the Celtic civilization can in some sort be termed national. Later it has a less rich development, betraying the political decay of the race. Its centres in Germany are the southern districts as far as Thuringia, and the valleys of the Main and Saar. The ornamentation is of the conventionalized plant type: gold is freely used, and enamel, of a kind different from the Roman enamel used later in Germany, is applied to weapons and ornaments. Chariots are used in war, and fortified towns are built, though we must still suppose the houses to have consisted of a wooden framework coated with clay. In these districts La Tène influence is contemporary with the use of tumuli, but in the (non-Celtic) coast districts it must be sought in urn-cemeteries.
Roman Period (from the 1st century A.D.).—The period succeeding to La Tène ought rather to be called Romano-Germanic, the relation of the Teutonic races to the Roman civilization being much the same as that of the Celts to classical culture in the preceding period. The Rhine lands were of course the centre of Roman civilization, with Roman roads, fortresses, stone and tiled houses and marble temples. By this time the Teutonic peoples had probably acquired the art of writing, though the origin of their national (Runic) alphabet is still disputed. The graves of the period contain urns of earthenware or glass, cremation being the prevalent practice, and the objects found include one or more coins in accordance with Roman usage.
Period of National Migrations (A.D. 300–500).—The grave-finds do not bear out the picture of a period of ceaseless war painted by the Roman historians. On the contrary, weapons are seldom found, at any rate in graves, the objects in which bear witness to a life of extraordinary luxury. Magnificent drinking-vessels, beautifully ornamented dice and draughtsmen, masses of gay beads, are among the commonest grave-finds. A peculiarity of the period is the development of decoration inspired by animal forms, but becoming more and more tortuous and fantastic. Only those eastern parts of Germany which were now occupied by Slavonic peoples remained uninfluenced by this rich civilization.
The Merovingian Period (A.D. 500–800) sees the completion of the work of converting the German tribes to Christianity. Reihengräber, containing objects of value, but otherwise like modern cemeteries, with the dead buried in rows (Reihen), are found over all the Teutonic part of Germany, but some tribes, notably the Alamanni, seem still to have buried their dead in barrows. Among the Franks and Burgundians we find monolithic sarcophagi in imitation of the Romans, and in other districts sarcophagi were constructed out of several blocks of stone—the so-called Plattengräber. The weapons are the spatha, or double-bladed German sword, the sax (a short sword, or long knife, semispathium), the knife, shield, and the favourite German axe, though this latter is not found in Bavaria. The ornaments are beads, earrings, brooches, rings, bracelets, &c., thickly studded with precious stones.
Authorities.—S. Müller, Urgeschichte Europas (1905), and Tierornamentik (1881); O. Montelius, “Chronologie der Bronzezeit in N. Deutschland und Skandinavien,” in Archiv für Anthropologie, vols. xxv. and xxvi.; M. Hoernes, Urgeschichte des Menschen (1892), and Der diluviale Mensch in Europa (1903); M. Much, Kupferzeit in Europa (1893); R. Munro, Lake-dwellings of Europe (1890); J. Naue, Bronzezeit in Ober-Bayern (1894); O. Tischler, Ostpreussische Altertümer (1902); R. Virchow, Über Hünengräber und Pfahlbauten (1866); J. Mestorf, Urnenfriedhöfe in Schleswig-Holstein (1886); A. Lissauer, Prähistorische Denkmäler Preussens (1887); I. Undset, Erstes Auftreten des Eisens in N. Europa (1882); L. Lindenschmit, Handbuch der deutschen Altertumskunde, i. (1880–1889); and W. Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece, i. (1901). Also articles by the above and others, chiefly in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Berlin); Archiv für Anthropologie (Brunswick); Globus (Brunswick); Westdeutsche Zeitschrift (Trier); Schriften der physikalisch-ökonomischen Gesellschaft (Königsberg); Nachrichten über deutsche Altertumskunde (Berlin); Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, &c.; Beiträge zur Anthropologie Bayerns (Munich); and Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum (Berlin). (B. S. P.)
Ethnography and Early History
Our direct knowledge of Germany begins with the appointment
of Julius Caesar as governor of Gaul in 59 B.C. Long
before that time there is evidence of German communication
with southern civilization, as the antiquities prove, and occasional
travellers from the Mediterranean had made their way into
Julius Caesar
in Germany.
those regions (e.g. Pytheas, towards the end of the 4th
century), but hardly any records of their journeys survive.
The first Teutonic peoples whom the Romans are
said to have encountered are the Cimbri and Teutoni,
probably from Denmark, who invaded Illyria, Gaul and Italy
towards the end of the 2nd century B.C. When Caesar arrived
in Gaul the westernmost part of what is now Germany was in
the possession of Gaulish tribes. The Rhine practically formed
the boundary between Gauls and Germans, though one Gaulish
tribe, the Menapii, is said to have been living beyond the Rhine
at its mouth, and shortly before the arrival of Caesar an invading
force of Germans had seized and settled down in what is now
Alsace, 72 B.C. At this time the Gauls were being pressed by
the Germans along the whole frontier, and several of Caesar’s
campaigns were occupied with operations, either against the
Germans, or against Gaulish tribes set in motion by the Germans.
Among these we may mention the campaign of his first year of
office, 58 B.C., against the German king Ariovistus, who led the
movement in Alsace, and that of 55 B.C. in which he expelled
the Usipetes and Tencteri who had crossed the lower Rhine.
During the period of Caesar’s government he succeeded in
annexing the whole of Gaul as far as the Rhine. (For the campaigns
see Caesar, Julius.)
After peace had been established in Italy by Augustus, attempts were made to extend the Roman frontier beyond the Rhine. The Roman prince Nero Claudius Drusus (q.v.) in the year 12 B.C. annexed what is now the kingdom of the Netherlands, and constructed a canal (Fossa The campaign of other Roman leaders. Drusiana) between the Rhine and the lake Flevo (Lacus Flevus), which partly corresponded to the Zuyder Zee, though the topography of the district has greatly altered. He also penetrated into regions beyond and crossed the Weser, receiving the submission of the Bructeri, Chatti and Cherusci. After Drusus’ death in 9 B.C., while on his return from an expedition which reached the Elbe, the German command was twice undertaken by Tiberius, who in A.D. 5 received the submission of all the tribes in this quarter, including the Chauci and the Langobardi. A Roman garrison was left in the conquered districts between the Rhine and the Elbe, but the reduction was not thoroughly completed. About the same time the Roman fleet voyaged along the northern coast apparently as far as the north of Jutland, and received the nominal submission of several tribes in that region, including the Cimbri and the Charudes. In A.D. 9 Quintilius Varus, the successor of Tiberius, was surprised in the Saltus Teutobergensis between the Lippe and the Weser by a force raised by Arminius, a chief of the Cherusci, and his army consisting of three legions was annihilated. Germanicus Caesar, during his tenure of the command of the Roman armies on the Rhine, made repeated attempts to recover the Roman position in northern Germany and exact vengeance for the death of Varus, but without real success, and after his recall the Rhine formed for the greater part of its course the boundary of the Empire. A standing army was kept up on the Rhine, divided into two commands, upper and lower Germany, the headquarters of the former being at Mainz, those of the latter at Vetera, near Xanten. A number of important towns grew up, among which we may mention Trier (Augusta Trevirorum), Cologne (Colonia Agrippinensis), Bonn (Bonna), Worms (Borbetomagus), Spires (Noviomagus), Strassburg (Argentoratum) and Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicorum).
At a later date, however, probably under the Flavian emperors, the frontier of upper Germany was advanced somewhat beyond the Rhine, and a fortification, the Pfahlgraben, constructed to protect it. It led from Hönningen on the Rhine, about half-way between Bonn and Coblenz, to Mittenberg above Aschaffenburg on the Main, thence southwards to Lorch in Württemberg, whence it turned east to the junction of the Altmühl with the Danube at Kelheim.
During the wars of Drusus, Tiberius and Germanicus the Romans had ample opportunity of getting to know the tribal
