11-16-2020, 12:09 PM
Hi All,
I was recently reading a military Osprey book specifically on the Germanic Warrior from the 3rd to 6th centuries, roughly corresponding with the ‘Migration’ period of ancient history. If my understanding is correct (which it may not be) one thing the book highlighted specifically was the effect such close proximity to the Roman Empire over a protracted period of time had on the various Germanic tribes inhabiting Germania and all the lands east to the Crimea and Black Sea. Essentially where the ‘Barbarian’ tribes had been divided into hundreds of small bickering tribes during the days of Caesar, the founding of the Roman frontiers along the Rhine and the Danube gave these tribes the incentive to unify into tribal confederations and the first ‘proto-kingdoms’ that would later come to dominate medieval Europe. Germanic warfare also changed from small bands of a Chieftain’s retainers carrying out raids and counter raids on neighbouring tribal villages to intimidate villagers and extract tribute into large warband’s for long distance foreign wars fought far from home. Equipment amongst Germanic warriors also seems to have improved between the reign of Augustus and the beginning of the migration period almost 400 years later, as where as swords and mail shirts seemed to have only been carried exclusively by Germanic kings and nobles during Augustus’s day, around the time of the 2nd and 3rd century Germanic kingdoms seemed able to furnish entire warbands with armour, swords and helmets easily the equal of Roman arms factories. The Germanic kingdoms may never had had the population to support the number of professional soldiers the Roman Empire could field via its huge taxable population, but they did seem able to furnish those professional warriors it could raise with armour and equipment the equal of any legionary.
My question therefore is do we know anything about the Germanic economy, infrastructure and degree of urbanisation that may have existed beyond the Roman Empire’s frontiers after Augustus’s reign. I’m aware from conversations I’ve had here that at the very beginning of the 1st century Germania was largely described by Roman authors almost as backwater, with most of the population being confined to small poorly connected villages. Unlike Pre-Roman Gaul there appears to have been little in the way of roads, bridges, de-forested and cultivated farmlands and Celtic towns or fortified Oppida, and for reasons I’ve never been quite sure of the Celtic Oppida’s in area’s Rome never conquered were apparently abandoned around the 1st Century AD. In the roughly 400 years that followed the end of Augustus reign and the beginning of the Migration Period around the end of the 4th century, do we know if Greater Germania and the Scythian lands later occupied by the Goths remained as a collection of poorly interconnected semi backwater villages, or is there any indication that newer urban developments and infrastructure such as roads, towns and large scale land clearance began to take shape beyond the Roman frontier?
The most I’ve been able to find on this topic is that that Germanic and Gothic kings and chieftains had a tendency to build themselves Roman styled villa’s in their own lands, likely with the assistance of Roman engineers and architects. I’ve also heard that Roman jewellery, glassware and other various ceramics and pottery was also popular amongst the Germanic elite, which indicates Roman traders and merchants likely played a very active role in the German economy. What I’m curious about is whether there is any evidence of the establishment of urbanised Romanesque like towns popping up in the lands of the Germans and the Goths to provide the ‘Romanised Barbarian elite’ with all the manufactured or trade-able goods their Roman counterparts enjoyed inside the Empire.
To me this has always seemed like the logical course of development the increased stability and trade permeant contact with a wealthy continental empire would have provided these coalescing tribal confederations with, however I’m unsure if any of the early proto Germanic kingdoms ever reached this stage of urban development. We know that during the Marcomannic Wars and later Crisis of the 3rd century Gothic and Germanic armies numbering in the tens of thousands of warriors succeeded in both penetrating the Roman frontier and successfully besieging fortified Roman cities, which suggests at least a moderate level of logistical and economic infrastructure must have existed within Germanic territory to at least bring together and provision such a large number of fighting men in the first place.
That would be my assumption at least. Is anyone else able to comment?
I was recently reading a military Osprey book specifically on the Germanic Warrior from the 3rd to 6th centuries, roughly corresponding with the ‘Migration’ period of ancient history. If my understanding is correct (which it may not be) one thing the book highlighted specifically was the effect such close proximity to the Roman Empire over a protracted period of time had on the various Germanic tribes inhabiting Germania and all the lands east to the Crimea and Black Sea. Essentially where the ‘Barbarian’ tribes had been divided into hundreds of small bickering tribes during the days of Caesar, the founding of the Roman frontiers along the Rhine and the Danube gave these tribes the incentive to unify into tribal confederations and the first ‘proto-kingdoms’ that would later come to dominate medieval Europe. Germanic warfare also changed from small bands of a Chieftain’s retainers carrying out raids and counter raids on neighbouring tribal villages to intimidate villagers and extract tribute into large warband’s for long distance foreign wars fought far from home. Equipment amongst Germanic warriors also seems to have improved between the reign of Augustus and the beginning of the migration period almost 400 years later, as where as swords and mail shirts seemed to have only been carried exclusively by Germanic kings and nobles during Augustus’s day, around the time of the 2nd and 3rd century Germanic kingdoms seemed able to furnish entire warbands with armour, swords and helmets easily the equal of Roman arms factories. The Germanic kingdoms may never had had the population to support the number of professional soldiers the Roman Empire could field via its huge taxable population, but they did seem able to furnish those professional warriors it could raise with armour and equipment the equal of any legionary.
My question therefore is do we know anything about the Germanic economy, infrastructure and degree of urbanisation that may have existed beyond the Roman Empire’s frontiers after Augustus’s reign. I’m aware from conversations I’ve had here that at the very beginning of the 1st century Germania was largely described by Roman authors almost as backwater, with most of the population being confined to small poorly connected villages. Unlike Pre-Roman Gaul there appears to have been little in the way of roads, bridges, de-forested and cultivated farmlands and Celtic towns or fortified Oppida, and for reasons I’ve never been quite sure of the Celtic Oppida’s in area’s Rome never conquered were apparently abandoned around the 1st Century AD. In the roughly 400 years that followed the end of Augustus reign and the beginning of the Migration Period around the end of the 4th century, do we know if Greater Germania and the Scythian lands later occupied by the Goths remained as a collection of poorly interconnected semi backwater villages, or is there any indication that newer urban developments and infrastructure such as roads, towns and large scale land clearance began to take shape beyond the Roman frontier?
The most I’ve been able to find on this topic is that that Germanic and Gothic kings and chieftains had a tendency to build themselves Roman styled villa’s in their own lands, likely with the assistance of Roman engineers and architects. I’ve also heard that Roman jewellery, glassware and other various ceramics and pottery was also popular amongst the Germanic elite, which indicates Roman traders and merchants likely played a very active role in the German economy. What I’m curious about is whether there is any evidence of the establishment of urbanised Romanesque like towns popping up in the lands of the Germans and the Goths to provide the ‘Romanised Barbarian elite’ with all the manufactured or trade-able goods their Roman counterparts enjoyed inside the Empire.
To me this has always seemed like the logical course of development the increased stability and trade permeant contact with a wealthy continental empire would have provided these coalescing tribal confederations with, however I’m unsure if any of the early proto Germanic kingdoms ever reached this stage of urban development. We know that during the Marcomannic Wars and later Crisis of the 3rd century Gothic and Germanic armies numbering in the tens of thousands of warriors succeeded in both penetrating the Roman frontier and successfully besieging fortified Roman cities, which suggests at least a moderate level of logistical and economic infrastructure must have existed within Germanic territory to at least bring together and provision such a large number of fighting men in the first place.
That would be my assumption at least. Is anyone else able to comment?
Real Name: Tim Hare
