German History · Chronicle I of VII

Germanic Antiquity & the Migration Era

Germania

From Arminius in the Teutoburg forest to the great migrations and Charlemagne's crown.

Span: 750 BC – 800 AD
Entries: 24
Next: Holy Roman Empire

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Entry 1 of 24

750 BC
Pre-Roman Iron AgeCultural
The Jastorf culture takes shape
Across the lowlands between the lower Elbe and the Jutland peninsula, a distinctive Iron Age culture emerges that archaeologists call Jastorf — usually identified as the cradle of the Germanic-speaking peoples.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
113 BC
Cimbrian WarMilitary
The Cimbri and Teutones erupt south
Driven from their Jutland homelands by climate change and rising seas, the Cimbri, Teutones, and Ambrones cross the Alps and crush the Roman consul Cn. Papirius Carbo at Noreia — the first great clash between Rome and the Germanic peoples.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
58 BC
Caesar in GaulMilitary
Caesar defeats Ariovistus
In the Vosges, Julius Caesar crushes the Suebian war-king Ariovistus, who had crossed the Rhine and seized lands in Alsace. The Rhine begins its long career as the frontier between Roman Gaul and free Germania.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
12 BC
Augustan GermanyMilitary
Drusus crosses the Rhine
Drusus the Elder, stepson of Augustus, launches the first systematic Roman conquest east of the Rhine, campaigning to the Weser and the Elbe. For a generation it appears that a province of Germania between Rhine and Elbe will join the empire.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 9
Teutoburg ForestMilitary
The Varus disaster
In the forests of the Teutoburg, the Cheruscan prince Arminius — a Roman-trained auxiliary officer — ambushes the army of Publius Quinctilius Varus and annihilates three legions, XVII, XVIII, and XIX, with their eagles. Augustus, hearing the news, beats his head against a door, crying out 'Quinctili Vare, legiones redde!'
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 16
Germanicus RecalledPolitical
Tiberius pulls Germanicus back
After three years of punitive campaigns east of the Rhine — recovering lost eagles, defeating Arminius at Idistaviso, and surviving devastating North Sea storms — Germanicus is recalled by his uncle Tiberius. Rome formally abandons the project of conquering Germania.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 98
Tacitus's GermaniaCultural
Tacitus writes the Germania
The senator Cornelius Tacitus publishes the De origine et situ Germanorum — a short ethnographic monograph on the tribes beyond the Rhine. It will become the single most influential ancient text on the Germanic peoples and the foundation of every later European theory about them.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 166
Marcomannic WarsMilitary
The Marcomanni break the Danube
A coalition of Marcomanni, Quadi, Iazyges, and other peoples crosses the middle Danube into Pannonia and Noricum, briefly besieging Aquileia. Marcus Aurelius spends most of the rest of his reign on the frontier fighting them, writing his Meditations between campaigns.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 260
Crisis of the Third CenturyMilitary
The Alemanni and Franks emerge
As Roman power totters under simultaneous civil wars, Persian invasion, and plague, new Germanic confederations — the Alemanni in the upper Rhine and the Franks on the lower — break through the limes. The Agri Decumates between the Rhine and Danube are permanently lost.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 357
Battle of StrasbourgMilitary
Julian crushes the Alemanni at Strasbourg
Outside Argentoratum (modern Strasbourg), the Caesar Julian — soon to be the last pagan emperor — destroys an army of seven Alemannic kings under Chnodomar. The Rhine frontier is briefly restored.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 376
Gothic CrossingPolitical
The Goths cross the Danube
Pushed west by the Huns, perhaps two hundred thousand Tervingi Goths under Fritigern beg the emperor Valens for asylum and are admitted across the Danube into Thrace — the first time an entire foreign nation is settled inside Roman territory under arms.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 378
AdrianopleMilitary
Valens falls at Adrianople
On 9 August, in the Thracian heat, the emperor Valens attacks Fritigern's Gothic army without waiting for his nephew Gratian's reinforcements. The Gothic cavalry, returning from foraging, surrounds the Roman line. Two-thirds of the eastern field army is destroyed; the emperor himself disappears in the rout.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 406
Crossing of the RhineMilitary
Vandals, Suebi, and Alans cross the frozen Rhine
On the night of 31 December, an enormous host of Vandals, Suebi, and Iranian-speaking Alans cross the frozen Rhine near Mainz, sweeping into Gaul. The Roman frontier between Germania and the empire collapses for good.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 410
Sack of RomeMilitary
Alaric's Visigoths sack Rome
On 24 August, after years of negotiation and two earlier blockades, Alaric's Visigoths enter Rome. For three days they plunder the eternal city — the first foreign army to do so in eight hundred years. Jerome, in Bethlehem, lays down his pen.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 451
Catalaunian PlainsMilitary
Aetius and the Visigoths stop Attila
On the Catalaunian Plains in Champagne, the Roman general Aetius — at the head of a coalition of Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Alans, and the last Roman regulars — fights Attila the Hun to a bloody stalemate that ends the Hunnic invasion of Gaul.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 476
End of Western EmpirePolitical
Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus
A federate officer of mixed Scirian–Germanic descent named Odoacer overthrows the boy-emperor Romulus Augustulus, sends the western imperial regalia to Constantinople, and rules Italy as king under nominal eastern suzerainty.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 481
Rise of the FranksPolitical
Clovis becomes king of the Salian Franks
At fifteen, Clovis succeeds his father Childeric as king of the Salian Franks around Tournai. Within thirty years he will conquer most of Gaul, eliminate his rival Frankish kings, and found the Merovingian dynasty that will rule the western Germanic heartland for two and a half centuries.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 496
Conversion of ClovisReligious
Clovis is baptised at Reims
At Reims, after a desperate vow on the battlefield against the Alemanni, Clovis accepts baptism from bishop Remigius along with three thousand of his warriors. Alone among the Germanic kings, the Franks embrace Catholic rather than Arian Christianity.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 568
Lombards in ItalyMilitary
The Lombards invade Italy
Under their king Alboin, the Lombards — a Germanic people lately settled in Pannonia — pour across the Julian Alps into Italy, exhausted by Justinian's Gothic war. Within five years they take Pavia and reduce Byzantine rule to a coastal patchwork.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 687
Battle of TertryPolitical
Pippin of Herstal unites the Frankish realm
Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, defeats the Neustrian forces at Tertry and brings all the Frankish lands under his effective control. The Merovingian kings dwindle into 'do-nothing kings' (rois fainéants); the future belongs to Pippin's family — the Carolingians.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 732
Battle of ToursMilitary
Charles Martel halts the Arabs at Tours
Between Tours and Poitiers, Charles Martel — Pippin's son and Mayor of the Palace — defeats the Umayyad raiding army of Abd al-Rahman and kills its commander. The northward expansion of Islam in western Europe is checked.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 754
Boniface and the CarolingiansReligious
Martyrdom of Boniface; anointing of Pippin
In Frisia, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface, who had felled Donar's Oak and re-organised the Church across Germania, is murdered by pagans at Dokkum. In the same year Pope Stephen II travels to St-Denis and anoints Pippin the Short as king, recognising the new Carolingian dynasty.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 772
Saxon WarsMilitary
Charlemagne begins the Saxon Wars
Charlemagne crosses the Eresburg and fells the Irminsul — the great wooden idol of the pagan Saxons — beginning thirty-three years of intermittent war to conquer and forcibly convert the last independent Germanic people east of the Rhine.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
AD 800
Imperial CoronationPolitical
Charlemagne crowned emperor in Rome
On Christmas Day, in St Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo III sets a crown upon the head of the kneeling Charles and the Roman people acclaim him Augustus. For the first time since 476 there is an emperor in the West — a Germanic king crowned by the bishop of Rome.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
16 more entries, to AD 800

Germanic Antiquity & the Migration Era

The Jastorf culture takes shape

The Cimbri and Teutones erupt south

Caesar defeats Ariovistus

Drusus crosses the Rhine

The Varus disaster

Tiberius pulls Germanicus back

Tacitus writes the Germania

The Marcomanni break the Danube

The Alemanni and Franks emerge

Julian crushes the Alemanni at Strasbourg

The Goths cross the Danube

Valens falls at Adrianople

Vandals, Suebi, and Alans cross the frozen Rhine

Alaric's Visigoths sack Rome

Aetius and the Visigoths stop Attila

Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus

Clovis becomes king of the Salian Franks

Clovis is baptised at Reims

The Lombards invade Italy

Pippin of Herstal unites the Frankish realm

Charles Martel halts the Arabs at Tours

Martyrdom of Boniface; anointing of Pippin

Charlemagne begins the Saxon Wars

Charlemagne crowned emperor in Rome