Less Civilized Factions

[geala]

Ok, I see your points. I will however remain a bit sceptical. (like not few German scholars)

The archaeological evidence is problematic and not clear. More finds from the balkans on the one side (an area not to be reported as being touched intensively by the trek), no clear signs for a loss of population at the interesting time on the other side. That the Cimbri were recorded to settle in Jutland in the time of Augustus is not of so great help for the question wether the Cimbri and Teutones formed mainly a Germanic army or were in fact a mix of different tribes. Combine this with some of the common problems of archaeology, like the question whether the finding of certain artefacts coincide with people of a certain culture.

The first who recorded "Germanics" was Poseidonios about 100 BC, but he named so the population/tribe in a small northern area, not at all what Caesar made of it. The name was used in the 70s and 60s by others and the Suebes were identified as a Germanic tribe. Probably they were although it is nearly impossible to distinguish Germanic and Celtic elements in a wide area of today middle western Germany.

You cannot simply take conclusions from a behavior of the Goths in the 4th c. AD and transfer it to earlier perhaps-Germanics. The Goths had moved for a long time before and were surely a mixture of different ethnics at least.

Maybe you are right but I would like to put more "may be's" and "could be's" in the discussion. Just the same caution like for questions as these wether Britons or old Irish were Celts or wether Kalkriese has something to do with the Clades Variana or ...