
The Germany of today is considered a strong force, a united country with its own blend of culture from within the shadows of the alps in München, all the way to Baltic sea city of Kiel.  The same culture can be felt from Köln on the river Rhine, through the centre of Germany to the Saxon city of Dresden located on the Elbe. With such a unique culture, it shouldn't be surprising that Germany as we now know it comes from several different sources, and tribes. 

Germania is the ancestral land of the Germans. The origins of the name are highly disputed among scholars and historians. Tacitus claimed that the name came from a Germanic Tribe known then as Tungrians, and that they had previously been known as Germans before they crossed the Rhine and battled the Gaulish forces (Tacitus, 98.) Julius Caesar first used the word “Germanus” in his commentary on the Gallic Wars where he put down the Gauls and battled with Germanic tribes which crossed the Rhine often under mischievous premisses. He took this word from The Gauls themselves, and used it to distinguish between those which he had conquered (The Gauls) and those which he had not. While the origin is uncertain, some believe it referred to a neighbor in the Gaulish language. In the first chapter, of his first book on these wars, Julius Caesar notes: “Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they (The Gauls) are continually waging war.....They contend with the Germans in almost daily battles.” (Julius Caesar, 50-40 BC) Others claim the meaning comes from the spear that they used in warfare, known as a ger (O.E.D, 2010), or perhaps from the Old Irish word garim meaning “to shout”, which indicated the Germans were loud, or noisy. (Names of Germany) 

 The early Roman historian Tacitus recorded in his AD 98 writing “De Origine et situ Germanorum”, which told of the origins of the Germans, that “I should regard (The Germans) as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For, in former times it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive.......Who would leave Asia, or Africa, for Italy for Germany, with its wild country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and aspect, unless indeed it were his home?(SIC)” (Tacitus, 98) 

And who would leave Rome for Germania? Certainly not the Romans, not yet at least. They would send out their conquests into the lands of Germania for goods, and lead the occasional land campaign but in the end they mostly returned back home to their sprawling empire. So as the Germanic tribes began appearing in the middle of the first century, they lived on the borders of the Roman Empire and traded their goods taken from the land, and their skills by serving within the ranks of the Roman army, (Ozment, 2005 pg. 17.)