Germany During The First Three Centuries Of Our Era

(21--300 A. D.)



Truce between the Germans and Romans. --The Cherusci cease to exist.

--Incursions of the Chauci and Chatti. --Insurrection of the Gauls.

--Conquests of Cerealis. --The Roman Boundary. --German Legions

under Rome. --The Agri Decumates. --Influence of Roman

Civilization. --Commerce. --Changes among the Germans. --War

against Marcus Aurelius. --Decline of the Roman Power. -Union of

the Germans in Separate Nationalities. --The Alemanni. --The

Franks. --The Saxons. --The Goths. --The Thuringians. --The

Burgundians. --Wars with Rome in the Third Century. --The Emperor

Probus and his Policy. --Constantine. --Relative Position of the

two Races.





[Sidenote: 50.]



After the campaigns of Germanicus and the death of Hermann, a long time

elapsed during which the relation of Germany to the Roman Empire might

be called a truce. No serious attempt was made by the unworthy

successors of Augustus to extend their sway beyond the banks of the

Rhine and the Danube; and, as Tiberius had predicted, the German tribes

were so weakened by their own civil wars that they were unable to cope

with such a power as Rome. Even the Cherusci, Hermann's own people,

became so diminished in numbers that, before the end of the first

century, they ceased to exist as a separate tribe: their fragments were

divided and incorporated with their neighbors on either side. Another

tribe, the Ampsivarii, was destroyed in a war with the Chauci, and even

the power of the fierce Chatti was broken by a great victory of the

Hermunduri over them, in a quarrel concerning the possession of a sacred

salt-spring.



About the middle of the first century, however, an event is mentioned

which shows that the Germans were beginning to appreciate and imitate

the superior civilization of Rome. The Chauci, dwelling on the shores of

the North Sea, built a fleet and sailed along the coast to the mouth of

the Rhine, which they entered in the hope of exciting the Batavi and

Frisii to rebellion. A few years afterwards the Chatti, probably for

the sake of plunder, crossed the Rhine and invaded part of Gaul. Both

attempts failed entirely; and the only serious movement of the Germans

against Rome, during the century, took place while Vitellius and

Vespasian were contending for the possession of the imperial throne. A

German prophetess, of the name of Velleda, whose influence seems to have

extended over all the tribes, promised them victory: they united,

organized their forces, crossed the Rhine, and even laid siege to

Mayence, the principal Roman city.



[Sidenote: 70. THE INVASION OF CEREALIS.]



The success of Vespasian over his rival left him free to meet this new

danger. But in the meantime the Batavi, under their chief, Claudius

Civilis, who had been previously fighting on the new Emperor's side,

joined the Gauls in a general insurrection. This was so successful that

all northern Gaul, from the Atlantic to the Rhine, threw off the Roman

yoke. A convention of the chiefs was held at Rheims, in order to found a

Gallic kingdom; but instead of adopting measures of defence, they

quarrelled about the selection of a ruling family, the future capital of

the kingdom, and other matters of small comparative importance.



The approach of Cerealis, the Roman general sent by Vespasian with a

powerful army in the year 70, put an end to the Gallic insurrection.

Most of the Gallic tribes submitted without resistance: the Treviri, on

the Moselle, were defeated in battle, the cities and fortresses on the

western bank of the Rhine were retaken, and the Roman frontier was

re-established. Nevertheless, the German tribes which had been allied

with the Gauls--among them the Batavi--refused to submit, and they were

strong enough to fight two bloody battles, in which Cerealis was only

saved from defeat by what the Romans considered to be the direct

interposition of the gods. The Batavi, although finally subdued in their

home in Holland, succeeded in getting possession of the Roman admiral's

vessel, by a night attack on his fleet on the Rhine. This trophy they

sent by way of the river Lippe, an eastern branch of the Rhine, as a

present to the great prophetess, Velleda.



The defeat of the German tribes by Cerealis was not followed by a new

Roman invasion of their territory. The Rhine remained the boundary,

although the Romans crossed the river at various points and built

fortresses upon the eastern bank. They appear, in like manner, to have

crossed the Danube, and they also gradually acquired possession of the

south-western corner of Germany, lying between the head-waters of that

river and the Rhine. This region (now occupied by Baden and part of

Wuertemberg) had been deserted by the Marcomanni when they marched to

Bohemia, and it does not appear that any other German tribe attempted to

take permanent possession of it. Its first occupants, the Helvetians,

were now settled in Switzerland.



[Sidenote: 100.]



The enlisting of Germans to serve as soldiers in the Roman army, begun

by Julius Caesar, was continued by the Emperors. The proofs of their

heroism, which the Germans had given in resisting Germanicus, made them

desirable as troops; and, since they were accustomed to fight with their

neighbors at home, they had no scruples in fighting them under the

banner of Rome. Thus one German legion after another was formed, taken

to Rome, Spain, Greece or the East, and its veterans, if they returned

home when disabled by age or wounds, carried with them stories of the

civilized world, of cities, palaces and temples, of agriculture and the

arts, of a civil and political system far wiser and stronger than their

own.



The series of good Emperors, from Vespasian to Marcus Aurelius (A. D. 70

to 181) formed military colonies of their veteran soldiers, whether

German, Gallic or Roman, in the region originally inhabited by the

Marcomanni. They were governed by Roman laws, and they paid a tithe, or

tenth part, of their revenues to the Empire, whence this district was

called the Agri Decumates, or Tithe-Lands. As it had no definite

boundary towards the north and north-east, the settlements gradually

extended to the Main, and at last included a triangular strip of

territory extending from that river to the Rhine at Cologne. By this

time the Romans had built, in their provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum and

Pannonia, south of the Danube, the cities of Augusta Vindelicorum, now

Augsburg, and Vindobona, now Vienna, with another on the north bank of

the Danube, where Ratisbon stands at present.



From the last-named point to the Rhine at Cologne they built a stockade,

protected by a deep ditch, to keep off the independent German tribes,

even as they had built a wall across the north of England, to keep off

the Picts and Scots. Traces of this line of defence are still to be

seen. Another and shorter line, connecting the head-waters of the Main

with the Lake of Constance, protected the territory on the east. Their

frontier remained thus clearly defined for nearly two hundred years. On

their side of the line they built fortresses and cities, which they

connected by good highways, they introduced a better system of

agriculture, established commercial intercourse, not only between their

own provinces but also with the independent tribes, and thus extended

the influence of their civilization. For the first time, fruit-trees

were planted on German soil: the rich cloths and ornaments of Italy and

the East, the arms and armor, the gold and silver, and the wines of the

South, soon found a market within the German territory; while the horses

and cattle, furs and down, smoked beef and honey of the Germans, the

fish of their streams, and the radishes and asparagus raised on the

Rhine, were sent to Rome in exchange for those luxuries. Wherever the

Romans discovered a healing spring, as at Baden-Baden, Aix-la-Chapelle

and Spa, they built splendid baths; where they found ores or marble in

the mountains, they established mines or hewed columns for their

temples, and the native tribes were thus taught the unsuspected riches

of their own land.



[Sidenote: 150. THE ROMAN FRONTIER.]



For nearly a hundred years after Vespasian's accession to the throne,

there was no serious interruption to the peaceful intercourse of the two

races. During this time, we must take it for granted that a gradual

change must have been growing up in the habits and ideas of the Germans.

It is probable that they then began to collect in villages; to use stone

as well as wood in building their houses and fortresses; to depend more

on agriculture and less on hunting and fishing for their subsistence;

and to desire the mechanical skill, the arts of civilization, which the

Romans possessed. The extinction of many smaller tribes, also, taught

them the necessity of learning to subdue their internal feuds, and

assist instead of destroying each other. On the north of them was the

sea; on the east the Sarmatians and other Slavonic tribes, much more

savage than themselves: in every other direction they were confronted by

Rome. The complete subjugation of their Celtic neighbors in Gaul was

always before their eyes. In Hermann's day, they were still too ignorant

to understand the necessity of his plan of union; but now that tens of

thousands of their people had learned the extent and power of the Roman

Empire, and the commercial intercourse of a hundred years had shown them

their own deficiencies, they reached the point where a new development

in their history became possible.



[Sidenote: 166.]



Such a development came to disturb the reign of the noble Emperor,

Marcus Aurelius, in the latter half of the second century. About the

year 166, all the German tribes, from the Danube to the Baltic, united

in a grand movement against the Roman Empire. The Marcomanni, who still

inhabited Bohemia, appear as their leaders, and the Roman writers attach

their name to the long and desperate war which ensued. We have no

knowledge of the cause of this struggle, the manner in which the union

of the Germans was effected, or even the names of their leaders: we only

know that their invasion of the Roman territory was several times driven

back and several times recommenced; that Marcus Aurelius died in Vienna,

in 181, without having seen the end; and that his son and successor,

Commodus, bought a peace instead of winning it by the sword. At one

time, during the war, the Chatti forced their way through the

Tithe-Lands and Switzerland, and crossed the Alps: at another, the

Marcomanni and Quadi besieged the city of Aquileia, on the northern

shore of the Adriatic.



The ancient boundary between the Roman Empire and Germany was restored,

but at a cost which the former could not pay a second time. For a

hundred and fifty years longer the Emperors preserved their territory:

Rome still ruled, in name, from Spain to the Tigris, from Scotland to

the Desert of Sahara, but her power was like a vast, hollow shell.

Luxury, vice, taxation and continual war had eaten out the heart of the

Empire; Italy had grown weak and was slowly losing its population, and

the same causes were gradually ruining Spain, Gaul and Britain. During

this period the German tribes, notwithstanding their terrible losses in

war, had preserved their vigor by the simplicity, activity and morality

of their habits: they had considerably increased in numbers, and from

the time of Marcus Aurelius on, they felt themselves secure against any

further invasion of their territory.



Then commenced a series of internal changes, concerning which,

unfortunately, we have no history. We can only guess that their origin

dates from the union of all the principal tribes under the lead of the

Marcomanni; but whether they were brought about with or without internal

wars; whether wise and far-seeing chiefs or the sentiment of the people

themselves, contributed most to their consummation; finally, when these

changes began and when they were completed--are questions which can

never be accurately settled.



[Sidenote: 250--300. GERMAN NATIONALITIES.]



When the Germans again appear in history, in the third century of our

era, we are surprised to find that the names of nearly all the tribes

with which we are familiar have disappeared, and new names, of much

wider significance, have taken their places. Instead of twenty or thirty

small divisions, we now find the race consolidated into four chief

nationalities, with two other inferior though independent branches. We

also find that the geographical situation of the latter is no longer the

same as that of the smaller tribes out of which they grew. Migrations

must have taken place, large tracts of territory must have changed

hands, many reigning families must have been overthrown, and new ones

arisen. In short, the change in the organization of the Germans is so

complete that it can hardly have been accomplished by peaceable means.

Each of the new nationalities has an important part to play in the

history of the following centuries, and we will therefore describe them

separately:



1. THE ALEMANNI.--The name of this division (Allemannen,[A] signifying

"all men") shows that it was composed of fragments of many tribes. The

Alemanni first made their appearance along the Main, and gradually

pushed southward over the Tithe-Lands, where the military veterans of

Rome had settled, until they occupied the greater part of South-western

Germany, and Eastern Switzerland, to the Alps. Their descendants inhabit

the same territory, to this day.



[A] Allemagne remains the French name for Germany.



2. THE FRANKS.--It is not known whence this name was derived, nor what

is its meaning. The Franks are believed to have been formed out of the

Sicambrians in Westphalia, together with a portion of the Chatti and the

Batavi in Holland, and other tribes. We first hear of them on the lower

Rhine, but they soon extended their territory over a great part of

Belgium and Westphalia. Their chiefs were already called kings, and

their authority was hereditary.



3. THE SAXONS.--This was one of the small original tribes, settled in

Holstein: the name is derived from their peculiar weapon, a short sword,

called sahs. We find them now occupying nearly all the territory

between the Hartz Mountains and the North Sea, from the Elbe westward

to the Rhine. The Cherusci, the Chauci, and other tribes named by

Tacitus, were evidently incorporated with the Saxons, who exhibit the

same characteristics. There appears to have been a natural enmity--no

doubt bequeathed from the earlier tribes out of which both grew--between

them and the Franks.



[Sidenote: 250--300.]



4. THE GOTHS.--The traditions of the Goths state that they were settled

in Sweden before they were found by the Greek navigators on the southern

shore of the Baltic, in 330 B. C. It is probable that only a portion of

the tribe migrated, and that the present Scandinavian race is descended

from the remainder. As the Baltic Goths increased in numbers, they

gradually ascended the Vistula, pressed eastward along the base of the

Carpathians and reached the Black Sea, in the course of the second

century after Christ. They thus possessed a broad belt of territory,

separating the rest of Europe from the wilder Slavonic races who

occupied Central Russia. The Vandals and Alans, with the Heruli, Rugii

and other smaller tribes, all Germanic, as well as a portion of the

Slavonic Sarmatians, were incorporated with them; and it was probably

the great extent of territory they controlled which occasioned their

separation into Ostrogoths (East-Goths) and Visigoths (West-Goths). They

first came in contact with the Romans, beyond the mouth of the Danube,

about the beginning of the third century.



5. THE THURINGIANS.--This branch had only a short national existence. It

was composed of the Hermunduri, with fragments of other tribes, united

under one king, and occupied all of Central Germany, from the Hartz

southward to the Danube.



6. THE BURGUNDIANS.--Leaving their original home in Prussia, between the

Oder and the Vistula, the Burgundians crossed the greater part of

Germany in a south-western direction, and first settled in a portion of

what is now Franconia, between the Thuringians and the Alemanni. Not

long afterwards, however, they passed through the latter, and took

possession of the country on the west bank of the Rhine, between

Strasburg and Mayence.



[Sidenote: 270. INCURSIONS OF THE GOTHS.]



Caracalla came into collision with the Alemanni in the year 213, and the

Emperor Maximin, who was a Goth on his father's side, laid waste their

territory, in 236. About the latter period, the Franks began to make

predatory incursions into Gaul, and the Goths became troublesome to the

Romans, on the lower Danube. In 251 the Emperor Decius found his death

among the marshes of Dacia, while trying to stay the Gothic invasion,

and his successor, Gallus, only obtained a temporary peace by agreeing

to pay an annual sum of money, thus really making Rome a tributary

power. But the Empire had become impoverished, and the payment soon

ceased. Thereupon the Goths built fleets, and made voyages of plunder,

first to Trebizond and the other towns on the Asiatic shore of the Black

Sea; then they passed the Hellespont, took and plundered the great city

of Nicomedia, Ephesus with its famous temple, the Grecian isles, and

even Corinth, Argos and Athens. In the meantime the Alemanni had resumed

the offensive: they came through Rhaetiae, and descended to the Garda

lake, in Northern Italy.



The Emperor, Claudius II., turned back this double invasion. He defeated

and drove back the Alemanni, and then, in the year 270, won a great

victory over the Goths, in the neighborhood of Thessalonica. His

successor, Aurelian, followed up the advantage, and in the following

year made a treaty with the Goths, by which the Danube became the

frontier between them and the Romans. The latter gave up to them the

province of Dacia, lying north of the river, and withdrew their

colonists and military garrisons to the southern side.



Both the Franks and Saxons profited by these events. They let their

mutual hostility rest for awhile, built fleets, and sailed forth in the

West on voyages of plunder, like their relatives, the Goths, in the

East. The Saxons descended on the coasts of Britain and Gaul; the Franks

sailed to Spain, and are said to have even entered the Mediterranean.

When Probus became Emperor, in the year 276, he found a great part of

Gaul overrun and ravaged by them and by the Alemanni, on the Upper

Rhine. He succeeded, after a hard struggle, in driving back the German

invaders, restored the line of stockade from the Rhine to the Danube,

and built new fortresses along the frontier. On the other hand, he

introduced into Germany the cultivation of the vine, which the previous

Emperors had not permitted, and thus laid the foundation of the famous

vineyards of the Rhine and the Moselle.



[Sidenote: 300.]



Probus endeavored to weaken the power of the Germans, by separating and

colonizing them, wherever it was possible. One of his experiments,

however, had a very different result from what he expected. He

transported a large number of Frank captives to the shore of the Black

Sea; but, instead of quietly settling there, they got possession of some

vessels, soon formed a large fleet, sailed into the Mediterranean,

plundered the coasts of Asia Minor, Greece and Sicily, where they even

captured the city of Syracuse, and at last, after many losses and

marvellous adventures, made their way by sea to their homes on the Lower

Rhine.



Towards the close of the third century, Constantine, during the reign of

his father, Constantius, suppressed an insurrection of the Franks, and

even for a time drove them from their islands on the coast of Holland.

He afterward crossed the Rhine, but found it expedient not to attempt an

expedition into the interior. He appears to have had no war with the

Alemanni, but he founded the city of Constance, on the lake of the same

name, for the purpose of keeping them in check.



The boundaries between Germany and Rome still remained the Rhine and the

Danube, but on the east they were extended to the Black Sea, and in

place of the invasions of Caesar, Drusus and Germanicus, the Empire was

obliged to be content when it succeeded in repelling the invasions made

upon its own soil. Three hundred years of very slow, but healthy growth

on the one side, and of luxury, corruption and despotism on the other,

had thus changed the relative position of the two races.