Units of History - Early Germanic Warriors DOCUMENTARY
A Units of History episode on the Early Germanic Warriors! Behold a new golden age in Conqueror’s Blade. Play Season VIII: Dynasty today and enjoy a FREE 7 day premium account! = bit.ly/3if2sRy
Sponsored by MY.GAMES
We continue our Units of History documentary series on one of the many "barbarian" foes from antiquity that all too often get stereotyped as wild brutes. In this full documentary episode though we dive deep into the much more nuanced history of the Germanic Warriors. We begin with an exploration of Germania itself which is quite difficult to define from a top down perspective. As a result we end up looking at their world from the bottom up as they would have seen it. This involves a huge social web that started at the basic family farm and eventually built its way up to the clan and tribe level.
We discuss the weapons and armour of these Germanic warriors, how they trained, how they organized, and how they fought in battle. We then conclude with a summary of their service history which stretches over many centuries. Primarily this involves their interactions with the Roman Army starting from the Cimbrian War with Gaius Marius to the Gallic War with Julius Caesar during the Roman Republic and the later decades long struggle of the Germanic Wars that stretched out over the course of the Early Roman Empire. This latter conflict saw the famous events like the Battle of Teutoburg Forest and the Idistaviso. We cover it in more military history between the German and Roman Army during our Avenging Varus series.
What units of history should we cover next?
Credits:
Research: Eric TenWolde
Script: Eric TenWolde
Narration: Guy Michaels
Artwork: Penta Limited
Bibliography and Suggested Reading:
Powell, Lindsay, “Combat 6: Roman Soldier versus Germanic Warrior”, Osprey Publishing, 2014
Wilcox, Peter, “Men-at-Arms 129: Rome's Enemies (1) Germanics and Dacians”, Osprey Publishing, 1982
MacDowall, Simon, “Warrior 17: Germanic Warrior 236-568 AD”, Osprey Publishing, 1996
McNally, Michael, “Campaign 228: Teutoburg Forest AD 9”, Osprey Publishing, 2011
D'Amato, Raffaele & Frediani, Andrea, “Campaign 336: Strasbourg AD 357”, Osprey Publishing, 2019
Elton, Hugh, “Warfare In Roman Europe AD 350-425”, Oxford University Press, 1996
Kiley, Kevin F., “An Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Uniforms Of The Roman World”, Lorenz Books, 2017
Goldsworthy, Adrian, “In The Name Of Rome: The Men Who Won The Roman Empire”, Phoenix, 2004
#History
#Documentary
#Germany
What Units of History should we cover next?
The Potsdam Giants
Scythian horse lords
Early sarmatian cataphracts
Syrian auxiliary archers or palmyrene army!
Iberian mercenaries
- Can go berserk - Frighten Infantry - Can hide in forests
Resistant to cold
@@DailyDipo+Bonus to flanking. +High stamin -Weak armour -Weak to skirmishers and heavy infantry. -Allergic to grass or w/e,takes bonus dmg from fire and the sun.
- has infantry mixed with Calvary
@Velstadt Hekkleson that litterarly goes for every army in the universe ever, not a particularly defining characteristic of germanic tribes
- Can’t read - Poor quality metal - Barbaric
Used this when teaching threats to Ancient Rome to my high school students. They loved it! Keep up the good work.
Unfortunately alot of teachers don't have the time or care to go the extra mile and teach students information such as this.
Look up the historians craft he does a great job breaking down the individual tribes and their relationship with the Roman empire.
Rome was a threat to everyone else, the Germanic people wanted to live in peace.
You should show them this, its more history on Germanic people. kzhead.info/sun/dbCHYp2Xe3iEmp8/bejne.html
Should be focusing more on what happens to people who try to control others. In the end they always die.
"So what gear are you taking for your invasion of the most powerful Empire on earth?" "What am I taking?... Ummm this stick looks pretty pointy, I guess I'll need a shirt too."
They choosed to use no chain or platearmour, even if they knew that technology (and some germanic warriors had armour). They choose to have few armour and gained very high mobility with that. In "De Bello Gallico" Caesar describes, when fighting the germans in gallia, there infantry advanced so fast at the romans, they could not trow their spears as they used, but let them fall too the ground to hastily get their swords ready, for close melee combat. Germanic spearman combined with germanic cavalry was a dangerous force.
which earth ^ ^
@Gabryjel Your pseudonym lol
Keeping it light, huh? 😁👍🏼
Roman's: "haha javelin go fssheeew"
"Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection" - Arthur Schopenhauer
... I don't see the connection to the video but thank you, this is a beautiful quote!
Good author.
@@Crafty_Spirit Schopenhauer was German I guess.
"Douglas" -- Arthur Spooner
warrior was crimated by fire bridge back to earth was burned down aparent belief in life after death
"Resources such as timber, salt and Pete" Yeah he's a pretty good guy honestly
lol....... peat
Pete tong
Yeah good on you Pete. Lovely fellow.
Nice dude
Germanics and celts were awesome but my boys dacians and thracians get overlooked a lot.
Indeed, i miss the boys. So little attention they get.
Oh the falx bearers are no joke…
@@Gustavovisk21 Until they meet an arrow
@@janbo8331 well you get talked about if you win, or if you have a race of romantic singers yes I mean the Irish, making the celts seem cool lol. Dacian fury was real and was crushed by Axcelleries of germania if Dacia did anything it helped tuton influence survive imagine if Dacia fell quickly and herman didnr make a stand and rome conquered germany then nordic strains led by goths and saxons showed up slavs and prussians not existing would have altered history tremendous I think and without Franks wooo
@@jerikrazik4707 buddica was a celt and she was badass so i dont think its just imagery
One thing I rarely see pointed out is that Germanic warfare used to start with both armies making of show of men and arms so that the other had a chance to cede and withdraw limiting the amount of death from inter tribal disputes, Roman's on the other hand would hide cavalry on the flanks, catapults at the rear and ranged in the bushes and use this show as a time to decimate the enemy ranks. Of course the Roman's later complained when the Germanics learned their lesson and used ambush tactics on them, it seems when a Germanic does it the Roman's see it as having no honor. Edit: it's nice to see it touched on here I forgot to add that part.
actually catapults in a field battle ? really ? do you know how long it takes to calibrate them whilst your mobile foe can just move to another position to avoid fire ? come on ....
@@tokre8880 they used them often and from the very beginning in fact they were a crucial weapon in the conquests of Greece. Not all catapult weapons are giant siege weapons some were small relatively mobile things for throwing buckets of stones or pitch balls into the enemy lines right before an advance. The main purpose of those weapons were to break enemy lines and cause chaos in them before contact. Perhaps you are thinking of Trebuchet the largest type of catapult used against fortifications that took all day to set up and took precise aim. Also any weapon that uses stored energy like that is a catapult, even a ballista and even a slingshot.
@@KelsaRavenlock I am talking about roman ballistas and Onagers and both take quite a while.... roman field artillery consisted mostly of the Scorpio , a smaller Ballista shooting large arrow-like missiles into enemy ranks ... I have never heard of any roman field battle where they relied on the firepower of onagers or heavier Ballistas.
@@KelsaRavenlock and by the way unlike a scorpio it takes a whole lot longer for a catapult still to be built and it can't be moved on a campaign already built up so when you met your enemy you would have to get him to stay for days at one position so you can built up your artillery ... when that happens ( the enemy being surrounded or pushed in a place with no way to escape ) it's actually a siege and no field battle because in all that time the enemy will also start fortifying himself .
@@tokre8880 your forgetting the mangonel which was small and easier to move. This weapon was the type of catapult the Roman's would use to flings buckets of rocks and pitch balls at enemy lines. It took only 1 or 2 people to wind up and was not accurate enough to do more than aim in a general direction hence it was used to break lines and cause panic ahead of the charge. A smaller proto model was used against Greece but the final model became standard at the time of the wars in Germania. Many also had wheels so could be hitched or were flat based and fit in carts.
“The greatest crime for a warrior was throwing away his shield.” [Happy Spartan Noises]
The greatest crime was for a warrior to throw away his shield.... Romans: Let's make a javelin that bends on our enemies' shields
@@eliasgarcia4866 the javelin was used by many cultures like the greeks or phönicians or persians. It was not invented by the romans. but you got a good point there. also the sandals were superior to barefoot germans.
@@matte6371 True, but it was the Romans that used the pilum with a thin neck and counter weight. After it penetrated the enemy's shield it would bend, causing the foe to drop the shield
@@matte6371 Why barefoot? I would assume that shoes were absulutely essential in such colder climates. At least the bog bodies found usually wear shoes.
@@happyspaceplumber840 Probably not by choice when it happened
Fantastic video, as always.
Greetings Noblest one. Good to see you here
Thanks for your content too, Metatron!
Actually most of these Germanic people didn't speak German at all 🤔 but that's a different story 😉
@@donnysandley4649 what did they speak?
@@NoName-yw1pt at that time there Russia and Polish with fewer German
As a german myself, I enjoy it when people take close looks and informative takes on my ancestors legacy. I as well, feel a deep-rooted connection with it and there can never be enough heard and discovered about them.
Most people of modern day Germany are not the descendants of ancient germanic warriors.
The mid 1930s to mid 1940s were indeed quite the study
Would love a video on early Celtic warriors
@KKmies huh? Where'd you get that from? They did however invent mail
@@Fatherofheroesandheroines He meant mail I think
@KKmies the scutum came from the Samnites. Who were from Italy.
@KKmies and they were said to use phalanx style formation
@KKmies the armor you mentioned was NOT a Gallic invention it was a combination of several styles into one. A ROMAN invention. Where are you getting the wooden barrel from?
This channel is an absolute gem. I subbed back when it was THFE and when they just moved from Halo (yes, this used to be a Halo channel) to Total War. They used to do replays of multiplayer matches, and it’s grown to one of the more premium history channels on KZhead.
Lmao the fuck? It was a GAMING channel?
I can totally see that transition happening despite only in the past few years diving into KZhead history content - it seems a good chunk of educational channels I watch have some form of gaming content in the old archives. Pretty awesome. My own spark to military history was through the original Call of Duty (2003) when I was 11, alongside WWII media at the time, and my interests have only grown from there, so the videogames -> history buff funnel is real ;)
Total war games got me into history
Axe Infantry Unit size: 120 Health: 10,560 Attack: 35 Defense: 25 Armor: 10 Speed: 20 Charge bonus: 15 Weapon Strength: 27 Bronze Shield Berserk: 20% bonus to Attack when Health drops below 50% Can cause terror
Warcry
"Marcomanni" I think i know where Bethesda got their name for their Elder Scrolls villain.
Yeah, I am pretty sure that is already in one of the wikis. A side note, that was the tribe at the start of Gladiator, as it was supposed to represent the Marcomannic Wars that Marcus Aurelius fought.
Who are you talking about jagar tharn, dagoth ur, mehrunes dagon or alduin cause i dont get it
@Settra the Great, the Imperishable, King of Kings Or Mannimarco, king of worms :)
@@82SSchultz Fun Fact: they shout „Those are dirty dogs“ in broken modern German“
@Settra the Great, the Imperishable, King of Kings quite :)
Sturla Ellingvag of Viking Stories has mentioned that new evidence is showing that the tribal kingdoms of Germania actually stretch back to the early Bronze Age. It seems that the more historians and geneticists dig into the Germanic past the more sophistication emerges from the obscurity of a people without their own written record.
And that they originates from Scandinavia
@@soderlund3610 yes and no
@@DevoteeofThunor Yes they did, this is well known. From Sweden to be exact.
@@erichamilton5932 again no
Again yes, unless you want to be "PC", but "PC" has nothing to do with historical accuracy.
Many (though not all) aspects of early Germanic warrior culture remind me of early Rome, especially around the monarchy or Early Republic. Social organization based on personal charisma and strength, a "do it yourself" approach to warfare, equipment based on wealth, and a population spread out over small villages remind me of Rome's first years.
The Germanic tribes were organized around groups of warriors and their families; they were structured in clans and tribes. Though often considered to be the most violent and ruthless of the world’s early societies, the Germans were also known for their individualism and ability to form strong bonds and friendships.
@@trentonking764 A reminder that even societies looked down upon by dominant cultures (in this case the Romans) had their own sense of social organization. Some Romans even envied the Germans' strength and courage, which perhaps came from those social bonds.
@@trentonking764 Theyre still considered the most violent and ruthless
@@smokeyhoodoo nah modern germans are docile
@@smokeyhoodoo wich makes zero sense. Romans were the ones invading germanic lands. If germanics couldnt live in their own lands they really got no choice but to fight
Nice video. I might add that archery was probably quite important in war. Many different types of arrow heads were found, some specilized to deal with shields and armour. And metal scarcity was not a problem. There is an overobundance of metal findings. The problem is rather that most of the iron is of poor quality. Thats the reason why roman steel was sought after.
Iron is abundant, but the heat required to smelt it meant the beginning of deforestation of Europe.
I wonder if you are acquanted with actual forging. It is the heat, access to good charcoal that could be a problem. Fine 'Batavian' spathas were made from bog Iron in the early first century ad.
There is a great video on youtube where some guy explains steppe horse archery to two guys. He shows different types of arrows, they made some really wide and thin, they would shoot them into horses, and just by motion alone arrowhead would make a huge hole. Brutal stuff.
The sinew used in bows, has a tendency to decompose when whet. Bows and rain didn't go well together..
The best Roman steel came from the Celts of Noricum and the Iberians.
I heard the Germanic people were way more civilized as we today think. They found very old Stone streets and stuff like that in Germania
One of the biggest challenges to Germanic warfare would come about by the introduction of roman style plows and grains ( which originated in India and arrived in rome around the late first century A.C.). This saw Germanic farming evolve from the equivalent of intensive guarding( substance farming with hand tools) to large scale agriculture. This gradual agricultural evolution coupled with the increase trade of furs, honey, amber, and slaves to rome empire would lead to a massive increase food production, population size, and material wealth. This in turn lead to the consolidation of larger and more well organized states able to feild well equipped armys like that seen with the vandals, Alamanni, goths, and franks in the 4th and 5th. A similar event happened at the end of the vandalic period of Scandinavia, with improvements to achroculture allowing for larger scale raids to be organized and launched by Norse and Danish peoples. P.s. Though letting me know I made a spelling mistake is fine and even encouraged, so that I can go back to fix it. Being a bell-end about it is not, I am sorry that I have a combination of dyslexia and autism that makes a wee bit harder for me to structure my sentences properly and insure my spelling is completely perfect. So do forgive my most ageist sin, for failing to meet your desired level of grammar, you peelers. I have explained my failures, but do be so kind as to explain to me what your excuses are?😏
Oh stfu
This sentence is near nonsensical. Do better
@@rabselyoehnam1291 😆 indeed a rather sesquipedalian speech wouldn't you say? Tahaha
@@nloc indubitably so, fellow brother wordsmith
Plows?
So Germanic warriors going into battle was like… “Hey, Reg! Good to see you here.” “Hey Allan. I just saw Rob and Martin. We agreed to fight together. Wanna join?” “Would love to. But I just promised to go with Godfried and Vic. We have a new neighbor with us too.”
...When the forest stars speaking proto-germanic!
When your hospital vistor starts speaking shinji
proto germanic was 1000 bc
@Velstadt Hekkleson That was uncalled for! 🤣
@KKmies for mountains you mean speak pashto, since it was the afghan pashtoon people who where the main warriors and people who kicked foreigners away. Afghanistan does loosely translate to land of the pashtuns. Dari is literally just persian and is not the prime language that was spoken when fighting against the British etc
Maybe more like when the fenn is speaking (proto-)germanic because swamps, bogs, fenns and such where dominating north german landscape until we dryed them out in 19th and 20th century
I hope the barbarian season 2 also goes more into detail about germanics.
And my boy Germanicus
@@flaviusbelisariusthebasedl3116 yeah, allthough for me the downfall of Arminius will be frustrating. A great "what if?" Scenario. What if Arminius established a great germanic kingdom In the first century ad?
@@leone.6190 nahhhh the germanic tribes their warfare and freedom is what defined them, a united kingdom would have ended up like dacia
@@leone.6190 but he "survived" the clash with Germanicus... he was betrayed after the war by own tribe though...
@@JaM-R2TR4 I know. That's what I meant with frustrating.
I'm so fucking proud of my ancestors.
For abandoning their beliefs and killing their own forced conversions all so the church can get more gold and more lol boys to fiddle 😂
i, born and raised in the dark forest across the rhine, approve of this.
Same, netherlands
@Gabryjel What? more precise, please. and, if i may ask, not in all-caps.
@@rubens2004 goede dag, mijn gelder broer, groeten uit alemannens-land
@@hiddenwoodsben Gabryjel is referring to the so called "Lechian Empire".... a fake dreamworld of Polish nationalists. They are a joke, even in Poland.
Me too the darkest
Thank You for Putting This Documentary Together 😊
We always praise the empires and forget about those that fight back. Thank you for this vid Invicta keep up the good work
We praise the winners. Mongols and nazi germany weren't praised. I'm not saying they should have
@@suomusintti would you praise nazi germany if they won? hehe
@@suomusintti How exactly are the mongols not winners? They seemed pretty damn successful to me.
@@astadew Most likely yes. People act like there is only one perspective one one set of objective truths that permeate history. Unfortunately this leads to misinterpreting history and judging historical figures from our modern understanding of morals which is bad to do. It’s like saying Abraham Lincoln was a racist just because he’s probably more racist than the average modern person without understanding that he was actually super progressive amongst his contemporaries which should be considered impressive. So if the nazis won, you’d simply believe in their propaganda just as much as you likely believe modern American liberal propaganda and you’d be here right now thinking it’s ridiculous that anyone would believe American beliefs if they had won the war. You have to remember that we still live and always will live in an ever changing environment when it comes to what’s considered right and wrong and I 100% guarantee you that in maybe a few decades or so, people will look back at us and say we were bigoted just because we didn’t allow people to marry multiple people or underaged people or even animals.
@@TAKE_BACK_BRITAIN i can't read all of that sorry my man
wow ! one of a few documentarys that doesn't show Germanians wearing a hide. Thank you
There are only two Germanic leaders I can think of who could be called Master Ambushers. One would, of course, be Arminius and the other would be the Gothic King Cniva who defeated the Romans under Emperor Decius at the Battle of Abritus by ambushing the Roman army with his hidden reserves after faking a retreat.
*demon king Cniva*
@@insaneweasel1 Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well
@@theholyinquisition389 thank you fellow Chad patrician
@@insaneweasel1 I must dissapoint you, for I am indeed one of Arminius people. *Teuflisches Gelächter*
@@theholyinquisition389 what a shame it seems like you had been civilized.
8:56 That helmet looks like from the *"Urnfield culture"* , which is several centuries (1300 B.C. to 750 B.C.). If we're talking about the Germanic tribes of the late 2nd Century B.C. since you mentioned Cimbri migration. These are tribes are probably influenced by the *"La Tene"* Iron Age culture. The featured bronze helmet with a crest would've been likely outdated. Simple looking variety like the Montefortino or the even as highly decorated like the iron Agen Port with animal figures as a crest (traded or taken from the dead through the Celts) would've been likely use by them.
Thanks for this enlightening comment
Helmets of the like have been found among the etruscans of the 400s BC but also in Thrace in the 300s one similar in scythia and down in austria....these styles were widespread the similarities are striking
Put it all together tho....the northern Italians thracians Austrians/boii gauls all have some similarities
@@clarkwinters1770 weapons trading was very common back then, and if a blacksmith found a great design he would copy it, if it was effective it would spread... a century later half of europe would use the design... it is how technology spreads...
@@Heidenspross maybe, truth is there is lots lots of theorizing but that is all it is. Why not let the primary sources speak for themselves? No we be to smart for that. Haha such is the wisdom of the modern man. He is the most advanced of all thinkers
Jomsvikings.. Would also like to see coverage of the units involved in the wars between Widukind's Saxons and Charlemagne's Franks..
@Gabryjel, damn, what a desperate Pole. So many videos covering Germanic tribes and on most of them I can find insecure Poles and Slavs in general.
@Gabryjel poor slavs lol
seconded! that would be really neat.
this is one of the best videos I’ve seen on this topic. I’m really glad you did such a thorough dive into the more cultural aspects of the germanic tribes. Very few sources I found cover this area of this very interesting society.
This was really friggin' good. Very well done!
What an absolutely fantastic video, and the narrator has a perfect voice for this.
It would be awesome to see an episode covering Napoleon’s Old Guard!
Nice job! Really well done video. This kept my interest for start to end. Thank you!
Great!!! Thanks for such an informative video! Keep up the great work!
The alleged wolf-warriors are of interest to me, especially how they might be connected to the much later Ulfhednar in Viking Age Scandinavia.
they re not alleged and they were the same as the ulfhednar, the norsemen are just as much germanic as the ancient germanic tribes.
Same people. Scandinavian Norsemen are Germanics. Germanic culture came from the Nordic Bronze age and the Norsemen and the mainland Germanics spoke the same language and held the same beliefs (to varying degrees as population divergence is a thing). The Anglo-Saxons of England would've been able to understand the invading Norsemen for the most part as well.
Thanks, but all of that I know. What I'd want to know if there is any scholarly research in the development of the animal-themed warrior societies, between the Roman-Germanic wars and the Viking Age. During all that time the Scandinavians are culturally connected to other Germanic-speaking groups, yes, but there are plenty of factors that cause the different groups to develop very differently. Such as the Saxons, Franks and other southern Germanics becoming more urbanized faster than the Norse. While the Norse had also contacts with Rome, causing their chieftains to also have imperialistic ambitions and wanting to become more "Romanized", it happened much more slowly in Scandinavia. So in that context, I want to know about how the divergent development between Germanic groups affected the tradition of animal-themed warrior societies, such as how different the Ulfhednar were from their counterparts elsewhere and several centuries earlier.
@@Mara999 scholarly research is overrated when it comes to germanic society and culture. Because those scholars do not even understand Germanic paganism or paganism generally. The wolf warriors from the Norsemen are exactly the same as the wolf warriors from other Germanic tribes, because the wolf warriors are connected to the Allfather Odin/Woden. Germanic Pagans are animists, if you drink the blood of a wolf in a ritual, the spirit of the wolf becomes a part of you, given to you by the Allfather.
@@wulfheort8021 IIRC the few literary sources we have about ancient Germanic beliefs imply that Odin himself might not have been a chief deity in the earliest myths, but rather had been a less important deity outside of Scandinavia and before the Vendel period. Even pagan religions are subject to change, adapting to things happening in everyday society, such as which gods might be more important than others, in both daily worship and the view of a cosmic order. Modern Germanic paganism isn't necessarily the same as ancient paganism, due to the current paganist movements being created after a very long time gap. Even if a lot of elements in ancient beliefs have survived through rural foklore, these beliefs and the memory of the past are subject to change, as they are not static. Movements like Asatru are reconstructed through knowledge of past beliefs, yes, but they are also affected by what is going on everywhere else in society, so the past is viewed through a contemporary lens, that by default affects how the past is interpretated. That is why I do not want to simply assume that current pagan wolf rituals would be the exact same as they were a millennium or two ago, but rather I'd like to read what someone back then might have written about it, if possible, as well as find out what archeologists could have discovered that corroborate it.
So basically the German people have always understood “lighting war”
Blitzkireg forever is Germany's motto i guess
@@fudger2224 efficient in work, efficient in war?
Even when playing football lol
Lightning war was never a German term
@@griffinleib3843 hense why I used lighting war as the English translation
Never watched a video of yours before, so clicking into it I was thinking how a reference or bibliography would just be the cherry on top. Then I checked again and saw one! Excellent job!
Love having the mix of narrators! Amazing content as always :)
That's a wonderfully nuanced video on the Germanic tribes. When a less than true definition of the term "North" feels like nothing more than a nitpick to point out, you know that the story as a whole is excellently told. Thanks for making and sharing it. (y)
He's guessing a lot and Says before each part that source's doesn't exist which is crazy.. but good story telling voice etc but the story itself is mostly absent starting by making a chaos of what Germania was jumps straight to weapons and stuff and guessing a lot of wrong stuff and missing essential information.
In the world of ancient Germanic tribes, the term North was a very different term than what it is today. For instance, while the Vikings believed that the North was where the wild animals and dangerous monsters lived, they also believed that the North was a land of wealth where the Norse Gods lived. In the Viking society, the North was a land of mystery, and stories of the North are a part of the world of Germanic mythology, which is a part of the world of Germanic folklore, which is a part of the world of Germanic literature, which is a part of the world of Germanic culture. This is an example of the way in which the terms North and North are used to describe the Germanic tribes
Lindybiege demonstrates how a spear beats a sword. It's about reach, and not requiring as much skill to master.
If you have space to use it. Part of why the legion was so effective ... charge in to ranges so close the shortsword beats the spear (using large shields and armor to survive bridging the gap). Its a shock tactic that requires a lot of drill and balls, but it really does in an enemy used to fighting in skirmishes and caring for self-preservation. Very comparable in a way to the carolean way of fighting in later times.
@@aenorist2431 even the later roman army trasition to spear
@@lethanhminh8001 That was really just apart of a overall downgrade of military forces due to how expensive it was to maintain the older Principate Legions. Swords can be superior to spears, so long as the right tactics were used.
The sword was mostly a side arm using a spear as a primary
@@aenorist2431 The Romans developed a mixed weapons strategy, with the shield and gladius a very important component.
Incredible art work . Fantastic episode 👏
This was so good. So well done. Excellent. Bravo, thank you!
One of the stalwarts of the youtube history game, keep pushing intelligent historical content! This is what young people need
Excellent work, as Always. Thx.
Realy good research and presentation. Thank you 😊
Surprised you didn't mention that your average Germanic was a full head taller than the Roman, even a Germanic woman was taller than the Roman Soldier.
The drawings are amazing, imagine an game coming out in this style, like that of battlebrothers.
incredible & very informative video thank you so much
Really well done. Thanks!
Video on ancient Finno-Ugric tribesmen of the north? From way back when they started expanding massively to the west. Like 2000 BCE and what their equipment might have looked like and a bit more context and info behind the bronze battle axes found throughout Western Siberia to Germany and Norway.
Would love a video on early Visigoth warriors.
Heck yeah 1m! You and your team deserve it man well done
BEEN WAITING for this topic!🙌😆
Very interesting and well done documentary, however there is one aspect that i would have been very interested in missing: The importance and use of magic. Arriuvistes e.g. is mentioned to have organized his army in 7 subdivisions which is a very important number in Germanic magic and is present all over our fairytales and sagas involving magic, 7 dwarves, 7 years of training, 7 brothers, 7 mountains and so on. Caesar mentions his troops being so terrified by Germanic war chants that they initially refused to engage them, which could be a reference to the use of Galster (envoking magic through singing songs found by Wotan) that were to be sung in the style of the raven (so possibly throat singing as it can still be found in the north Germanic Scandinavians to this day). Also the concept of Heil/ hail that gave people a specific innate power that made them succeed as long as they acted honourably following their heil's demand (so a commander would have to be born with the victor's heil, a warrior with the warrior's heil a king with the king's heil and so on)
And of course the vast spread presence of runic spells engraved into found germanic spear tips and other weaponry
Of course, there's no real mystery about why the different "barbarian" fighting forces get portrayed the way they do as savage, undisciplined, and poorly equipped. It's because that's how almost all of the historical sources portray them. Which, of course, is because almost all of the historical sources were Roman or Greek. To the Romans and the Greeks the barbarian warriors seemed savage, they seemed undisciplined, and they seemed poorly equipped, because of course the Romans and the Greeks considered themselves to be the epitome of civilization, they emphasized the importance of discipline in battle, and they were some of the best equipped fighting forces of their eras. If the early Germanic tribes had left written accounts like the Romans and Greeks did, then we might have a very different perception of them today.
Julius Caesar on a number of occasions in his account of the Gallic Wars, refers to both Germans and Gallic infantry formations as a "phalanx." While of course he didn't mean that they were equipped and fighting in a Greek manner, it is probably a reference to some form of shield wall. While the Roman sources might be tinged with bias or an incomplete understanding of some of the foreign peoples they were writing about, they do on a number of occasions refer to the Germans or other so-called barbarian peoples fighting in an organized fashion. On that note I don't really think the blame for the popular image of the barbarians as fighting as little more than an undisciplined mob is really the fault of the Romans. That image is mostly the invention of pop culture portrayals rather than from the historical sources.
The pop culture portrayals of barbarians come from what school children were taught about them for centuries, which comes primarily from Roman and Greek sources.
@@randalthor741 But this video also uses Roman sources to show how good the Germanics were. I think the bias comes from Enlightenment Europe, that got obsessed with Classical Times (for good reason), but then wanted to downplay everything from the past. Like the myths about the "Dark Ages" that still get spread around.
Who said anything about how good the Germanics were? We're talking about how they were seen as savage, undisciplined, and poorly equipped. Not about whether they were seen as being effective. And, as is shown in this video, the Roman sources overwhelmingly portray them as being savage, undisciplined, and poorly equipped. And those sources are what Enlightenment Europe based their views on, partly because the "barbarians" didn't leave behind written records that might lead them to question the Roman & Greek sources.
History is written by the victors they say. Survivors offer perspective. Good day.👍
Yes!!! I have been waiting for this!!! Awesome video guys keep it up!!!
Excellent video can't wait to see what's up and coming for the channel
Much more of Sweden and Norway were populated by people of Germanic culture than that. The archaeology of the Nordic is very well developed, I am not sure why you decided clip off such a significant chunk. Also those roundhouses in the art are much more Celtic than Germanic. Germanic people lived much more in longhouses. Also the fact that the Germanis had so few large settlements, with mostly isolated farmsteads and even simple villages being rare, is a very old old trait from the early Indo-Europeans, which happened to be conserved for longer within the Germanis. No one is quite sure why they did so, but Tacitus offers a cultural explanation for it. Ironically, by the time Tacitus was writing, the Germanis already had a few proper cities.
My thoughts exactly. With this map Norway and Sweden isn’t germanic/slavic/sami so what are we then? Lol. Maybe alien 👽
I know it's a bit early to say this but I would like to see a video about the ritterbruder.
Thank you for making this. ☺
Very good, detailed and educative video, one of the best I've seen on this subject.
will you ever bring back some total war massive battles? That was so cool back in the day, maybe just for the nostalgia bring one back
Virgin Roman: Only good when protected by shield Drunk on wine Olive oil smell Wants Melissa but Melissa likes Senator Not allowed to drink on duty 25 years of service to go Chad Celt: Goes in commando wielding massive axe Drunk on proper beer Smell of the wild Has a harem of 7 Valkyries Drinks and gets into a brothel fight every other day Only one more season, and goes back to his hearth
Both forced to convert to a god they never believed in 🤷🏻♂️🤣
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
Great video!! Loved every second of it
I've been deeply fond of the Germanic tribes ever since I read the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. 😍
Were is the connection?
@@matte6371 Tolkien was inspired by germanic poetry and culture
@@matte6371 Rohan is based on Germanic warriors, mostly Saxons and Goths.
@Nephalim Power No he did not
@Nephalim Power Tolkien was just a believing catholic, not a hebrew nationalist wtf. He admired germanic and german culture and even said that he is sad that Hitler made german culture looking bad. Elves, Dwarves, Dragons and Trolls of Middle-Earth are directly taken or inspired of Germanic mythology.
There are some inaccuracies in the part about the armor, but overall it's a very decent video. Thank you for your effort and I look forward to what's to come.
I think it's mostly inaccurate from start to finish feels like he trying to make simple stuff look chaotic blaming missing source's of stuff there's plenty of sources .. anyways most Germanic tribe's didn't have armour's or helmet's all Vikings are Germanic Norge/Norway is what Harald Hårfagre gathered of North Germania when he was going to make that into one Rike .the training was Glima in all Germania Germany wasn't part of Germania but was made by approximately 200 Germanic warrior tribe's like Saxons etc the service periods is easy to look up (herdsmenn) was the warriors on contract with Earl's chief's Kings legion's etc .. they could not use heavy armors because it fucks up Glima and make You sink if you are at Sea which is how They moved long distance.it was Germanic tribe's who slayed Rome using Varanger Garden/varangian guard (Varanger is north Norway all the way to Russian border's) when They worked for rome as herdsmenn They did use somekinda armour but I don't know much about the armour exempt from the fact that it was given by the Romans They worked for...
Amazing quality video
Love this channel ❤
What an effort👍you recreated history love from India🇮🇳🕉️🙏please make more on famous wars
Now you should do a video on *later* germanic warriors
Excellent production: interesting presentation, simple facts, and little fluff.
Great content as expected.. I'm going congratulate you know now as by the next episode 1million subscribers ..
Ngl I love this narrator so much
At first thanks for this video, it is very powerful and thrilled. Ｉ have been interested in German tribe This wise tribe had been in just opposite side of Roman Empire. And later, infamous fun tribe had invaded into Europe and even Germen tribe had been driven towards Roman wall, and another had been towards North, the others had been towards the Dover strait and ended up with Dark age, in 395 AD. Nowadays European are fearful of Fun, we, Ｊapanese call them ‘匈奴.’ Ｉ want to tell more about Hun, it is too long, Ｉ will give it up this time. French Revoluvion written by Thomas Carlile, even at that time, the late 19 cent. they have been afraid of Fun. Sorry Ｉ am utterly talkative, in a word, Ｉ am looking forward to watchig your new video, thanks for your offering the chance of comment. On more time, thank you very much.
Well done and educational. Thank you!
Excellent. Fascinating overview of the "Barbarians."
Absolute units.
This was amazing! I really liked the focus on the social and individual based hierarchy of Germanic Society. I think that has a lot in common with our current society, along with the Roman style as well.
Indeed a lot of people don't realise that germanic culture played a big part in creating western european civilization
@@dirckthedork-knight1201they were a very narcissistic people. They were not afraid men who called themselves kings, they were afraid of magic. All that matters to them was becoming a great warrior and to live free. Our sense of individualism and love of adventure comes from our Germanic forefathers.
I love your videos. Well done.
Stumbled upon this video. Fascinating.
A few things ... As to Caesar crossing the Rhine being a "publicity stunt" - I would not categorize it as such. I would say it was more like "sending a message" to the Germans. What Caesar did - was - _Bridge the Rhine_ . That meant - that not only could he cross the river - he could stay over there - if he wanted to ... Doing something like Bridging the Rhine was completely beyond the capability of the Germans and something that would have strongly impressed them. Doing that sent them a message as to just who they were messing with. "Don't be coming over here and causing problems for the Gauls who have sought my protection - or I will come get you." After going about causing problems for the local Germans - Caesar - recrossed the Rhine - and then burned the bridge so the Germans couldn't use it. Destroying the bridge also sent another message. "See this fantastic thing I built? It means nothing to me. If I want to - I can just build another one - any time I want." After Caesar did that - he didn't have any problems with the Germans coming over and picking on his Gauls for a while. Crossing the Rhine this way - also had a similarity to his crossing the channel. In both cases - it may have been an experiment to see what would be involved if he decided to do it more seriously. Caesar was a really smart guy and there is no telling what else he might have had planned for the future - if he hadn't pardoned the people who fought him in the Civil War - and then gotten killed by them ... .
Not that smart then.
@@jackreacher5667 Actually - he was very smart - but ... smart people can make mistakes ... His actual mistake - was not that he pardoned them - but that he let his own supporters make him Dictator For Life - _THAT's_ what got him killed. .
The Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar did something extraordinary in the year of 45 BC. He crossed the Rhine in a single night. There was a lot of hard work beforehand, and he was worried that the Romans on the other side of the river would get suspicious, but he did it. He crossed the river, got on the boat, and then he crossed back again.
Fun fact: they also had blitzkrieg back then as well.
nah, most generals used the speed is key principle before the germans even invented a word for it. the germans are given credit to this so called blitzkrieg because they were the ones who used it more recently (ww2) also there are many facets to the blitzkrieg. the blitzkrieg used in ww2 was very different to the one used in antiquity
@@neymarmessironaldo5881 blitzkrieg is especially the use of massive mechanised and motorized combined warfare who's goal it is to punch through and keep pushing as deep as possible to flak or surrounded the enemy before said enemy can reinforce. A German invention.
@@neymarmessironaldo5881 Blitzkrieg is just an invasion or an advance spearheaded by usually heavily armoured units
Ey! Oh! Lets go!
@@tomendruweit9386 Didn't the Nazis rejected the term Blitzkrieg?
a video on the warriors and political environment from Nydam or Illerup ådal would be so fascinating
Great work as usual
Germanics are bears if mediterraneans are wolves or foxes. Much higher quality individually hence why the wolves and foxes banded together to be effective. When the bears united like a wolfepack they conquered the whole world exept inner china.
It's interesting that in many cases, a fragment of something is found buried somewhere and then an entre civilization is created/established from that. Should make one think what's real and what's imagination/speculation
Dude good Job.... very much enjoying your channel ...keep it up....
This is amazing!
Great work, really enjoyed this snippet into Germanic history with neutrality and objectivity. Too many historical videos are poorly researched opinion pieces that clearly favour one side or the other. It's shame the Germanics didn't write anything down, would've loved to hear of that massive battle that took place but has never even been recorded to history.
@Gabryjel No.
@Gabryjel bs!
Thinking about the use of the spear, another reason could be that using a spear was less complex than a sword (simpler movements, less of them to learn...), so a spear and shield would be more suited to a military force formed up of farmers who didn't have standardised training. (My comment was inspired by scholagladiatoria's video titled 'The Best Medieval & Fantasy Weapons for Thugs, Militias and Rabbles?') - go watch it.
The spear has range, penetration, is simple to use, and works well with a shield. It is good for levied, as well as professional forces.
It's the other way around. You need standardized training to make sure spears are properly utilized. That's exactly why they were used, because farmers did have standardized training. It's the nobles and warrior classes who can afford more specialized individual training and therefore play around with more complex weapons like axes and swords. But the main reason spears were used as primary weapon for armies was because you could make twenty with the same amount of iron it would take to make a single sword. The extreme example of this could be found in China, in the archaeological site of the remnants of the State of Han (smallest of the Warring States). When the final wave of Qin armies came the last defenders of Han used spears that were actually just sharpened sticks with an arrowhead attached to the end. Metallurgical studies of the makeshift spearpoints showed that many shared the same properties. They were all made from a single large weapon, probably a sword, split to pieces and reforged into lots of arrowheads and spearpoints.
@@andrewsuryali8540 I'd like to read or view more of what you mention vis-vis China, Han and Chin. Considering the use of spears or pole arms (as opposed to poll arms) they are definitely simple and easy to make. Fire hardened sharp sticks will poke a debilitating hole in an adversary and while a stick topped with an arrowhead of bone, stone or metal doesn't leave the gaping hole of a 2 inch wide spear point two inches of penetration in the thoracic cavity is enough to potentially doom a man and will at least take the starch out of him. If you want to leave a link for my exploration please do so.
@@Thomas-xd4cx Firstly, that's a good point - although I'm not fully sure if the sword was only a sidearm for the spear - as I'm not sure every soldier would carry a sword, or that all the swords used would be small ones easy for carrying in addition to other weapons and equipment. Secondly, there's another reason in favour of spears - that metal was harder for them to access, and a sword requires a lot more metal than a spear.
These videos are amazing; I can learn history for recreation. Nice.
I love this series. It’s fun to think about
8:24 “scale armor”, the depiction in your video is lamellar armor not scale, which is more correct as scale wasn’t really used at all.
Sorry, but you're wrong. Leave history to the pros, kid.
@@NorthernNorthdude91749, kzhead.info/sun/YN6Ykbucr4mMqHk/bejne.html
Good morning everyone I hope you're all doing good and having a happy Saturday morning.
shut up
@@HAYAOLEONE its not my fault you got touched as a child Leone. Don't bring us all down
@@user-zp8ei6pi7p the mask dropped quickly
Eh it’s a pretty shitty day
Great video!!!
Very well done!