Germania
Germania is the Roman and Greek term for the geographical region inhabited mainly by the Germanic people. It is bordered to west by the Rhine river to the south by the Danube river to the north by the Baltic Sea and to the east by the Vistula river. With a population of 5,000,000 in the 1st century BC the areas west of the Rhine are mainly Celtic (specifically Gaulish) and part of the Roman Empire.
During the period of the Roman empire, more tribes are settled in areas of the empire near the Rhine, in territories controlled by the Roman Empire. Eventually these areas came to be known as Lesser Germania, while Greater Germania (Magna Germania; it is also referred to by names referring to its being outside Roman control: Germania libera, "Free Germany") is the larger territory east of the Rhine. The Roman parts of Germania, "Lesser Germania", eventually formed two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, "Lower Germany", and Germania Superior.
Origins of the term
The term may be Gallic in origin. Caesar reports hearing from his Remi allies that the term germani was the term used for the Germani cisrhenani, and that these tribes had historically come from over the Rhine. So the name Germania seems to have been extended to cover the similar tribes in the area understood to be their homeland. For the rest, they affirm Germania to be a recent word, lately bestowed. For those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, named Tungrians, are then called Germani. And thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by fear and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented are universally called Germani.
The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain. The likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger "near" + *mani "men". Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant "noisy" or gēr-manni, "spear men”.
The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a small group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language, and whose links to Germania are unclear. Apparently, the Germanic tribes did not have a single self-designation that included all Germanic-speaking people but excluded all non-Germanic people. Non-Germanic peoples (primarily Celtic, Roman, Greek, the citizens of the Roman Empire), on the other hand, are called *walhaz.
"Invasion" versus "migration"
Several reasons explain the appearance of "barbarians" on the Roman frontier: weather and crops, population pressure, a "primeval urge" to push into the Mediterranean, or the "domino effect" (the Huns felling upon the Goths who, in turn, push other Germanic tribes before them). Entire barbarian tribes (or nations) flood into Roman provinces, ending classical urbanism and beginning new types of rural settlements. In general, roman scholars tend to view this as a catastrophic event: the destruction of a civilization and the beginning of a "Dark Age". In contrast, Germanic sages tend to see it as the replacement of a "tired, effete and decadent Mediterranean civilization" with a "more virile, martial, Nordic one".
The barbarian movement is the result of the fall of the Roman Empire, not as its cause. Germanic and Slavic tribes are settled agriculturalists". The Crisis of the Third Century caused significant changes within the Roman Empire, in both its western and eastern portions. In particular, economic fragmentation removed many of the political, cultural and economic forces which had held the empire together. The rural population in Roman provinces became distanced from the metropolis, and there is little to differentiate them from other peasants across the Roman frontier. In addition, Rome increasingly use foreign mercenaries to defend itself. This "barbarisation" of the Empire is paralleled by changes within barbaricum. For example, the Roman Empire play a vital role in building up barbarian groups along its frontier. Propped up with imperial support and gifts, the armies of allied barbarian chieftains serve as buffers against hostile barbarian groups. The disintegration of Roman economic power weakens groups that had come to depend on Roman gifts for the maintenance of their own power. With the arrival of the Huns, this prompt many groups to invade the provinces for economic reasons.
The nature of the barbarian takeover of former Roman provinces varied from region to region. For example, in Aquitaine the provincial administration is largely self-reliant, local rulers simply "handed over" military rule to the Ostrogoths, acquiring the identity of the newcomers. In Gaul the collapse of imperial rule will result in anarchy: the Franks and Alemanni pull into the ensuing "power vacuum", resulting in conflict. In Spain local aristocrats maintain independent rule for some time, raising their own armies against the Vandals. Meanwhile, the Roman withdrawal from lowland England results in conflict between Saxons and the Brythonic chieftains (whose centres of power retreated westward as a result). The Eastern Roman Empire attemps to maintain control of the Balkan provinces, despite a thinly-spread imperial army that relied mainly on local militias and an extensive effort to re-fortify the Danubian limes. The ambitious fortification efforts collapses, worsening the impoverished conditions of the local populace and resulting in colonization by Slavic warriors and their families.
Instead of large-scale migrations, there are military takeovers by small groups of warriors and their families (who usually numbered in the tens of thousands). This process involves active, conscious decision-making by Roman provincial populations. The collapse of centralized control severely weakens the sense of Roman identity in the provinces, which may explain why the provinces undergo dramatic cultural changes at this time even though few barbarians settle in them. Ultimately, the Germanic groups in the Western Roman Empire are accommodated without dispossessing or overturning indigenous society and maintain a structured and hierarchical (albeit attenuated) form of Roman administration. Ironically, they looses their unique identity as a result of this accommodation and are absorbed into Latinhood. In contrast, in the east, Slavic tribes maintained a more spartan and egalitarian existence bound to the land even in times when they took their part in plundering Roman provinces. Their organizational models are not Roman, and their leaders are not normally dependent on Roman gold for success. Thus, they arguably have a greater effect on their region than the Goths, Franks or Saxons had on theirs.
Germania is the Roman and Greek term for the geographical region inhabited mainly by the Germanic people. It is bordered to west by the Rhine river to the south by the Danube river to the north by the Baltic Sea and to the east by the Vistula river. With a population of 5,000,000 in the 1st century BC the areas west of the Rhine are mainly Celtic (specifically Gaulish) and part of the Roman Empire.
During the period of the Roman empire, more tribes are settled in areas of the empire near the Rhine, in territories controlled by the Roman Empire. Eventually these areas came to be known as Lesser Germania, while Greater Germania (Magna Germania; it is also referred to by names referring to its being outside Roman control: Germania libera, "Free Germany") is the larger territory east of the Rhine. The Roman parts of Germania, "Lesser Germania", eventually formed two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, "Lower Germany", and Germania Superior.
Origins of the term
The term may be Gallic in origin. Caesar reports hearing from his Remi allies that the term germani was the term used for the Germani cisrhenani, and that these tribes had historically come from over the Rhine. So the name Germania seems to have been extended to cover the similar tribes in the area understood to be their homeland. For the rest, they affirm Germania to be a recent word, lately bestowed. For those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, named Tungrians, are then called Germani. And thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by fear and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented are universally called Germani.
The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain. The likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger "near" + *mani "men". Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant "noisy" or gēr-manni, "spear men”.
The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a small group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language, and whose links to Germania are unclear. Apparently, the Germanic tribes did not have a single self-designation that included all Germanic-speaking people but excluded all non-Germanic people. Non-Germanic peoples (primarily Celtic, Roman, Greek, the citizens of the Roman Empire), on the other hand, are called *walhaz.
"Invasion" versus "migration"
Several reasons explain the appearance of "barbarians" on the Roman frontier: weather and crops, population pressure, a "primeval urge" to push into the Mediterranean, or the "domino effect" (the Huns felling upon the Goths who, in turn, push other Germanic tribes before them). Entire barbarian tribes (or nations) flood into Roman provinces, ending classical urbanism and beginning new types of rural settlements. In general, roman scholars tend to view this as a catastrophic event: the destruction of a civilization and the beginning of a "Dark Age". In contrast, Germanic sages tend to see it as the replacement of a "tired, effete and decadent Mediterranean civilization" with a "more virile, martial, Nordic one".
The barbarian movement is the result of the fall of the Roman Empire, not as its cause. Germanic and Slavic tribes are settled agriculturalists". The Crisis of the Third Century caused significant changes within the Roman Empire, in both its western and eastern portions. In particular, economic fragmentation removed many of the political, cultural and economic forces which had held the empire together. The rural population in Roman provinces became distanced from the metropolis, and there is little to differentiate them from other peasants across the Roman frontier. In addition, Rome increasingly use foreign mercenaries to defend itself. This "barbarisation" of the Empire is paralleled by changes within barbaricum. For example, the Roman Empire play a vital role in building up barbarian groups along its frontier. Propped up with imperial support and gifts, the armies of allied barbarian chieftains serve as buffers against hostile barbarian groups. The disintegration of Roman economic power weakens groups that had come to depend on Roman gifts for the maintenance of their own power. With the arrival of the Huns, this prompt many groups to invade the provinces for economic reasons.
The nature of the barbarian takeover of former Roman provinces varied from region to region. For example, in Aquitaine the provincial administration is largely self-reliant, local rulers simply "handed over" military rule to the Ostrogoths, acquiring the identity of the newcomers. In Gaul the collapse of imperial rule will result in anarchy: the Franks and Alemanni pull into the ensuing "power vacuum", resulting in conflict. In Spain local aristocrats maintain independent rule for some time, raising their own armies against the Vandals. Meanwhile, the Roman withdrawal from lowland England results in conflict between Saxons and the Brythonic chieftains (whose centres of power retreated westward as a result). The Eastern Roman Empire attemps to maintain control of the Balkan provinces, despite a thinly-spread imperial army that relied mainly on local militias and an extensive effort to re-fortify the Danubian limes. The ambitious fortification efforts collapses, worsening the impoverished conditions of the local populace and resulting in colonization by Slavic warriors and their families.
Instead of large-scale migrations, there are military takeovers by small groups of warriors and their families (who usually numbered in the tens of thousands). This process involves active, conscious decision-making by Roman provincial populations. The collapse of centralized control severely weakens the sense of Roman identity in the provinces, which may explain why the provinces undergo dramatic cultural changes at this time even though few barbarians settle in them. Ultimately, the Germanic groups in the Western Roman Empire are accommodated without dispossessing or overturning indigenous society and maintain a structured and hierarchical (albeit attenuated) form of Roman administration. Ironically, they looses their unique identity as a result of this accommodation and are absorbed into Latinhood. In contrast, in the east, Slavic tribes maintained a more spartan and egalitarian existence bound to the land even in times when they took their part in plundering Roman provinces. Their organizational models are not Roman, and their leaders are not normally dependent on Roman gold for success. Thus, they arguably have a greater effect on their region than the Goths, Franks or Saxons had on theirs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agri_Decumates