Germanic tribes

The term Germanic tribes (or Teutonic tribes) applies to the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe.

Classification

The concept of "Germanic" as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198;query=section%3D%2341;chunk=section;layout=;loc=7.1.1, who distinguished a barbarian group in northern Europe similar to, but not part of, the Celts. Posidonius, to our knowledge, is the first to have used the name.

Related Topics:
Ethnic - Strabo - Barbarian - Celts - Posidonius

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By the 1st century A.D., the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman era writers indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into tribal groupings centred on:

Related Topics:
1st century - Tacitus - Roman era

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• the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes),
• the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones),
• the river Elbe (Irminones),
• Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones).

The Istvaeones, Irminones, and Ingvaeones are collectively called West Germanic tribes. In addition to this those Germanic people who remained in Scandinavia are referred to as North Germanic. These groups all developed separate dialects, the basis for the differences among Germanic languages down to the present day.

Related Topics:
Istvaeones - Irminones - Ingvaeones - West Germanic tribes - North Germanic - Germanic languages

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The divison of peoples into west-Germanic, east-Germanic, and north-Germanic was a 19th century hypothesis of linguists. Many Greek scholars only classified Celts and Scyths in the Northwest and Northeast of the Mediterranean and this classification was widely maintained in Greek literature until Late Antiquity. Latin-Greek ethnographers (Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, and Strabo) mentioned in the first two centuries AD the names of peoples they classified as Germanic along the Elbe, the Rhine, and the Danube, the Vistula and on the Baltic Sea. Tacitus mentioned 40, Ptolemy 69 peoples. Classical ethnography applied the name Suebi to many tribes in the first century. It appeared that this native name had all but replaced the foreign name Germanic. After the Marcomannic wars the Gothic name steadily gained importance. Some of the ethnic names mentioned by the ethnographers of the first two centuries AD on the shores of the Oder and the Vistula (Gutones, Vandali) reappear from the 3rd century on in the area of the lower Danube and north of the Carpathian Mountains. Modern scholarship has no explanation for the ethnic processes causing this continuity. For the end of the 5th century the Gothic name can be used - according to the historical sources - for such different peoples like the Goths in Gaul, Spain and Italy, the Vandals in Africa, the Gepids along the Tisza and the Danube, the Rugians, Sciri and Burgundians, even the Iranian Alans. These peoples were classified as Scyths and often deducted from the ancient Getae (most important: Cassiodor/Jordanes, Getica approx. 550 AD).

Related Topics:
Celt - Scyths - Tacitus - Pliny the Elder - Ptolemy - Strabo - Marcomannic - Gutones - Vandali - Goths - Vandals - Gepids - Rugians - Sciri - Burgundians - Alans - Getae

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