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