|
Page 6 of 18
The commercial activity of the Romans among the Germanic peoples was astonishing in scope and variety. Roman trade reached from the British isles to Russia and beyond. Throughout most of Germanic Europe, trading activity with the Romans took place. Through Roman trade, the Germans came into possession of numerous items - including vessels of silver and bronze, glassware and pottery, brooches, textiles, foodstuffs, and considerable quantities of Roman weaponry. In return, the Romans received amber that made its way from the Baltic coast and the Black Sea (Todd The Early Germans 87-88). When Caesar first encountered the Suebic peoples in 55 BC, he observed that they "give access to traders, to secure buyers for what they have captured in war rather than to satisfy and craving for imports." Interestingly, the Suebic leaders would not allow wine to be imported, "believing that men are threby rendered too soft and womanish to endure hardship" (de Bello Gallico 4, 20)
Trading activities between the Romans and the Germans would occur in commercia, or trading posts, that could be found throughout the Germanic lands. Sometimes, trading occured in major cities throughout the frontier provinces, such as Raetia (present-day Augsburg, Bavaria), which was used by the Hermunduri, who Tacitus calls "our faithful allies."
Because they are so loyal, they are the only Germans who trade with us not merely on the river bank but far within our borders, and indeed in the splendid colony that is the capital of Raetia. They come over where they will, and without a guard set over them. The other Germans are only allowed to see our armed camps; to the Hermanduri we exhibit our mansions and country houses without their coveting them (Germania 41).
Traders were frequently former Roman officers who had made contacts and formed friendships with the Germans. One such trader, Quintus Atilius Primus, operating in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, organized his commercial operations in Moravia, among the Quadi. Sometimes, these traders would serve as intelligence gatherers for the Roman armies (Todd The Early Germans 88-89).
Tribes along the frontier borders of the empire, such as the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and the Hermunduri, utilized Roman coinage in their commercial transactions with Rome. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, great quantities of silver coins - called Republican denarii - were used and horded by these frontier peoples. These coins were, in fact, used within German society as a primitive form of currency - one used to pay for obligations and for services rendered, and to act as a medium for gifts. They were not used for everyday transactions. It should be emphasized that most of the Roman trading was directed toward the warlike elites of the Germans and their leaders, who, the Romans perceived, controlled whatever resources might be of value to them. Moreover, its primary purpose was one of control and influence, rather than monetary (Todd The Early Germans 90-103).
At the time they fought against the Romans in 6 AD, their population was estimated to be about 100,000 (Todd 5). Their primary settlement areas, which were restricted to the old Boiic region, were nestled along the western side of the upper Elbe, in the valleys of the Ohre and Vltava rivers (Todd 58). Despite the early battles with the Romans, however, their relationship with their advanced southern neighbors at times seems to have been quite good. In the first half of the 1st Century AD, they enjoyed a healthy trading relationship with Rome. Until that point in their history, they had been led by kings of their own race. As their contact with the Roman Empire became more extensive, however, the power of their kings became dependent - in varying degrees - on the authority of Rome. The Marcomanni also received military and financial assistance from the Romans in their struggles with other tribes (Tacitus 42). Their loyalty and trade seems to have ended, however, in 89 AD, which marked the beginning of a long period of armed conflict between the Marcomanni and the Romans (Todd The Early Germans 7). In 98 AD, the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, wrote of the Marcomanni:
The Macomanni are conspicuous in reputation and power: even their homeland, from which they drove out the Boii, was won by their bravery. ...Down to our own times the Marcomanni and Quadi still had kings of their own race, the noble lines of Maroboduus and Tudrus; but now they sometimes have foreign rulers set over them. The power of the kings depends entirely on the authority of Rome. They occasionally receive armed assistance from us, more often financial aid, which proves equally effective (Germania 42).
In the latter half of the 2nd Century AD, the Marcomanni engaged the Romans in a series of armed conflicts that became known as the Marcomannic Wars, which took place in the Danube Valley from 166-175 AD, and from 178-180 AD (Todd 18). During the early phase of this period, the Marcomanni and Quadi, another Germanic tribe, broke through into northern Italy, destroying the town of Opitergium (present-day Oderzo, northeast of Venice), and laying siege to the important trade city of Aquileia at the head of the Adriatic. This early Germanic advance sent shock waves throughout Italy - underscoring the precarious state of security along the northern borders (Todd The Early Germans 55). Along with the Quadi, another Germanic tribe, they fought Commodus in 183 AD - a conflict that ended in a negotiated peace. By the end of the 2nd Century, after a period of unregulated commerce, Marcus Aurelius had formalized trading arrangements with the Marcomanni - specifying regular places and days in which the two people could engage in trade. Conflict arose again in the middle of the 3rd Century. Between 249-252 AD, the Marcomanni were defeated by Marcus Antonius in conflicts that took place in the Upper Danube region (Gibbon i.98,261-263).
The Bavarians (470 to 976)
The Bavarians in the Dark Ages (from the 5th-8th Centuries)
For the better part of the 5th Century, the Bavarians remained in Bohemia, taking no part in the numerous invasions of the Roman provinces by other German tribes. Towards the end of the century, perhaps as early as 470 AD, the Bavarians abandoned their Bohemian homeland and headed southwest - most likely due to pressure from the migrating Lombards who thereafter took their place in Bohemia (Leeper 57). Before they left Bohemia, they were calling themselves Bojoari or Bajovari - the source of the name Bavarians (Kohlrausch 76).
For the next 50 years, a mysterious silence falls over the fate of the Bavarians. For a people as important and developed as the Marcomanni, the likelihood that they simply vanished is highly unlikely. Most historians agree that they continued their existence as a people under their new name. There is also evidence that the Bavarians were accompanied on their migration by the remnants of other Suevic tribes, such as the Quadi and the Narisci (Leeper 57). Upon their arrival in their present-day homeland, they took in the remnants of several additional Suevic kinfolk already living in the region - namely, the Herulians, the Rugians, the Scyrians, and the Turcilingians (Kohlrausch 76).
There is no record of any significant warfare in the 6th Century between the Bavarians and the neighboring tribes upon their arrival in the Danube region. Their western neighbors, the Swabians (formerly the Alamanni), were close Suevic kinsmen to the Bavarians, despite their divergent histories (Leeper 58-59). The Alamanni were a confederacy of Germanic tribes that inhabited the region between the Main and Danube rivers beginning in the 3rd Century. They invaded Gaul several times and, early in the 5th Century, conquered the territory that is now Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.
To the south and east, the Lombards (formerly the Langobardi) controlled Carniola, parts of Carinthia, and south Tirol up to the mountain pass of the river Eisack (Leeper 64). The Lombards, also from the Suevic confederacy, originally settled along the lower Elbe River. They invaded and conquered northern and central Italy between 568 and 572. In 572 the chief of the Lombards, Alboin, founded the kingdom of Lombardy. The Lombards were gradually converted to Christianity, adopted the Latin language, and were assimilated by the inhabitants of the land. The Lombard dynasty was overthrown in 774 by Charlemagne.
|
Europe 
