Who were the Germani and where did they come from? page 5

Who were the Germani and where did they come from?

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The Suebi tribe, the first of the Germani to confront Caesar, had such a “Kernel of Tradition.” Indeed, their leader, Ariovistus, had a Celtic name, spoke Celtic, was married to a Celtic woman, and Celts were even found among his warriors! This shows ethnic differences were generally of little concern. Hope of success in war united the Germani, the Celts and other groups into one great Suebi force. The draw was so widespread that the typical Suebi hair style became common. Later the belief common gods represented such “Kernel of Tradition,” and again, many tribes were united. The name “Germani” made no headway among the people given the name because it was never associated with cultural achievement, but only with the call to arms. The name apparently derived from a small tribe from the lower Rhine and was used to label an entire nation, as Tacitus reports: “The name ‘Germani’ is an recent innovation. The first tribes to cross the Rhine and expel the Gauls were called the Germani at the time, although they are now referred to as the Tungri. The name ‘Germani,’ although proper only to a single tribe, was gradually applied to an entire nation. At first the name was used by those who were victorious in battle in order to frighten the enemy, but soon it was used by the Germani themselves.” (2) (3)

(2) M. Hutton and W. Peterson (Loeb Classical Library) translate this passage: “The name of ‘Germany’ is new and a recent application. The first tribes in fact to cross the Rhine and expel the Gauls, though now called Tungri, then bore the name Germans: So little by little the name – a tribal, not a national, name – prevailed, until the whole people were called by the artificial name ‘Germans,’ first only by the victorious tribe Tungri in order to intimidate the Gauls, but afterwards by themselves also.”

(3) A footnote in the Loeb edition says: “In fact, the Germans east of the Rhine did not call themselves as a whole people by any national name until the eleventh century when every German was thindisc, tiudisc, now deutsch.

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