Germanic Peoples

In two texts, The Complete Works of Tacitus and The Ancient History Sourcebook: Procopius of Caesarea, a noticeable difference can be seen in the descriptions of the Germanic peoples through the time period of 422 years.

In Tacitus, the Romans view the Germans as outsiders in a land far removed from civilized society. They live in a region that no man would want to travel to on foot or by horse, where the country side is wild and the seas are raging, where these Germanic people are forced to intermix with one another and stay within their culture (Church and Brodribb, p. 709). At this time when trading in Rome is at an all time high, it's unthinkable that a society would not know the value of the gold or silver coin, and rather use the commodities one finds in their own region to barter with each other (Church and Brodribb, p. 711). They are a warring group of people who would rather pillage and raid for what they need, rather than do the work for themselves to get it. The children adopt feuds and friendships with whomever their father was aligned with or against (Church and Brodribb, p. 719), they are taught that going armed to every encounter is necessary. From the Roman standpoint, these would be viewed at this time in the game as a group of people not to be worried about, for they are on the outskirts of the civilization.

As can be seen later in Procopius though, the "barbarians" were pressed to move from their original inhabitance in quest for food and better quality of living. This sends the Germanic people, now called Vandals, into Roman territory, in the region of Hispania (Procopius, p. 119). At this point in history, the Romans are fighting to keep their empire together, and the Vandals are look for land to invade. Through the work of Procopius, a more power hungry group of people can be seen. They were still a warring nation, who rather than staying in one place and had their battles, moved from territory to territory at whim (Procopius, p. 125). The Germanic people of this time found great love in money and pillaging, and had figured out the value of it finally. This group of people were no longer on the outside of society, they were right in the middle, running the show.

An overall change can be seen from the Romans side because they are no longer the all powerful empire they had been in the writings of Tacitus, but rather an empire at the end of an era by the time Procopius was writing about the