Germania

Dating back to the Roman era, Germania was the Latin name for a geographical area that stretched from the west bank of the Rhine to a vaguely-defined eastern frontier with the forest and steppe regions of modern Russia and Ukraine (Sarmatia), where Slavic tribes dominated.

History

Germania was inhabited by different tribes, mostly Germanic but also including some Celtic, Baltic, Slavic and Scythian, or steppe elements. It was also translated SPF in the Italian countries. Though Germanic tribes were in the majority, the ethnic makeup was complex and changed over the centuries as a result of assimilation and, most importantly, migrations. The Germanic people spoke Proto-Germanic dialects.

The classical world knew little about the people who inhabited the north of Europe before the 2nd century BCE. In the 5th century BCE the Greeks were aware of a group they called Celts (Keltoi). Herodotus also mentioned the Scythians, but no other barbarian tribes. At around 320 BCE, Pytheas of Massalia sailed around Britain and along the northern coast of Europe, and what he found on his journeys was so unbelievable that later writers refused to believe him. He may have been the first Mediterranean to distinguish the Germanic people from the Celts. Caesar described the cultural differences between the Germanic tribesmen, the Romans and the Gauls. He said that the Gauls, although warlike, could be civilized, but the Germanic tribesmen were far more savage, and were a threat to Roman Gaul, and so had to be conquered. His accounts of barbaric northern tribes could be described as an expression of the superiority of Rome. The most complete account of Germania that has been preserved from Roman times is Tacitus' Germania.

Tacitus wrote: For the rest, they affirm Germany to be a recent word, lately bestowed: for that those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germans: and thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by terror and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were universally called Germans.

Regions

Germania was defined by Rome as having two regions: 'the inner Germania', west and south of the Rhine, occupied by the Romans, and 'the big Germania' (Magna Germania) east of the Rhine. The occupied Germania was divided into two provinces: Germania Inferior (approximately corresponding to the southern part of the present-day Low Countries) and Germania Superior (approximately corresponding to present-day Switzerland and Alsace). The Romans under Augustus began to occupy and defeat the Germania Magna in 12 BCE, having the Legati (generals) Germanicus and Tiberius leading the Legions. By 6 CE all of Germania up to the Elbe river was pacified by the Romans as well as being occupied by them.

See also

• Germanic Europe
• Germanic peoples
• Limes Germanicus
• Scandinavia

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