Germania

Germania (/dʒərˈmeɪni.ə/ jər-MAY-nee-ə; Latin: [ɡɛrˈmaːni.a]), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: Greater Germania), Germania Libera (English: Free Germania), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, was a historical region in north-central Europe during the Roman era, which was associated by Roman authors with the Germanic peoples. According to Roman geographers, this region stretched roughly from the Rhine in the west to the Vistula in the east, and to the Upper Danube in the south, and the known parts of southern Scandinavia in the north. Archaeologically, these people correspond roughly to the Roman Iron Age of those regions.

The Latin name Germania means "land of the Germani", but the etymology of the name Germani itself is uncertain. During the Gallic Wars of the 1st century BC, the Roman general Julius Caesar encountered Germani originating from beyond the Rhine. He referred to their lands beyond the Rhine as "Germania". West of the Rhine, the prosperous Roman provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, sometimes collectively referred to as "Roman Germania", were established in northeast Roman Gaul, while territories east of the Rhine remained independent of Roman control. The Roman emperors also sought to expand east of the Rhine to the Elbe, but these efforts were hampered by the victory of Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.

From the 3rd century AD, Germanic peoples moving out of Magna Germania began encroaching upon and occupying parts of Roman Germania. This contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, after which territories of Roman Germania were captured and settled by migrating Germanic people. Large parts of Germania subsequently became part of the Frankish Empire and later East Francia. The name of Germany in English and many other languages is derived from the name Germania.

"The name Germany, on the other hand, they say, is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to inspire terror."

In Latin, the name Germania means "lands where people called Germani live". Modern scholars do not agree on the etymology of the name Germani. Celtic, Germanic, Illyrian and Latin etymologies have been suggested.

The main source on the origin of the names Germania and Germani is the book Germania (98 AD) by Tacitus. Tacitus writes that the name Germania was "modern and newly introduced". According to Tacitus, the name Germani had once been applied only to the Tungri, west of the Rhine, but it became an "artificial name" (invento nomine) for supposedly-related peoples east of the Rhine. Many modern scholars consider Tacitus's story to be plausible, but they are unsure whether the name was commonly used by Germani to refer to themselves.

The boundaries of Germania are not clearly defined, particularly at its northern and eastern fringes. Magna Germania stretched approximately from the Rhine in the west to beyond the Vistula river in the east, and from the Danube in the south and northwards along the North and Baltic seas, including Scandinavia. Germania Superior encompassed parts of modern-day Switzerland, southwest Germany and eastern France, while Germania Inferior encompassed much of modern-day Belgium and Netherlands.

In his Geography (AD 150), the Roman geographer Ptolemy provides descriptions of the geography of Germania. Modern scholars have been able to localize many of the place names mentioned by Ptolemy, and associated them with place names of the present day.