The German summer, short and cool, was drawing to a close. Publius Quintilius Varus, sent to command the Roman troops in Germany in order to subdue the recalcitrant tribes, to subjugate them to the power of the great Caesar Octavian Augustus, was already about to transfer the legions for the winter to a fortified camp. But the bad news came. The German Arminius, who had become a friend of the Roman people and had earned the high honor of being called a Roman citizen, reported on the outbreak of a rebellion. Before the onset of winter, it was necessary to put things in order. And Var led through the forest jungle and swamps three selected legions, cavalry and auxiliary detachments with a total number of up to 20 thousand people.
The places are wild and scary (not like native Italy), but there is nothing to fear: the rebels are still far away, and here the Romans can count on the help of their friend Arminius. But what is it?
From the dense thickets, and right out of the ground, as it seemed to the Romans, blond and red-haired people suddenly appeared, with spears, swords, axes and tridents in their hands. Here and there one could see deaf helmets topped with formidable horns. Germans!
A fierce battle ensued. Var is an experienced commander, and he considered his legionnaires to be the best in the world, but what is the use of military art and training, even if there is no way to turn around in battle formation? This is not a fight, but a beating of those caught off guard!
The battle went on for three days. None of the Romans survived. And for Var this battle was the last. Did he know before his death that everything that had happened was set up by his friend Arminius?
Several Germanic tribes chose him as their leader, although not everyone trusted him: after all, he was friends with the Romans! But Arminius justified the trust of his fellow tribesmen: a smart politician and a skillful strategist, he foresaw everything, lured the Romans into a trap with false news, and the valiant German soldiers completed the job. No one knows how many of them paid for the victory in the Teutoburg Forest with their own lives.
But Germany never became a Roman province.
The name "Germans" (germani) was given by Caesar to one of the tribes living on the left bank of the Rhine. Subsequently, it spread to all the inhabitants of the country east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, which the Romans began to call Germany (Ger-mania). The Germans themselves did not use this word, and in general they did not have a name that was the same for all tribes. In Kievan Rus from the 10th century. AD the words "Germany" and "Germans" were used to refer to the German state and the Germans. In the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. three groups of Germanic tribes were formed: northern (in Scandinavia: Sveons, Danes, etc.), eastern (east of the Elbe: Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, etc.) and western (between the Rhine and Elbe: Batavians, Angles, Saxons, Teutons , Franks, etc.) Germans. The former are the ancestors of modern Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Icelanders. The latter were subsequently forced out of their territory and dispersed, leaving only a few names on the map of Europe, for example, the historical region of Burgundy in France. The descendants of the West Germans are the British, Dutch, Germans.
Istoriya bol'shinstva germanskikh plemon izvestna blagodarya ikh vzaimootnosheniyam s Rimom. Pervoye stolknoveniye germantsev s rimlyanami proizoshlo v 113 g. do n.e., kogda plemya tevtonov vtorglos' v Italiyu, oderzhalo neskol'ko pobed, no zatem bylo razgromleno voyskami polkovodtsa Gaya Mariya. Posle etogo plemya rasseyalos', no pamyat' o nom ostalas': dlya rimlyan slovo «tevtony» stalo sinonimom slova «germantsy», voshlo v literaturnuyu traditsiyu i vposledstvii upotreblyalos' v Yevrope, naprimer, dlya obb znacheniya rannefeodal'nogo nemetskogo gosudarstva (Regnum Teutonicorum — Tevtonskoye korolevstvo), Tevtonskogo ordena i t.d. V 58 g. do n.e. Tsezar' nanos porazheniye germanskomu plemeni svevov vo glave s vozhdom Ariovis-tom. K kontsu I v. do n.e. rimlyanam udalos' pokorit' germantsev, zhivshikh k vostoku ot Reyna — vplot' do reki Vezer, no v rezul'tate pobedy, oderzhannoy vozhdom plemeni kheruskov Arminiyem v Tevtoburgskom lesu nad legionami Vara (9 g. n.e.), granitsa mezhdu Rimskoy imperiyey i germanskimi plemenami ustanovilas' po Reynu i Dunayu. Vdol' etoy granitsy rimlyane vozdvigli ryad moshchnykh ukrepleniy i postroili goroda, sushchestvuyushchiye do sikh por: Koloniya Agrippina (Kol'n), Mogontsiakum (Maynts), Augusta Vinde-likum (Augsburg), Regina Kastra (Reginsburg), Vindobona (Vena) i drugiye. Granitsu po Reynu i Dunayu rimlyane uderzhivali do serediny III v. n.e. Uspeshno razvivalas' rimsko-germanskaya torgovlya. Germantsy prodavali rimskim kuptsam, postoyanno poseshchavshim ikh oblasti, rabov, skot, shkury, mekha, yantar', a pokupali v osnovnom predmety domashney utvari i oruzhiye. Mnogiye germantsy sluzhili v rimskoy armii v kachestve nayomnikov. Rimskaya tsivilizatsiya okazala ogromnoye vliyaniye na istoricheskoye razvitiye germantsev. So vtoroy poloviny III V; vozobnovilis' voyennyye stolknoveniya germantsev s Rimom. VIV—V vv., v khode Velikogo pereseleniya narodov, germantsy zakhvatili vsyu territoriyu Zapadnoy Rimskoy imperii. Voznikli tak nazyvayemyye varvarskiye korolevstva anglosaksov (Britaniya), frankov (Galliya), alemannov (Yugo-Zapadnaya Germaniya), vestgotov (Ispaniya), ostgotov (Italiya). Germanskoye plemya vandalov, proydya cherez Galliyu i Ispaniyu, zakhvatilo Severnuyu Afriku. Vozniklo vandal'skoye korolevstvo so stolitsey v Karfagene. V 455 g. vandaly vremenno zavladeli Rimom i podvergli gorod strashnomu razgromu i opustosheniyu, unichtozhili mnozhestvo pamyatnikov kul'tury i proizvedeniy iskusstva. Otsyuda proiskhodit termin «vandalizm», kotorym oboznachayetsya bessmyslennoye unichtozheniye kul'turnykh i material'nykh tsennostey. V 476 g. Odoakr, predvoditel' germanskikh nayomnikov, prizvannykh zashchishchat' Italiyu, sverg Romula
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The history of most of the Germanic tribes is known through their relationship with Rome. The first clash between the Germans and the Romans took place in 113 BC, when the Teutonic tribe invaded Italy, won several victories, but then was defeated by the troops of the commander Gaius Marius. After that, the tribe dispersed, but the memory of it remained: for the Romans, the word "Teutons" became synonymous with the word "Germans", entered the literary tradition and was subsequently used in Europe, for example, to describe the meaning of the early feudal German state (Regnum Teutonicorum - Teutonic kingdom), Teutonic Order, etc.
In 58 BC Caesar defeated the German tribe of the Suebi, led by the leader Ariovist. By the end of the 1st century BC. the Romans managed to subdue the Germans who lived east of the Rhine - up to the Weser River, but as a result of the victory won by the leader of the Cherusci tribe Arminius in the Teutoburg Forest over the legions of Varus (9 AD), the border between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes was established along the Rhine and Danube. Along this border, the Romans erected a number of powerful fortifications and built cities that still exist: Colonia Agrippina (Cologne), Mogonciacum (Mainz), Augusta Windelicum (Augsburg), Regina Castra (Reginsburg), Vindobona (Vienna) and others. The Romans held the border along the Rhine and Danube until the middle of the 3rd century. AD Roman-German trade flourished. The Germans sold slaves, cattle, skins, furs, amber to Roman merchants who constantly visited their regions, and bought mainly household utensils and weapons. Many Germans served in the Roman army as mercenaries. Roman civilization had a huge impact on the historical development of the Germans.
From the second half of III B; military clashes between the Germans and Rome resumed. In the IV-V centuries, during the Great Migration of Nations, the Germans captured the entire territory of the Western Roman Empire. The so-called barbarian kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons (Britain), Franks (Gaul), Alemanni (Southwest Germany), Visigoths (Spain), Ostrogoths (Italy) arose. The German tribe of Vandals, passing through Gaul and Spain, captured North Africa. A Vandal kingdom emerged with its capital at Carthage. In 455, the Vandals temporarily took possession of Rome and subjected the city to a terrible defeat and devastation, destroyed many cultural monuments and works of art. This is where the term “vandalism” comes from, which refers to the senseless destruction of cultural and material values. In 476, Odoacer, the leader of the German mercenaries called upon to defend Italy, overthrew Romulus
