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  • 13 - The Germanic peoples and Germanic society

  • from PART V - THE NON-ROMAN WORLD
    • By Malcolm Todd, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology in the University of Durham, and former Principal of Trevelyan College, Durham
  • Edited by Alan Bowman, Brasenose College, Oxford, Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford, Peter Garnsey, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    08 September 2005, pp 440-460

  • Summary

    The Germanic communities of the early Roman Iron Age had developed settlement forms that were much more complex and sophisticated than would have been deduced from the literary record. In terms of tactics, Germanic warfare probably changed little during the third and early fourth centuries. Weaponry certainly improved, and access to Roman armament, however achieved, added a new dimension. Trading and other exchanges continued unabated between the Roman provinces and the Germanic peoples throughout the late second and third centuries, though with significant changes in the goods which changed hands and in the overall pattern of trade. The status of iron smiths was carefully defined in the later Germanic law codes and it is a reasonable surmise that they enjoyed a relatively elevated position in earlier Germanic society. Cult-places of several kinds are strongly in evidence from the end of the second century and a number remained in use until the fourth or fifth centuries.