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''Germania'' (; ) was the Roman and Greek term for the geographical region inhabited mainly by the Germanic people. It bordered to west on the Rhine river, to the south on the Danube river, to the north on the Baltic Sea, and to the east on the Vistula river. According to Friedrich Engels in his book ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State'' (first published in 1884) Germania covered an area of and had a population of 5,000,000 in the 1st century BC. The areas west of the Rhine were mainly Celtic (specifically Gaulish) and became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC. Some ''Germani'', perhaps the original people to have been referred to by this name, had lived on the west side of the Rhine. At least as early as the 2nd century BC this area was considered to be in "Gaul", and became part of the Roman empire in the course of the Gallic Wars (58-50 BC). These so-called Germani cisrhenani lived in the region of present-day eastern Belgium, the southeastern Netherlands, and stretching into Germany towards the Rhine. During the period of the Roman empire, more tribes settled in areas of the empire near the Rhine, in territories controlled by the Roman Empire. Eventually these areas came to be known as Lesser Germania, while Greater Germania (''ラテン語:Magna Germania''; it is also referred to by names referring to its being outside Roman control: ''ラテン語:Germania libera'', "free Germania") formed the larger territory east of the Rhine. The Roman parts of Germania, "Lesser Germania", eventually formed two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, "Lower Germania" (which came to eventually include the region of the original ''germani cisrhenani'') and Germania Superior (in modern terms comprising an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany). Important cities in Lesser Germania included Besançon (''ラテン語:Besontio''), Strasbourg (''ラテン語:Argentoratum''), Wiesbaden (''ラテン語:Aquae Mattiacae''), and Mainz (''ラテン語:Mogontiacum''). ==Origins of the term== The name came into use after Julius Caesar and whether it was used widely before him amongst Romans is unknown. The term may be Gallic in origin. Caesar reports hearing from his Remi allies that the term ''Germani'' was used for the group the Romans called the Germani Cisrhenani, and that these tribes had historically come from over the Rhine. So the name Germania seems to have been extended to cover the similar tribes in the area understood to be their homeland.〔("German" ), ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology''. Ed. T. F. Hoad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 4, 2008.〕 Some generations later, Tacitus claimed that this is precisely what happened, saying that the Tungri of his time, who lived in the area which had been home to the Germani Cisrhenani, had changed their name, but had once been the original Germani. Tacitus wrote in AD 98:
The Germania of Caesar and Tacitus was not defined along linguistic lines as is the case with the modern term "Germanic". They knew of Celtic tribes living in Magna Germania (Greater Germania), and what we now term Germanic tribes living in Gaul, then a predominantly Celtic region. It is also not clear that they distinguished the tribes into linguistic categories in any exact way. The language of the Germani Cisrhenani and their neighbours across the Rhine is still unclear. Their tribal names and personal names are generally considered Celtic, and there are also signs of an older Belgic language which once existed between the contact zone of the Germanic and Celtic languages. Germania in its eastern parts was likely also inhabited by early Baltic and, centuries later, Slavic tribes. These parts of eastern Germania are sometimes called Germania Slavica in modern historiography. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Germania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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