Cimbri and Early Germanic People
The Cimbri were an early tribe from what is now Denmark, likely originating from the Jutland Peninsula. Around the 2nd century BCE, environmental pressures such as overpopulation and encroaching seas forced them to migrate south. As they moved, they were joined by other tribes, including the Teutoni, and began a large-scale incursion into Roman territories.
Between 113 and 101 BCE, the Cimbri and their allies achieved several victories against Roman forces. Their most notable success came in 105 BCE at the Battle of Arausio, one of the most devastating defeats Rome ever suffered. However, this tide turned when Gaius Marius assumed command of the Roman forces. In 102 BCE, he destroyed the Teutoni at Aquae Sextiae, and in 101 BCE, he and Quintus Lutatius Catulus crushed the Cimbri at the Battle of Vercellae, ending the threat.
Origins and Expansion of the Germanic Peoples
The Germanic peoples, speakers of early Indo-European dialects, emerged during the late Bronze Age in southern Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany—bounded by the Ems and Oder rivers and the Harz Mountains. Their origins are uncertain, but archaeological and linguistic evidence points to a shared cultural and ethnic identity that developed during this period.
Over time, Germanic groups began expanding:
To the south and west, they displaced Celtic tribes such as the Helvetii.
By the time of Julius Caesar, Germans had settled west of the Rhine and reached the Danube.
Encounters with Rome
Rome’s first major conflict with Germanic tribes came with the Cimbri and Teutoni in the late 2nd century BCE. Though they were ultimately defeated, these encounters marked the beginning of centuries of tension and warfare between Rome and the Germanic world.
Roman expansion eastward met resistance, notably the revolt led by Arminius in 9 CE, which forced Rome to retreat its frontier back to the Rhine. Over the following decades, Rome gathered extensive knowledge about Germanic peoples, culminating in Tacitus’ Germania (98 CE), a foundational ethnographic work.
Tribal Organization and Culture
According to Tacitus, Germanic mythology traced their lineage to Mannus, son of the god Tuisto, and divided into three branches: the Ingaevones, Herminones, and Istaevones. The tribes themselves included:
Chatti (Hesse)
Frisii (coastal Netherlands/Germany)
Cherusci (home of Arminius)
Suebi, Langobardi (Lombards), and Semnones (central/northeast Germany)
Angles (eastern Schleswig)
Marcomanni, Quadi (Bohemia and Moravia)
Goths, Gepidae, Vandals (southern Baltic coast)
In Sweden, Tacitus notes the Suiones and Sitones.
Later Developments
By the late 3rd century CE, tribal confederations like the Franks, Alemanni, and Burgundians emerged. The Goths moved southeast into modern Ukraine and Romania. By the early Middle Ages, major migrations saw:
Angles and Saxons in England
Franks in northeastern Gaul
Visigoths in Spain
Ostrogoths in Italy
Vandals in North Africa
Lombards in Italy (568–774)
As Germanic groups migrated, Slavic peoples moved into vacated areas like eastern Germany, Bohemia, and the Elbe basin—only to be pushed back later by Frankish and Germanic expansion under leaders like Charlemagne.
Material Culture and Warfare
Early Germanic societies were pastoralist, relying on livestock for food. Some agriculture existed, focused on grains and root vegetables. Iron tools were rare, and domestic goods were mostly made of wood, leather, or clay.
Weapons were simple: long lances, wooden or wicker shields, and few swords or metal armor. These lightly armed warriors often relied on rapid assaults, which were effective but vulnerable in prolonged combat with Roman legions. Even by the 6th century, most Germanic armies lacked advanced equipment.
Trade, especially with Rome, increased over time. Wealthy Germanic leaders prized Roman imports—glassware, weapons, jewelry, and other prestige goods—but how they paid for them remains unclear.
Form of Government
Among the Germans described by Julius Caesar, there was no evidence of autocracy. Disputes were generally resolved by the leading men of each pagus (a local kindred or clan-based group), who intervened only in conflicts involving their own community. There was no central governing body or overarching authority connecting all the pagi that made up a larger tribe or people. In times of war, Caesar notes that a number of confederated chieftains were elected to jointly lead, but their authority was limited to wartime, and their leadership was not permanent.
By the time of Tacitus, a new form of military leadership had emerged. This role was reserved for members of established “royal clans”—such as the 1st-century Cherusci and Batavians, or the 6th-century Heruli. While this position was elective rather than hereditary, it was held for life and came with both military and religious responsibilities. However, the chief’s authority was not absolute: he could be overruled by a council of noblemen, and his proposals to the general assembly of warriors could be rejected. His influence depended heavily on his personal charisma and leadership skills.
During this period, the Germanic tribes also developed a rudimentary judicial system. Judges were elected by the general assembly from among the leading men and traveled from village to village to hear civil disputes. Each judge was accompanied by a retinue of 100 attendants to reinforce the legitimacy of his decisions. Penalties for offenses typically involved payment in livestock, proportional to the severity of the crime. However, many conflicts—especially those involving violence or theft—were still resolved through kin-based negotiation or blood feuds, which could endure for generations. Even long after Christianization, early Germanic rulers struggled to eliminate the tradition of blood revenge.
Only one Germanic chieftain, Maroboduus of the Marcomanni, is known to have successfully established a personal autocracy. Around 9 BCE, he relocated his people to Bohemia and built a powerful kingdom, subjugating other tribes like the Semnones, Lombards, and Lugii. However, in 17 CE, a coalition led by the Cherusci and some of Maroboduus’ own subjects overthrew him, forcing him to seek refuge within the Roman Empire. Other attempts to establish monarchies during this era were similarly unsuccessful.
A lasting monarchy among the Germanic peoples only took shape once they settled within the Roman Empire as federated allies. Leaders of groups like the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths in Gaul and Spain, and Vandals in Africa were the first to hold true kingship. Earlier figures such as Athanaric and Alaric, whose peoples lived outside the empire or had not yet signed treaties with Rome (foedus), wielded limited authority similar to the chieftains described by Tacitus.
Conversion to Christianity
There is little evidence that any major Germanic group converted to Christianity while still living beyond the Roman frontiers. However, those who entered the Roman Empire prior to its fall in 476 CE converted relatively quickly, typically within a generation. The Vandals converted while in Spain (409–429 CE), the Burgundians in eastern Gaul (412–436 CE), and the Ostrogoths in Pannonia (456–472 CE). All initially adopted the Arian form of Christianity, not Roman Catholicism—a choice whose underlying reasons remain unclear.
The first major Germanic group to convert to Catholic Christianity was the Franks under Clovis in 496 CE, followed later by the Burgundians under Sigismund. The Old Saxons were the last continental Germanic people to convert, doing so in the late 8th century. The Scandinavian peoples followed in the 10th century. In contrast, the conversion of England was largely complete by the 7th century.
The Celts
The Celts were an early Indo-European people who, between the 2nd millennium BCE and the 1st century BCE, spread across much of Europe. Their presence spanned from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea region, and even Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Over time, many Celtic tribes—such as the Britons, Gauls, Boii, and Galatians—were absorbed into the Roman Empire. Today, their linguistic legacy lives on among Celtic-speaking communities in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany.
The earliest archaeological traces of the Celts come from the Hallstatt culture, centered in present-day Austria around 700 BCE. These Iron Age chieftains traded with the Greeks and controlled key trade routes along rivers such as the Rhône, Seine, Rhine, and Danube. Their westward movement saw them dominate fellow Celtic groups, partly due to their advanced use of iron weaponry.
By the mid-5th century BCE, the La Tène culture emerged, marked by distinctive art featuring abstract, stylized designs of animals and geometric forms. This culture, originating along the middle Rhine, spread widely with Celtic migrations into eastern Europe and the British Isles. La Tène Celts also traded extensively with the Etruscans of central Italy.
Around 400 BCE, a major wave of Celtic migration began into northern Italy. Tribes such as the Insubres, Boii, and Senones invaded and even sacked Rome around 390 BCE. They eventually settled in Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), becoming a persistent threat to the Roman Republic until being decisively defeated at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BCE.
In the Balkans, Celtic activity is first recorded in 335 BCE, when Alexander the Great met with tribes near the Adriatic. In 279 BCE, they invaded Greece, sacked Delphi, and soon after crossed into Anatolia, establishing themselves as the Galatians in Phrygia. Their raiding continued until Attalus I of Pergamum defeated them around 230 BCE.
Meanwhile, Rome expanded into Cisalpine Gaul by 192 BCE and pushed further into southern Gaul (Provence) by 124 BCE. In the east, Germanic pressure and Roman conquest drove many Celts westward across the Rhine. The Germanic Cimbri and Teutones ravaged Gaul and northern Italy in the late 2nd century BCE before being repelled by Roman forces in 102 and 101 BCE. These movements set the stage for Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars beginning in 58 BCE, which resulted in the Roman annexation of all Gaul.
Celtic settlements in Britain and Ireland are primarily understood through archaeology and linguistics. While Caesar mentions the Belgic migration into Britain, Roman writers generally saw the British and Irish Celts as culturally related to the Gauls.
Information on Celtic society comes from classical sources and early Irish texts. Their social structure was tripartite: kings ruled, a warrior aristocracy upheld order, and free farmers formed the base. The druids, drawn from the warrior class but elevated above it, performed religious and intellectual functions. Caesar classified Celtic society into druides (priests and scholars), equites (nobles/warriors), and plebs (commoners). Families were patriarchal, and the economy was based on mixed agriculture, with livestock often prioritized over crops. Warfare was frequent, typically involving ritualized single combat. La Tène artifacts reveal a refined aesthetic culture with a strong tradition of music and oral storytelling.
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) was the state that replaced the Roman monarchy and preceded the Roman Empire. Its founding followed the expulsion of the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, traditionally in 509 BCE. While early Roman history is clouded by legend and later reinterpretation, it’s widely accepted that monarchy gave way to a new system led by elected magistrates.
Some modern scholars believe Rome’s transition from monarchy was prompted not just by internal revolt, but also by external conquest—possibly by the Etruscans. King Porsenna of Clusium defeated Rome and expelled Tarquinius but withdrew before installing himself as ruler. This power vacuum may have led the Romans to establish a republic rather than restore the monarchy.
Under the Republic, power was shared by two annually elected consuls who commanded the army. In times of crisis, a dictator with supreme power could be appointed for a maximum of six months.
The Roman Senate, possibly originating under the monarchy, became a powerful advisory body made up of Rome’s elite. Although technically subordinate to the popular assemblies, the Senate’s influence grew through tradition and the prestige of its members.
Two main assemblies governed the Roman people: the centuriate assembly, which was military and elected high-ranking officials, and the tribal assembly, which handled most legislation and non-military elections. These bodies reflected the complex and evolving nature of Roman democracy.
In 451 BCE, Rome codified its first written laws in the Twelve Tables, inscribed on bronze tablets and displayed in the Forum. These laws covered a broad range of issues, from inheritance and property to legal procedures and family authority, and laid the foundation for Roman legal tradition.