"Neighbors"
Last post, I figured out where I was on the timeline. We were in the 2nd century b.c. when Pythaes sailed into the baltic sea and recorded finding a Germanic people as well as the Celts. This week we will move forward into the 1st centery b.c.. No Germanic written history from this period has survived so most of the history we have of them is from the eyes of those around them (i.e. the Celts and the Romans).
According to Malcolm Todd's, The Early Germans, "The Germans were primitive, following a lifestyle which seemed to the Romans even more savage than that of other Barbarians and one that would never be softened by the contact with civilized man." "The memory of the invasion of the Cimbri and the Teutones had not faded and Caesar could appeal to deep-seated fears in order to justify his own operations in Gaul." Of the German tribes, Caesar describes the Suebi as the largest and most powerful. They are also described as men of large stature, of astonishing bodily strength, with yellow hair and fierce blue eyes. The Suebi, led by Ariovistus, had established themselves west of Rhine, since they were invited as mercenaries. This German presence in the east of Gaul gave Caesar a useful pretext for intervening in the affairs of the Gualish tribes.
Here's the welcome wagon for the Germans! They have finally arrived and, according to Todd, there is Archaeological and philological evidence to back up the Suebi presence west of Rhine.
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| A late 19th century imagination of the Cimbri and Teutoni on the march. |
According to Bayard Taylor's, A History of Germany, the Romans first heard the name "Germans" from Celtic Gauls; in whose language it meant "neighbors." Then in 113 or 112 b.c., still according to the Romans, a tremendous horde of strangers forced their way through the Tylorese Alps and invaded Roman territory. They consisted of two great tribes, Cimbrians and Teutons, which were Celtic and Germanic. Demanding territory or at least the ability to pass through. They numbered several hundred thousand and claimed that flooding pushed them out of their home lands. They brought with them wives and children, as well as all their movable property. The Consul, Papirius Carbo, gathered an army only to be defeated in a battle that took place near Noreia; between Adriatic and the Alps. The terror of the defeat reached Rome.
Fact Checked with Wiki The Battle of Noreia
According to Malcolm Todd's, The Early Germans, "The Germans were primitive, following a lifestyle which seemed to the Romans even more savage than that of other Barbarians and one that would never be softened by the contact with civilized man." "The memory of the invasion of the Cimbri and the Teutones had not faded and Caesar could appeal to deep-seated fears in order to justify his own operations in Gaul." Of the German tribes, Caesar describes the Suebi as the largest and most powerful. They are also described as men of large stature, of astonishing bodily strength, with yellow hair and fierce blue eyes. The Suebi, led by Ariovistus, had established themselves west of Rhine, since they were invited as mercenaries. This German presence in the east of Gaul gave Caesar a useful pretext for intervening in the affairs of the Gualish tribes.
Here's the welcome wagon for the Germans! They have finally arrived and, according to Todd, there is Archaeological and philological evidence to back up the Suebi presence west of Rhine.
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