The contact between Germanic tribes and Romans can be divided into four aspects as defined by archaeologist Are Kolberg: the military, the trade, the gift, and the plunder aspect. [1] All these aspects give probable answers as to how and why Roman objects got into Germanic hands, and why a vast amount of Roman objects still can be found as far north as Norway. It is noteworthy to understand how Roman objects brought elements of Roman culture with them, and how they to some extent shaped Germanic culture and identity. [2] [3]
The first contacts happened by the late 2nd century BC, when Roman authors recount that Gaul, Italy and Hispania were invaded by migrating Germanic tribes. This culminated in military conflict with the armies of the Roman Republic, in particular those of the Roman Consul Gaius Marius. Six decades later, Julius Caesar invoked the threat of such attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul to Rome.
As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many societies into the Empire. The tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of this area were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term trade relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.
The Cimbri and Teutoni incursions into Roman Italy were thrust back in 101 BC. These invasions were written up by Caesar and others as presaging of a Northern danger for the Roman Republic, a danger that should be controlled. In the Augustean period there was—as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River—a first definition of the "Germania magna": from Rhine and Danube in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North.
Caesar's wars helped establish the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Transalpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe. In AD 9, a revolt of their Germanic subjects headed by the supposed Roman ally, Arminius, (along with his decisive defeat of Publius Quinctilius Varus and the destruction of three Roman legions in the surprise attack on the Romans at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest) ended in the withdrawal of the Roman frontier to the Rhine. At the end of the 1st century two provinces west of the Rhine called Germania Inferior and Germania Superior were established. Important medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and Speyer were part of these Roman provinces.
North of the Limes Germanicus , there were only trade contacts between Romans and Scandinavia, mainly with Jutes of Denmark. Indeed, the Roman Empire maintained trade-routes and relations with Danish or proto-Danish peoples, as attested by finds of Roman coins. Depletion of cultivated land in the last century BC seems to have contributed to increasing migrations in northern Europe and increasing conflict between Teutonic tribes and Roman settlements in Gaul: Roman artefacts are especially common in finds from the 1st century in Jutland. It seems clear that some part of the Danish warrior-aristocracy served in the Roman army. [4]
Members of different Germanic tribes and communities served in the Roman legions. It's probable that Germanic chieftains who fought with the Romans tried to adapt to and adopt Roman culture, and that they sought to identify with the Roman nobility.[ citation needed ] In exchange for military service, they received Roman objects, although not Roman weapons as Roman laws prohibited the exporting of arms to Germanic tribes. Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans seized weapons and armor as war spoils.
The Romans probably influenced Germanic military tactics and organisation as well.[ citation needed ] This can be discerned from the huge Illerup Ådal excavation in Denmark, in which huge amounts of Roman and Roman inspired arms and equipment were found. Many of these were probably produced in Scandinavia; many had Scandinavian "factory seals"[ further explanation needed ] after a Roman model. This not only tells us that the Germans did indeed use Roman arms, but it also tells us that they had the required knowledge and social organisation to support large armies, as well as produce standardised arms and equipment. [5]
It has been suggested[ by whom? ] that the Romans supported and equipped Germanic tribes in the part of Germania, which is today's Denmark. Archaeological sources tell of Roman equipment and arms that have been discovered as far north as Scandinavia. Danish archaeologists Lars Jørgensen, Birger Storgaard and Ulla Lund Hansen have suggested Germano-Roman alliances, in which Romans supported a Germanic power in today's Denmark. According to Jørgensen, this was either to destabilize Scandinavia, or to create a Roman friendly power which could help ensure peace and stability in the border areas. [6]
Ulla Lund Hansen and Birger Storgaard have also suggested that Roman interests in Scandinavia were strong, and that there was direct contact. Storgaard alluded to a text written in accordance with an expedition led by Tiberius in year 5 A.D., in which Tiberius describes what has been interpreted to be Jutland, in Denmark, although this interpretation is based on myth. [7] Jørgensen points to the Gudme-Lundeborg complex in Denmark. Archaeologists have found Roman coins and scrap metal at Lundeborg, a trading place in relation to this complex.
The Roman Empire depended on trade in many different ways, such as the import of grain. This was especially the case in the early periods of the Roman Empire. Lynn F. Pitts wrote:
…At all periods Rome needed to have some kind of relationship, friendly or otherwise, with her neighbours…. [8]
It's thus very likely that a lot of the Roman objects found in Scandinavia arrived via trade and trade networks. Grain was a significant commodity in the Roman society.
This trade may have been carried out via already existing trade networks, from the Mediterranean, via Germanic chieftains to Scandinavia. These trade networks may have been established prior to the Roman Empire and suggest a complex and advanced social structure and organisation among the Germanic tribes and societies. Scandinavian amber has been found at Mycene, in Greece. [9]
Another aspect of Germanic-Romanic inter-relations is the exchange of gifts. Artefacts may have been traded to the Germanics as diplomatic gifts in order to enhance and strengthen alliances, bonds and the likes. [10] Archaeologist Lynn F. Pitts writes about the Roman relationship to the Marcomanni and the Quadi that:
Rome was perhaps concerned to cultivate these Germanic tribes in order to counterbalance […] their neighbours. Diplomacy rather than military strength kept the peace along […] the frontier. [11]
The Roman Empire became increasingly vulnerable as they expanded, thus stretching their military capacity. Pitts go on to write that the Marcomans were a very strong military power, with a standing army of 7000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. [12] It's obvious that the Romans wanted to maintain peaceful relations with certain Germanic tribes, especially towards the end of the Roman Empire, when it became ever increasingly weak. Pitts points out that ”…it is apparent [sic?] that, apart from short periods of hostilities, relations between Rome and the Marcomanni and Quadi were friendly…”.
It became more and more common, as the Roman Empire neared its end, that the Romans paid tribute to Germanic armies who threatened to invade Rome.
As the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Germanic tribes reclaimed land taken by the Roman Empire. Thus many Roman objects were obtained, proliferating throughout much of Germania, most likely via the already existing trade networks, all the way to Scandinavia. [13] War spoils may have also added to proliferation of Roman artefacts. This may also explain the high number of Roman arms in Germanic hands, despite the Roman arms embargo. [14] Two silver cups found in a grave in Hoby, in Denmark, are likely to have been war spoils from the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. [15]
A popular belief is that Germanic barbarians suddenly invaded and destroyed Roman civilization.[ citation needed ] Others argue the opposite is true. Hilaire Belloc observes, “What we are told is that the Western Empire was overrun by savage tribes, but there was no barbarian conquest. There was a continuation of what had been going on for centuries, an infiltration of people from outside the Empire because within the Empire they could get the advantages of civilization.” [ citation needed ]
Norman Cantor points out, “The great invasions were not a war of the barbarians to defeat and subjugate the Roman Empire. Rather, the Germans sought to become part of the Empire and were fighting for concessions, in the form of land or money. They came as settlers and as allies. They did not defeat the Roman Empire in one cataclysmic battle; instead, they permeated the Roman world over the course of three centuries and transformed the fundamental nature of Roman civilization.” [ citation needed ]
The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe that lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta in the area that the Romans called Batavia, from the second half of the first century BC to the third century AD. The name is also applied to several military units employed by the Romans that were originally raised among the Batavi. The tribal name, probably a derivation from batawjō, refers to the region's fertility, today known as the fruitbasket of the Netherlands.
The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who once occupied Northwestern and Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and early medieval Germanic languages and are thus equated at least approximately with Germanic-speaking peoples, although different academic disciplines have their own definitions of what makes someone or something "Germanic". The Romans called the area in North-Central Europe in which the Germanic peoples lived Germania. According to its largest definition it stretched between the Vistula in the east and Rhine in the west, and from southern Scandinavia to the upper Danube. In discussions of the Roman period, the Germanic peoples are sometimes referred to as Germani or ancient Germans, although many scholars consider the second term problematic since it suggests identity with present-day Germans. The very concept of "Germanic peoples" has become the subject of controversy among contemporary scholars. Some scholars call for its total abandonment as a modern construct since lumping "Germanic peoples" together implies a common group identity for which there is little evidence. Other scholars have defended the term's continued use and argue that a common Germanic language allows one to speak of "Germanic peoples", regardless of whether these ancient and medieval peoples saw themselves as having a common identity. While several historians and archaeologists continue to use the term Germani to refer to historical people groups from the 1st to 4th centuries CE, the term is no longer used by most historians and archaeologists for the period around the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages.
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, described as the Varus Disaster or Varian Disaster by Roman historians, was a major battle between Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire that took place somewhere near modern Kalkriese from September 8–11, 9 AD, when an alliance of Germanic peoples ambushed three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus and their auxiliaries. The alliance was led by Arminius, a Germanic officer of Varus's auxilia. Arminius had acquired Roman citizenship and had received a Roman military education, which enabled him to deceive the Roman commander methodically and anticipate the Roman army's tactical responses.
Arminius was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, in which three Roman legions under the command of general and governor Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed. His victory at Teutoburg Forest precipitated the Roman Empire's permanent strategic withdrawal from Germania Magna, and modern historians regard it as one of Rome's greatest defeats. As it prevented the Romanization of Germanic peoples east of the Rhine, it has also been considered one of the most decisive battles in history and a turning point in human history.
The Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman kingdoms.
Germania, also called Magna Germania, Germania Libera, or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a historical region in north-central Europe during the Roman era, which was associated by Roman authors with the Germanic people. The region stretched roughly from the Middle and Lower Rhine in the west to the Vistula in the east. It also extended at some point as far south as the Upper and Middle Danube and Pannonia, and to the known parts of southern Scandinavia in the north. Archaeologically, these people correspond roughly to the Roman Iron Age of those regions. While dominated by Germanic people, Magna Germania was also inhabited by a few other Indo-European people.
This is a chronology of warfare between the Romans and various Germanic peoples. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings, later Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire that started in the late second century BC, and more. The series of conflicts was one factor which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire in particular and ancient Rome in general in 476.
The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenance. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a battle probably near Belfort. After some Celts evacuated the region in fear of the Suebi, the Vangiones, who had made a Roman peace, were allowed to settle among the Mediomatrici in northern Alsace.. They gradually assumed control of the Celtic city of Burbetomagus, later Worms.
The Angrivarii were a Germanic people of the early Roman Empire, who lived in what is now northwest Germany near the middle of the Weser river. They were mentioned by the Roman authors Tacitus and Ptolemy.
The Marcomannic Wars were a series of wars lasting from about 166 until 180 AD. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against principally the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges; there were related conflicts with several other Germanic, Sarmatian, and Gothic peoples along both sides of the whole length of the Roman Empire's northeastern European border, the river Danube.
The archaeology of Northern Europe studies the prehistory of Scandinavia and the adjacent North European Plain, roughly corresponding to the territories of modern Sweden, Norway, Denmark, northern Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.
Barbaricum is a geographical name used by historical and archaeological experts to refer to the vast area of barbarian-occupied territory that lay, in Roman times, beyond the frontiers or limes of the Roman Empire in North, Central and South Eastern Europe, the "lands lying beyond Roman administrative control but nonetheless a part of the Roman world". During the Late Antiquity, it was the Latin name for those tribal territories not occupied by Rome that lay beyond the Rhine and the Danube : Ammianus Marcellinus used it, as did Eutropius. The earliest recorded mention appears to date to the early 3rd century.
The term Romano-Germanic describes the conflation of Roman culture with that of various Germanic peoples in areas successively ruled by the Roman Empire and Germanic "barbarian monarchies".
Warfare seems to have been a constant in Germanic society, and archaeology indicates this was the case prior to the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century BCE. Wars were frequent between and within the individual Germanic peoples. The early Germanic languages preserve various words for "war", and they did not necessarily clearly differentiate between warfare and other forms of violent interaction. The Romans note that for the Germans, robbery in warfare was not shameful, and most Germanic warfare both against Rome and against other Germanic peoples was motivated by the potential to acquire booty.
Roman Iron Age weapon deposits are intentional burials of large quantities of weapons from the Roman Iron Age of Scandinavia. The weapon deposits were intended for either sacrifice or burial and forms part of other Iron Age votive offerings from the period of bog deposits in Scandinavia. Almost all Scandinavian Iron Age bog deposits have been found in Denmark and southern Sweden, including Gotland.
Denmark–Netherlands relations are the bilateral relations between Denmark and the Netherlands. The Netherlands has an embassy in Copenhagen and Denmark has an embassy in The Hague. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe, the European Union and NATO. Princess Beatrix is a Dame of the Order of the Elephant since 29 October 1975. On 31 January 1998, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands also received the Order of the Elephant.
For around 450 years, from around 55 BC to around 410 AD, the southern part of the Netherlands was integrated into the Roman Empire. During this time the Romans in the Netherlands had an enormous influence on the lives and culture of the people who lived in the Netherlands at the time and (indirectly) on the generations that followed.
The Germani cisrhenani, or "Left bank Germani", were a group of Germanic peoples who lived west of the Lower Rhine at the time of the Gallic Wars in the mid-1st century BC.
In many areas of Scandinavia, a wide variety of items were deposited in lakes and bogs from the Mesolithic period through to the Middle Ages. Such items include earthenware, decorative metalwork, weapons, and human corpses, known as bog bodies. As Kaul noted, "we cannot get away from the fact that the depositions in the bogs were connected with the ritual/religious sphere."
The Hellvi helmet eyebrow is a decorative eyebrow from a Vendel Period helmet. It comprises two fragments; the arch is made of iron decorated with strips of silver, and terminates in a bronze animal head that was cast on. The eyebrow was donated to the Statens historiska museum in November 1880 along with several other objects, all said to be from a grave find in Gotland, Sweden.