Germanic

The Germanic one and Rome

The Germanic ones

Germanic the antique does not correspond to the current Germany, even if certain important territories of the ones and others can be superimposed.

The name of Germanic is used by the Romains, with various qualifiers, including territories which are not German today on the one hand, and of the currently German regions without any possible ambiguity, which were not administrative point of view into Germanic Roman, on the other hand. The old ones, since the II E until the massive arrival of the Slavic people at the 6th century, named Germanie the space limited to north by the the Baltic and the the North Sea, to the south by Beskides Western and the north of the the Alps, to the east by the the Vistula and to the west by the the Rhine. Name Germania inferior (Low Germanic) includes German left bank of the Rhine in the north of Bonn as well as the Netherlands and the current Belgium in the east of a line active of the source of the Oise to Antwerp.

The Germania superior (High Germanic) includes/understands the edges of the Rhine, left bank, in the south of Bonn (old department of the Rhine-and-Moselle), the Plaine of the Palatinat, the Alsace, the Franche-Comté like, roughly, the Western half of the Suisse and the Eastern half of the Burgundy.

Conversely, the remainder of current German left bank of the Rhine (with Trier) is in the Belgica (Roman Belgium). At all events, Belgica and both Germaniae form administratively part of the Gaulle Roman. Thus, the totality of left bank of the Rhine is in Gaulle defined by César, and is under Roman authority during approximately five hundred years (of 50 av. J. - C with 450 a. J. - C approximately).

The Raetia (Rhétie) includes the south of the Bavaria in the west of the Inn and of the Bade-Wurtemberg in the south of the the Danube with the the Austrian Tyrol and is Suisse. The Noricum (Norique) corresponds to the remainder of Bavaria located at the south of the Danube, and the Austria. The Agri decumates (Fields Décumates) include/understand the part between the Rhine and the going Danube roughly speaking of Ratisbon to Bonn by including the course of bottom Main; between the the Jura souabe and the Danube they are attached to Rhétie; in the west of the Jura souabe they concern Germanic higher, therefore of Gaulle Roman. These three territories are under Roman authority during two to three centuries (of the Eighties a. J. - C with 235 for the Décumates Fields, and of the Fifties ap J. - C with 406 for Rhétie)

The Germania magna (large Germanic) of the Romans of Antiquity, thus corresponds roughly to north-eastern two thirds of current Germany, roughly speaking old the East Germany, and old the West Germany in the east of the Rhine and the north of the Danube and the Bonn-Ratisbon line; the Tchéquie and the west of the Poland are added to it. It was zone of influence and under monitoring of Rome during approximately two centuries (of the beginning of the Christian era at the beginning of the 3rd century), and for the part in the west of the Elba, under direct Roman control during approximately two generations (of the Twenties before J. - C at the Thirties to fifty after J. - C).

Germanic and romanity

It will be question only of large Germanic, the others being already treated.

While making the conquest of Gaulle, within the limits which it itself defined, César carries to occident the borders of the Empire on the Rhine. Auguste plans to defer them on the Elba. A series of operations of conquest always represents risks: risk military of course because the victory is never acquired in advance; financial risk: is the cost of the conquest worth the profits supposed to come? Political risk finally: what brings the acquired spoils and prestige?

Without speaking about the military aspect, César had very to gain to conquer the Gaulle: very rich and very fertile area; densément populated and structured already well in base of its people and with especially an economic screen organized extremely well in Pagus (current departments essentially) with each one them Capital: place of worship, trade, fair, exchange, druidic symbiosis and thus of cultural, pertaining to worship and social cohesion; the economic gain was obvious, still was necessary it to realize it towards 55/60 before J. - C.

On the political plan the success makes it possible César to reinforce its authority vis-a-vis Pompée, and then to be essential like only Master in Rome. Lastly, of the fact even of its conquest and its incursions in addition to the Rhine and Handle, César acquires a military prestige which haloes it glory and authorizes it to ask the Sénat the triumph that one cannot refuse to him.

On the other hand, I see badly what pushed Auguste to be wanted to move back the borders of the Roman Empire on Elba.

contrary precision, all the dates from now on are after JC

On the political plan, this conquest does not have anything to bring to Auguste; after its naval victory of Actium in 31 av. J. - C, which enabled him to evacuate the claims of Marc Antoine and Cléopâtre, Octave (the future Auguste) is the uncontested Master of the known world of the Romans: i.e. he is the Master of the world; he does not need to be essential, to add a title moreover; politically speaking it does not may find it beneficial any to conquer though it is, where that it is. Conversely, the military countryside to carry out is difficult; if Gaulle of first half of I er is furrowed more or less empierrés or reinforced ways beams which connect the places chiefs of tribes the ones to the others (it will be the screen of the future Roman ways) it does not go from there in the same way to the east of the Rhine. The Germanic tribes do not have urban centres, and no organized axis crosses the large Germanic one in some direction that it is. Military operations must proceed in a naturally hostile geographical environment. The ambush which makes it possible Arminius to massacre the legions of Varus in the year 9, is the sad example.

Lastly, from an economic point of view the Germanic one is not absolutely of any interest at the time; the tribes are unorganized and unproductive there; there is no structured center of commercial exchange as there were the many ones as a Gaulle; zones of plain in north (current länder of Lower Saxony in the north of Hanover, Mecklembourg-Poméranie-Western, northern half of Saxony-Anhalt and Brandebourg in Germany; Poméranie Eastern in Poland) is often marshy and the grounds are poor there; they are siliceous grounds, washed by the glaciations, of the Podzosol S which will become productive only with the use of Artificial fertilizer S; those are at the time of the covered grounds of Lande S in the west in the oceanic zone of influence, of thickets of Bouleau X or herbaceous Steppe in the east in the continental zones. Areas of the center and the south (current länder of Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia in the east of the Rhine, Hesse, Lower Saxony in the south of Hanover, Thuringe, southern half of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bade-Wurtemberg and Bavaria in the north of the Danube; which it is necessary to add current the Tchéquie and the Silesia) consist of old solid masses (the northern end is “V” Hercynien: solid mass Rhenish Schiste ux part is, the Harz, the Metalliferous Monts and of the Sudètes); of sedimentary basins dislocated (basin souabe and basin franconien, basin of Bohemia); or of mounts and plates préalpins (the Jura souabe, Bavarian plate). All these areas are difficult of penetration because of the relief, and which more is covered with fabrics extremely dense forester, without any perennial way, infested wild beasts, just good to provide the circus in Lynx, Ours and Aurochs. The development of this space is, for the time, impossible to consider.

The Germanic people occupying these spaces are all the more difficult to encircle that they are partly wandering, in particular those installed in the European northern plain, and that the old authors easily confuse the names which are given to them. The Rhenish schistous Massive , Harz and the mounts of the quadrilateral of Bohemian are almost empty men. The people rison, in the current Netherlands, were submitted in 28. The Rhenish Francs saliens or (ripuaires at one time was said) are quoted only as from the 3rd century; we will speak again about it. For the other people, the historians agree to locate them, as we will see it, at the beginning of our era; this known as with all the reserves which are essential because there is many uncertainties holding with their mobility. Some of these people are rather well-known either because of their number, or for their proximity of the borders of the Empire, or for the devastations that they made there at or the 5th century:

the Burgondes are perhaps still on the island of Bornholm, at the time Burgunderholm, or already in Poméranie Eastern? Their peregrinations will carry out them in four centuries in current the Burgundy which owes them its name.
the Goths, very many, were not yet divided into two groups, and are installed on the low valley of the the Vistula; Visigoths and Ostrogoths will be the first cruel people to settle in a perennial way in the Empire following the defeat of the emperor Valens with Andrinople in 378. Their displacements will lead them to the 6th century in Hispanie and Italy.
the Vandales are located between the Vistula and the Warta; they also will migrate until in North Africa at the 5th century, where Justinien will overcome them in 535.
the Lombards, camping between the low valleys of the Elba and the Weser, will not be introduced into the Empire, in Italy, that at the 6th century, ruining the reconquest of Justinien partly.
the Suèves installed between the Files and the Main will follow the road opened by the Alamans and will go until in Galicia.
the Alamans as for them, will cross the the cold Rhine on December 31st 406, but they appear only at the beginning of the 3rd century. Probably were they in the east of Europe at the time of Auguste?
the Angles in the Schleswig, the Saxon in Holstein and the Jutes with the Denmark seem to be rather sedentary, carrying out acts of Piraterie in the North Sea and Manche, before going to be established in the south-east of the Brittany in the middle of the 5th century.

The other Germanic people or tribes left in the history a less outstanding trace:

the Marcomans and the Quades are installed in current the Tchéquie; Marc Aurèle will fight them during two wars (167 - 175 and 178 - 180) and will cause them, seems it, sufficient losses so that they are not any more one danger.
the She-cats and the Mattiaques which are perhaps subjected to them or combined, are very stirring up in extreme cases north-western of the files, which will require the intervention of Domitien.
the Chérusques are rather numerous, in the plain of north, between the Weser and the Elba.
Nombreux also is the Hermondures in the Bavarian current Saxony and Palatinat.
It is the same of the Bastarnes, in the east in the loop of the the Vistula from where they will leave to skirt the Carpates and to gain the the Danube.

Other people still seem fewer or less stirring up: such is the case of the Bructères along the Lippe; Chauques on both sides of the estuary of Weser; Helvécones, into low Silesia; Lugiens occupying the high valley of the Warta; Marses between the Ruhr and Lippe; Ruges in the east of the Eastern Poméranie; Semnons in current the Brandebourg; Turons between the sources of the Werra and the Fulda.

Certain groups are even fewer: The Angrivariens or Ansibariens enters low Weser and the Ems; the Chamaves between Ems and the Plank; Naristes in the north of Ratisbon; Osiens in Carpates white.

Finally the existence or the localization of some is so fuzzy that their presence is discussed: The Buriens which would be close to the sources of the Vistula or the Oder; Lémoviens in Poméranie Eastern; and Varnes in current Holstein?

These people all as much as they are, and lists it does not claim itself exhaustive, live of gathering and hunting, by maintaining nevertheless herds with which they move if necessary. Their speeches are unknown, their beliefs very roughly presumedly close to those of the Celtes. Actually the Greek and the Romains are unaware of them and scorn them even if they fear them. Moreover, they do not call them Germains, but generally cruel (the word being a Onomatopée to mean the kinds of Borborygme S with which they are expressed.)

Let us return on the Francs that we evoked above. These people occupy a special place, very different from that held by the other Germanic people. They appear tardily, they are even last the cities: some words relate to groups of a few hundreds of warriors who follow the Alamans after 235 and until in 257 where they are made massacre in Spain. Then one finds them in the middle of the 4th century, installed by the Roman authorities like federate in Toxandrie, that is to say the west of the Belgium and the current Nord-Pas-de-Calais; the purpose of this installation was to repopulate an empty territory men and to protect the border from the Rhine. The Francs saliens will discharge this mission of protection of the Empire with a fidelity without fault. The Roman historian of Greek language Procope, which writes in years 530-560, names them Francs or German; but, when he speaks about the other Germanic people (Alamans, Suèves, Vandales, Burgondes, Ostrogoths, Visigoths) he never says the German ones, but barbarians; for him, the Francs are not cruel any more, they are romanisés; moreover, Clovis is Consul and Patrice of the Romans.

However, despite everything uncertainties due to the bad knowledge of the relief, of the vegetation, the climate, the mobility of the tribes, Auguste wanted to conquer the large Germanic one. Consequently strengthened camps were built, at the time of the organization of the conquest in the decade following the installation with the capacity of Auguste, energy of Vetera (Birten) on left bank of the Rhine to the elbow of Elba close to current the Magdeburg. They were not simple forts, but Roman camps sheltering a Roman Légion. They were in activity of their creation between 16 and 12 av. J. - C until the beginning of the the Twenties, even in the middle of the the Forties when Claude, ghost of the Brittany (conquered in 43), gains the Rhine, and before basing Cologne ( Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium ) in 50, prohibited with the legions any action on Right Bank of the Rhine.

It acts, of west in is on Right Bank (northern) of the Lippe of Holsterhausen, Aliso (Haltern), then on left bank (southern) of Oberaden (between Dortmund and Hamm) and finally of Kneblinghausen (with twenty kilometers in the south-eastern south of Lippstadt) with semi way of Lippe and the the Ruhr.

In 16 av. J. - C, Drusus begins the operations and reaches Elba in 9 av. J. - C. After these promising beginnings, fact undoubtedly of an excess of confidence of Varus, and especially of the treason of Arminius (or Hermann), former Roman officer of Germanic origin, three legions are massacred in the forest of Teutobourg close to Minden. If this defeat of Varus in 9, can be put in parallel with the Roman defeat of César at Gergovie, Idistaviso, Roman victory in 16 erases Teutobourg and, is during Alésia. Idistaviso is a locality located at the Porta Westfalica, in the south of Minden in the elbow of Weser. However, Varus committed suicide after Teutobourg, and the winner of Idistaviso is Germanicus wire of Drusus small son of Tibère and brother of Claude; to overcome Alésia goes proudly whereas in overcome Idistaviso Arminius flees loosely betraying this time them his. It will be continued until in the high valley of the Elba where it will finish massacred in 19 or 20 by its allies, perhaps the Marcomans, that it was again on the point of disavowing. Lastly, after Alésia, César confirms the existing organization of Gaulle, area prosperous and populated, whereas after Idistaviso, Tibère decides with wisdom to evacuate the large Germanic one, forest or marshy area naturally inhospitable and without possible development in the long term with the means and the needs for the moment as it was already known as.

(Except matter relating to Alésia and Idistaviso: Curiously, at the 19th French and German century commemorated these places, each one with its way. Napoleon III made set up a statue of Vercingétorix, the proudly overcome hero whose defeat allowed the blossoming of the Graeco-Roman civilization; Guillaume II made raise a statue of… Bismarck! Did it have shame, unconsciously, of Hermann however introduced like a hero? To meditate. End of except matter.)

After the decision of Tibère to limit the actions into Germanic, prohibition is renewed by Claude. Nevertheless, Domitien intervenes in the Taunus in the north of the current Hesse against the Chattes and Mattiaques in 83; in 89, it makes the decision to militarily occupy the Champs Décumates which will be gradually organized and reinforced until the reign of Marc Aurèle. This one will be the last emperor to intervene into Germanic at the time of the two wars against the Marcomans.

Independently of this episodical Roman presence, the great shopping streets installation at the end of I er remained in activity without main issues during the first two centuries after J. - C. It acts well of shopping streets and not of Roman ways paved, drained, maintained; they are ways; are they empierrés or reinforced beams as did it the Gaulois? Are they always exactly the same ones from one year to another, knowing that one does not circulate during the winter? Essentially, these ways follow the hydrographic axes, either skirting the Fleuve S, or while following a layout on a watershed avoiding the marshy grounds of banks themselves. One goes thus from the mouth of the Ems, of the Weser, the Elba, the Oder and the the Vistula, until the the Danube, by circumventing the Harz, while crossing the solid mass of Bohemian and Beskides. The Roman traders will seek there Ambre, Fourrure S, feathers and sleeping bag, skins, Cuir, hair of woman for the wigs of the Roman rich person to the mode, the horses, the slaves, geese, the pigs, of dried or salted fish, a little Fer in Beskides and the Cuivre in Thuringe. The merchants sold, or more exactly exchanged these products against wine, oil, glass, sigillées ceramics, metal ustensils, manufactured objects.

Along these commercial axes, one notes a certain number of Roman centers which thus do not have any military function, but which marks out the great ways, connecting the Empire with the Scandinavian world. This trade with and through the large Germanic one remained despite everything modest importance, and never reached the intensity of the traffic through Gaulle, to confine itself in the only occident. These remarkable centers are:

Amisia with the mouth of Ems, the outlet of a way coming from Coblentz ( Confluent )
Feddersen Wierde, with the mouth of Weser, on Right Bank vis-a-vis the sea; by going up the river and Fulda, one gains the Hand and Mainz ( Mogontiacum ).
Laciburgium in the west of mouths of Oder makes it possible to join Beskides and Vienna ( Vindobona ) or Carnuntum a little more in the east; along this axis Viritium is on Oder close to the current junction with Mittelandkanal; and Stragona in Silesia (between Legnica and Wroclaw).
Rugium in Poméranie Eastern, currently Polish, on the the Baltic, with semi way of the mouth of Oder and of that of the Vistula, is in maritime commercial contact either by circumventing the Denmark, or with a breaking bulk in Laciburgium.
Calisia (current Kalisz) on the Prosna affluent of the Warta, out of the traditionally German territories, but inhabited at the time of Germanic people: Burgondes. This center is in the middle of the way leading of Carnuntum to the mouth of the Vistula.
Menosgada close to Lichtenfels to thirty kilometers in the north-eastern north of Bamberg, close to the source of the Hand, is on the way going of Ratisbon in Weser while skirting Werra.

Thus, the major axes of the marketing activity were maintained correctly until the beginning of the 3rd century and even a little more.

One can say that without belonging to the Empire in administrative political term, the large Germanic one belonged to the Empire in economic term; it was not excluded, it was a kind of zone of Roman influence; the local authority was only having course according to its use as good seemed to him, but in the tacit condition that the Roman merchants and goods can circulate freely; so abuses appeared, the legions appeared too; it is the direction of the interventions of Domitien and Marc-Aurèle. Only the migrations of the people which will break first once on the Empire after 235, will disturb these axes durably. The Germanic tribes which lived into large Germanic at our era were the first victims of the great invasions.

Antiquity

This area was populated by the Celtes histories before, during the II., various Germanic Peuples does not settle there.

The treaty of the Tacit Roman , Germanic the , of described the ethnic composition as known by the Romans in 98. This denomination made date on the grounds occupied by these people since, until the nationalist ideology of the Pangermanisme two millenia later.

The Germanic one during the late Antiquity

August 1st

With the the Middle Ages, following the scission of the empire of Charlemagne, the Eastern Francie is often called Germanie .

Kings de Germanie

Charles Ier the Large one or Charlemagne (771 - 814)
Louis I {{er}} Débonnaire (814 - 840)
Louis II Germanic the (840 - 876)
Louis III the Young person (876 - 882)
Charles II of Germanic (882 - 887), also emperor of 881 with 887
Arnulf I {{er}} of Germanic (887 - 899), emperor since 896
Louis IV the Child (899 - 911)
Conrad I {{er}} the Young person (911 - 918)
Henri I {{er}} known as '' the Bird-catcher '' (876 - † 936), king de Germanie (919 - 936), duke of Saxony (912).
Othon I {{er}} of Germanic said Large the (912 - † 973), king de Germanie (936 - 962), king d' Italie (951 - 973), Germanic Roman Emperor (962 - 973).
Othon II the Russet-red (962 - 973) then Germanic Roman Emperor (973 - 983)
Othon III (983 - 996) then Germanic Roman Emperor (996 - 1002)
Holy Henri II the Lame (1002 - 1014) then Germanic Roman Emperor (1014 - 1024)
Conrad II Salic the (1024 - 1027) then Germanic Roman Emperor (1027 - 1039)
Henri III the Black (1027 - 1046) then Germanic Roman Emperor (1046 - 1056)
Henri IV (1056 - 1085) then Germanic Roman Emperor (1085 - 1106)
Rodolphe (1077 - 1080)
Henri V (1106 - 1111) then Germanic Roman Emperor (1111 - 1125)

Sources (nonexhaustive list)

This article takes as a starting point work of Raymond Chevallier, Lucien Musset, Michel Rouche, L.Armand, Louis Halphen, and indications provided by the “ Grosser Historischer Weltatlas, herausgegeben vom Bayerischen Schulbuch-Verlag ”, the “ Westermanns grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte ”, the historic atlases Stock and Larousse.

See too

Germanic Civilization

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