At what dates in time did the Germanic tribes prove to be a significant threat to the Roman Empire and who were the rulers?

Answer 1

The Germanic peoples were a problem for the Romans for many centuries. The first problems occurred with the Cimbrian War (113-101 BC). The Cimbri and Teutones, who were migrating from Denmark, carried our invasions into Gaul, northern Spain and northern Italy. They were eventually defeated. The king of the Teutones was Teutobod.

Prior to the Gallic Wars (58-50 BC) the Sueves were migrating into eastern Gaul and were trying to take over that area. Their leader was Ariovistus. His actions contributed to the outbreak of this war, during which Julius Caesar conquered Gaul

In 13 BC the Chatti and Sicambri from across the river Rhine raided northern Gaul. Drusus carried out a war against them and conquered their territories in central Germany (13-9 BC). In 4 AD Tiberius subjugated Cananefates in southern Germany, and the Chatti and Bructeri who lived further north. In 9 AD Arminius, the ruler of the Cherusci, led an alliance with the Chatti, Sicambri, Marsi, Bructeri and Chauci and destroyed three Roman legions at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.

In the first half of the 3rd century AD, the Sueve peoples who lived south of the Chatti also formed a confederation which was called the Alemanni. The Alemanni carried out many invasions into the Roman Empire

In the same period the Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, and the Ubii of central Germany formed a confederation called the Ripuarian Franks in response to the formation of the confederation of the Alemanni and fought to regain territories the Romans had conquered in southern Germany and raided areas of Gaul near the river Rhine (the Roman frontier). They crossed the Rhine frequently to establish bases there from which they raided further Gaul. The Romans eventually bought peace by giving them freedom to settle on the left bank and making them allies.. Many of these Franks rose to high office in the empire.

From the third century the Alemanni, Franks and Juthungicarried out a number of invasions into the western part of the Roman Empire taking advantages of the Roman army being engaged to repel invasions in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

In the 258, an unspecified group of Franks pushed all the way Spain, sacked Tarragona and reached Gibraltar and the Moroccan coast. They ravaged the area for a decade before being defeated and expelled.

In 258 the Alemanni carried out a massive invasion of Gaul, taking advantage of the fact that Roman troops along the frontier of the river Rhine had been redeployed to face a Goth invasion in the east (see below). They reached as far south as Clermont-Ferrand, which they burnt. They pillaged the countryside and destroyed temples in towns. Then, together with the Juthungi, they crossed Switzerland and invaded Italy, reaching Rome. They were repelled by a local militia and moved to northern Italy where they were intercepted by the emperor Gallienus and defeated at the Battle of Mediolanum (Milan) in 259. On their way back, the Juthungi, they were defeated near Augsburg (in southern Germany).

In 260 the Franks besieged Cologne and some of them ravaged villages no the coast of Gaul up to the mouths of the rivers Seine and Somme. In 261 another incursion was stopped by the general Postumus.

The Alemanni and Juthungi attacked Italy again and were routed by the new emperor, Claudius II, at the Battle of Lake Benacus (Garda) in 268 or 269.

In 270, the Juthungi invaded Italy taking advantage of the redeployment of Roman troops to repel a Vandal invasion across the river Danube frontier. The emperor Aurelian hurried back to Italy. He was told that the Juthungi were moving south-east, after sacking Placentia (Piacenza). The Juthungi ambushed and defeated an exhausted Roman army at a wood near Placentia (Battle of Placentia, 271). They then marched on Rome causing panic in this poorly defended city. Aurelian rallied his men, pursued the Juthungi, and defeated them at the Battle of Fanum (Fano in the Marche). Aurelian then destroyed the retreating Juthungi army at the Battle of Ticinum (Pavia, northern Italy).

After Aurelian died (275) The Franks and Alemanni mounted a major invasion (275-76) and devastated the whole of Gaul. Only the better fortified cities, such as Cologne, triers and Toulouse escaped being sacked.

During three years of pillaging, they nearly subdued the riches areas. They were pushed out of Gaul by the emperor Probus.

Sometime between 285 and 287, Maximian carried out a victorious campaign against the Burgundians and the Alemanni. In 288 co-emperors Maximian and Diocletian pushed further into Germany and another co-emperor.

Another group of Franks, the Salian Franks, settled at the mouth of the river Rhine. A migration by the Saxon pushed them into Roman territory. In 260 they started moving into Holland south of the river Rhine and northern Belgium which were part of the Roman Empire, but hardly occupied by the Romans. They engaged in piracy. They became allies of Carausius, the commander of the roman fleet, when he became a usurper and proclaimed himself emperor of Britannia and northern Gaul in 286. The co-emperor Maximianinvades their heartland, the island of Batavia and the mouth of the river Rhine, and subdued. He made an alliance with their king Genobaud. The Franks then broke the treaty. The co-emperor Constantius Chlorus defeated them and invaded Britannia after Carausius had been assassinated. He then spent the next two years fighting the Franks, and Genobaud sued for peace. The Salian Franks became Roman vassals and were allowed to settle in Toxandria, the area mentioned above.

In 350, the Alemanni and Franks again took advantage of the redeployment of Roman troops from the Rhine to the east (this time for a civil war) to attack the empire. They overrun eastern Gaul and Rhaetia. They seized Roman forts on the other bank of the river, destroyed them and sued them as bases for pillaging Gaul through the years of the civil war (351-54). More than 20,000 Gallo-Romans were enslaved. The emperor ConstantiusII succeeded in driving them out of Switzerland out of Rhaetia (354) and forced the kings of southern Alemannia, Wadomar and Gundomad, into alliances.

Julian, a general of Constantius II, routed an Alemanni force of seven Alemanni kings led by Chnodomar at the Battle of Argentoratum (Strasbourg) in 357. He then restored north-eastern Gaul to the empire, expelled all the Alemanni who had settled in the area, crossed the Rhine forced some of the Franks to pay a tribute, and forces the New paramount Alemanni kings , Hortar and Surmar into submission.

Between 356 and 358 the Alemanni and Juthungi the invaded Rhaetia (central and eastern Switzerland) and destroyed Castra Regina (its capital, and one of the biggest Roman military camps north of the Alps).

A Battle of Solictum in which Valentinian I repelled the Alemanni but suffered hey losses was recorded for the year 368. The location was somewhere in south-western Germany.

In 378 Macrian led and an invasion of north-eastern Gaul by the Lentienses, a branch of the Alemanni. He was defeated by the emperor Gratian at the Battle of Argentovaria (Colmar, Alsace) in May 378 and disappeared from history. Their king, Priarius, died in the battle.

In 388 Marcomer, his brother Sunno, and Genobaud, a leader of the Franks, invaded northern Gaul while the emperor Theodosius I and the usurper in Gaul were fighting each other in Italy. They killed many people, ravaged the countryside and made the city Cologne panic. The main body moved back over the Rhine with their booty, but some Franks remained in the Belgian woods. The Romans attacked them and killed many of them. Then they carried a punitive expedition across the Rhine, but were defeated. A peace was negotiated. In 390, Abrogast, a Frank who was general seized control of the army of the western part of the Roman Empire and crossed the Rhine. Marcomer was arrested and banned to Italy. His brother crossed the Rhine and tried to replace Marcomer as leader, but he was killed by his people.

The first troubles experienced in the eastern part of the Roman Empire were a set of invasions from the three points along river Danube.

One invasion was by the Marcomanni and Quadi who lived in Bohemia (present day Czech Republic). Other neighbouring Germanic peoples participated in these actions: the Sueves, Lombards and Vandals (who lived to their north) and the Hermenduri (who lived to their east). The invasions further along the Danube were by Sarmatian peoples who were Iranian- speakers: the Iazyges from Easter Hungary and Romania east of the Carpathian Mountains (they were supported by the Cotini who were a Gaul people) and further downstream by the Roxolani, Costoboci and Bastarnae (who were Celts who were assimilated by the Sarmatians) from Romania east of the Carpathian Mountains, Moldova and pat of western Ukraine.

In 166/68 there were two invasions. The Lombards and Lacringi invaded Pannonia (eastern Austria and western Hungary). The Iazyges, led by Zanticus, and Vandals invaded Roman Dacia (around the Carpathian Mountains of Romania). Both were repelled. The emperors Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor Lucius Verus conducted a punitive campaign in 168. The next year there was a war with the Iazyges and the Costoboci invaded Thrace (in the lower Danube area). In 170 there was a bigger invasion by the Marcomanni who had made an alliance with other Germanic peoples and led by Ballomar. They invaded Austria and northeaster Italy and besieged the important city of Aquileia. This led Marcus Aurelius to conduct the First Marcomannic War (171-75). Marcus Aurelius defeated the enemies, but had to cut the war short because of a rebellion in the empire. A rebellion by the Quadi who were supported by the Marcomanni led to the Second MarcomannicWar (177-80). Marcus Aurelius won the war and was paling to invade Bohemia, but he died in 180.

More problems were caused by the Goths who migrated first from Sweden to the Polish coast and then to Ukraine, where they established a powerful kingdom. Their first attack on the Roman Empire was a town on the mouth of the river Danube (Histria) in 238. Their raids continued and in 251 a federation of Scythians led by the Gothic king Cniva defeated the Romans at the Battle of Abritus in which the emperor Decius died. In 255-257 they sailed the Black Sea and attacked the coast of Georgia and north-eastern Turkey. In 267 the Goths, led by the Heruli (another Germanic people) they attacked the coast of north-western Turkeys and sacked three towns. The Roman fleet defeated their fleet, but managed to escape into the Aegean Sea and attacked two Greek island and sacked several Greek cities, including Athens, Corinth, Argos, Olympia and Sparta. The Athenian pushed them north and the Roman army led by the emperor Gallienus defeated them at the Battle of Nessus in modern Bulgaria (268). Meanwhile another and big invasion of Goths, Gepids (another Germanic people) and Peucini (Iranian speakers) led by the Heruli had set sail. A detachment attached the Greek islands, including Crete, Rhodes and even reached Cyprus and probably also sacked the coast of western Turkey. The main force besieged Thessalonica and Cassandreia in northern Greece. On hearing that the emperor Claudius II was advancing on them they moved northwards. They were defeated at the Battle of Naissus in 269. This victory ensured the survival of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. When Claudius II died, Cannabaudes led another Gothic invasion of the empire, but was defeated by the emperor Aurelian.