Germania

Germania is the Roman and Greek term for the geographical region inhabited mainly by the Germanic people.

It is bordered to west by the Rhine river, to the south by the Danube river, to the north by the Baltic Sea, and to the east by the Vistula river.

According to Friedrich Engels in his book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, first published in 1884, Germania covered an area of 500,000 km2 or 190,000 sq mi with a population of 5,000,000 in the first century BCE.

The areas west of the Rhine were mainly Celtic (specifically Gaulish) and had become part of the Roman Empire.

Some Germani, perhaps the original people to have been referred to by this name, had lived on the west side of the Rhine.

At least as early as the seconnd century BCE.

This area was considered to be in "Gaul", and became part of the Roman empire.

These were the so-called germani cisrhenani, who in modern terms lived in the region of modern eastern Belgium, the southeastern Netherlands, and stretching into Germany towards the Rhine.

During the period of the Roman empire, more tribes were settled in areas of the empire near the Rhine, in territories controlled by the Roman Empire.

Eventually these areas came to be known as Lesser Germania, while Greater Germania (Magna Germania; it is also referred to by names referring to its being outside Roman control: Germania libera, "free Germania") was the larger territory east of the Rhine.The language of the Germani Cisrhenani and their neighbours across the Rhine is still unclear.

Their tribal names and personal names are generally considered Celtic, and there are also signs of an older Belgic language which once existed between the contact zone of the Germanic and Celtic languages.Germania in its eastern parts was likely also inhabited by early Baltic and, centuries later, Slavic tribes.

These parts of eastern Germania are sometimes called Germania Slavica in modern historiography.The Roman parts of Germania, "Lesser Germania", eventually form two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, "Lower Germania", which come to eventually include the region of the original germani cisrhenani and Germania Superior, in modern terms comprising an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany.

Important cities are Besançon (Besontio), Strasbourg (Argentoratum), Wiesbaden (Aquae Mattiacae), and Mainz (Mogontiacum).The Romans under Augustus begin to conquer and defeat the peoples of Germania Magna in 12 BCE, having the Legati (generals) Germanicus and Tiberius leading the Legions.

By CE 6, all of Germania up to the River Elbe is temporarily pacified by the Romans as well as being occupied by them.

The Roman plan to complete the conquest and incorporate all of Magna Germania into the Roman Empire is frustrated when Rome is defeated by the German tribesmen in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9.

Augustus then orders Roman withdrawal from Magna Germania (completed by 16) and establishes the boundary of the Roman Empire as being the Rhine and the Danube.