Ancient Germanic Society: a Game of Power

Ancient tribal Germanic society evolved in a rather uncomplicated and natural way, for there was no single higher authority and neither much external interference (up until the Romans showed up at least). In this video we will focus on the structures and mechanics in Germanic society that most powered that evolution, and helped shape the culture of the ancient people we nowadays refer to as Germanics. This overview will discuss topics like governing, democracy, leadership, war and warriors in ancient germanic society and much and more.
00:00 Introduction
02:34 Channel intro
02:45 Julius Caesar and the Germanics
04:55 Lifestyle
05:59 Governance in small-scale society
07:56 Evolution to large-scale society
10:14 Tribal council and assembly
12:12 Tribal confederation
12:42 Role and significance of war
14:35 Warleaders in power
16:58 Outro
Please consider supporting us on Patreon, every little bit helps!
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And if you’re a true history buff, you don’t want to miss out on Ancient Warfare magazine!
www.ancient-warfare.com
Make sure to check out Erve Eme archeological park in Zupthen The Netherlands!
erve-eme.com/
Music:
Rome Total War 1 Jeff van Dyck
Rome Total War 2 Richard Beddow
Adrian von Ziegler
Graphic motion design:
German Reber

[@DeHeld8]

I'm so proud :3. The spear I completely hand made with traditional tools was prominently used in this video. Even helping in these very small ways towards the production of these videos makes historical re-enactment the most fulfilling thing I've done in my life.

[@DeHeld8]

@Danny Al I refuse to chill!

[@fjeldfross9327]

@@DeHeld8 Reenactment is a passion. So, "chill" is not an Option😁

[@xenvox724]

👍😃

[@Lukinator343]

Great Job! I hope you continue with your craft!!! 👊🏾😁

[@kevinmalone6436]

amazing job!

[@t.longfield8982]

Nicely done once again! I particularly like it how you show in this documentary how the local chickens suffered under the intrusion of bloodthirsty warbands, invading their homes and such.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Hahaha, yes those poor chickens... But on the other hand, they were also very cheeky!

[@arthurdowney2846]

Caesar: "The Gauls are too much like us, and that makes them a threat!" Caesar: "The Germans are too different from us, and that makes them a threat!"

[@IbrahimservantofAllah]

Correct on both accounts

[@tenbroeck1958]

Caesar proved how difficult is was to be a schizophrenic diabetic!

[@caervlevsmaximvs7518]

16:23 ‘Me and the boys on our way to that big Ting in the sacred forest’

[@mikemodugno5879]

Thanks for bringing this period to life so well. I would like to see a video on the transition of Germanic society between early Roman Imperial period and the Migration period.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Yeah that definitely has our interest as well, the problem is that portraying that period isn't easy at all, in terms of finding the right equipment etc.

[@JJadx]

as someone from a village with an germanic well and multiple burial mounts and earth walls (separating farm fields) still visible. i really miss edu content on this. thanks a lot kerels!

[@Carnifindion]

Gotta absolutely love the aesthetics of these videos, extremely authentic setting & clothing.

[@pseudonym9599]

Amazing work, as usual. Glad to see the Germanic perspective covered.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks! Glad to hear it's appreciated :)

[@ayparillo]

My heart always jumps a bit when I see a new video. Yet again, this one did not disappoint. Not only do you release some of the best historical content on KZbin, but the quality stays consistent.

[@okancanarslan3730]

Very informative video. Provides great insights about how militarism, centralization and autocracy became prevalent in societies by feeding each other

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Okan!

[@joelabraham9456]

Commenting for the algorithm. You guys are criminally underrated.

[@theamziss]

I'm hoping for more content on germanic tribes in the future. It's a lot less covered than roman history, but super interesting. Especially with you guys based on germanic lands, will make for some cool shots as well.

[@smeedatelierwijtvliet576]

Great video again lads! Greetings from your batavian fan 😉👌

[@degustablegerbil]

A topic very seldom discussed! Another great video :)

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks!

[@spartanian708]

Hope you all keep going, it's a joy to watch each video you release.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks, we hope we've got the strenght to be able to continue hehe

[@brettbaker5599]

Donate at Patreon. Even us Plebs can help!:)

[@martindunn4545]

Loving these videos! It's great to see such quality!

[@CasparMinning]

Great content yet again, its so wonderful that you are all so dedicated to deliver such quality content!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Caspar, we try to keep up the dedication as best we can haha. But reading through the comments always helps a lot :D

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

I imagine you may already have thought about it but if your team would be open to the idea, I wonder if it'd be feasible to approach a few of the larger edu channels covering Rome & its neighbours, & see if one or more of them might be open to a collaboration of some sort...? Esp. if there's a topic you'd like to cover but would prefer multiple perspectives on. You guys have SUCH quality of content to offer in such a partnership! KZbin's recommendations just don't do a good job of flagging similar channels to viewers, so I suspect people are mostly finding you by stumbling in by accident..? 😭 I certainly did - just this week, despite being a big historytube watcher, & was so excited, but also frustrated not to have got here earlier! 😏 Nearly all the really awesome smaller channels I've found in historical costuming etc have come to me via collabs or recommendations from larger channels, so I know it really works to just let people know you are out here!! 😅 Always some risks in collab, of course, but could still be worth a try?

[@MikeSmith-ko9fh]

Another fascinating video, thank you all!!

[@aloiskruger5892]

Amazing job. It's so cool you guys are bringing history to life in such an informative way. Keep up the good work!

[@renSrr]

I’ve missed this video from your current library, fantastic stuff. Can’t believe how in depth you guys go.

[@user-fc7is6jo2e]

Outstanding Presentation! Thank you all for making and sharing this.

[@JohnMiller-zr8pl]

Amazing quality!

[@Ropuszable]

This channel is amazing! Don't stop guys!

[@sunriselady2716]

Awesome Documentary!

[@hakaen2119]

this is a great channel!

[@TrimbakkiFonElsass]

Really cool concise video. Thank you

[@unOrdinaryWorld]

I love your videos, so much work goes into these. Thank you for bringing your passion to us, it's so refreshing. Strength and honour from your Celtic brothers! 😜☘️🤘🏽

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

haha thanks man, and indeed every video is quite a project hehe

[@kevinthoins]

Great content as always, you guys are amazing!

[@Rymontp]

Really amazing video. I don't think I've ever seen such a detailed and in depth description that is simple enough to understand as well. The animations and art is great too. I really loved the depiction of the different villages merging, then communities and so on until it becomes a confederation of tribes. Well done!

[@hannibalscipio10]

Great job!

[@chajah2102]

As always, great video! Nice to see your scope extends beyond the Roman empire itself, and that you also have such extensive knowledge about the neighbours of the romans!

[@Genkaro]

Visually stunning and informative presentation. Great to see how my ancestors lived so many centuries ago. No matter the time- we're definitely made for each-other, there's no doubt that.

[@Sharigan561]

Great video!

[@froggystyle642]

You guys should be given your own show on Wondrium.

[@zachary8491]

This felt like 4 minuts !!! Very good !

[@troydodson9641]

A grand video, high quality and truly shows the in an outs of Germania in a clear way yet shows how complex and free flowing the governing is. Thank you noble sir

[@calum5975]

This is incredible - the sets, the props, the clothing, it's all simply amazing. The fact you only have 50,000 subscribers is criminal!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Calum, we sometimes wonder the same ... but actually this weekend has been crazy busy in terms of views somehow, no clue why but it's given us a great boost of confidence :D

[@Dionaea_floridensis]

Love you guys!

[@samueloglesby8682]

Once again, amazing and informative!

[@tomasruizdiaz9930]

"the trees speak germanic" -roman legionnaire at teutoburg

[@xaiverbrown9494]

Excellent quality video , great content 👍🏻

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Xaivier!

[@apo2000]

So nice and easy to follow while watching! Great work!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks! Great to hear, I feared I may have gone too deep again and overcomplicated things hehe

[@dorkfish6663]

Another great and informative video!

[@fatalfury66]

I love your stuff! You really bring history to life!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Nathan, glad you liked it.

[@thcdreams654]

Another great video. Thank you. Interesting and insightful as well as entertaining. Keep up the good work!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Good to hear, will do! Thanks!

[@ledzep215]

Keep up the great work y'all!

[@marcelovolcato8892]

Excellent documentary, guys! You rock!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

thanks Marcelo!

[@jakecraftlawrance7206]

Well done! Very informative.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Jake!

[@brittvoortman6212]

Perfect told story, thank you Imperium Romanum for your research and motivation. You changed my perception of ancient history!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

That's great to hear, thanks for letting us know :)!

[@LiveinReykjavik]

Yet another truly great video! Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Awesome, thanks!

[@Alopex1]

Great video as always! Love your channel and your dedication to your work :)

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Alopex!

[@dansk5303]

Great stuff as always

[@yannick6389]

Awesome video and I love the broad area of topics you guys cover!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks mister Sandman!

[@thomasc.3832]

Great video as usual!

[@lievepief]

Omg this is so high quality content you guys deserve so much more views. Amazing!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Martine ;P!

[@Chris-fh2cl]

Great videos on this channel!

[@bertmanders348]

weer knap gedaan. quality content

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Bedankt Bert! Fijn dat je hebt genoten van onze video!

[@Vantoris]

Yall don't miss, keep up the great work and remember you are always appreciated

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks for the kind words :)

[@elenaashtari8255]

Video incredibile! Non ho mai imparato tanto come in questo video. Grazieee!!!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Grazie tanto Elena!

[@viniciusmachadodeavila4768]

I love How this KZbin chanel has better documentaries then the History Channel

[@stefanieprescher]

Great documentary! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Stefanie!

[@13thravenpurple94]

Great work 🥳 Thank you 💜

[@vdotme]

Now that everyone is going all Discovery Channel or oversimplified cartoons this sober informative presentation is a godsend. Subscribed!!!!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

haha thanks Vim!

[@geemanamatin8383]

Great video! This was a nice look into a little understood group in ancient history.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Geeman!

[@vikingfromzeeland2170]

very good informative video!nice to see Erve Eme back in the video. i come here regularly with my viking reenactment group.

[@locoyogui]

Very nice guys, thanks for sharing this with us.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

You are welcome Razor, we appreciate your comment!

[@felixmaximus9917]

Amazing work, keep it up, so interesting to see the history of my home region

[@NudeJawn]

I normaly watch on a smart TV and that makes sending you a thank you in chat or even giving a thumbs up difficult. Great content as always.

[@maglicairsoft4183]

Very informative and amazing quality video!

[@leonardodtc4847]

I love your videos, you put so much effort into them ❤

[@james-eb1dx]

Perfect, keep it up guys👍🏼

[@benketengu]

First I want to say thank you very much for taking the time energy money producing your videos. I found out about your channel from the interview you did with Ancient Warfare. I must confess I have not watched your videos yet but I’m going to after I finish listening to the podcast mentioned above. Was just looking at the subject matters they seem really interesting. And your interview I’m finding fascinating thank you.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Paul, great to hear! Hope you enjoy the channel and stick around for a while :D

[@thelegionary72]

Great episode. Another complex subject clearly presented and explained.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks, great to hear mate!

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

15:02 Had such a good giggle at the "young men seeking honour" swaggering their way through the frame here! 😆 (Although not getting QUITE as much swagger on as those darn chickens - they are fearless... 🤣) Another really awesome episode, thank you team! So cool to see some in-depth analysis of sociocultural development in the Germanic area - it feels like all too many creators gloss over this pre-Roman space, perhaps still falling for the "it's just all barbarians" propaganda...? Really look forward to anything else you do focusing on your neighbourhood's history & culture in this era, feels like a great area of opportunity definitely not over-covered elsewhere! Intriguing to see the way armed conflict drove early social + political patterns in this time, and then look ahead into how that pattern seemed to repeat so often in so many later time periods, right up into the 1800s & 1900s? (Of course, part of that seems to have involved leaders intentionally harking back to earlier times, whether imagined or real, in order to fuel their political & territorial ambitions... so I guess we should not be too surprised! 🤦🏻‍♀️)

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Glad you enjoyed Anna, we did too, especially in that one scene hahah. These topics are quite hard to research though, as there's not many sources on such non-roman peoples. In large part it comes down to speculation, which doesn't help with 'selling' the video to the audience, which is a serious concern when making this type of content anyway unfortunately - as you can see by the very low number of views on this video. And it's the views that bring in the sponsors, and its the sponsors that bring in the money, and its the money that allows us to do produce more content. But now and then we will definitely try to make a step outside the comfort zone and try something new, when the topic presents itself. Thanks!

[@DJL78]

I love these videos! Well done guys! 🍸

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks DJL!

[@santiloquem]

I love this channel, i hope you guys give us some new content soon

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

working hard on it, but it will be a little while longer still

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Wondrium, Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here! ow.ly/4wlh50KwXl1

[@dhmossedios2194]

Amazing work 👌👌

[@RyuuPro]

Great informative explanation!

[@kreg857]

This is wonderful, may I ask if there's any published pdf text or something like that? This form of media wasn't so readable for me, as I have bad hearing.

[@cannonfodder90]

If you put captions/subtitles on it might help in understanding for you. Somebody (they themselves I think) added actual subtitles. Not the auto generated stuff either.

[@davidcolter]

Hit the [cc] button on the bottom right

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

We don't have a website or something, so we don't publish the texts seperately. Subtitles is the only way to read along for now, subtitles which we paid good attention too though, so no auto-generated stuff with mistakes

[@Wi3rzb0]

Great stuff

[@joeconrad3828]

Darn. Looks like the channel has stalled. Well, thanks for the marvelous videos you guys made. Enjoyed them all.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

We're back alive again though, just posted a new vid :P

[@marcusulpiustraianus6096]

Is amazing what you are doing, guys! Congrats! If you can, don´t forget to add further readings, it would be great. Thanks!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks! Best recommendation for further reading on this topic is: "From Caesar to Tacitus: Changes in Early Germanic Governance circa 50 BC-50 AD" from Andrew T. Young

[@marcusulpiustraianus6096]

@@ImperiumRomanumYT Thanks a lot!

[@weezerfan084]

As always, great video guys. 😃👍

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks weezer!

[@anglosaxaphone672]

fantastic job guys

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks mate!

[@anglosaxaphone672]

@@ImperiumRomanumYT your welcome, whatever helps get this video out there.

[@alejandrosakai1744]

I met you via Invicta, your videos had teach me about Roman culture and the military but I still want a video about the Roman religion, Roma Invicta! Greetings from Mexico!

[@bartdevito6310]

Fantastic Video! Great costumes!

[@mathijstimmermans9850]

Lekker filmpje weer dit. Effe lekker tuffen door Marc, mooi detail

[@mathijstimmermans9850]

Je ken die jongen ook nooit ergens mee naar toe nemen hè. IMBECIEL!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

haha goed he xD

[@janetcarson6034]

Very interesting. Thank you very much.

[@Xurium]

I really like your videos, great stuff. I made my master degree in roman archaeology and have to say your content is very much worth watching. I only wish your camera and sound equipment would match the quality of your content :D

[@Josh-ek9pw]

Recently discovered your channel, it's ridiculously good. It's just ashame that our society is more interested in random crap... I hope you have the views and subs that you all rightful deserve.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks and welcome Josh! And yeah people's attention span has been reduced to nothing it seems, and it's hard to compete with random clickbaitey crap. But as long as we're reaching new people still, we have not yet reached our full potential and there's still hope to grow this further into something successful :)

[@DuelistDx]

Amazing video guys!

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

There was one extremely cool Germanic warrior in this video, do you know him by any chance? ;)

[@DuelistDx]

@@ImperiumRomanumYT I think you mean Tiemen!

[@stadtbekanntertunichtgut]

I am sure my ancestor were German tribes man and I'm so proud of them and so glad that I am what I am!!!!

[@mariojeromechavez6663]

That was a great video, thanks for sharing, about how democracy slowly turns to oligarchy, then autocracy does happen, even that same exact act can be seen today. Hope this video can teach everyone in times like these an important lesson so it won't ever happen again, cuz history does in fact repeat itself. Thank you and have a great day.

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Very well said and glad you picked up on the bigger topic and the comparison that can be made to so many different eras and peoples. If time/money permitted we wanted to spend a bit more time on such conclusions and comparisons, but alas ... too much work and too little time. Thanks for sharing, much appreciated :)

[@subwoofer4202]

Good info

[@leonardohermes2621]

Wow. Congratulations. I thought those 20mins went by like 5. Very good job

[@ImperiumRomanumYT]

Thanks Leonardo!

[@jackdarren9210]

Greetings from Alabama USA . Enjoyed your video.

[@johnswan652]

great video

[@Jman16007]

Wonderfully done and correct. This video should be shown in schools. I deem it much higher quality than their current literature.

[@KenshiroPlayDotA]

Finally, the prequel to Die Deutschen I was waiting for. :D