Mysterious people in the darkness of the past: the Germanic tribes. The Romans called them savages, far from culture. Did they know about anything but battles and wars? What did they believe? What were they afraid of? How did you coexist with? What did they leave behind and what do we know about them? Who were the Germans?
Battle of Ariovistus with Caesar
October 1935. Archaeologists explore a burial mound on a Danish island. The hill dates back to the 1st century BC, the time of the Germanic tribes.
Archaeologists make a sensational discovery: it is tomb of a German priestess. This is evidenced by the found plant seeds, fossilized sea urchins and willow twigs - all this presumably had magical meaning.
Who the deceased was is unknown, because the biographies of German women of that era have not reached us. But Roman historians already then mentioned the great influence that the priestesses had on the Germans.
Today, ancient sources and modern science allow us to tell about the life of a German priestess. Let's call her Bazin, and here's her story.
“The threat of war with the Romans hung over our tribe. I asked: should we fight? What will the signs say? The twigs of the sacred willow will tell me the future. The fate of my tribe is in the hands of the gods. What will they tell us? And here's a word of caution: no fighting while Luna dies. Let the weapon rest until the new moon."
But in 58 B.C. Roman general Caesar invaded the lands of the Suebi. Mindful of the warning of the gods, Ariovistus was ready to negotiate with the Romans, but Caesar demanded that he leave his lands.
Drusus set up Roman milestones where no one knew of the existence of Rome at all. And here is what the Roman writes: "Drusus conquered most of the Germans and shed a lot of their blood."
Like Drusus, Tiberius is also adopted son of the emperor, and he had to fulfill the will of his father Augustus: finally conquer all the Germans.
Tiberius chose a different strategy than his brother: he decided not to achieve the goal by war. Tiberius followed the path of diplomacy: The Germans had to voluntarily recognize the dominance of Rome. The resistance of the barbarians had to be broken by the cultural superiority of the Romans.
On the Rhine, on the site of today, the beginning of this was laid. According to the Roman model, a city arose - a Germanic tribe that had been an ally of Rome for decades. Oppidum Ubiorum became one of the most luxurious imperial metropolises: theaters, temples and baths were supposed to convince the Germans of advantages of Roman civilization.
Not much has survived from the founding of Cologne. The earliest archaeological evidence is the famous monument to the killers, the foundation of a stone tower built in 4 AD.
Having erected a tower, the Romans surrounded it with hewn stone - this was the Roman way of building. The city has become emperor's gift his German subjects. Apparently, the stone tower was part of the city wall of the Oppidum Ubiorum.
Rome had big plans for the city of the Ubii: the first main temple of the new province of Germany arose here. Once a year, all the conquered tribes of the Germans were to gather here to renew their alliance with Rome.
A spacious temple built by the Romans towered over the city. German priest led ceremonies on the altar Macaw Germany. It is symbolic that the altar was turned to the east, to Germany - to where Rome wanted to gain dominance.
Not only killers, but also tribes from the right bank of the Rhine gradually submitted to the Roman emperor. Presumably in 8 BC. gave up and Like the rest of the tribes that lived between the Rhine and Elbe, they could either hide in the forest or choose between a hopeless fight and subjugation. The leaders of the Cherusci decided on peaceful coexistence with Rome. Here is what the Roman author Paterculus writes: “Tiberius, as a victor, passed through all corners of Germany, without losing a single person from his devoted troops. He completely conquered the Germans making them a tribute-paying province."
Rome was interested in making peace. Tiberius had to protect the newly acquired areas and seek a reliable alliance with the vanquished. This policy of appeasement proved successful and long-term.
But cherusci paid a high price for peace and security: they had to give up their freedom, follow the orders of Rome, pay tribute and send their sons to serve in the Roman army.
"And in the end the Romans demanded the leader's son as a special guarantee of our devotion. The Romans named it . As a hostage, he had to go with the legionnaires to Rome. The leader gave in, he had no choice. The fate of our tribe was at stake. He was responsible for our freedom."
Children as hostages were commonplace in antiquity. They had to prove the loyalty of their tribes far from their homeland. In Rome, as a rule, hostages were treated well. Arminius was brought up in the capital of the empire as a Roman.
“Faithful comrades-in-arms accompanied the son of the leader to a foreign land. Will they ever see the land of the Cherusci again?"
After 20 years Arminius returned to his homeland, and a dramatic turn took place in the history of the Germans ...
“The word Germany is new and has recently come into use, for those who were the first to cross the Rhine and drive out the Gauls, now known as the Tungros, were then called Germans. Thus, the name of the tribe gradually prevailed and spread to the whole people; at first, out of fear, everyone designated him by the name of the winners, and then, after this name took root, he himself began to call himself Germans.
In the late Iron Age, a tribe of Germans lived in the northeast of Iberia, however, most historians consider them to be Celts. Linguist Yu. Kuzmenko believes that their name is associated with the region from where they migrated to Spain, later it passed to the Germans.
For the first time the term "Germans" was used, according to known data, by Posidonius in the 1st half of the 1st century. BC e. for the name of the people who had the custom of drinking fried meat with a mixture of milk and undiluted wine. Modern historians suggest that the use of the word in earlier times was the result of later interpolations. Greek authors, who were little interested in the ethnic and linguistic differences of the "barbarians", did not separate the Germans from the Celts. So, Diodorus Siculus, who wrote his work in the middle of the 1st century. BC e. , refers to the Celts tribes, which already in his time the Romans (Julius Caesar, Sallust) called Germanic.
Truly ethnonym " Germans» came into circulation in the 2nd half of the 1st century. BC e. after the Gallic wars of Julius Caesar to refer to the peoples who lived east of the Rhine and north of the upper and lower Danube, that is, for the Romans it was not only an ethnic, but also a geographical concept.
However, in the German language itself there is also a consonant name (not to be confused with Roman) (German Hermann is a modified Harimann / Herimann, a two-base name of ancient Germanic origin, formed by adding the components heri / hari - “army” and mann - “man”).
Origin of the Germans
Indo-Europeans. IV-II millennium BC e.
According to modern ideas, 5-6 thousand years ago, in the strip from Central Europe and the Northern Balkans to the northern Black Sea region, there was a single ethno-linguistic formation - Indo-European tribes who spoke a single or at least close dialects of the language, called the Indo-European language - the basis from which then all the modern languages of the Indo-European family developed. According to another hypothesis, which today has a limited number of supporters, the Indo-European proto-language originated in the Middle East and was spread across Europe by migrations of kindred tribes.
Archaeologists identify several early cultures at the turn of the Stone and Bronze Ages associated with the spread of the Indo-Europeans and with which different anthropological types of Caucasoids are associated:
By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. from the ethno-linguistic community of the Indo-Europeans, the Anatolian tribes (the peoples of Asia Minor), the Aryans of India, the Iranians, the Armenians, the Greeks, the Thracians, and the most eastern branch, the Tochars, stood out and developed independently. To the north of the Alps in central Europe, an ethno-linguistic community of ancient Europeans continued to exist, which corresponds to the archaeological culture of barrow burials (XV-XIII centuries BC), which passed into the culture of burial urn fields (XIII-VII centuries BC) .
The south of Scandinavia represents a region where, unlike other parts of Europe, there is a unity of toponyms belonging only to the Germanic language. However, it is here that a gap in archaeological development is found between the relatively prosperous culture of the Bronze Age and the more primitive culture of the Iron Age that replaced it, which does not allow us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the origin of the Germanic ethnos in this region.
Jastorf culture. 1st millennium BC e.
In the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. e. throughout the coastal zone between the mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, and especially in Friesland and Lower Saxony (traditionally referred to as primordially Germanic lands), a single culture was spread, which differed both from the one-time La Tène (Celts) and from Jastorf (Germans). The ethnicity of its Indo-European population, which became Germanic in our era, has not yet been established and classified:
“The language of the local population, judging by toponymy, was neither Celtic nor German. Archaeological finds and toponymy testify that the Rhine before the arrival of the Romans was not any tribal border, and related tribes lived on both sides.
Linguists made an assumption about the separation of the Proto-Germanic language from the Proto-Indo-European at the very beginning of the Iron Age, that is, at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e., there are also versions about its formation much later, up to the beginning of our era:
“It was in the last decades, in the light of comprehending the new data that comes to the disposal of the researcher - the material of ancient German toponymy and onomastics, as well as runology, ancient German dialectology, ethnology and history - in a number of works it was clearly emphasized that the isolation of the Germanic linguistic community from the Western the area of the Indo-European languages took place at a relatively late time and that the formation of separate areas of the Germanic linguistic community refers only to the last centuries before and the first centuries after our era.
Thus, according to the versions of linguists and archaeologists, the formation of the Germanic ethnos on the basis of the Indo-European tribes dates back approximately to the period of the 6th-1st centuries. BC e. and occurred in areas adjacent to the lower Elbe, Jutland and southern Scandinavia. The formation of a specifically Germanic anthropological type began much earlier, in the early Bronze Age, and continued into the first centuries of our era as a result of the migrations of the Great Migration of Peoples and the assimilation of non-Germanic tribes related to the Germans within the framework of the ancient European community of the Bronze Age.
Well-preserved mummies of people are found in the peat bogs of Denmark, the appearance of which does not always coincide with the classical description of the tall race of Germans by ancient authors. See articles about a man from Tollund and a woman from Elling, who lived in Jutland in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e.
Germanic genotype
Although in the Germanic lands it is possible to classify weapons, brooches and other things in style as Germanic, according to archaeologists, they date back to the Celtic samples of the La Tène period.
Nevertheless, differences between the areas of settlement of the Germanic and Celtic tribes can be traced archaeologically, primarily in terms of a higher level of material culture of the Celts, the spread of oppidums (fortified Celtic settlements), and burial methods. The fact that the Celts and Germans were similar, but not related, peoples is confirmed by their different anthropological structure and genotype. In terms of anthropology, the Celts were characterized by a diverse build, from which it is difficult to choose a typical Celtic, while the ancient Germans were predominantly dolichocephalic in terms of the structure of the skull. The genotype of the population in the area of origin of the Germanic ethnos (Jutland and southern Scandinavia) is represented mainly by haplogroups R1b-U106, I1a and R1a-Z284.
Classification of Germanic tribes
Separately, Pliny also mentions the Gillevions living in Scandinavia, and other Germanic tribes (Batavs, Kanninefats, Frisians, Frisiavons, Ubies, Sturii, Marsaks), without classifying them.
According to Tacitus the titles " ingevons, hermiones, istevons” came from the names of the sons of the god Mann, the progenitor of the Germanic tribes. After the 1st century, these names are not used, many names of the Germanic tribes disappear, but new ones appear.
History of the Germans
The Germans as an ethnic group formed in the north of Europe from Indo-European tribes that settled in the region of Jutland, the lower Elbe and southern Scandinavia. The Romans began to single out the Germans as an independent ethnic group only from the 1st century BC. BC e. The opinion that the beginning of the expansion of the Germanic tribes into their neighboring areas should be dated to the beginning of a new era is currently considered erroneous; apparently tribal groups who spoke early dialects of the still common Proto-Germanic language began to move south from the territory of Scandinavia and Jutland already from the 2nd century BC. e. By the 3rd century A.D. e. the Germans attacked the northern borders of the Roman Empire already along the entire front, and in the 5th century, during the Great Migration of Nations, they destroyed the Western Roman Empire, settling throughout Europe from England and Spain to the Crimea and even on the coast of North Africa.
During the migrations, the Germanic tribes mixed with the larger indigenous population of the conquered territories, losing their ethnic identity and participating in the formation of modern ethnic groups. The names of the Germanic tribes gave the names to such large states as France and England, although the proportion of Germans in their population was relatively small. Germany as a nationally unified state was formed only in 1871 on the lands occupied by Germanic tribes in the first centuries of our era, and included both the descendants of the ancient Germans and the descendants of the assimilated Celts, Slavs and ethnically unknown tribes. It is believed that the inhabitants of Denmark and southern Sweden remain genetically closest to the ancient Germans.
Ancient Germans until the 4th century.
The ancient world for a long time did not know anything about the Germans, separated from them by the Celtic and Scythian-Sarmatian tribes. For the first time, the Greek navigator Pytheas from Massalia (modern Marseille) mentioned the Germanic tribes, who made a trip to the shores of the North Sea, and even presumably the Baltic Sea during the time of Alexander the Great (2nd half of the 4th century BC).
The Romans clashed with the Germans during the formidable invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 BC), who, during the resettlement from Jutland, devastated the Alpine Italy and Gaul. Contemporaries perceived these Germanic tribes as hordes of northern barbarians from unknown distant lands. In the description of their manners, made by later authors, it is difficult to separate fiction from reality.
The earliest ethnographic information about the Germans was reported by Julius Caesar, who conquered by the middle of the 1st century. BC e. Gaul, as a result of which he went to the Rhine and faced the Germans in battles. Roman legions towards the end of the 1st c. BC e. advanced to the Elbe, and in the 1st century, works appeared that described in detail the resettlement of the Germanic tribes, their social structure and customs.
The wars of the Roman Empire with the Germanic tribes began from their earliest contact and continued with varying intensity throughout the first centuries AD. e. The most famous battle was the battle in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, when the rebel tribes exterminated 3 Roman legions in central Germany. Rome managed to subjugate only a small part of the territories inhabited by the Germans beyond the Rhine, in the 2nd half of the 1st century the empire went on the defensive along the line of the rivers Rhine and Danube and the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes, repelling the raids of the Germans and making punitive campaigns in their lands. Raids were made along the entire border, but the Danube became the most threatening direction, where the Germans settled on its left bank during their expansion to the south and east.
In the 250s-270s, the Roman-Germanic wars called into question the very existence of the empire. In 251, Emperor Decius died in a battle with the Goths, who settled in the northern Black Sea region, followed by their devastating land and sea raids into Greece, Thrace, and Asia Minor. In the 270s, the empire was forced to abandon Dacia (the only Roman province on the left bank of the Danube) due to the increased pressure of the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. Due to the pressure of the Alemanni, the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes was abandoned, the new border of the empire between the Rhine and the Danube became the Danube-Iller-Rhine limes more convenient for defense. The empire held out, consistently repulsing the attacks of the barbarians, but in the 370s the Great Migration of Nations began, during which the Germanic tribes penetrated and gained a foothold in the lands of the Roman Empire.
Great Migration of Nations. 4th-6th centuries
The Germanic kingdoms in Gaul showed strength in the war against the Huns. Thanks to them, Attila was stopped on the Catalaunian fields in Gaul, and soon the Hunnic empire, which included a number of eastern Germanic tribes, collapsed. Emperors in Rome itself in 460-470. commanders from the Germans were appointed, first sev Ricimer, then Burgundian Gundobad. In fact, they ruled on behalf of their henchmen, overthrowing those if the emperors tried to act independently. In 476, the German mercenaries who made up the army of the Western Empire, led by Odoacer, deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus. This event is formally considered the end of the Roman Empire.
The social structure of the ancient Germans
social order
According to ancient historians, ancient German society consisted of the following social groups: military leaders, elders, priests, combatants, free members of the tribe, freedmen, slaves. The supreme power belonged to the people's assembly, which was attended by all the men of the tribe in military weapons. In the first centuries A.D. e. the Germans had a tribal system at its late stage of development.
“When a tribe wages an offensive or defensive war, then officials are elected who have the duties of military leaders and who have the right to dispose of the life and death of [members of the tribe]... ] and calls on those who want to follow him to express their readiness for this - then rise those who approve of both the enterprise and the leader, and, greeted by those assembled, promise him their help.
The leaders were supported by voluntary donations from members of the tribe. In the 1st century, the Germans have kings who differ from leaders only in the possibility of inheriting power, which is very limited in peacetime. As Tacitus observed: They choose kings from the most distinguished, leaders from the most valiant. But their kings do not have unlimited and undivided power.»
Economic relations
Language and writing
It is believed that these magical signs became the letters of the runic script. The name of the rune signs is derived from the word secret(Gothic runa: mystery), and the English verb read(read) derived from the word guess. Futhark alphabet, the so-called "elder runes", consisted of 24 characters, which were a combination of vertical and oblique lines, convenient for cutting. Each rune not only conveyed a separate sound, but was also a symbolic sign that carried a semantic meaning.
There is no single point of view on the origin of the Germanic runes. The most popular version is runologist Marstrander (1928), who suggested that the runes developed on the basis of an unidentified Northern Italic alphabet, which became known to the Germans through the Celts.
In total, about 150 items are known (details of weapons, amulets, tombstones) with early runic inscriptions of the 3rd-8th centuries. One of the earliest inscriptions raunijaz: "testing") on a spearhead from Norway dates back to c. 200 year. , an even earlier runic inscription is considered to be an inscription on a bone crest, preserved in a swamp on the Danish island of Funen. The inscription is translated as harja(name or epithet) and dates from the 2nd half of the 2nd century.
Most inscriptions consist of a single word, usually a name, which, in addition to the magical use of runes, makes about a third of the inscriptions indecipherable. The language of the oldest runic inscriptions is closest to the Proto-Germanic language and more archaic than Gothic, the earliest Germanic language recorded in written monuments.
Due to its predominantly cult purpose, runic writing fell out of use in continental Europe by the 9th century, displaced first by Latin, and then by writing based on the Latin alphabet. However, in Denmark and Scandinavia, runes were used until the 16th century.
Religion and beliefs
Tacitus, writing about 150 years after Caesar at the end of the 1st century, records the marked progress of Germanic paganism. He reports on the great power of the priests within the Germanic communities, as well as on the gods to whom the Germans make sacrifices, including human ones. In their view, the earth gave birth to the god Tuiston, and his son, the god Mann, gave birth to the Germans. They also honor the gods, whom Tacitus gave the Roman names for Mercury, Mars, and Hercules. In addition, the Germans worshiped various goddesses, finding in women a special sacred gift. Different tribes had their own special rites and their own gods. The will of the gods was determined by divination on wooden plates with signs (future runes) carved on them, by the voices and flight of birds, by the neighing and snorting of sacred white horses. Temples were not built to the gods, but “oak forests and groves were dedicated”. To predict the outcome of the war, duels between selected tribesmen and captured representatives of the enemy were used.
Developed Scandinavian mythology, which is an ancient Germanic northern epic, was recorded from the 12th century and created during the Great Migration or later. The surviving Old English epic (Beowulf, Widsid) does not contain descriptions of the spiritual views of its characters. The meager information of ancient Roman authors about the pagan ideas of the ancient Germans almost does not intersect with the mythology of the much later Viking Age, which was also recorded after the conversion of all Germanic peoples to Christianity. While the Christianity of the Arian current began to spread among the Goths in the middle
For many centuries, the main sources of knowledge about how the ancient Germans lived and what they did were the works of Roman historians and politicians: Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Julius Caesar, Tacitus, as well as some church writers. Along with reliable information, these books and notes contained conjectures and exaggerations. In addition, ancient authors did not always delve into the politics, history and culture of the barbarian tribes. They fixed mainly what “lay on the surface”, or what made the strongest impression on them. Of course, all these works give a pretty good idea of the life of the Germanic tribes at the turn of the era. However, in the course of later studies, it was found that the ancient authors, describing the beliefs and life of the ancient Germans, missed a lot. That, however, does not detract from their merits.
Origin and distribution of the Germanic tribes
The first mention of the Germans
The ancient world learned about warlike tribes in the middle of the 4th century BC. e. from the notes of the navigator Pythia, who ventured to travel to the shores of the North (German) Sea. Then the Germans loudly declared themselves at the end of the 2nd century BC. e .: the tribes of the Teutons and Cimbri, who left Jutland, fell upon Gaul and reached the Alpine Italy.
Gaius Marius managed to stop them, but from that moment on, the empire began to vigilantly monitor the activity of dangerous neighbors. In turn, the Germanic tribes began to unite in order to increase their military power. In the middle of the 1st century BC. e. Julius Caesar defeated the Suebi during the Gallic War. The Romans reached the Elbe, and a little later - to the Weser. It was at this time that scientific works began to appear describing the life and religion of rebellious tribes. In them (with the light hand of Caesar) the term "Germans" began to be used. By the way, this is by no means a self-name. The origin of the word is Celtic. "German" is "a close living neighbor". The ancient tribe of the Germans, or rather its name - "Teutons", was also used by scientists as a synonym.
Germans and their neighbors
In the west and south, the Celts coexisted with the Germans. Their material culture was higher. Outwardly, the representatives of these nationalities were similar. The Romans often confused them, and sometimes even considered them to be one people. However, the Celts and Germans are not related. The similarity of their culture is determined by close proximity, mixed marriages, and trade.
In the east, the Germans bordered on the Slavs, the Baltic tribes and the Finns. Of course, all these peoples influenced each other. It can be traced in the language, customs, ways of doing business. Modern Germans are the descendants of the Slavs and Celts, assimilated by the Germans. The Romans noted the high growth of the Slavs and Germans, as well as blond or light red hair and blue (or gray) eyes. In addition, representatives of these peoples had a similar shape of the skull, which was discovered during archaeological excavations.
The Slavs and the ancient Germans amazed the Roman explorers not only with their beauty of physique and facial features, but also with their endurance. True, the former have always been considered more peaceful, while the latter are aggressive and reckless.
Appearance
As already mentioned, the Germans seemed to the pampered Romans mighty and tall. Free men wore long hair and did not shave their beards. In some tribes, it was customary to tie the hair at the back of the head. But in any case, they had to be long, since cropped hair is a sure sign of a slave. The clothes of the Germans were mostly simple, at first rather rough. They preferred leather tunics, woolen capes. Both men and women were hardy: even in the cold they wore shirts with short sleeves. The ancient German reasonably believed that excess clothing hinders movement. For this reason, the warriors did not even have armor. Helmets, however, were, although not all.
Unmarried German women walked with their hair loose, married women covered their hair with a woolen net. This headdress was purely symbolic. Shoes for men and women were the same: leather sandals or boots, woolen windings. The clothes were decorated with brooches and buckles.
ancient Germans
The socio-political institutions of the Germans were not complex. At the turn of the century, these tribes had a tribal system. It is also called primitive communal. In this system, it is not the individual who matters, but the race. It is formed by blood relatives who live in the same village, cultivate the land together and take an oath of blood feud to each other. Several genera make up a tribe. The ancient Germans made all important decisions by collecting the Thing. That was the name of the people's assembly of the tribe. Important decisions were made at the Thing: they redistributed communal lands between clans, judged criminals, resolved disputes, concluded peace treaties, declared wars and gathered militia. Here, young men were initiated into warriors and military leaders, dukes, were elected as needed. Only free men were allowed to the ting, but not every one of them had the right to make speeches (this was allowed only to the elders and the most respected members of the clan / tribe). The Germans had patriarchal slavery. The not free had certain rights, had property, lived in the owner's house. They could not be killed with impunity.
military organization
The history of the ancient Germans is full of conflicts. Men devoted a lot of time to military affairs. Even before the start of systematic campaigns on Roman lands, the Germans formed a tribal elite - the Edelings. Edelings were people who distinguished themselves in battle. It cannot be said that they had any special rights, but they had authority.
At first, the Germans chose ("raised on the shield") the dukes only in case of a military threat. But at the beginning of the Great Migration of Nations, they began to elect kings (kings) from the edelings for life. The kings were at the head of the tribes. They acquired permanent squads and endowed them with everything necessary (as a rule, at the end of a successful campaign). Loyalty to the leader was exceptional. The ancient German considered it dishonorable to return from the battle in which the king fell. In this situation, the only way out was suicide.
In the army of the Germans there was a tribal principle. This meant that relatives always fought shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps it is this feature that determines the ferocity and fearlessness of warriors.
The Germans fought on foot. The cavalry appeared late, the Romans had a low opinion of it. The main weapon of a warrior was a spear (framea). The famous knife of the ancient German - Saxon was widely used. Then came the throwing ax and spatha, a double-edged Celtic sword.
economy
Ancient historians often described the Germans as nomadic pastoralists. Moreover, there was an opinion that men were engaged exclusively in war. Archaeological research in the 19th and 20th centuries showed that things were somewhat different. Firstly, they led a settled way of life, engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. The community of ancient Germans owned meadows, pastures and fields. True, the latter were not numerous, since most of the territories subject to the Germans were occupied by forests. Nevertheless, the Germans grew oats, rye and barley. But breeding cows and sheep was a priority. The Germans had no money, their wealth was measured by the number of heads of cattle. Of course, the Germans were excellent at processing leather and actively traded in them. They also made fabrics from wool and linen.
They mastered the extraction of copper, silver and iron, but few owned blacksmithing. Over time, the Germans learned to smelt and make swords of very high quality. However, the Sax, the combat knife of the ancient German, has not gone out of use.
Beliefs
Information about the religious beliefs of the barbarians, which Roman historians managed to obtain, is very scarce, contradictory and vague. Tacitus writes that the Germans deified the forces of nature, especially the sun. Over time, natural phenomena began to be personified. This is how, for example, the cult of Donar (Thor), the god of thunder, appeared.
The Germans greatly revered Tivaz, the patron saint of warriors. According to Tacitus, they performed human sacrifices in his honor. In addition, the weapons and armor of the slain enemies were dedicated to him. In addition to the "general" gods (Donar, Wodan, Tivaz, Fro), each tribe praised "personal", lesser-known deities. The Germans did not build temples: it was customary to pray in the forests (sacred groves) or in the mountains. It must be said that the traditional religion of the ancient Germans ( those who lived on the mainland) was relatively quickly supplanted by Christianity. The Germans learned about Christ in the 3rd century thanks to the Romans. But on the Scandinavian Peninsula, paganism lasted a long time. It was reflected in folklore works that were recorded during the Middle Ages ("Elder Edda" and "Younger Edda").
Culture and art
The Germans treated priests and soothsayers with reverence and respect. The priests accompanied the troops on campaigns. They were charged with the duty to conduct religious rituals (sacrifices), turn to the gods, punish criminals and cowards. Soothsayers were engaged in fortune-telling: by the entrails of sacred animals and defeated enemies, by flowing blood and the neighing of horses.
The ancient Germans willingly made metal jewelry in the "animal style", borrowed, presumably, from the Celts, but they did not have a tradition of depicting gods. Very crude, conditional statues of deities found in peat bogs had exclusively ritual significance. They have no artistic value. Nevertheless, the furniture and household items were skillfully decorated by the Germans.
According to historians, the ancient Germans loved music, which was an indispensable attribute of feasts. They played flutes and lyres and sang songs.
The Germans used runic writing. Of course, it was not intended for long connected texts. The runes had a sacred meaning. With their help, people turned to the gods, tried to predict the future, cast spells. Short runic inscriptions are found on stones, household items, weapons and shields. Without a doubt, the religion of the ancient Germans was reflected in the runic writing. Among the Scandinavians, runes existed until the 16th century.
Interaction with Rome: war and trade
Germania Magna, or Greater Germany, was never a Roman province. At the turn of the era, as already mentioned, the Romans conquered the tribes living east of the Rhine River. But in 9 A.D. e. under the command of the Cherusca Arminius (German) were defeated in the Teutoburg Forest, and the Imperials remembered this lesson for a long time.
The border between enlightened Rome and wild Europe began to run along the Rhine, Danube and Limes. Here the Romans quartered troops, built fortifications and founded cities that exist to this day (for example, Mainz - Mogontsiakum, and Vindobona (Vienna)).
The ancient Germans did not always fight each other. Until the middle of the 3rd century AD. e. peoples coexisted relatively peacefully. At this time, trade, or rather exchange, developed. The Germans supplied the Romans with dressed leather, furs, slaves, amber, and in return received luxury goods and weapons. Little by little they even got used to using money. Individual tribes had privileges: for example, the right to trade on Roman soil. Many men became mercenaries for the Roman emperors.
However, the invasion of the Huns (nomads from the east), which began in the 4th century A.D. e., "moved" the Germans from their homes, and they again rushed to the imperial territories.
Ancient Germans and the Roman Empire: Finale
By the time the Great Migration of Nations began, powerful German kings began to unite the tribes: at first in order to protect themselves from the Romans, and then in order to capture and plunder their provinces. In the 5th century, the entire Western Empire was invaded. Barbarian kingdoms of Ostrogoths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons were erected on its ruins. The Eternal City itself was besieged and sacked several times during this turbulent century. The Vandal tribes were especially distinguished. In 476 a.d. e. the last Roman emperor, was forced to abdicate under pressure from the mercenary Odoacer.
The social system of the ancient Germans finally changed. The barbarians moved from the communal way of life to the feudal one. The Middle Ages have arrived.
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History of the Middle Ages. Ancient Germans
Germanic tribes 1/4 Barbarians against Rome [DocFilm]
Germanic Tribes 4/4 Under the Sign of the Cross [DocFilm]
Ancient Germans
German language: history of the language. Lecture 1. Ancient Germans and their languages
Subtitles
Etymology of the ethnonym Germani
“The word Germany is new and has recently come into use, for those who were the first to cross the Rhine and drive out the Gauls, now known as the Tungros, were then called Germans. Thus, the name of the tribe gradually prevailed and spread to the whole people; at first, out of fear, everyone designated him by the name of the winners, and then, after this name took root, he himself began to call himself Germans.
In the late Iron Age, a tribe of Germans lived in the northeast of Iberia, however, most historians consider them to be Celts. Linguist Yu. Kuzmenko believes that their name is associated with the region from where they migrated to Spain, and which later passed to the Germans.
For the first time the term "Germans" was used, according to known data, by Posidonius in the 1st half of the 1st century. BC e. for the name of the people who had the custom of drinking fried meat with a mixture of milk and undiluted wine. Modern historians suggest that the use of the word in earlier times was the result of later interpolations. Greek authors, who were little interested in the ethnic and linguistic differences of the "barbarians", did not separate the Germans from the Celts. So, Diodorus of Sicily, who wrote his work in the middle of the 1st century. BC e. , refers to the Celts tribes, which already in his time the Romans (Julius Caesar, Sallust) called Germanic.
Truly ethnonym " Germans» came into circulation in the 2nd half of the 1st century. BC e. after the Gallic wars of Julius Caesar to refer to the peoples who lived east of the Rhine and north of the upper and lower Danube, that is, for the Romans it was not only an ethnic, but also a geographical concept.
However, in the German language itself there is also a consonant name (not to be confused with Roman) (German Hermann is a modified Harimann / Herimann, a two-base name of ancient Germanic origin, formed by adding the components heri / hari - “army” and mann - “man”).
Origin of the Germans
Indo-Europeans. IV-II millennium BC e.
According to modern ideas, 5-6 thousand years ago, in the strip from Central Europe and the Northern Balkans to the northern Black Sea region, there was a single ethno-linguistic formation - Indo-European tribes who spoke a single or at least close dialects of the language, called the Indo-European language - the basis from which then all the modern languages of the Indo-European family developed. According to another hypothesis, which today has a limited number of supporters, the Indo-European proto-language originated in the Middle East and was spread across Europe by migrations of kindred tribes.
Archaeologists identify several early cultures at the turn of the Stone and Bronze Ages associated with the spread of the Indo-Europeans and with which different anthropological types of Caucasoids are associated:
By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. from the ethno-linguistic community of the Indo-Europeans, the Anatolian tribes (the peoples of Asia Minor), the Aryans of India, the Iranians, the Armenians, the Greeks, the Thracians, and the most eastern branch, the Tochars, stood out and developed independently. To the north of the Alps in Central Europe, an ethno-linguistic community of ancient Europeans continued to exist, which corresponds to the archaeological culture of barrow burials (XV-XIII centuries BC), which passed into the culture of burial urn fields (XIII-VII centuries BC) .
The south of Scandinavia represents a region where, unlike other parts of Europe, there is a unity of toponyms belonging only to the Germanic language. However, it is here that a gap in archaeological development is found between the relatively prosperous culture of the Bronze Age and the more primitive culture of the Iron Age that replaced it, which does not allow us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the origin of the Germanic ethnos in this region.
Jastorf culture. 1st millennium BC e.
In the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. e. throughout the coastal zone between the mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, and especially in Friesland and Lower Saxony (traditionally referred to as primordially Germanic lands), a single culture was spread, which differed both from the one-time La Tène (Celts) and from Jastorf (Germans). The ethnicity of its Indo-European population, which became Germanic in our era, cannot be classified:
“The language of the local population, judging by toponymy, was neither Celtic nor German. Archaeological finds and toponymy testify that the Rhine before the arrival of the Romans was not any tribal border, and related tribes lived on both sides.
Linguists made an assumption about the separation of the Proto-Germanic language from the Proto-Indo-European at the very beginning of the Iron Age, that is, at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e., there are also versions about its formation much later, up to the beginning of our era:
“It was in the last decades, in the light of comprehending the new data that comes to the disposal of the researcher - the material of ancient German toponymy and onomastics, as well as runology, ancient German dialectology, ethnology and history - in a number of works it was clearly emphasized that the isolation of the Germanic linguistic community from the Western the area of the Indo-European languages took place at a relatively late time and that the formation of separate areas of the Germanic linguistic community refers only to the last centuries before and the first centuries after our era.
Thus, according to the versions of linguists and archaeologists, the formation of the Germanic ethnos on the basis of the Indo-European tribes dates back approximately to the period of the 6th-1st centuries. BC e. and occurred in areas adjacent to the lower Elbe, Jutland and southern Scandinavia. The formation of a specifically Germanic anthropological type began much earlier, in the early Bronze Age, and continued into the first centuries of our era as a result of the migrations of the Great Migration of peoples and the assimilation of non-Germanic tribes related to the Germans within the framework of the ancient European community of the Bronze Age.
Well-preserved mummies of people are found in the peat bogs of Denmark, the appearance of which does not always coincide with the classical description of the tall race of Germans by ancient authors. See articles about a man from Tollund and a woman from Elling, who lived in Jutland in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e.
Germanic genotype
Although it is possible to classify weapons, brooches and other things in Germanic lands as Germanic in style, according to archaeologists, they date back to Celtic samples of the La Tène period.
Nevertheless, differences between the areas of settlement of the Germanic and Celtic tribes can be traced archaeologically, primarily in terms of a higher level of material culture of the Celts, the spread of oppidums (fortified Celtic settlements), and burial methods. The fact that the Celts and Germans were similar, but not related, peoples is confirmed by their different anthropological structure and genotype. In terms of anthropology, the Celts were characterized by a diverse build, from which it is difficult to choose a typical Celtic, while the ancient Germans were predominantly dolichocephalic in terms of the structure of the skull. The genotype of the population in the area of origin of the Germanic ethnos (Jutland and southern Scandinavia) is represented mainly by haplogroups R1b-U106, I1a and R1a-Z284.
Classification of Germanic tribes
Separately, Pliny also mentions the Gillevions living in Scandinavia, and other Germanic tribes (Batavs, Kanninefats, Frisians, Frisiavons, Ubies, Sturii, Marsaks), without classifying them.
According to Tacitus the titles " ingevons, hermiones, istevons” came from the names of the sons of the god Mann, the progenitor of the Germanic tribes. Later in the 1st century, these names are not used, many names of Germanic tribes disappear, but new ones appear.
History of the Germans
Ancient Germans until the 4th century.
The ancient world for a long time did not know anything about the Germans, separated from them by the Celtic and Scythian-Sarmatian tribes. For the first time, the Germanic tribes were mentioned by the Greek navigator Pytheas from Massalia (modern Marseilles), who during the time of Alexander the Great (2nd half of the 4th century BC) traveled to the shores of the North Sea, and even presumably the Baltic.
The Romans clashed with the Germans during the formidable invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 BC), who, during the resettlement from Jutland, devastated the Alpine Italy and Gaul. Contemporaries perceived these Germanic tribes as hordes of northern barbarians from unknown distant lands. In the description of their manners, made by later authors, it is difficult to separate fiction from reality.
The earliest ethnographic information about the Germans was reported by Julius Caesar, who conquered by the middle of the 1st century. BC e. Gaul, as a result of which he went to the Rhine and faced the Germans in battles. Roman legions towards the end of the 1st century. BC e. advanced to the Elbe, and in the 1st century, works appeared that described in detail the settlement of the Germanic tribes, their social structure and customs.
The wars of the Roman Empire with the Germanic tribes began from their earliest contact and continued with varying intensity throughout the first centuries AD. e. The most famous battle was the battle in the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9, when the rebel tribes exterminated 3 Roman legions in central Germany. Rome managed to subdue only a small part of the territories inhabited by the Germans beyond the Rhine, in the 2nd half of the 1st century the empire went on the defensive along the line of the Rhine and Danube rivers and the Upper Germanic-Retian Limes, repelling the raids of the Germans and making punitive campaigns in their lands. Raids were made along the entire border, but the Danube became the most threatening direction, where the Germans settled on its left bank during their expansion to the south and east.
In the 250s-270s, the Roman-Germanic wars called into question the very existence of the empire. In 251, Emperor Decius died in a battle with the Goths, who settled in the northern Black Sea region, followed by their devastating land and sea raids into Greece, Thrace, and Asia Minor. In the 270s, the empire was forced to abandon Dacia (the only Roman province on the left bank of the Danube) due to the increased pressure of the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. Due to the pressure of the Alemanni, the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes was abandoned, the new border of the empire between the Rhine and the Danube became more convenient for the defense of the Danube-Iller-Rhine Limes. The empire withstood, consistently repulsing the attacks of the barbarians, but in the 370s the Great Migration of Peoples began, during which the Germanic tribes penetrated and entrenched themselves in the lands of the Roman Empire.
Great Migration of Nations. 4th-6th centuries
The Germanic kingdoms in Gaul showed strength in the war against the Huns. Thanks to them, Attila was stopped on the Catalaunian fields in Gaul, and soon the Hunnic empire, which included a number of eastern Germanic tribes, collapsed. Emperors in Rome itself in 460-470. commanders from the Germans were appointed, first sev Ricimer, then Burgundian Gundobad. In fact, they ruled on behalf of their henchmen, overthrowing those if the emperors tried to act independently. In 476, the German mercenaries who made up the army of the Western Empire, led by Odoacer, deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus. This event is formally considered the end of the Roman Empire.
The social structure of the ancient Germans
social order
According to ancient historians, ancient German society consisted of the following social groups: military leaders, elders, priests, combatants, free members of the tribe, freedmen, slaves. The supreme power belonged to the people's assembly, which was attended by all the men of the tribe in military weapons. In the first centuries A.D. e. the Germans had a tribal system at its late stage of development.
“When a tribe wages an offensive or defensive war, then officials are elected who have the duties of military leaders and who have the right to dispose of the life and death of [members of the tribe]... ] and calls on those who want to follow him to express their readiness for this - then rise those who approve of both the enterprise and the leader, and, greeted by those assembled, promise him their help.
The leaders were supported by voluntary donations from members of the tribe. In the 1st century, the Germans have kings who differ from leaders only in the possibility of inheriting power, which is very limited in peacetime. As Tacitus observed: They choose kings from the most distinguished, leaders from the most valiant. But their kings do not have unlimited and undivided power.»
Economic relations
Language and writing
It is believed that these magical signs became the letters of the runic script. The name of the rune signs is derived from the word secret(Gothic runa: mystery), and the English verb read(read) derived from the word guess. Futhark alphabet, the so-called "elder runes", consisted of 24 characters, which were a combination of vertical and oblique lines, convenient for cutting. Each rune not only conveyed a separate sound, but was also a symbolic sign that carried a semantic meaning.
There is no single point of view on the origin of the Germanic runes. The most popular version is runologist Marstrander (1928), who suggested that the runes developed on the basis of an unidentified Northern Italic alphabet, which became known to the Germans through the Celts.
In total, about 150 items are known (details of weapons, amulets, tombstones) with early runic inscriptions of the 3rd-8th centuries. One of the earliest inscriptions raunijaz: "testing") on a spearhead from Norway dates back to c. 200 year. , an even earlier runic inscription is considered to be an inscription on a bone crest, preserved in a swamp on the Danish island of Funen. The inscription is translated as harja(name or epithet) and dates back to the 2nd half of the 2nd century.
Most inscriptions consist of a single word, usually a name, which, in addition to the magical use of runes, makes about a third of the inscriptions indecipherable. The language of the oldest runic inscriptions is closest to the Proto-Germanic language and more archaic than Gothic, the earliest Germanic language recorded in written monuments.
Due to its predominantly cult purpose, runic writing fell out of use in continental Europe by the 9th century, displaced first by Latin, and then by writing based on the Latin alphabet. However, in Denmark and Scandinavia, runes were used until the 16th century.
Religion and beliefs
Tacitus, writing about 150 years after Caesar at the end of the 1st century, records a marked progress in Germanic paganism. He reports on the great power of the priests within the Germanic communities, as well as on the gods to whom the Germans make sacrifices, including human ones. In their view, the earth gave birth to the god Tuiston, and his son, the god Mann, gave birth to the Germans. They also honor the gods whom Tacitus called the Roman names of Mercury.
ancient germany
The name of the Germans aroused bitter sensations in the Romans, evoked gloomy memories in their imagination. From the time the Teutons and Cimbri crossed the Alps and rushed in a devastating avalanche to beautiful Italy, the Romans looked with alarm at the peoples little known to them, worried about the continuous movements in ancient Germany beyond the ridge that encloses Italy from the north. Even Caesar's brave legions were seized with fear as he led them against the Suebi Ariovistus. The fear of the Romans was increased by the terrible news of War's defeat in the Teutoburg Forest, stories of soldiers and captives about the severity of the German country, about the savagery of its inhabitants, their high growth, about human sacrifices. The inhabitants of the south, the Romans, had the darkest ideas about Ancient Germany, about impenetrable forests that stretch from the banks of the Rhine for nine days of travel east to the headwaters of the Elbe and whose center is the Hercynian Forest, filled with unknown monsters; about swamps and desert steppes that stretch in the north to the stormy sea, over which thick fogs lie, which do not allow the life-giving rays of the sun to reach the earth, on which swamp and steppe grass is covered with snow for many months, along which there are no ways from the region of one people to the region another. These ideas about the severity, gloominess of Ancient Germany were so deeply rooted in the thoughts of the Romans that even an impartial Tacitus says: “Who would leave Asia, Africa or Italy to go to Germany, a country of harsh climate, devoid of all beauty, making an unpleasant impression on everyone who lives in it or visits it, if it is not his homeland?” The prejudices of the Romans against Germany were strengthened by the fact that they considered barbaric, wild all those lands that lay beyond the borders of their state. For example, Seneca says: “Think of those peoples who live outside the Roman state, about the Germans and about the tribes that roam along the lower Danube; Does not an almost continuous winter weigh on them, a constantly overcast sky, is not the food that the hostile barren soil gives them?
Meanwhile, near the majestic oak and leafy linden forests, fruit trees already grew in ancient Germany and there were not only steppes and moss-covered swamps, but also fields abundant in rye, wheat, oats, barley; the ancient Germanic tribes had already mined iron for weapons from the mountains; healing warm waters were already known in Mattiak (Wiesbaden) and in the land of the Tungros (in Spa or Aachen); and the Romans themselves said that in Germany there are a lot of cattle, horses, a lot of geese, the fluff of which the Germans use for pillows and feather beds, that Germany is rich in fish, wild birds, wild animals suitable for food, that fishing and hunting provide the Germans with delicious food. Only gold and silver ores in the German mountains were not yet known. “The gods denied them silver and gold, I don’t know how to say whether it was out of mercy or dislike for them,” says Tacitus. Trade in ancient Germany was only exchange, and only the tribes neighboring the Roman state used money, which they received a lot from the Romans for their goods. The princes of the ancient Germanic tribes or people who traveled as ambassadors to the Romans had gold and silver vessels received as a gift; but, according to Tacitus, they valued them no more than earthenware. The fear that the ancient Germans initially inspired in the Romans later turned into surprise at their tall stature, physical strength, and respect for their customs; the expression of these feelings is the "Germany" of Tacitus. At the end wars of the era of Augustus and Tiberius relations between the Romans and the Germans became close; educated people traveled to Germany, wrote about it; this smoothed out many of the old prejudices, and the Romans began to judge the Germans better. The concepts of the country and climate remained with them the same, unfavorable, inspired by the stories of merchants, adventurers, returning captives, exaggerated complaints of soldiers about the difficulties of campaigns; but the Germans themselves began to be considered among the Romans as people who have much good in themselves; and finally, the fashion appeared among the Romans to make their appearance, if possible, similar to the German one. The Romans admired the tall and slender, strong physique of the ancient Germans and German women, their flowing golden hair, light blue eyes, in the eyes of which pride and courage were expressed. Noble Roman women artificially gave their hair the color that they liked so much in the women and girls of Ancient Germany.
Family of ancient Germans
In peaceful relations, the ancient Germanic tribes inspired respect for the Romans with their courage, strength, militancy; those qualities with which they were terrible in battles turned out to be respectable in friendship with them. Tacitus extols the purity of morals, hospitality, straightforwardness, fidelity to the word, marital fidelity of the ancient Germans, their respect for women; he praises the Germans to such an extent that his book on their customs and institutions seems to many scholars to have been written with the aim that devoted to pleasures, vicious fellow tribesmen would be ashamed, reading this description of a simple, honest life; they think that Tacitus wanted to vividly characterize the depravity of Roman customs by depicting the life of Ancient Germany, which was the exact opposite of them. Indeed, in his praise of the strength and purity of marital relations among the ancient Germanic tribes, one hears sadness about the depravity of the Romans. In the Roman state, the decline of the former beautiful state was everywhere visible, it was clear that everything was leaning towards destruction; the brighter was drawn in the thoughts of Tacitus the life of ancient Germany, which still retained primitive customs. His book is imbued with a vague foreboding that Rome is in great danger from a people whose wars are more deeply etched in the memory of the Romans than the wars with the Samnites, Carthaginians and Parthians. He says that "more triumphs were celebrated over the Germans than victories were won"; he foresaw that a black cloud on the northern edge of the Italian horizon would burst over the Roman state with new thunderclaps, stronger than the previous ones, because "the freedom of the Germans is more powerful than the strength of the Parthian king." His only reassurance is the hope that the ancient Germanic tribes would quarrel, that there would be mutual hatred between their tribes: “Let the Germanic peoples, if not love for us, then the hatred of some tribes for others; with the dangers that threaten our state, fate cannot give us anything better than discord between our enemies.
Settlement of the ancient Germans according to Tacitus
Let's combine those features with which it describes Tacitus in his "Germany" the way of life, customs, institutions of the ancient Germanic tribes; he makes these notes fragmentarily, without strict order; but, putting them together, we get a picture in which there are many gaps, inaccuracies, misunderstandings, or Tacitus himself, or the people who informed him of information, much is borrowed from folk tradition, which does not have reliability, but which nevertheless shows us the main features of life Ancient Germany, the germs of what subsequently developed. The information that Tacitus gives us, supplemented and explained by the news of other ancient writers, legends, considerations about the past based on later facts, serve as the basis for our knowledge of the life of the ancient Germanic tribes in primitive times.
Same with Caesar Tacitus says that the Germans are a numerous people, having neither cities nor large villages, living in scattered villages and occupying the country from the banks of the Rhine and Danube to the northern sea and to unknown lands beyond the Vistula and beyond the Carpathian ridge; that they are divided into many tribes, and that their customs are peculiar and strong. The Alpine lands up to the Danube, inhabited by the Celts and already conquered by the Romans, were not counted among Germany; the tribes that lived on the left bank of the Rhine were not ranked among the ancient Germans, although many of them, such as the Tungros (according to the Meuse), the Trevirs, the Nerviians, the Eburons, still boasted of their Germanic origin. The ancient Germanic tribes, which, under Caesar and after, on various occasions were settled by the Romans on the western bank of the Rhine, had already forgotten their nationality, adopted the Roman language and culture. The Ubii, in whose land Agrippa founded a military colony with a temple of Mars, which received great fame, were already called Agrippines; they adopted this name from the time that Agrippina the younger, wife of the emperor Claudius, expanded (AD 50) the colony founded by Agrippa. This city, whose current name Cologne still testifies to the fact that it was originally a Roman colony, became populous and flourishing. Its population was mixed, it consisted of Romans, Ubii, Gauls. The settlers, according to Tacitus, were attracted there by the opportunity to easily acquire wealth by profitable trade and the wild life of the fortified camp; these merchants, innkeepers, artisans, and the people who served them thought only of personal gain and pleasure; they had neither courage nor pure morality. Other Germanic tribes despised and hated them; hostility intensified especially after Batavian war they betrayed their fellow tribesmen.
Settlement of the ancient Germanic tribes in the 1st century AD. Map
Roman power was also established on the right bank of the Rhine in the area between the rivers Main and Danube, the border of which was guarded by the Marcomanni before their resettlement to the east. This corner of Germany was settled by people of various ancient Germanic tribes; they enjoyed the patronage of the emperors in return for tribute, which they paid with bread, the fruits of gardens and cattle; little by little they adopted Roman customs and language. Tacitus already calls this area Agri Decumates, the Decumate Field, (that is, the land whose inhabitants pay a tithe tax). The Romans took it under their control, probably under Domitian and Trajan, and subsequently built a ditch with a rampart (Limes, “Border”) along its border with independent Germany to protect it from German raids.
The line of fortifications that protected the Decumate region from the ancient Germanic tribes, not subject to Rome, went from the Main through Kocher and Jaxt to the Danube, which it adjoined in present-day Bavaria; it was a rampart with a moat, fortified with watchtowers and fortresses, in some places interconnected by a wall. The remains of these fortifications are still very visible, the people in that area call them the devil's wall. For two centuries, the legions defended the population of the Dekumat region from enemy raids, and they lost the habit of military affairs, lost their love for independence and the courage of their ancestors. Under Roman protection, agriculture developed in the Decumate region, a civilized way of life was established, to which other Germanic tribes remained alien for a whole thousand years after that. The Romans managed to turn into a flourishing province the land, which was almost a deserted desert while it was in the power of the barbarians. The Romans managed to do this quickly, although the Germanic tribes initially thwarted them with their attacks. First of all, they took care to build fortifications, under the protection of which they founded municipal cities with temples, theaters, courthouses, water pipes, baths, with all the luxury of Italian cities; they connected these new settlements with excellent roads, built bridges across the rivers; in a short time, the Germans adopted here Roman customs, language, concepts. The Romans knew how to vigilantly find the natural resources of the new province and use them admirably. They transplanted their fruit trees, their vegetables, their varieties of bread into the land of Decumates, and soon began to export agricultural products from there to Rome, even asparagus and turnips. They arranged artificial irrigation of meadows and fields on these lands that previously belonged to the ancient Germanic tribes, made the land, which before them seemed unsuitable for anything, to be fertile. They caught delicious fish in the rivers, improved the breeds of livestock, found metals, found salt springs, everywhere found very durable stone for their buildings. They already used for their millstones those hardest varieties of lava, which are still considered to give the best millstones; they found excellent clay for making bricks, built canals, regulated the course of rivers; in areas rich in marble, such as on the banks of the Moselle, they built mills on which this stone was cut into slabs; not a single healing spring escaped from them; on all warm waters from Aachen to Wiesbaden, from Baden-Baden to Swiss Waden, from Partenkirch (Parthanum) in the Rhaetian Alps to Vienna Baden, they arranged pools, halls, colonnades, decorated them with statues, inscriptions, and posterity marvels at the remains of these structures found underground, they were so magnificent. The Romans did not neglect the poor native industry either, they noticed the industriousness and dexterity of the Germanic natives, and took advantage of their talents. The remains of wide stone-paved roads, the ruins of buildings found underground, statues, altars, weapons, coins, vases, all kinds of attire testify to the high development of culture in the Decumate land under the rule of the Romans. Augsburg was a center of trade, a warehouse for goods that East and South exchanged with North and West. Other cities also took an active part in the benefits of civilized life, for example, those cities on Lake Constance, which are now called Constance and Bregenz, Aduae Aureliae (Baden-Baden) on the foothills of the Black Forest, that city on the Neckar, which is now called Ladenburg. - Roman culture covered under Trajan and the Antonines and the land in the south-east of the Decumate region, along the Danube. Rich cities arose there, such as Vindobona (Vienna), Karnunte (Petropel), Mursa (or Murcia, Essek), Tavrun (Zemlin) and especially Sirmium (somewhat west of Belgrade), more to the east Naissa (Nissa), Sardica (Sophia), Nikopol at Hemus. The Roman Itinerary (“Road Builder”) lists so many cities on the Danube that, perhaps, this border was not inferior to the Rhine high development of cultural life.
Tribes of Mattiaks and Batavians
Not far from the area where the border rampart of the Decumate land converged with the trenches, previously built along the Tauna ridge, that is, to the north of the Decumate land, the ancient German tribes of the Mattiaks settled along the banks of the Rhine, which constituted the southern department of the warlike people of the Hatts; they and the Batavians of their tribe were true friends of the Romans. Tacitus calls both of these tribes allies of the Roman people, says that they were free from any tribute, they were only obliged to send their detachments to the Roman army and give horses to war. When the Romans retreated from prudent meekness towards the Batavi tribe, began to oppress them, they started a war that took on a wide scale. This uprising was pacified at the beginning of his reign by the emperor Vespasian.
Hutt tribe
The lands to the northeast of the Mattiaks were inhabited by the ancient Germanic tribe of the Hatts (Chazzi, Hazzi, Hesses - Hessians), whose country went to the borders of the Hercynian forest. Tacitus says that the Hutts were of a dense, strong physique, that they had a courageous look, a mind more active than that of other Germans; judging by German standards, the Hutts have a lot of prudence and ingenuity, he says. They have a young man, having reached adulthood, did not cut his hair, did not shave his beard until he killed the enemy: “only then does he consider himself to have paid the debt for his birth and upbringing, worthy of the fatherland and parents,” says Tacitus.
Under Claudius, a detachment of the Germans-Hattas made a predatory raid on the Rhine, in the province of Upper Germany. The legate Lucius Pomponius sent vangios, Germans and a detachment of cavalry under the command of Pliny the Elder cut off these robbers' escape route. The warriors went very zealously, dividing into two detachments; one of them caught the Hutts returning from a robbery, when they were resting and drunk so much that they were unable to defend themselves. This victory over the Germans was, according to Tacitus, all the more joyful because on this occasion several Romans were freed from slavery, taken prisoner forty years before during the defeat of Varus. Another detachment of the Romans and their allies went to the land of the Hutts, defeated them and, having gained much booty, returned to Pomponius, who stood with the legions on Taun, ready to repel the Germanic tribes if they wanted to take revenge. But the Hatti feared that when they attacked the Romans, the Cherusci, their enemies, would invade their land, so they sent envoys and hostages to Rome. Pomponius was more famous for his dramas than for his military exploits, but for this victory he received a triumph.
The ancient Germanic tribes of the Usipetes and Tencters
The lands to the north of Lahn, on the right bank of the Rhine, were inhabited by the ancient Germanic tribes of the Usipets (or Usipians) and Tencters. The tencters were famous for their excellent cavalry; Their children amused themselves by riding, and the old people also liked to ride. The warhorse of the father was given as an inheritance to the bravest of the sons. Farther northeast along the Lippe and the headwaters of the Ems lived the Bructers, and behind them eastward to the Weser, the Hamavs and Angrivars. Tacitus heard that the Bructers had a war with their neighbors, that the Bructers were driven out of their land and almost completely exterminated; this civil strife was, in his words, "a joyful sight for the Romans." It is probable that in the same part of Germany also lived the Marses, a brave people, exterminated Germanicus.
Frisian tribe
The lands along the seashore from the mouth of the Ems to the Batavians and Kaninefats were the area of settlement of the ancient Germanic tribe of the Frisians. The Frisians also occupied the neighboring islands; these swampy places were not enviable to anyone, says Tacitus, but the Frisians loved their homeland. For a long time they obeyed the Romans, not caring about their fellow tribesmen. In gratitude for the patronage of the Romans, the Frisians gave them a certain number of oxhides for the needs of the troops. When this tribute became burdensome due to the greed of the Roman ruler, this Germanic tribe took up arms, defeated the Romans, overthrew their power (27 A.D.). But under Claudius, the brave Corbulo managed to return the Frisians to an alliance with Rome. Under Nero, a new quarrel began (58 AD) due to the fact that the Frisians occupied and began to cultivate some areas on the right bank of the Rhine that lay empty. The Roman ruler ordered them to leave from there, they did not obey and sent two princes to Rome to ask that this land be left behind them. But the Roman ruler attacked the Frisians who settled there, exterminated some of them, took the other into slavery. The land they had occupied became a desert again; the soldiers of the neighboring Roman detachments let their cattle graze on it.
Hawk Tribe
To the east from Ems to the lower Elbe and inland to the Hattians lived the ancient Germanic tribe of the Chavks, whom Tacitus calls the noblest of the Germans, who made justice the basis of their power; he says: “They have neither greed for conquest nor arrogance; they live calmly, avoiding quarrels, do not call anyone to war with insults, do not devastate, do not plunder neighboring lands, do not seek to base their predominance on insults to others; this is the best evidence of their valor and strength; but they are all ready for war, and when the need arises, their army is always under arms. They have a lot of warriors and horses, their name is famous even with peacefulness. This praise does not fit well with the news reported by Tacitus himself in the Chronicle that the hawks often went on their boats to rob ships that sailed along the Rhine and neighboring Roman possessions, that they expelled the Ansibars and took possession of their land.
Germanic Cherusci
To the south of the havki lay the land of the ancient Germanic tribe of the Cherusci; this brave nation, heroically defending freedom and homeland, had already lost its former strength and glory in the time of Tacitus. Under Claudius, the Cherusci tribe called Italicus, son of Flavius and nephew of Arminius, a handsome and brave young man, and made him king. At first he ruled kindly and justly, then, expelled by his opponents, he defeated them with the help of the Lombards and began to rule cruelly. We have no news of his further fate. Weakened by strife and having lost their militancy from a long peace, the Cherusci in the time of Tacitus had no power and were not respected. Their neighbors, the Foz Germans, were also weak. About the Cimbri Germans, whom Tacitus calls a tribe small in number, but famous for their exploits, he only says that at the time Maria they inflicted many heavy defeats on the Romans, and that the extensive camps left of them on the Rhine show that they were then very numerous.
Suebi tribe
The ancient Germanic tribes who lived further to the east between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathians, in a country very little known to the Romans, Tacitus, like Caesar, calls the common name of the Suebi. They had a custom that distinguished them from other Germans: free people combed their long hair up and tied it over the top of the head, so that they fluttered like a sultan. They believed that this made them more fearsome to enemies. There was a lot of research and controversy about which tribes the Romans called the Suebi, and about the origin of this tribe, but with the darkness and contradictory information about them among ancient writers, these questions remain unresolved. The simplest explanation for the name of this ancient Germanic tribe is that "Suebi" means nomads (schweifen, "wander"); The Romans called Suebi all those numerous tribes that lived far from the Roman border behind dense forests, and believed that these Germanic tribes were constantly moving from place to place, because they were most often heard about from the tribes driven by them to the west. The news of the Romans about the Suebi is inconsistent and borrowed from exaggerated rumors. They say that the Suebi tribe had a hundred districts, from which each could put up a large army, that their country was surrounded by a desert. These rumors supported the fear that the name of the Suebi already inspired in Caesar's legions. Without a doubt, the Suebi were a federation of many ancient Germanic tribes, closely related to each other, in which the former nomadic life had not yet been completely replaced by a settled one, cattle breeding, hunting and war still prevailed over agriculture. Tacitus calls the oldest and noblest of them the Semnons who lived on the Elbe, and the Lombards, who lived north of the Semnons, the bravest.
Hermunduri, Marcomanni and Quads
The region to the east of the Dekumat region was inhabited by the ancient Germanic tribe of the Hermundurs. These faithful allies of the Romans enjoyed great confidence in them and had the right to freely trade in the main city of the Raetian province, the current Augsburg. Down the Danube, to the east, lived a tribe of the Germans-Narisks, and behind the Drafts, the Marcomanni and Quads, who retained the courage that brought them the possession of their land. The regions of these ancient Germanic tribes formed the stronghold of Germany on the Danube side. The kings of the Marcomanni for quite a long time were the descendants of Maroboda, then foreigners who gained power through the influence of the Romans and held on thanks to their patronage.
East Germanic tribes
The Germans, who lived behind the Marcomanni and the Quadi, had as their neighbors tribes of non-Germanic origin. Of the peoples who lived there in the valleys and gorges of the mountains, Tacitus ranks some among the Suebi, for example, the Marsigns and Boers; others, such as the Gotins, he considers Celts by their language. The ancient German tribe of the Gotins was subject to the Sarmatians, they extracted iron for their masters from their mines and paid tribute to them. Behind these mountains (the Sudetes, the Carpathians) lived many tribes, ranked by Tacitus among the Germans. Of these, the most extensive area was occupied by the Germanic tribe of Lygians, who probably lived in present-day Silesia. The Lygians formed a federation, to which belonged, besides various other tribes, the Garians and the Nagarwals. To the north of the Lygians lived the Germanic Goths, and behind the Goths the Rugians and Lemovians; the Goths had kings who had more power than the kings of other ancient Germanic tribes, but still not so much that the freedom of the Goths was suppressed. from Pliny and Ptolemy we know that in the north-east of Germany (probably between the Warta and the Baltic Sea) lived the ancient Germanic tribes of the Burgundians and Vandals; but Tacitus does not mention them.
Germanic tribes of Scandinavia: Svions and Sitons
The tribes living on the Vistula and the southern coast of the Baltic Sea closed the borders of Germany; to the north of them on a large island (Scandinavia) lived Germanic Svions and Sitons, strong, in addition to the ground forces, and the fleet. Their ships had prows at both ends. These tribes differed from the Germans in that their kings had unlimited power and did not leave weapons in their hands, but kept them in storerooms guarded by slaves. The sitons, in the words of Tacitus, stooped to such servility that they were commanded by the queen, and they obeyed the woman. Beyond the land of the Germanic Svions, says Tacitus, there is another sea, the water of which is almost still. This sea closes the extreme limits of the earth. In summer, after sunset, its radiance there still retains such strength that it darkens the stars all night.
Non-German tribes of the Baltic: Aestii, Peukins and Finns
The right bank of the Suevian (Baltic) Sea washes the land of the Aestii (Estonia). In customs and dress, the Aestii resemble the Suebi, and in language, according to Tacitus, they are closer to the Britons. Iron is rare among them; their usual weapon is a mace. They farm more diligently than the lazy Germanic tribes; they swim in the sea, and they are the only people who collect amber; they call it glaesum (German glas, "glass"?) they collect it from the shallows in the sea and on the shore. For a long time they left him lying among other things that the sea throws up; but Roman luxury finally drew their attention to it: "they themselves do not use it, they export it in an unfinished form and marvel that they receive payment for it."
After that, Tacitus gives the names of the tribes, about which he says that he does not know whether they should be ranked among the Germans or among the Sarmatians; these are the Wends (Vends), Peucins and Fenns. Of the Wends, he says that they live by war and robbery, but differ from the Sarmatians in that they build houses and fight on foot. Of the Peukins, he says that some writers call them Bastarns, that they are similar in language, clothing, but in the appearance of their dwellings to the ancient Germanic tribes, but that, having mixed with the Sarmatians through marriages, they learned from them laziness and untidiness. Far to the north live the Fenns (Finns), the most extreme people of the inhabited space of the earth; they are complete savages and live in extreme poverty. They have neither weapons nor horses. The Finns feed on grass and wild animals, which they kill with arrows having pointed bone tips; they dress in animal skins, sleep on the ground; in protection from bad weather and predatory animals, they make wattle fences from branches. This tribe, says Tacitus, fears neither men nor gods. It has achieved what is most difficult for man to achieve: they do not need to have any desires. Behind the Finns, according to Tacitus, there is already a fabulous world.
No matter how great the number of ancient Germanic tribes was, no matter how great was the difference in social life between the tribes that had kings and did not have them, the astute observer Tacitus saw that they all belonged to one national whole, that they were parts of a great people, which, without mixing with foreigners, lived according to completely original customs; fundamental sameness was not smoothed out by tribal differences. The language, the nature of the ancient Germanic tribes, their way of life and the veneration of the common Germanic gods showed that they all have a common origin. Tacitus says that in old folk songs the Germans praise the earth-born god Tuiscon and his son Mann as their progenitors, that from the three sons of Mann three indigenous groups descended and received their names, which covered all the ancient Germanic tribes: the Ingaevons (Friesians), the Germinons (Svevi) and Istevons. In this legend of Germanic mythology, under the legendary shell, the testimony of the Germans themselves survived that, for all their fragmentation, they did not forget the commonality of their origin and continued to consider themselves fellow tribesmen.
