"[The] largest and the most warlike nation of all the Germans." (Caesar’s description of the Suebi)

Despite all the accomplishments, widespread victories, and conquests that the ancient Romans accrued over the centuries, one of their most critical failures was the inability to subjugate Germany. Indeed, historians have singled out this one failure as central to the ultimate downfall of Rome, as the constant wars against the Germanic tribes and the need to defend the frontier on the Rhine helped bring the Roman Empire to its knees.

There are elements of truth in such a conclusion, but the reality was far more fluid than is often realized. From the first century BCE until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE, the relationships between the Romans and those living in what is now modern Germany were extremely complicated, involving much more than simple warfare. As a Roman territory, Germania at one point included significant areas of land east of the Rhine, all the way up to the Elbe. The Romans would maintain a significant force on this eastern side until the third century CE, but eventually a Frankish invasion ended that presence, and the term Germania came to refer specifically to the territory west of the Rhine, which included the two provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, or Upper and Lower Germany. Those provinces were key to the defense of the empire, so much so that Triers provided the location of one of the four seats of government near the end of Rome’s reign. 

The people who came to be known as Germans originally came from Scandinavia and were mainly shepherds and hunters, but they comprised a number of distinct groups. Within each group, there were separate tribes, and as their populations grew, the land they occupied in Scandinavia was unable to support them, so they began migrating south, settling outside the borders of the Roman Empire. The Germans were fierce warriors who employed rather crude but effective tactics in battle. Their main approach was one of charging directly at an enemy and fighting hand-to-hand using their long swords and shields. Body armor was unknown, and they wore only animal-skins. Most warriors wore their hair long, dyed red and greased into ponytails.

The Germans who lived on Gaul’s side of the Rhine proved to be more amenable to Roman culture and were willing to ally with and even give obedience to the Romans, but those who lived north of the Rhine were completely recalcitrant and obstinate when it came to any outsiders, Roman or otherwise. Rebellions among the Celts in Gaul (roughly equivalent to modern France) in 59 BCE forced Caesar to lead a major campaign into the province, which ultimately resulted in the suppression of the Celts, but the Germans north of the Rhine remained independent. Although Caesar led two secondary campaigns across the Rhine against the Germans, both were unsuccessful.

Among the Germans who stymied Caesar’s plans, those who gave the Romans the most problems were the Suebi. Caesar’s account of his Gallic campaign included the first documented account of the Suebi, who were described as fearless warriors, yet wholly uncivilized and barbaric in the eyes of the Romans. The Suebi lived north of the Rhine for hundreds of years, mostly unaffected by Rome’s expansion, and while the Romans and the Suebi did have early contact with each other, those contacts were relatively inconsequential. It was not until the Suebi took part in the great migrations that ravaged Europe in the fifth century CE that they had a more immediate impact on Rome.

By then, the Suebi had branched into many sub-tribes. The group that attacked Gaul and settled in the Iberian Peninsula became known as the Sueves.