When did ‘Germans’ enter Roman consciousness?

[Alanus]

Welcome to RAT, Luke

My above post was just a conscious touch of humor.

[Marcus F.]

I don't think Germani = Germans.

After all, Germani include many of the ancestors of the English and Dutch, too.

Nobody can blame the people in Germany/Deutschland for the lack of accuracy in the English language. Normally, "Dutch" should have been used for Germans, like Tedeschi in Italian. I guess the name "Netherlanders" was too long .... :unsure:

In America, it gets even more confusing, as the language of the Amish is called "Pennsylvanian Dutch" there, while they call it "Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch" themselves.

[M. Caecilius]

I'm a bit late to the party, but living in the area which was formerly occupied by the tribe of the Treveri, I thought I'd mention them as a point in case towards how difficult it can be to put names to various cultures. The Treveri where included in the province of Gallia Belgica, by Caesar's definition, they are indeed Belgae (lying east of the Seine and Marne, de Bello Gall. I.1). However, the Treveri, together with the Nervii, considered considered themselves to be Celts/Gauls/Belgae of Germanic origin (Tacitus, Germania 28. Their contacts with the Germani throughout the Gallic Wars and in the Batavian revolt (though the Germans were the second choice, and anyway the Treveri leaders behaved in a rather Roman fashion by then) would indicate that the cultural frontiers were rather more fluid than Caesar and others authors would like to suggest.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Well really the distinguishment here is between the prezwork and chernjakov (forgive my spelling on that one, I dont remember the spelling) cultures, not between "Celt" and "German." The Chernjakov culture had more advanced agricultural techniques, different pottery, etc, and included in it are the celts of gaul. There were also Germanic Groups( e.g. the Frisii) included in this culture. Other germans (like the proto-goths) were prezwork, but would later acquire and improve upon chernjakov culture technology in the late 2nd century AD to become the tribes of the 3rd-5th centuries, which were another culture whose name I cannot remember.