Teutons

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Teutons

The Teutons or Teutones (from Proto-Germanic *Þeudanoz) were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
and Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
authors, notably Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
and Marcus Velleius Paterculus

Marcus Velleius Paterculus

Marcus Velleius Paterculus was a Roman Empire historian, also known simply as Velleius. Although his praenomen is given as Marcus by Priscian, some modern scholars identify him with Gaius Velleius Paterculus, whose name occurs in an inscription on a north African milestone ....
and normally in close connection with the Cimbri

Cimbri

The Cimbri were a Celtic or Germanic peoples tribe who together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC....
, whose ethnicity is contested between Gauls

Gauls

The Gauls were a Continental Celtic Celts people of Classical Antiquity, the inhabitants of Gaul , and speakers of the Gaulish language.Archaeologically, they were the bearers of the La T?ne culture ....
and Germani.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Teutons'

Start a new discussion about 'Teutons'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Teutons or Teutones (from Proto-Germanic *Þeudanoz) were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek

Greece

Roman Empire

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
and Marcus Velleius Paterculus

Marcus Velleius Paterculus

Cimbri

Gauls

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
's map, they lived in Jutland

Jutland

File:Jutland peninsula 2.pngJutland , historically also called Cimbria, is a peninsula in Europe. Jutland forms the mainland part of Denmark as well as the northernmost part of Germany....
, in agreement with Pomponius Mela

Pomponius Mela

Pomponius Mela, who wrote around 43, was the earliest Roman Empire geographer.His little work is a mere compendium, occupying less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures....
, who placed them in Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
(Codanonia). In any case, they are believed to have given their name to the region of Thy

Thy (district)

Thy is a traditional district in northwestern Jutland, Denmark. It is situated north of the Limfjord, facing the North Sea and Skagerrak, and has a population of around 50,000....
(Old Norse Thiuthæ sysæl) in northern Denmark.

Earlier than 100 BC, many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri

Cimbri

The Cimbri were a Celtic or Germanic peoples tribe who together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC....
, migrated south and west to the Danube

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
. During the late second century BC, the Teutones and Cimbri are recorded as passing through Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
and attacking Roman Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. After several victories for the invading armies, the Cimbri and Teutones divided forces and were then defeated separately by Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman Republic general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic Marian Reforms of Roman legion, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate Cohort ....
in 102 BC, and 101 BC. The Teutones' defeat was at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae

Battle of Aquae Sextiae

The Battle of Aquae Sextiae took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman Republic defeats , the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones....
(near present-day Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix or Aix-en-Provence , to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a communes of France in southern France, some north of Marseille....
). Their King, Teutobod

Teutobod

Teutobod was Germanic king of the Teutons. In the late 2nd century BCE, together with their neighbors, allies and possible relatives, the Cimbri, the Teutons migrated from their original homes in southern Scandinavia and on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, south into the Danube valley, southern Gaul and northern Italy....
, was taken in irons.

According to the Roman legend of Germanic heroism noted by Jerome, the captured women committed mass suicide:

"By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres
Ceres (mythology)

| Image = Ceres_statue.jpg| Caption = This statue depicting Ceres holding wheat is on display at the Louvre in Paris, France.| Name = Ceres| God_of = Goddess of growing plants and motherly love...
and Venus
Venus (mythology)

Venus was a major Roman mythology goddess principally associated with love, beauty and sexual reproduction, the equivalent of the Greek mythology Aphrodite....
; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictor
Lictor

The lictor, derived from the Latin ligare , was a member of a special class of Rome civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire who held imperium; essentially, a bodyguard....
s, they slew their little children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night."

The term Teuton or Teutonic has been used in reference to all of the Germanic peoples. The origin of the hypothetical proto-Germanic name *Þeudanoz and its Latin form Teutones is vague, having been attributed variously to Celtic tuath, Latvian tauta, or Oscan touto meaning people, race or town. Verner's Law

Verner's law

Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *?, *s, *h , when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *b, *d, *z, *g ....
of phonetic shifts traces the Modern German word for German, deutsch, to proto-Germanic thiudisk, "of the people," from thiuda, "people." A relationship between this word and *Þeudanoz (Romanized as theudanoz) is easily hypothesized.

The king of the Teutones in 101 BCE was Teutobod. Bod is Celtic for "raven" (badb in Irish) (Rankin, 1987) – suggesting a Celtic origin for these people.

Theodisca
Theodisca

, the Latinised form of Germanic diutisc , is a Middle Latin adjective referring to the Germanic languages vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages....
Furor Teutonicus
Furor Teutonicus

Furor Teutonicus "Teutonic Fury" is a Latin phrase referring to the proverbial fierceness of the Teutones, or more generally the Germanic tribes of the Roman Empire period....
Teutonic
Teutonic

Teutonic or Teuton may refer to:*the Teutons* Germanic peoples ', see Theodiscus**Teutonic Mythology** Germanic languages '...
Travian
Travian

Travian is an award-winning German massively multiplayer online game browser-based game massively multiplayer online real-time strategy developed by Travian Games Gesellschaft mit beschr?nkter Haftung.....

Source

Fick, August, Alf Torp and Hjalmar Falk: Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen. Part 3, Wortschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit. 4. Aufl. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht), 1909.