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Germania

germania

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11 views2 pages

Germania

germania

Uploaded by

Maximos Maniatis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Germania (/dʒɜːrˈmeɪniə/ jur-MAY-nee-ə, Latin: [ɡɛrˈmaːnia]), also called Magna Germania (English:

Great Germania), Germania Libera (English: Free Germania) or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it
from the Roman provinces of the same name, was a large historical region in north-central Europe
during the Roman era, which was associated by Roman authors with the Germanic peoples. The region
stretched roughly from the Middle and Lower Rhine in the west to the Vistula in the east. It also
extended as far south as the Upper and Middle Danube and Pannonia, and to the known parts of
Scandinavia in the north. Archaeologically, these peoples correspond roughly to the Roman Iron Age of
those regions. While apparently dominated by Germanic peoples, Magna Germania was inhabited by
non-Germanic peoples as well, including Celts and Early Slavs and their precursors.

The Latin name Germania means "land of the Germani", but the etymology of the name Germani itself is
uncertain. During the Gallic Wars of the 1st century BC, the Roman general Julius Caesar encountered
peoples originating from beyond the Rhine. He referred to these people as Germani and their lands
beyond the Rhine as Germania. In subsequent years, the Roman emperor Augustus sought to expand
across the Rhine towards the Elbe, but these efforts were hampered by the victory of Arminius at the
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. The prosperous provinces of Germania Superior and Germania
Inferior, sometimes collectively referred to as Roman Germania, were subsequently established in
northeast Roman Gaul, while territories beyond the Rhine remained independent of Roman control.

From the 3rd century AD, Germanic peoples moving out of Magna Germania began encroaching upon
and occupying parts of Roman Germania. This contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in
the 5th century AD, after which territories of Roman Germania were captured and settled by migrating
Germanic peoples. Large parts of Germania subsequently became part of the Frankish Empire and the
later Kingdom of Germany. The name of Germany in English and many other languages is derived from
the name Germania. Geography

The boundaries of Germania are not clearly defined, particularly at its northern and eastern fringes.[6]
Magna Germania stretched approximately from the Rhine in the west to beyond the Vistula river in the
east, and from the Danube in the south and northwards along the North and Baltic seas, including
Scandinavia.[7][8][9][10] Germania Superior encompassed parts of modern-day Switzerland, southwest
Germany and eastern France, while Germania Inferior encompassed much of modern-day Belgium and
Netherlands.[6]

In his Geography (150 AD), the Roman geographer Ptolemy provides descriptions of the geography of
Germania.[11] Modern scholars have been able to localize many of the place names mentioned by
Ptolemy, and associated them with place names of the present day.[12]

Germania was inhabited by a large number of peoples, and there was not much unity among them.[13]
It appears that Germania was not entirely inhabited by Germanic peoples. Hydronymy provides
evidence for the presence of another Indo-European group, which probably lived under Germanic
domination.[14]

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