have been found across Germany Denmark,
[18:56] Sweden and Eastern Europe, including 
Campanian pottery, bronze vessels,
[19:01] and dining ware of silver and glass. In turn, the 
ancient Germans dealt in animal hides and furs,
[19:09] but their most valuable products lay in amber 
and slaves - usually captives from rival tribes.
[19:16] For decades, relative stability prevailed 
along the Rhine and Danube frontiers,
[19:22] and although both Rome and the Germanic 
peoples would occasionally challenge one
[19:26] another, no major wars were fought 
between them. This changed in 166AD,
[19:34] when a massive confederation of tribes, led 
by the Marcomanni attempted a mass southwards
[19:40] migration into the Roman Empire. Naturally, 
Emperor Marcus Aurelius could not allow this,
[19:46] and as a result, spent 14 years fighting in the 
brutal slugfest that was the Marcomannic wars.
[19:54] Once more, Rome prevailed, but there was something 
they had not considered: what could have prompted
[20:01] such a massive confederation of people to 
uproot themselves to leave their homeland in
[20:06] the first place? Today, most historians 
agree that they were being pushed out,
[20:11] assailed from the east by a mysterious foe 
they feared more than they feared Rome.
[20:18] Indeed, as the 2nd century transitioned into 
the third, new confederations were forming in
[20:24] the heartland of Germania. Stronger, larger, 
and fiercer than any who had come before them.
[20:30] They would set in motion the next chapter in the 
struggle between the Roman and Germanic worlds,
[20:37] bringing the Empire to its knees, and reshaping 
the entire history of Europe in the process.
[20:44] Join us next time, as we continue our 
history of the Ancient Germanic peoples
[20:49] by covering the rise of the great conquerors: 
the Goths, and the Franks. Make sure you are
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