Tribal Traditions and Population Patterns
While the Medieval traditions and customs, especially with regard to the nobility, owed a lot of ancient Rome, much also came from the German tribes that displaced the Romans in Western Europe from the 5th century onward. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that the Germans were far outnumbered by the Roman populations they conquered. Consider the populations of the various Roman territories before the Germans began moving into them in the 4th century. Note that by this time the population of the Empire was already in decline, as a result of a series of plagues, economic crises, and civil wars which began in the 3rd century.
Population (millions) Area (modern borders)
West (22.3 million)
8.0 Italy
8.0 France
5.5 Spain & Portugal
0.8 Britain
East (21.0 million)
5.0 Egypt
1.0 Rest of North Africa (mostly Tunisia)
4.0 Balkans
2.0 Greece
6.0 Turkey (Anatolia) & Syria
3.0 Lebanon, Palestine
Barbarians (6.3 million)
6.0 Germany
0.2 Ireland
0.1 Scotland
Much ink has been spilt explaining how so few barbarians (less than two million Germans, moving as tribal groups) managed to conquer over 20 million people in the western portion of the Roman empire. Suffice to say it was largely an inside job, with the Romans getting lazy and sloppy. Civil wars, government corruption, and an inability to mobilize the potential power of the Empire gave the Germans their chance, and the Germans took it. Like the early Romans, the Germans were organized for war, all the time, any time. The Germans had their own aristocracy, and selected their military leaders for their ability, not their genealogy or financial resources. Several centuries of close contact with the Romans had allowed the Germans to figure out when the Romans would be vulnerable and how best to exploit it.
If you read anything about the German invasions of Roman territory, you immediately get confused by the plethora of different tribes. There were a of of different tribes, and some of them had quite a lot of success in their travels. But most of them were quite small (under 100,000 people) and often unlucky in the long run. Many of these eventually tribes disappeared after decades of spectacular conquests. The usual reason was that these tribes simply got absorbed by the people they were conquering. The Germans did not have the administrative know-how to establish a German society atop a larger and more populous region that had a more efficient culture. Thus most of the German tribal people were absorbed by the Roman populations they sought to conquer. This happened to the various Gothic tribes, which at one time or another controlled most of southern Russia, Italy, and Spain. Likewise the Vandals came and went. The Huns from the east and a resurgent Eastern Roman Empire all played a part is wiping out any trace of the first wave of Germanic invaders. All of these Germans were not killed, most simply blended in with the more numerous Romanized people they settled among. But there were two tribes of the second wave of invaders, plus a third group, that left a lasting mark on Europe. The Franks and Langobards are the two you should know about in order to understand the Germanic influence on Medieval Europe. And then there were the Vikings , the most spectacular Germanic conquerers of all.
See Also: