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Introduction To The Early Germanic Warriors

Gambargin

Published: Sep 17, 2016

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ancient germanic germany migrationera

Description

"You will find it harder to persuade a German to plough the land and await its annual produce with patience than to challenge a foe and earn the prize of wounds. He thinks its spiritless and slack to gain by sweat what he can buy with blood" - Tacitus, Germania.

Such was the description of the Germanic in the eyes of the Roman who encountered them, brave, fearless and warmongering barbaric people. Indeed, the Germanic people were known as warrior society, where military prowess was more important than anything else..or at least, in general sense. Nevertheless, its history covers much more than just warlike barbarians as they were known.

The Germanic tribes were a part of the flourishing Indo-European peoples that had settled in north west of Europe in 3000 BCE, whose homeland can be traced back to modern Denmark, Southern and Central Norway, the north strip of Germany from the mouth of Elbe to the Baltic shore, as well as the island of Gotland and Bornholm. Historically speaking, one theory suggested that these Germanic people were farmers, peasants and hunters that lived off the land. But pressures brought mainly from overpopulation and the limited resources prompted these early Germanic tribes to wander further inland into europe; as such, conflict arose and war flourished. Some tribes would later joined other tribes, forming into one "super-tribe", losing their names and identity in the process. By the time Tacitus wrote his chronicles about the Germanic people in 1 AD, the majority of their male population were already warriors. Many germanic tribes were already known by the Romans; some formed large tribal confederacy like the Suebi and Marcomanni, while others, maintained a strong tribal sovereignty like the Chatti.

Their reputation for warfare is as (in)famous as their Celtic neighbors, though on a hindsight the Germanic warriors employed more discipline than the Celts. One of the most remembered was during the conflict between the Roman and the migrating Cimbri & Teutones tribes which included Germanic population. Between 114 BC and 102 BC, they had destroyed several roman armies, prompting the Roman to launched massive military reform under Marius which transformed the Roman army into an efficient professional instrument of battle for their future conquest.

By the late roman imperial era in the 3rd CE, many of these Germanic barbarians were already incorporated into Roman army as auxiliaries. These Germanic Barbarians, with their vigorous spirit, eventually brought the collapse of the Western Roman Empire during the migration period. The fall of Rome was subsequently followed by the rise of Germanic Kingdoms that laid the foundation of feudalism, leading to the middle ages whose descendant became the knights and men at arms as we know today. In a sense, the Germanic people were the creators of the modern world, as we can see in some of the modern Germanic speaking states in Europe

Created as part of Gambargin's Monthly Historical Sketch Series that aims to portray various cultures across the globe in the context of history, as a spin-off from the Historically Wrong Sketch Series :) (Smile)