Germanic–Roman contacts

[2][3] The first contacts happened by the late 2nd century BC, when Roman authors recount that Gaul, Italy and Hispania were invaded by migrating Germanic tribes.

In the Augustean period there was—as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River—a first definition of the "Germania magna": from Rhine and Danube in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North.

The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Transalpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.

Important medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and Speyer were part of these Roman provinces.

Danish archaeologists Lars Jørgensen, Birger Storgaard and Ulla Lund Hansen have suggested Germano-Roman alliances, in which Romans supported a Germanic power in today's Denmark.

According to Jørgensen, this was either to destabilize Scandinavia, or to create a Roman friendly power which could help ensure peace and stability in the border areas.

[6] Ulla Lund Hansen and Birger Storgaard have also suggested that Roman interests in Scandinavia were strong, and that there was direct contact.

These trade networks may have been established prior to the Roman Empire and suggest a complex and advanced social structure and organisation among the Germanic tribes and societies.

Artefacts may have been traded to the Germanics as diplomatic gifts in order to enhance and strengthen alliances, bonds and the likes.

[10] Archaeologist Lynn F. Pitts writes about the Roman relationship to the Marcomanni and the Quadi that: Rome was perhaps concerned to cultivate these Germanic tribes in order to counterbalance […] their neighbours.

Thus many Roman objects were obtained, proliferating throughout much of Germania, most likely via the already existing trade networks, all the way to Scandinavia.

[14] Two silver cups found in a grave in Hoby, in Denmark, are likely to have been war spoils from the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D.[15] A popular belief is that Germanic barbarians suddenly invaded and destroyed Roman civilization.

Hilaire Belloc observes, “What we are told is that the Western Empire was overrun by savage tribes, but there was no barbarian conquest.