Trade between the Roman Empire and the Free Germans

Author(s): Olwen Brogan

Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 26, Part 2 (1936), pp. 195-222
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/296866
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 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE FREE GERMANS1

By OLWEN BROGAN

(Plate xi)

I. COMMUNICATIONS (p. I99, fig. 7)

The campaigns of Caesar and Augustus gave Italian merchants

an opportunity of establishing relations with the free Germans.2
Intercourse was maintained after the withdrawal of the legions to the
west of the Rhine, and literary references to the trade which grew up,.
though few in number, testify to its continuance throughout the
time here to be considered. The conception of an illimitable forest
primeval stretching unbroken from the borders of the empire into
the furthest recesses of barbarism is very far from the truth. Great
as were the forests, there existed open or lightly-wooded areas suitable
for the settlements of primitive man, and communication between
such inhabited regions can be traced from very early times.4 All
the great rivers have been guides or highways for migrants and for
traders, though streams liable to floods have caused difficulty. The
prevalence of marsh is largely responsible for the convergence of
traffic upon certain points where not only can the rivers be forded,.
but where relatively firm ground approaches close to the banks..
The Celto-German world knew nothing of elaborate roads of the
Roman type, but primitive tracks came early into being, as burials

1 The The penetration of Roman goods among the

period surveyed in this article is, approxi-
mately, from the reign of Augustus until A.D. 400, Batavi before their incorporation within the
and the term 'Roman' is applied to any goods empire has been shown by the excavation of
made within the empire, whether in Italy or the Ubbergen, a Batavian oppidumndestroyed in A.D. 70
provinces. The distribution-maps are based (Breuer, Oudheid. Med. I93I). Most of the border
on lists compiled from works available in England tribes were at one time or another during the first
and in the Archaeological Institute at Frankfort. and second centuries in client relationship to
For reasons of space it has not been possible to the empire, and there were frequent embassies
publish the lists themselves here; furthermore, from the Germanic peoples to Rome, all of which
an exhaustive treatment of the whole subject is would help to stimulate barbarian interest in
being prepared by a German scholar and will be pub- Roman goods (J. Klose, Riizs Klientel-Randstaaten:
lished by the Romisch-Germanische Kommission. ami Rhein u. an der Donau, I934).
The chief general accounts are: 0. Montelius, 3 0. Schliiter, s.v. ' Deutsches
Siedelungswesen,'
Der H-andel in der Vorzeit,' Praehist. Zeitschr. ii, Hoops, Reallex. i, I911-13 (with map); L. Schmidt,.
1910, 249-91; W. Stein, s.v. ' Handel,' Hoops, Geschichte der deutschen Stdinnme, 1911, 1934;
Reallex. der germ. Altertumskunde, i, 1913-I5, G. Kossinna, ' Die Karte der germanischen Funde
382-90; E. Wahle, s.v. ' Handel,' Ebert, Reallex. in der fruhen Kaiserzeit,' Mannns, 1933, 6-40 ; see
der Vorgeschichte, v, I926, 37-64. C. F. Wiberg, also G. Ekholm in CAH xi, 46 if.
Der Einfluss der klassischen iVlker azuf den Norden 4 E. Sprockhoff,' Handelsgesch. der germanischen
durch den Handelsverkehr, 1867. Bronzezeit,' Vorgesch. Forschungen vii, 1930;.
2Caesar, BG i, 39 (appearance of Germans J. M. de Navarro, 'Prehistoric Routes between
described by traders) ; iv, 2, 3; vi, 25 (journeys Northern Europe and Italy defined by the Amber
across Germany taking sixty days); Dio, lvi, 18, 2. Trade,' Geog. Journ., 1925, 481-503.
I96 OLWEN BROGAN

along them show.5 The importance of the wagon to the German

tribes implies the existence, in a forested country, of tracks along
which it could be drawn. Traces of German road-building in marshy
ground have been observed ;6 the corduroy ways of north-west
Germany and Holland may even be neolithic; the East Prussian
examples seem to belong to the Roman period. Signs of a primitive
bridge have been found at Fulda.7
It would appear that goods generally changed hands at the
frontier, where strict watch was kept and customs dues were levied,8
but there seems no reason why some of the sailors of the Lower Rhine,
largely Germanic themselves, should not have ventured far along the
coast, despite the early rise of German piracy. 9 The discovery of
Roman objects across the base of Jutland and in great quantity in
the Danish isles, and an early Saxon reference to a trade-route here, 10
support the view that goods destined for Baltic trade were transported
by land across the isthmus. If this was the case it seems plausible
to guess that Roman traders may have got at least as far as the Elbe. 11
Germans, however, certainly sailed the North Sea from the beginning
of our period,12 and it is worth remark that the Frisians were par-
ticularly well placed to act as middlemen in a trade which found
custom far along the Norwegian coast as well as in Denmark and up
the German rivers. The Baltic had its own ships and sailors very
early.13 A first-century ship has recently been dug up in south
Sweden 4; the well-known Nydam vessel belongs to the period
about A.D. 400.15
A valuable study of prehistoric routes north-east of the Rhine,
based on an examination of geographical factors, medieval records
and archaeological finds, especially Roman coins, has been published
by Dr. H. Kruger.16 He shows that the Lippe and the routes
5 Cf. sections on roads in '
Limes-Forschungen,' By cxxx, 1925, 30) believes, presumably on the
(ORL), and infra, notes 16, 20, 25. Caesar shows analogy of the Baltic trading-posts mentioned by
how well provided Gaul was with tracks and even Pliny (xxxvii, 45), that at the mouths of the great
with bridges. rivers there were German emporia, a probability
6 R. J. Forbes, ' Notes on the History of Ancient for which there is no direct evidence, although
Roads and their Construction,' Allard Pierson Roman coins are frequent enough thereabouts.
Stichting iii, I934, 38-47. Cf. 'pontes longi' of 12 Strabo, vii, 2, I; supra, n. 9.
Tac. Ann. i, 63. W. Gaerte, Urgeschichte Ost- 13 Tac., Gern. 44 (Suiones); c/. the Bronze Age
preussens, I929, 207-8. rock carvings of ships and sailors from Bornholm
7
J. Vonderau, Denkmiler aus vor- und frihges-
chichtlicher Zeit im Fuldaer Lande, 1931, 43, 54. (W. Vogel, ' Von den Anfangen deutscher
8 Tac., Germ. 41 ; Hist. iv, 64-5; Tert., adv. Iid. Schiffahrt,' Praehist. Zeitschr. (PZ) iv, -I5 ; s.v.
' Felsenzeichnung,' Ebert, Reallex.) O. Almgren,
7, ' Germani adhuc usque limites suos transgredi Die altere Eisenzeit Gotlands i, I914, ii (with B.
non sinuntur'; Samwer, ' Die Grenzpolizei des
rom. Reichs,' Westdeutsche Zeitschr. v, I886, 314. Nerman), 1923, I38-43, for Baltic trade. G.
9 Ekholm, in' Die Einfuhr von Bronzeschiisseln der
Tac., Anin. xi, I8 (A.D. 47, raids of Gannascus rom. Zeit nach Skandinavien,' Altschlesien, 1934,
and his Chauci); Pliny, NH xvi, 203. Cf. Tac.,
Germ. 2, 'oceanus raris ab orbe nostro navibus 252-4, and in op. cit. infra., n. 74, has valuable
discussions of trade routes to and in Scandinavia.
aditur.' The Frisian coasts were certainly fre-
14 Mannus-Bibl.
quented by provincial fishermen (CIL xiii, 8830, 1, 69.
end of first century; 1 Ibid.,
Korrespondenzblatt des 63; K. Schuchhardt, Vorgesch. von
Westdeutschen Zeitschr., 1889, 4). Deutschland, 2nd edn., I934, 280ff.
10 M. Ebert, Truso, i926, p. I ff (the travels of 16 ' Die vorgesch. Strassen in den Sachsenkriegen
Wulfstan, ninth century). Karls des Grossen,' Korrespondenzbl. des Gesamt-
11 Aubin (' Der Rheinhandel in r6mischer Zeit,' vereins, lxxx, 1932, 223-80.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 197

associated with it are of first importance. Many tracks and their

branches led to the Ems and Weser, and several of them converged
upon Minden, an important crossing of the Weser. From Minden
the journey to the well-populated regions of the Elbe and Saale
would be comparatively easy, and an ancient route and the modern
railroad both run by Hildesheim to Magdeburg.17
The Hellweg, running from the mouth of the Ruhr to Paderborn,
is well marked by Roman coins. Opposite the mouth of the Ruhr
at Asberg, lay a Roman fort, identified with the old German settle-
ment of Asciburgium.18 It is unfortunately not yet possible to
say whether Asciburgium continued to be a trading centre under
the Romans, for the finds so far made there indicate no more than
the usual life of a military station. At Paderborn roads branch off
to the Weser crossings of Minden, Hameln and H6xter, and to another
well-marked primitive road-centre at Warburg, once defended by a
prehistoric stronghold.19 Another early track led from opposite
Cologne to Diisseldorf along the open ' Heideterrasse,' on which
settlements existed from neolithic to Frankish times. Other,
medieval, roads known to lead north-east and south-east from
Cologne (avoiding the Rothaargebirge) have not yet been assigned
to an earlier date.
Passing the Sieg valley,2 0 where there is evidence of at least local
trade of some magnitude, we enter the highland zone and the Limes
country, in which forts are almost invariably situated at points where
prehistoric roads cross the frontier.21 The Lahn valley near Giessen
has yielded many Roman finds, which may have come from several
directions-by the ridgeway north of the Lahn,2 or by roads pass-
ing Holzhausen or the High Taunus forts23 or running north from
the Wetterau, 24 the fertile gap between the Taunus and Vogelsberg.
A prehistoric track, probably followed by Germanicus in his advance
on Mattium and the Eder, led past Giessen and Marburg to Cassel.
Another, crossing the Limes at Altenstadt and then passing through
the Vogelsberg to Fulda, is called in Fulda records the Antsanvia-
the Way of the Gods-and is mentioned in 743 as the road ' auf
17 Schuchhardt, op. cit. special points and thus facilitafe the growth of
236.
18 markets. Kutsch, Hanau Katalog, I926, I I3, ORL,
Tac., Germ. 3 ; Ihm, P-W s.v. 'Asciburgium';
E. Norden, Die germ. Urgesch. in Tac., Germania, Bd. ii B. I6 Alrnsburg,p. I8, gives several examples;
znd edn., I922, 187-93; R. Hennig, ' Die Strom- at Alteburg-Heftrich in the Taunus, just east of
verlagerungen des Niederrheins,' BJ cxxix, I924, the Roman fort site, a market has been held thrice
a year from time immemorial, yet it is far away
17z-5, holds that prehistoric Asciburgium lay on
the right bank of the Rhine, which shifted to the from modern traffic-routes of importance (ORL,
east even in Roman times; other references in Bd. ii B. 9, p. 5).
22 ORL, Str. i, 149
Grenier, Manuel ii, 580, n. 4. 3
1 9 The increasing study of such primitive stron 2 Objects of German origin are common in the
Pla tAou . . ~
1
holds will do 1i1much to 1,fill the gaps in our know-
* Taunus forts; Schumacher, op. cit., Iz6-7 and
n f S op c 26 a
ledge of the old roads and of the various periods in p 2, . 37cit. 229-33
*2 Kruger, op. for routes
229-33 for routes leading
leading
which they were important. north; K. T. C. Mtiller, Alte Strassen und Wege in
20 K.
Schumacher, Siedelungs-u. Kulturgescb. der Oberhessen,ibre Erkundung und ibre Bedeutung f/iir
Rheinlande ii, 1923, 139, 340. vor- und fruhgesch. Forschung, Marburg, 1929g
21 The Limes would serve to regulate traffic to Schumacher, op. cit., 241-42.
I98 OLWEN BROGAN

welcher die Kaufleute von Thiiringen nach Mainz ziehen,' 25 a state-

ment almost equally appropriate to the Roman period.26
In the German territory south of the Main finds of Roman and
even of German objects have up to the present been few and far
between.27 The valleys of the Main, Tauber, Jagst and Kocher,
however, are convenient channels for trade, and in the last were
salt deposits which would be nearer at hand for the Main-Rems
group of forts than any deposits within the empire.28 But, though
a few Roman coins have turned up in the Kocher valley, and pre-
historic tracks lead from the salt area to both Upper Germany and
Raetia,29 proof of the existence of this salt trade30 has yet to be
found. An important discovery has been made recently at Baldesheim,
near Aub, in Middle Franconia, where a German settlement with
numerous Roman imports ranging from A.D. 180-230 has been un-
earthed.31 Baldesheim lies just east of an ancient route running
from Augsburg to Miltenberg. Another route running north from
Manching32 crosses the Limes near Denkendorf and is still apparently
distinguishable seven kilometres outside the Limes as a Roman
causeway.33 This track would continue north up the Sulz valley to
Nuremberg and eventually to Thuringia. It is unfortunate that we
cannot yet point out the routes used by the Hermunduri concern-
ing whom Tacitus made his well-known statement.34 Evidence of
the use of the Regen and Naab valleys by traders in the Roman
period is strikingly scanty,35 nor has the important Bronze Age
route north from Kelheim any proven Roman counterpart. Raetia,
however, was a poor province, with richer neighbours to west and
east, and while the Bavarian Hermunduri may have carried on local
trade and have acted to some extent as middlemen in trade north-
ward bound to their richer kinsmen in Thuringia,36 they lay off the
25
Schumacher, loc. cit. Along it are Hallstatt 31 Germania, xiv, 1930, 40-42; xv, 83-9, 28I.
and La Tene burials and at Fulda there are Roman 32 Ber. xi, 5, 27-18 (roads from Manching).
finds. Vonderau (supra p. I96, n. 7), II ff. At Oberstimm near Manching the Romans built
26 W. Schulz, ' Mitteldeutsch-Siidwestdeutsche
a fort, and at Oberstimm there is still held annually
Beziehungen in der spatromischen Germanen- a fair which, says Winkelmann, must go back to
kultur,' SchumacherFestschr., 3 9-22. Roman times at least, and probably to an earlier
27 This
may be due partly to inadequate explora- fair held in the oppidum (E. Norden, Germ. Urgesch.
tion, partly to thin settlement of an area largely in Tac. Germ. 2nd edn., 505; Eichstdtt Kat. 25).
covered with coniferous forest. See H. Zeiss, Bay. 33 Ber.
xi, 9, Eichstatt Museums Kat. 25.
Vorgesch. Bltt. xi, 1933, 45; Reinecke, Berichte 34 Germ. 41 ; H. Zeiss, op. cit., 42, 44; Barthel,
Rom.-germ. Komm. (referred to below as Ber.) Ber. vi, I67.
xxiii, 1933, I44; ORL St. vii-ix, 13; xiii, 8;
35 Wagner, Die Romer in Bayern, 4th edn, 2928,
Xiv, I2.
28 E.g. Miinster-am-Stein, Kreuznach, Nauheim; 81 ; cf. however, Schuchhardt's statement in op. cit.,
Aubin, op. cit. 20; Schumacher, op. cit. 56, 258. 226, n. 17. ' Die Hermunduren reichen zur Romer-
29
ORL Str. vii-ix, 145; xiii, 57; F. Winkel- zeit bis zur Donau, wo sie in Regensburg einen
mann, 'Die vorrom. u. rom. Strassen in Bayern Hauptaustauschort an der Grenze haben, und bei
zwischen Donau u. Limes,' Ber. xi, 2918-29, 4-56. den Weltherrschern grosses Vertrauen geniessen.'
3 F. 36 A. Gotze, P. Hofer and P. Zschiesche, Die
Winkelmann, Eichstitt Museums Katalog,
47. Such a trade would help to account for the vor- und friih-gesch. Ailtertumer Thiiringens,
rapid rise of the flourishing civil settlement at 2909, xxxv, draw attention to the La Graufe-
Ohringen; Weller, Fundber. aus Schwaben, xii, senque pot at Vippacheldelhausen and the Oberhof
1904, 15-3I ; E. Norden, Altgermanien, 1934, 49 ff. patera-handle as indications of early trade between
Ammian. xxviii, 5, I shows the importance of the Thuringian Hermunduri and the south. The
these springs. handle was found on a forest route leading to Raetia.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 199

main routes into free Germany. From the archaeologicalpoint

of view the Hermunduriof Thuringia are by far the more important,
having widespreadconnectionswhich have become increasinglyclear
in recent years; and throughout our period, despite changes in its
inhabitants,Thuringia continued to play an important part in com-
merce and the diffusion of cultures.37

FIG. 7
The shaded part signifies a height over I,ooo ft.

Reinecke38 has drawn attention to several prehistoric roads

entering Bohemia from Raetia. Where most of them leave the
Danube a few Roman objects have turned up, but they may only
bear witness to local trade. More important was the route to the
Budweis from Lauriacum, while from Vienna a route along the
Lauschnitz led into the central, heavily-settled part of Bohemia.
The easiest ways out from Bohemia to the north ran across the
mountains to Dresden, Gorlitz and Glatz. The Marcomannic
37 Schulz, Fiirstengrah (infra p. z04, n. 70), 43-47. roads: H. Preidel, Germanen in Bihmen im Spiegel
38 p. Reinecke, 'Die Westgrenze vorgesch. der Bodenfunde, I926, 57-8.
Besiedelung in B6hmen,' Sudeta vii, 26-38. Other
200 OLWEN BROGAN

kingdom played a leading, if brief, role in the development of trade.3 9

The remnant of the Boii provided a sprinkling of Celtic subjects
of whose skill the new lords of Bohemia could avail themselves, and
Bohemia became a centre for the fusion of elements of Celtic,
Germanic and even Roman culture. The Celtic substratum in both
Bohemia and Noricum must have facilitated intercourse, and Maro-
boduus encouraged Roman merchants to settle in his new capital ; 40
after his fall, cynically engineered from Rome, his kingdom was
reduced to a clientship maintained well into the second century.41
Roman goods are abundant in Bohemian cemeteries of the first
century. In the second century there are fewer imports and by the
third century German goods have definitely gained the upper hand.
A specially Marcomannic first-century product may be mentioned
here, as its distribution and influence shows how widespread must
have been the inter-relations between craftsmen throughout free
Germany,42 namely, drinking-horn ornaments. Rims and tips
closely resembling Bohemian specimens are found in Pomerania and
in Denmark; identical examples of tips from Bohemia and the
lower Neckar are known,43 showing that the Marcomanni main-
tained touch with the Suebi Nicretes, who were themselves in close
commercial relationship with the Roman Rhineland before their
territory was incorporated in the empire.44
We come to a route established beyond all doubt when we reach
Carnuntum, with its ancient communications north and south.45
The way from Carnuntum to the amber coast is the only one of the
northern trade-routes of which we have specific literary information;
first the passage in Pliny46 referring to the Roman knight of Nero's
time who started north from Carnuntum, and six hundred miles
away, after a journey which (Montelius calculated) would have taken
two months, reached the Baltic coast where he found a number of
trading posts. After his time this route became increasingly
important and points along it are indicated with surprising clearness
by Ptolemy.47 It led through the territory of the Quadi up the
Manch valley into Silesia either through the Moravian Gates or the
3 9 J. L. Pi,', Die Urnengraber Bohhmens,1907; 44 In their grave-furniture much Roman pro-

Le Hradischt de Stradonitz, I906. H. Preidel, vincial work is found, including Belgic ware, which
' Uber den Zusammenhang der markomannischen they were prompt to imitate. Cf. F. Behn, ' Zur
Kulturentwicklung mit der politischen Geschichte ersten germanischen Besiedelung Starkenburgs,'
des Stammes,' Germ. xii, I56-6I. Scbum. Fest. 178 ; Ber. vii, I56, find of Aucissa
40 fibula.
Tacitus, Ann. ii, 62.
41
J. Klose, op. cit. (supra, p. i95, n. z), 76. 40 M. P. Charlesworth, Trade Routes and Com-
42 0. merce of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed. I926, I76;
Almgren, 'Zur Bedeutung des Marko-
mannenreichs in Bohmen fur die Entwicklung der J. M. de Navarro, op. cit., 496 ff. Cary and
germanischen Industrie in der friihen Kaiserzeit,' Warmington, The Ancient Explorers, I929, II9.
Mannus v, 1913, 265-78; Schumacher Festschrift, 46 NH xxxvii, 45.
282 (spur of Marcomannic type in Hungary); 47Geog. II, xi; see discussion by G. Schitte,
Preidel (infra, p. 204, n. 70), 1930, ii, I29 if. In one Ptolenmy'sMaps of Northern Europe, I917. Ptolemy
or two cases the horn itself has been partially gives a number of settlements along the route and
preserved (e.g. Liibsow, Schuchhardt, op. cit., 258). there seems some likelihood that Eburonum=Brunn
43 Altertiimer uns. heidn. Vorzeit v, (placed correctly I?north of the Danube), Kalisia=
I911, 371.
(Cf. also 376, 411, 414). Kaliscz, and Askankalis=Osielsk.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 201

Glatz Pass. An examination of the finds of the region48 suggests

that at first the latter was used, but that before long the more direct
passage of the Moravian Gates came in for a specially heavy share of
the traffic. Nowhere in free Germany are coins more thickly dis-
tributed than in Upper Silesia, and along the whole of the amber
route numerous Roman objects have been found. An alternative
route to Silesia followed the valley of the Waag, crossing the
Carpathians by the Jablunkau Pass.49 Passage along or across the
Oder valley was complicated by swamps,50 but at all times there
seems to have been a culture stream along the Oder towards
Denmark. After crossing the river, the amber route bore north-
east to Kaliscz, crossing the Warthe near Kolo, passing Lake Goplo
and joining the Vistula near Bromberg. It followed the Vistula
to the head of the delta, then turned off towards Samland. Whether
the settlement of the Roman period found near Elbing can be
regarded as one of Pliny's commerciamust remain an open question
for the present.51 Towards the end of the third century the route
seems to have become very much less frequented (cf. p. 204 f., figs. 8,
9), but communication with East Prussia never entirely ceased.52
The main line of traffic to Pomerania, apart from the Oder water-
way, seems to have branched from the amber route near Kaliscz and
run north-westward to Grabow, Regenwalde and the Baltic.53
Pomerania, the home of the Rugii, has yielded large numbers of
Roman objects. Those of the first century are almost entirely
Italian; in the second century Rhenish and Gallic goods enter the
market, trade with the empire reaching its peak in the time of
Antoninus Pius. There is a decline during the third century, but in
the fourth there is another flow from the Rhineland, including coins
from western mints, though this trade comes to an end about the
middle of the century as it seems that most of the inhabitants had by
then moved off towards lands which were being vacated by the
Vandals.54 The fifth-century overlordship of the Rugii in Noricum
encouraged agriculture and trade.55
The importance of Transylvanian gold in ancient commerce has
long been recognised. 56 Sufficient data, however, for the discussion
of trade between the Roman province of Dacia and the Germans
48 M. 49
Jahn, 'Die oberschlesischen Funde aus Wiberg, op. cit., 45.
der rom. Kaiserzt.,' PZ x, I918, 80-149, xiii-xiv, 50 J. N. von Sadowski, Die Handelsstrassen der
127 iff.; ' Herkunft der schles. Wandalen,' Mannus- Griechen und Romer, 1877, 9-10. This work pays
Bibl. xxii, I922, 78-94; S. Bolin, Fynden av special attention to the swamps and crossings of
Romerskamynrti det fria Germanien, I926 ; Beninger, east German rivers.
'Quadische und wandalische Kulturbeziehungen,' 5 M. Ebert, Truso, I926, 35 ff.
Mitt. der Anthrop. Gesell., Vienna, lxii, 78-100. It 52 Ibid., 35 n. I.
is worth noting that the chief medieval trade route 53 Jungklaus, Rdor. Funde in Pommern, 1924,
here avoided the Moravian Gates themselves to 11 2 f.
swing across the Jeseniky a few miles to the west 54 L. Schmidt, op. cit. i, 2nd edn., I925.
(Vidal de la Blache, Geographie universelle, iv, 2, 55 Eugippius, Vit. Severini xxii, 2 (cf. ix, i).
1931, 581); isolated finds of coins suggest that the 56 V. Parvan, Getica, I926,
757, 794 (French
Jeseniky road was also known and used in Roman summary); 0. Davies, Roman Mines in Europe,
times. 1935, ch. viii.
202 OLWEN BROGAN

north of it, are not yet available,though a few signs of its existence
have been noted.57 Roman roads seem to have cut acrossthe plain
between Danube and Theiss, and archaeologistsare now beginning
to pay some attention to this district.58
Danubian trade is referred to in a number of Roman treaties.
Those of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus with the Marcomanni,
Quadi and Iazyges all contain some reference to trade,59 notably
one with the Marcomanni in which Marcus ' established the places
and the days of their trading together (for these had not been
previously fixed).' The restrictions imply that a much freer inter-
course between Roman and barbarian had previously existed; the
same may be deduced from a treaty of 369 between Valens and the
Goths,6? which stipulated that only at two places on the Danube
should frontier trade henceforth be lawful.
The migration of the Goths to the Black Sea coasts and the Danube
brought a new factor into the history of German trade and cultural
relationships,61 which in many ways recalls the Celto-Scythian inter-
course of the La Tene period. In their raids they gathered enormous
quantities of booty and slaves, but there were intervals after the wars
of Aurelian and Constantine in which more peaceful relations with
the empire developed.62 The Goths rapidly assimilated the culture
of the Black Sea region, and the Roman roads of the old province
facilitated movement in Dacia.
The easternmost borderlands of the territory occupied by the
Germanic tribes need to be mentioned, if not discussed. Had the
great medieval route ' from the Varengars to the Greeks' (along
5 7 A few coins have been found on the COMMERCIVM ' QVA ' CAVSA * ET ' FACTVS ' EST * A
approaches
to the passes through the Carpathians (Bolin, Fynden FVNDAMENTIS * CONSTRVXIT * ET * AD ' SVMMAM
av r. mynt, Appendix, II9); the Samian found at MANVM ' OPERIS . . . PERVENIRI * FACIT.'
Dzwinogrod in Poland is far from other Roman 61 B. Salin, Die altgermanische Thierornamentik,
finds and is thought to have come through Dacia
1904; M. Rostovtzeff (op. cit. supra, n. 57), 2z6 ;
(yamka, infra, p. 216, n. II5); the lazyges were
PZ i, 1909, 74.
allowed to trade with the Roxolani across Dacia,
Dio lxxii, 19; Sadowski (op. cit., 187-92) describes 62 The rise of
Christianity among the Goths and
a route from the Bukowina to the Bug and the Vandals and the development of runes are important
Baltic; Rostovtzeff, Iranians and Greeks in S. indications of the extent to which those tribes
Russia, 1922, 215. were open to influences from the empire. A num-
58 H. Kiepert (Atlas) shows two hypothetical ber of Gothic cemeteries have been examined in
roads based on settlements noted by Ptolemy; at South Russia, Hungary and Roumania, and their
Szeged on the Theiss an inscription with the word contents reveal considerable Graeco-Roman in-
'mercator' was found recently, Klose, op. cit. fluence, see Schmidt, op. cit. i, 247-8 ; Ebert,
121 n.; finds in Iazygian-Sarmatian burials in the Siidrussland im Altertum, 921 ; C. C. Diculescu,
Alf old show strong Roman influence, and in the third 'Die Wandalen und die Goten in Ungarn und
century the German tribes pressing between the Rumanien,' Mannus-Bibl. xxxiv, 1923; Brenner,
rivers must have come within the sphere of this Ber., 1912, 262 ff. ; Reinecke, Mainzer Zeitschr. i,
trade (M. Parducz, ' R6merzeitliche Funde des I906, 42-50. An even more distant connection is
grossen ungarischen Alf old' (German summary), reflected in the hoard from Pietroasa, Transylvania,
Dolgozatok (Szeged), vii, 1931). which includes two vessels of Sassanian workman-
59 Dio lxxi, II, 15, lxxii, 2. C/. ILS 395, burgus ship-perhaps presents in the course of diplomatic
of a.D. I85 near Aquincum: 'PRAESIDIIS PER LOCA relationship between Goth and Persian (A.
OPPORTVNA AD CLANDESTINOS LATR VNCVLORVM Odobesco, Le tresor de Petrossa, 1889-1900, Pt. iv,
TRANSITVS OPPOSITIS.' 9I). Oszotropataka, north of the Theiss bend, is
60
Themistius, Orat. x, 135, Ammian. xxvii, 5, 7. one of the chief early Vandal sites, and yielded rich
For control of border trade, cf. ILS 775, inscription Roman goods and a coin of Herennia Etruscilla
at Gran of 371: 'HVNC' BVRGUM CVi NOMEN (249-5 ).
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 203

Dvina and Dnieper) any counterpart in Roman times ? 63 The most

recent collection of coin-finds of western Russia was made twenty
years ago by T. J. Arne.64 In the Governments along, and to the
west of, the Dnieper below the Pripet Marshes Roman coins are fairly
common; north of Kiev they are much rarer. Scattered coins in
the Governments of Chernigov, Mohilev, Kaluga and Vitebsk suggest
some penetration but hardly a great trade-route. The precision
of Ptolemy's knowledge of the routes from the Danube to the Baltic
has been contrasted with his ignorance of what lay beyond the
middle Dnieper.65 It would appear that the main body of the
Goths migrated along the Vistula basin, 6 but even so some of them
may have come into contact with the Pripet Marshes, as Jordanes
seems to record. 67 The legends of the brilliant but short-lived empire
of Hermanric the Ostrogoth68 imply that the Goths maintained
touch with the Baltic by the eastern route, and some of the migrants
may have travelled that way. Hints of the development of the
'
Varangian' route towards the end of our period are provided by
the finds of certain small enamel ornaments in Esthonia (p. 213,
fig. 15) and around Kiev. 6 9 This eastern route was increasingly used
in succeeding centuries, but for our purpose it is not to be compared
in importance with the routes which lay further to the west.

II. OBJECTS OF TRADE

Roman Exports70
A.
Coins (figs. 8 and 9).-The commonest Roman objects in free
Germany are coins. Most of the following remarks, together with
figs. 8 and 9 are based on the important statistical study of the material
63Rostovtzeff, op. cit. 214-15; T. Kendrick, dem Weichselgebiet und Estland zur rim. Eisen-
A History of the Vikings, 1930, chs. v and vi, Viking zeit,' Riga Congress, 1930, 395-405.
trade.
64 T. J. Arne, Det Stora Svitjod, 1917, i6, also 7 ? The chief publications used in the preparation
his ' Tenetid och romersk, jarnalder i Ryssland med of the distribution-maps are given below and will
sarskild hansyn till de romerska denarfynden,' be referred to in later footnotes simply by the
Oldtiden, vii, 1918, 207-8. author's name or by a convenient abbreviation.
65 Cary and Warmington, The Ancient
Explorers, Works dealing with single classes of objects are not
I929, IIo-II. given here, but under the appropriate section.
66 A. Auerbach, Die vor- und friihgesch. Altertiimer
Ebert, Sidrussland, 359 ; Arne, op. cit., 1917,
14; G. Kossinna, 'Zu meiner Ostgermanenkarte,' Ostthiiringens, 1930.
Mannus, xvi, 1924, I60-75; cf. his map with that R. Beltz, Die vorgesch. Altertiimer des Grossherzog-
of K. Tackenberg, 'Zu den Wanderungen der tums Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1910.
Ostgermanen,' Mannus, xxii, I930, 268-95. For E. Beninger und H. Friesing, Die germ. Bodenfunde
routes cf. M. Korduba, 'Die ostgermanischen in Mdhren, 1933.
Handelswege durch die Ukraine um die Mitte des E. Beninger, Die Germanenzeit in Niederlsterreich,
ersten Jahrtausends vor Chr. Geb.' Swiatowit, I934.
XV, 1933, I79-9I. E. Blume, 'Die germ. Stamme und die Kulturen
67 Jordanes, Getica iv, 'magna ubertate zwischen Oder und Passarge zur rom. Kaiserzeit,'
regionum.' Mannus-Bibl. viii, 1912.
f8 His
reputed overlordship over the Aestii, P. Boeles, Friesland tot de Elfde Eeuw, 1927.
Jordanes, Getica xxiii. J. Eisner, 'Die vor- und lriihgesch. des Landes
69 H. Moora, ' Zur Frage nach der Herkunft des Slowakei' (German summary), Slovensko v
ostbaltischen emailverzierten Schmucks,' SMTA xl, Praveku, 1933.
1934; Die Vorzeit Estlands, 1932, 40; M. W. Gaerte, Urgesch. Ostpreussens, 1929.
Schmiedehelm, 'I ber die Beziehungen zwischen A. E. van Giffen, ' Oudheidkundige aanteekeningen
204 OLWEN BROGAN

FIG. 8.
Based on Dr. S. Bolin's lists (See n. 71)

over Drentsche vondsten,' Nieuzoe Drentsche aus dem bayerischen Anteil an der Germania
Volksalmanak, 1934, 85 ff. Magna,' Ber. xxiii, I933, I44-204.
A. Gotze, P. Hofer and P. Zschiesche, Die vor- und H. Schetelig, Prehistoire de la Norvege, 1926.
friihgesch. AltertiimnerThiiringens, 1909. W. Schulz, 'Ost- und Elbgermanen in spatr6m.
P. Grimm, Die vor- und friihgesch. Besiedelung des Zeit in den Ostkreisen der Prov. Sachsen,'
Unternharzes und seines Vorlandes, 1930. yahr. f.d. vorg. der sdch. Thur. Linder, 193I.
A. Hackman, ' Die altesten eisenzeitlichen Funde in W. Schulz and R. Zahn, 'Das Frirstengrab von
Finnland,' Mannus v, I913, 279-299. Hassleben,' R.-Gernz. Forsch. vii, I933.
K. H. Jacob-Friesen, Einfiihrung in niedersachsens SchumacherFestschrift, I930.
Urgesch., 2nd edn., 1934. Stieren, Bodenaltertiimer Westfalens, 1929.
E. Jungklaus, Rdmische Funde in Pommnern,I924. K. Tackenberg,' Die Wandalen in Niederschlesien,'
O. Krone, Vorgesch. des Landes Braunschweig, 1931. Vorgesch. Forsch. i, 1925.
O. Kunkel, 'Einfiihrgut im vor- und fruhgesch. A. M. Tallgren, Zur Archiologie Eestis i, Dorpat,
Pommern,' Riga Congress, 1930, 175-I86. 1922.
O. Kunkel, Oberhessensvorges. Altertiimer, 1926.
W. La Baume, Vorgesch. von Westpreussen, 1920. J. Vonderau, Denkmiileraus vor- und /riihgeschtlicher
Zeit im Fuldaer Lande, I93 I.
J. Mestorf, Vorgesch. Altertiimer aus Schleswig- H. Willers, Die roii. Bronzeeimer von Hemmoor,
Holstein, I885.
O. Montelius, Kulturgesch. Schwedens, 1906, Hannover, 1901.
163-213. H. Willers, Die r mn. Bronzeeimer von Hemmoor,
. Miiller, Ordning af Danmarks Oldsager, Bronzeindustrie von Capua und von Niederger-
(Jernalderen), 1895. manien, I907.
J. L. PiE, Die UrnengrdberBohmens, I907. The principal periodicals used were: Berichte d.
H. Preidel, Germanen in Bihnzen inm Spiegel der rom.-germ. Kommission (Ber.); Fornvdnnen; Ger-
Bodenfunde, 1926. mania; Mannus ; Mannus Ergdnzungsband;
H. Preidel, Die germanischen Kulturen in Bohmen Mannus-Bibliothek; Mainzer Zeitschrift (MZ);
und ihre Trdger, vols. i, ii, I930. Rom.-gernz. Korrespondenzblatt; Praehist. Zeitschr.
P. Reinecke, Die kaiserzeitlichen Germanenfunde (PZ); Prussia; Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 205

FIG. 9.
Based on Dr. S. Bolin's lists (See n. 71)

by Dr. Sture Bolin,71 which proves the widespread use of Roman

coins in Germany long before money payments on a large scale by
the Roman State to German tribes became important.
Tacitus writes that the frontier tribes used Roman coins, whereas
those in the interior still engaged in barter.72 Republican coins,73
and coins of the Early Empire are abundant in western Germany,
and the frequency of Augusto-Tiberian hoards reflects the stormy
history of this region. Old Republican denarii still circulated in
the empire after Nero had issued his debased coinage, and this is the
period when the recorded German preference for the older, heavier
coins would have real point. In A.D. 107 the pre-Neronian coins
were called in, and Bolin shows that they disappear from Germany
as well as from the empire, which must mean that the Germans were
71 Sture Bolin, Fynden av romerska mynt i det grave finds (the coins are occasionally, as at
fria Germanien, 1926; resume in Ber. xix, Hassleben, found in the mouths of the deceased, a
I929, 86-145; addenda in Gern. xv, 267-71, and Mediterranean custom); rarer finds in known
in the ' Fundchronik' of later volumes and, for German settlements; and scattered surface finds.
E. Prussia, in Prussia, 1926, 203-240. Also 72 Germss.
5.
73 In a hoard of 62 denarii found at Aschendorf
Reinecke, Ber. xxiii; Petsch, Die vorgesrc. Miinz-
funde Pomnerns, Univ. Greifswald, 1931. The finds 6i were Republican, I Augustan, 41 had serrate
shown on figs. 8 and 9 include hoards; numerous edges. (Willers, I90o, I93.)
206 OLWEN BROGAN

to some extent paying Romans for goods with coin. Thereafter the
Germans had to be content with ordinary Roman currency. They
kept mainly to silver; bronze coins are not found in quantity before
the third century.

FIG. I0 (see p. 2 0)
Basedon the mapin H. WIillers' Neue Untersuchurgen
iiberdie romische
von Capua und von Niedergermanien,'g906
Bronzeindustrie

Few hoards were, buried during the first half of the second
century. Numerous hoards mark the widespread unrest of the next
decades, and the composition of those buried in Western and Northern
Germany resembles that of contemporary Gallic ones, while those in
the Danubian sphere resemble Pannonian examples. The troubles
of the third century appear to have affected Rhenish trade less than
that of other areas, and coins of the Gallic emperors are found up
to and beyond the Vistula. In the middle of the century Central
Germany was disturbed by the movements of the Burgundians
and Vandals, and hoards have been found along the line of their
migration from Poland and Silesia to the Main basin. Early in the
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 207

fourth century there began the flow of Constantinian solidi of which

large numbers have been found.
Bronze Vessels (figs. IO-I2).--A few of the bronzes in German
cemeteries are types known to have been in use in Italy in the time of
the later Republic, 7 4 and Willers concludes that these were exported
across the eastern Alps as part of that growing commerce which had

FIG. II (see p. 210)

Based on maps by Dr. E. Sprockhoffin 'Mainzer Zeitschrift,' 1928, and by Dr. C. Ekhol/n in 'Acta
Archaeologica ' vi

made of Aquileia an important emporium by the time of Augustus.

In the first century A.D. Italian goods, the products in the main of
Campanian workshops, dominated the market, and found their way
to the north chiefly through the Danube lands, though examples
near the Rhine are also known. Willers has dealt at length with the
different classes of vessels-paterae (with or without sieves and
74 E.. vessels in Denmark and Hanover cor- continued to be produced until the end of the first
responding with forms found at Aylesford and century B.c. and at the risk of some inconsistency
Ornavasso (Willers 1907, I9, Archaeologia, lii, 1890, these have been included in the map (see Willers,
378); in Bohemia the continuity from late La Tene 1907, I-29). G. Ekholm (' Zur Gesch. des r6m.-
to Roman times is specially noteworthy (Preidel, germ. Handels' Acta Arch. vi, 1935, 49-98), records
Pic); the early pails, which occur most frequently pre-Empire bronze vessels in Scandinavia.
in Bohemia and along the Elbe, are types which
208 OLWEN BROGAN

FIG. 12. THE GENERAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF BRONZE VESSELS OTHER THAN THOSE SHOWN IN
FIGS. 10 AND II (See n. 74)

frequently bearing the maker's stamp), pails, bowls, amphorae, jugs.75

Only a few examples bear the names of Roman owners ;76 of these
the Augustan patera from the Weser may have been lost in a campaign.
Normally, bronze vessels were exported as new and not as second-
hand goods.
By the second century Gallic wares, as the names on certain
75 A lamp was found in central Esthonia (Moora, situla dedicated to Apollo Grannus found at
Die Vorzeit Estlands, 35). Fycklinge in Sweden, might represent a trade in
76 SchumacherFest. 316-18; Willers (I907, 94-9) outworn temple ornaments.
thought that some of these, such as the beautiful
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 209

stamps show, began to have a market, 77 though Italian vessels were

still exported. A careful examination of Scandinavian casserolles
and buckets has enabled Ekholm to identify some of them as of Gallic

FIG. 13.
The diagonal marking in Friesland indicates a number of statuettes

8
make, probably from Lyons. 7 A metal industry has been identified
at Eisenberg in the Palatinate, where, near the iron mines, the
manufacture of bronze and brass goods also flourished. Certain forms
of vessels common in the Palatinate were probably made here, such
as a type of patera and sieve79 which also occurs in Thuringian
77 Willers, 1907, 62 ff.;Germania ix, 39, xvi, late-Empire: P. Steiner, ' Messing-Seiher mit
221 ; Almgren, Gotland, i, 1914, fig. 271. The fine Halbdeckel aus rhein. Werkstatten,' Altschlesien v,
enamelled second-century bowls found at Maltbroek, 1934, 255-66.
Denmark, and in the sacred well at Pyrmont near the 78 'Gallisk-Skandinaviska Forbindelser under aldre
Weser, are Gallic (F. Henry, ' Emailleurs d'Oc- Kcjsartid,' Fornv. xxx, 1935, 193-205.
cident,' Prehistoire ii, I933, II2, 120). Mid- and 79 F. Sprater, Die Pfalz inter den Romern, ii,
210 OLWEN BROGAN

graves. Another class of goods manufactured near the Rhine are the
celebrated Hemmoor pails (fig. o), 8 0so-called from their occurrence in
quantity in a certain third-century cemetery near the mouth of the
Elbe. They appear in the mid-second century, reaching their peak
in the later third century, and some were in use in the early fourth
century. They are of brass, not bronze, and it is thought that they
Were made in the neighbourhood of Gressenich, near Aachen, where
zinc occurs. Sprater believes that some pails of this description
may have been made in the Palatinate.81
The bronze vessels on German sites are probably not all Roman.
The Germans were certainly capable of making the rough cauldrons
with iron handles, and in this connection the gift made by the Cimbri
to Augustus of 'the most sacred cauldron in their country' 82 may
be remembered. A more elaborate bronze grooved pail appearing
about A.D. 200 also deserves some attention (fig. I). There has
been some diversity of opinion about its origin, but the recent work
of Dr. Ekholm83 has shown conclusively that it is Roman, though
the great majority of examples has been found outside the empire,
in Scandinavia, Denmark, Pomerania and on the lower Vistula.
Ekholm believes it to be Italian and points to its rapid degeneration
as an example of the economic decay brought about in Italy through
the disturbances of the third century. He distinguishes two well-
marked types and uses their distribution to show the close trade
relationship which subsisted between Norway and the Vistula at
that period. Eggers84 considers that a centre of manufacture
further to the south-east of Europe cannot be excluded, noting
that the distribution of the ribbed pail corresponds with that of the
early fibulae with returned foot (fig. 15, no. 3).
Bronze Statuettes (fig. 13)85.-Over eighty bronze statuettes, or
fragments thereof, are recorded. At least a third seem to be of
Gallic make and are found in Frisia, in north-west Germany, or in the
Baltic islands, most dated examples being of the second century.
Most of them are of male deities, especially Mars and Jupiter, thought
by some to resemble Thor and Woden. Some may be curiosities taken
home by mercenaries, and some, like a base from Marren,
Westphalia,86 with a votive inscription, may be loot.
Brooches and Small Ornaments (fig. I4).87 The Germans were
skilful metal workers, and the vast majority of fibulae found on German
sites are German. Some northern brooches show Roman influence,
and fibulae of Roman manufacture are also found, while other brooches
85 C. Fredrich, Die in Ostdeutschland
1930, 103 ; c/. Steiner (op. cit. supra n. 77,) 258; gefundenen
Schulz, Hassleben, 45, n. 3. romischen Bronzestatuetten, 1912.
8 (0 Willers,
opera cit. 86 Willers ii, 96 CANICCI V * S * L * XI.
(vic0Iccius
81 Sprater, op. -a Celtic name).
cit., 104.
82 Strabo 87 0. Almgren, ' Studien uber nordeuropaische
vii, 2.
83 Acta Arch. vi, 82zf. Fibelformen,' 2nd edn., Mannus-Bibl. xxxii, 1913.
84 In a review of several works of Ekholm, In the Pyrmont Well find, out of 225 brooches, 40
Germania xx, I936, 146-150. were Roman (Jacob-Friesen, 1-73).
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 211

of the first two centuries occur frequently both within and without
the empire, and, whatever their origin, their provenance can only
indicate widespreadconnectionsacrossthe border, and this at a time
before German mass immigration. The third and fourth centuries
show growing German influence, though even in this late period
Roman broochesstill had some influenceon certainnortherntypes.88

FIG. 14

Not included on this map : first-century examples from north and central Jutland; second-
century examples from Oland; enamelled brooches from Finland, Latvia, Esthonia,
Lithuania and Gotland

Fig. 14 shows the distribution of definitely Roman brooches north

of the empire. Small though the total is, they cover the same area
as other Roman goods. First-century examples are commonest in
Bohemia, though they are found too along the amber route and even
in Lithuania. One of the most important is the ' Norican' or
'kraftig-profilierte' fibula (fig. I5, I); another is the ' Wing'
fibula (fig. 15, 4) a local Norican form, of which a few specimens have
been found as far afield as East Prussia. These, and other small
metal objects89 (openwork buckles and the like) were exported to,
and imitated in, the Marcomannic kingdom, which in turn in-
fluenced work in East Prussia, Thuringia and along the route to
Scandinavia. Other early exports were the Gallic Thistle and
The Cruciform Brooches of 89
s88 . Schetelig, Supra, p. 200, n. 42. Preidel, I930, ii, 133.
Norway, I906, 9.
212 OLWEN BROGAN

Aucissa brooches.90 Schulz91 has convincingly located the origin

of the Eye fibula (fig. 15, 2, 2a) in Hermunduran territory in the
Saale basin, under the influence of the Aucissa type. The open-
work catchplates of the earliest Eye brooches, on the other hand,
recall those of the Norican brooches, indicating a convergence
of Gallic and Danubian influences among the Hermunduri. The
Eye fibulae spread from the Saale country all over the German world
and far into the Roman provinces as well.
A few enamelled fibulae of the type so characteristic on pro-
vincial sites (and mainly of Belgic manufacture) are found in free
Germany. Disc-brooches similar to those found in Limes forts
occur in East Prussia, Gotland 92 and elsewhere on the Baltic coasts
and, in the opinion of Dr. H. Moora, 93 brought about the develop-
ment of an enamel industry in East Prussia by the early third century
which spread to the East Baltic and in time to Russia. Some of the
Prussian fibulae are horseshoe-shaped (fig. 15, 5) and appear to be
derived from the common Roman penannular brooch.
The much-discussed fibula with returned foot (fig. 15, 3) is another
94 It was
important example of international intercourse. developed
fairly early in south-west Russia in a mixed Graeco-Roman-German
environment, and spread west and north-west to become one of the
main types of brooch in northern and central Europe in the third
and fourth centuries, and even to appear in quantity in the
provinces.
Gold and Silver objects. Silver objects of our period are not
plentiful, since they must often have been melted down and re-
fashioned in later ages. Those which have survived may be relics of
a once-flourishing trade, or gifts from the Roman authorities to
submissive chiefs, or booty; they show the richness of the treasures
which the more fortunate Germans accumulated. The famous
Hildesheim treasure 95 of first and second century vessels was found
close by an important route near a German settlement (the
Galgenberg). Fine silver drinking-cups, sometimes gilt, often in
pairs, occasionally turn up. The Hassleben platter 96, Mecklenburg
patera and Sacrau pail97 deserve attention as being probably Gallic
work, and the Hoby beakers as being signed by a Greek silversmith. 98
It seems that the Germans also imitated Roman silver vessels, judging
90 '
Cf. R. G. Collingwood, Archaeology of Roman Map I; Almgren, Studien, 250-2; M. Ebert, Zur
Britain, 1930, section on brooches. Gesch. der Fibel m. u. F.,' PZ. iii 191, 232-7.
91 W. Schulz, ' Zur Entstehung der Augenfibel,' 95 Schuchhardt,
Vorgescb. 254. K. H. Jacob-
Germania x, 1926, IIo-i2. Friesen, i52. Germania Romana v, 2nd edn.,
92 Almgren and Nerman, Gotland, ii, fig. 187. plates 4I-3.
90
93 ' Herkunft des ostbaltischen emailverzierten
97 W. Schulz and R. Zahn , (supra, p. 204, n. 70).
Willers, I9OI, 198 A8.
Schmucks.' It has hitherto been generally believed 98
Drexel, Germania iv, 85 ; K. Friis-Johansen,
that these ornaments developed among the Goths '
Hoby-Fundet,' Nord. Fortidsminder, Bd. ii, 3,
in SW Russia; cf. Gaerte, 240. cf. Tac., Germn.5. D.P. Dobson, 'Roman
I923;
94 Salin
(supra, p. z20, n. 62). N. Aberg, Franken influence in the North,' Greece and Rome v, 1936,
und Westgoten in der Volkerwanderungszeit, 1922, 73-89.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 213

by cups found at Liibsow.99 Imported spoons, mirrors, hairpins

and brooches also occur.
Gold objects are still rarer,100 though rings are not uncommon
and show fairly general distribution.

FIG. 15. TYPES OF BROOCHES: I, NORICAN ; 2 AND 2a, EYE-FIBULA; 3, RETURNED FOOT
'
TYPE; 4, WING ; 5, HORSESHOE-SHAPED (ENAMELLED) FROM ESTHONIA. NOS. 1-4 -,
NO. 5 l
Nos. 1-4, after Almgren ' Studien iiber Nordeuropdische Fibelformen,' no. 5, after Moora, ' Die Vorzeit
Estlands'

Arms and Tools. Occasional Roman arms or pieces of armour

have been found. For a time the Roman short sword influenced
the form of the German sword,l?1 though later the German long
sword was to become the prevailing type within the empire. Much is
made in northern legend of fabulous swords fashioned by trolls,
giants or dwarfs who, some have asserted, may be an echo of the
Romans, a half-legendary people of high technical skill, and
Roman swords, some of fourth-century work, are not unknown in
Scandinavia, 102 despite the fact that in the later empire the export
99 Kunkel, Mannus Ergbd. v, I927, 122-3. 4; Preidel, i930, i, 230 (spurs), 231 (swords);
10 The most remarkable collection is the Gaerte (supra, p. 204, n. 70), 2II. Almgren and
Petroasa hoard, supra, p. 202, n. 62; Jacob-Friesen, Nerman, 596; Germ. xv, 71-75.
163 (gold objects from Lengerich, Hanove ). 0 2 A. Lorange, Den yngre jernalders svaerd;
1 01 M. Jahn ' Die Bewaffnung der Germanen in H. Schetelig, Prehistoire de la Norvege, 1926, I43;
der alteren Eisenzeit,' Mannus-Bibl. xvi, 1916, 213- Montelius, Kulturgesch., I83.
214 OLWEN BROGAN

of arms to the barbarians was prohibited.103 Roman ploughshares

and tools have been recorded near Cassel and in Thuringia.1 04
Unworked Metals. Bog iron is common all over north Germany,
and in Scandinavia and elsewhere there are easily-worked mines,105
but the Romans probably exported the baser metals to some
extent.106 Copper and tin may have come largely, though not
necessarily exclusively, from Bohemian and Thuringian mines;
Roman bronze coins appear at times to have been melted down.107
Silver and gold came from further afield. Montelius points out that
very little silver occurs in Scandinavian graves before our era, but
that it then becomes common.108 Gold objects of northern manu-
facture frequently show Roman influence. Roman gold coins paid
out to the barbarians were probably frequently melted down and re-
used to make ornaments, but statistics as to the relative incidence of
gold in northern finds during the Dacian, Roman and Gothic owner- 9
ship of the Transylvanian gold region would be interesting. 0
Pottery (fig. I7).-Outside Holland, where it is specially frequent,
Terra Sigillata has been found on over one hundred sites, and much of
it must have gone overland-the number of examples near Minden,
for instance, should be noticed. It might almost be suggested that the
demand of the partially Romanised Frisians absorbed all the pottery
that went by sea from the Lower Rhine. Augustan pottery is very rare,
and the pottery trade did not become important until the second
century; the great majority of Samian vessels are. Rhenish wares of
0
the second and third centuries.1 Westphalia has produced con-
siderable quantities of Roman pottery, mainly of the third and fourth
century. The Germans of the Sieg valley and around Giessen were
steady customers, the latter buying Wetterau pottery among other
types. Pottery, chiefly Samian, also reached Fulda and the rich
Thuringian settlements, where one example of first-century La Grau-
fesenque has been noted. A few scattered pieces have been found in
Bavaria and Franconia, including Samian of the Limes and post-
Limes periods, Eifel ware and black-glazed Rhenish wares. In Bohemia,
103 Cod. Iust.
4, 41, 2 (Marcianus). 108 Cf. B. Nerman, The Poetic Edda in the Light
104 Schumacher, Ackerbau(Rbm.-Germ. Zentral- of Archaeology, 1931, I2 (gold), I6 (silver).
Museum, 22. Altenburg near Cassel; 109
1922),
six Roman ploughshares-a merchant's stock in Cf. the dagger of Col. Lawrence now at All
Souls' College, Oxford, with gold hilt and sheath
trade ? K6rner, a cache of tools-old iron ?
made from melted down sovereigns paid out to the
Schetelig (supra, p. 204, n. 70), 145, Norwegian tools
Arabs by the British government. Roman coins
under Roman influence.
105 0. Davies, Roman Mines in Europe, 1935,
were also often pierced and used as pendants. Gold
export prohibited, Cod. lust. iv, 63, 2.
72z; W. Hansen, Aus der Vorzeit von Hamburg '
zind Umgehung, I933, I65; relevant articles in 110 H. Terrasigillatafunde aus
Dragendorff,
Ebert Reallex.; Reinecke, Germania x, 87-95; Nprddeutschland und Skandinavien,' Zeit. f. Eth.,
Tacitus, Germ. 43 (Cotini). xxxviii, 1906, 369-77. It is to be noted that
106 Prohibition in later Empire: Digest, 39, 4, very little Terra Nigra occurs because the trade
i I (Paulus); Cod. lust., 4, 41, 2. did not get going early enough. But there is also
107 Davies, op. cit, I. (He writes, following some wheel-decorated Samian, of the late fourth and
Undset, of copper coins imported as bullion by the early fifth centuries, in Western Germany and in
Germans, but the studies of Bolin and others do Thuringia (e.g. from Gotha, Germania, xx, 1936,
not agree with this.) 203; from Friesland, Boeles (supra, n. 70), 104).
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 215

Heiligenberg, Rheinzabern and south Gallic wares are found;

in Silesia and Moravia, pottery imported from the Danubian
provinces; in Lower Austria there was obviously much local trade.

FIG. I6. VANDAL POTTERY IMITATING ROMAN GLASS FOUND IN A GRAVE OF

THE LATE-SECOND OR EARLY-THIRD CENTURY AT NASSWITZ IN LOWER SILESIA (4).

After ' Die Wandelen in Niederschliesien' (' Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen i, 2), Taf. 23.

An interesting series of finds has been made in East Prussia and Poland
(especially in the upper Warthe basin). 11 It includes first-century
Banassac, also Lezoux, Heiligenberg and Rheinzabern ware. The
latest specimen is a Westerndof pot of about A.D. 200 found in
East Prussia.
The art of the Roman potter had some influence on the
x11 R. Jamka, 'Les vases en terre sigillee en Cf. W. Antoniewicz. Rev. Arch. lxxxiv-v, 1924,
Pologne,' Przeglad Archeologiczny, iv, I930-32. 295-300.
2i6 OLWEN BROGAN

FIG. 17.

Germans.ll2 The wheel was introduced into Thuringia and else-

where during the third century. In the far south-east Greek
influence made itself felt. Of interest also are examples of Vandal
pottery imitating Roman glass (fig. 16).113
Lamps occur only occasionally, and terra-cotta goods are not
common. 114
Glass (fig. 18).115 Roman glass is found in the same regions as
Roman metal work and was one of the chief exports of the later
empire. Some first-century glass, mostly Italian or Syrian, also
reached Germany,116 The later glass is much more abundant, and
112 Scandinavia: Montelius, Kulturgesch. 113 K. Tackenberg, Die Wandalen in Nieder-
Schwedens, 90o6, I90. North and Central Germany: schlesien, I925, Taf. 23.
Schmidt i, II4-5. Jahn, Altschlesien i, I926, 14
3 if. Riga Congress, I930, I77, fig. 3. Schlesiens Lamps: Preidel, I930, i, I71 (second- and
Vorzt., 924, 20f. Western Germany: Ber. vii, third-century Rhenish, fourth-century Italian);
Schuchhardt 282 (fourth-century Saxon). Vonderau (supra, p. 204, n. 70), 22 (candlestick);
i69. Dr. Moora has kindly informed me of a Latvian
Friesland, J. H. Holwerda, Nederland's Vroegste
Geschiedenis, 3rd edn., 1925, I47. Bavaria: Rein- example. Terracotta : Boeles, 1927, 5; van Giffen,
Bohemia: Drentsche Volksalmanak, I934, 94.
ecke, Germania, 1934, I2I (late).
Zpravy i, I929, 43-5 (second century); Preidel, 115 A. Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume, 3 vols.,
I930, i, I6off. Austria: L. Franz, Ber. xviii, with appendix to vol. iii, I908, by O. Almgren, Die
140; Beninger u. Friesing, IS, 94-95. S-W. Funde antiker Glaser in Skandinavien, 903-20.
Russia: Ebert, Sidrussland im Altertum, 192,
116
362; Reinecke MZ, I906, 42-50. Almgren, op. cit., 904; Ekholm, infra, n. II9.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 217

FIG. 18.

The Scandinavian discoveries include some glass vessels, the distribution of which has been mapped by
Dr. Ekholm: see note 119

much, but by no means all of it, is Rhenish.117 In Bohemia a good

deal of late Rhenish glass is found, which may conceivably have
travelled from the west via Thuringia.118 The penetration of the
provinces with German fashions was doubtless responsible for the
fine glass drinking-horns made at Cologne, which were not only used

117Almgren and Nerman, Gotland, I923, fig. third and fourth centuries); Egger, Germania, 936,
452 ; Schetelig, I64; Karpinska, Les Tumulus de la I50.
periode romaine en Pologne, 1926, I56 (view that ll8 Preidel, I930, I94ff.; cf. Bolin's theory in
glass went to Poland from SW Russia in the regard to the coin-stream of the late second century.
218 OLWEN BROGAN

in the empire but were exported to the north. A type of glass of

probably oriental origin cut with oval facets, was common for several
centuries and the later examples of it seem to have entered Europe
from the Euxine1 9 ; it has been suggested that vessels of this type
are the frosty goblets-the Hrimkalkr-of the Eddas.120
Roman glass beads are very common in free Germany, and seem
to have been widely imported. Records of them are at present
rather patchy but, as an example of their frequency, their occurrence
on forty sites in Pomerania may be noted. 12
Wine. The word wine 122 is common to all Teutonic languages-
'one of the earliest borrowings from the south '-and the quantity
of exported vessels whose primary use was in mixing and drinking
wine implies that the wine went too.123 The scarcity of amphora-
fragments in free Germany is irrelevant,124 because the regular
northern wine-container was then, as now, the barrel. It is probable
that wine-merchants crossed the Rhine before the time of
Augustus,125 and the great development of the Rhine and Moselle
vineyards during the middle and late empire,126 coupled with the
known love of the barbarians for strong drink, 127 helps us to believe
that the trade was not suffered to languish. There was an interdict
on the export of wine in the late empire.128
Miscellaneous. In times of stress the Germans appear to have
obtained corn from the empire.129 Miscellaneous objects of which
occasional examples are known, include ivory objects, gaming pieces,
a wooden gaming-board, a stylus, weights,130 semi-precious stones
set in Roman rings, harness-ornaments, etc. The Roman type of
circular millstone was adopted by the Germans and querns of
Andernach basalt-lava have been found.131

119 S. Miiller, ' Juellinge-Fundet,' Nord. Fortids- 125

Schumacher, Sied. u. Kult.gesch. der Rhein-
minder ii, I, I911; G. Ekholm, 'Orientalische lande, i, I69-70; PZ vi, 240, 245. Caes. BG iv,
Glasgefasse in Skandinavien,' Eur. Sept. Ant. x, 26(if the Suebi discouraged the wine trade, it was
61-72. probably carried on by their neighbours).
12 ? B.
Nerman, Poetic Edda, 23; cf. Kisa ii, 206. 126 Schumacher, op. cit., ii,
250; Willers, I901,
1210. Kunkel, I930; Jungklaus, 1923, 88 ff.; 200.
12 7
also Matthes, Ost Prignitz (mostly third century), Tac., Germ. 23; Dio, writing of the Bastarnae,
Preidel, 1930, 3I6ff.; H. Moora, Die Vorzeit (li, 24, 2, Loeb), says, 'the whole Scythian race is
Estlands, 1932, 35. insatiable in the use of wine and quickly becomes
122 Hoops, Reallex. ii, 388 (a series of words sodden with it.'
derived from Latin); the etymology of the 128 Cod. IZst. iv, 41, I.
Gothic word Kaupon (Kaufmann), from Lat.
129Amm. 27, 5, 7. Among the goods whose
caupo, innkeeper or petty tradesman, or caupona
exports are forbidden are corn (Dig. xxxix, 4, 11)
shop, or tavern, may be remembered for what it is and oil (Cod. lust. iv, 41, I).
worth.
130
123 It is true that these vessels may to some extent Schetelig, op. cit., I926, 141 (also Norwegian
have been used in consuming native drinks; cf. system of weights derived from Rome).
131
remains at Juellinge (n. II9, supra). Horter,' Die Basaltlava Industrie bei Mayen,'
124 A number of amphorae have been found at Mllannus vi, 292-94, I9I4 (example at Kiel).
Ubbergen, the Batavian oppidum destroyed A.D. 70 Examples at Waltrop (Westphalia), Stieren,
(supra, p. 195, n. 2); another first-century find at Bodenaltertumer, i, 26, ii, I9 ; at Baldesheim,
Recklinghausen (Westphalia), C. Albrecht, Mitt. des Germania, xv, 88; Paderborn (Koenen, Mannus
Landesmus. Westfal. xvi, I93 ; in the Siegkreis xiii, 1921, I906 military?) ; near Troisdorf, Siegkreis
(C. Rademacher, Mannus i, 1909, 92). (Mannus i, 91).
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 219

German Exports B.
Cattle, etc. Our knowledge of the return traffic from Germany
into the empire is meagre. Most of the goods were perishable,132
and hence have faded out of the archaeological picture. Bearing in
mind the large armies and the number of considerable towns along
the frontiers, some commerce in cattlel33 becomes highly probable,
but of evidence there is naturally little. A wax tablet found near
Leeuwarden recording the properly witnessed sale of an ox to a
Roman by a Frisian is consequently of great interest.134
The fish of the North Sea may account in large part for the
quantities of Roman imports found in Friesland and Groningen.135
Grain is another possible item of trade. Large requisitions were
made after successful wars.136
Pottery from the Lahn valley137 reached some of the Taunus
forts during the late second and early third centuries; a possible
salt trade,138 and the occurrence of German fibulae within the
empire have already been noted.139
Great hordes of slaves are mentioned after the wars, but there is
not very much information to be discovered about peaceful slave
trade. One of the Tacitean attacks on Domitian140 alleges that he
bought German slaves to display as captives. This is not true, but
it implies the possibility of buying slaves on the frontier. Tacitus
has also a good deal to say about slaves among the Germans them-
selves, 41 and the story of the Usipi142 is a clear case of traffic on
the borders; one or two tombstones of German slaves exist,143
and occasional references occur in literature.144 It is significant
that the old German word mangon, meaning merchant, is derived
from the Latin mango, slavedealer.145
132 A group of minor imports from the Rhenish 135
Cf. the firm in CIL xiii, 8830 (supra, p. I96,
borderland may be mentioned: We cannot be n. 9).
sure whether women's hair, or hair dye, or goose- 136SHA Vit. Probi, xiv, 3; Ammian, xvii, io,
feathers came from free Germany or from the 4 and 9; cf. supra, p. z28.
Germans within the Empire. Pliny describes a 137 R. von Uslar, 'Die germanische Keramik in
certain herb ' Britannica' from the Frisian coast. den Kastellen Zugmantel und Saalburg,' Saalburg-
Hair dye: Pliny, xxviii, I9I, Martial, xiv, 26, 176,
yahrb. viii, 1934, 61-96.
viii, 33, 20; Suet., Cal. 47; Silius, iii, 608; Ovid, 138
Am. i, 14, 45; Tac., Agric. 39; Hoops, Reallex, Supra, p. I98.
s.v. ' Gans.' Herb: NH xxv, 20. 13 9 Supra, p. 21 I.
133 Germ. 5, 'pecorum fecunda.' Ann. iv, 72, 14Agric. 39.
Frisian ox-hide tribute (leather was an important 14l Ann. ii, 24; 2; xii, 7 xiii, 56; Germ. 24;
part of the Roman soldier's equipment). Panegyr. Dio, lvi, 22, 4 (ransom of Roman prisoners);
Lat. iv, 9, 3 (A.D. 297): 'Arat nunc mihi Chamavus lxxi, 13.
et Frisius . . . et frequentat nundinas meas pecore 142 Agric. 28, 'ac fuere quos per commercia
venali.' The procuring of wild beasts for the arena venundatos et in nostram usque ripam mutatione
was doubtless mainly left to the troops, and many ementium adductos indicium tanti casus inlustravit';
inscriptions have survived showing the importance cf. Frisian slaves, probably coming into Roman
of hunting along the frontiers (e.g. CIL xiii, 8639,
hands, Ann. iv, 72.
an ursarius leg. at Xanten). The bison was shown in 143 Carnuntum Fiihrer, 58, NAT(IONI) ERMVNDVR;
Rome (NH viii, 38). It has been suggested that the
CIL iii, 11301.
procurator of the imperial games who sent his 144 Barrow, Slavery in the Roman Empire,
emissary to the Baltic (supra, p. 2oo) may have
instructed him to bring back animals and slaves as 1928, I8. Clem. Alex. Paed. 3, 4.
well as amber. 145 Stein, s.v. 'Handel' Hoops, Reallex. ? 29;
134 Boeles (supra, p. 204, n. 70), 67; Girard, cf. CIL xiii, 8348, c AIACIVSP F STEL MANGO (from
Textes6, 848 f. Cologne).
220 OLWEN BROGAN

Amber became very fashionable early in the Imperial period,146

but, important though the trade undoubtedly was-the bulk of the
amber on the market came from Samlandl47-it can account for
only a fraction of the Roman goods that reached the Germans.
Pliny gives much information about amber, and Tacitus describes
the gathering of it on the shores of the Baltic by the Aestiones,l48
who knew it as glaesum, and who were surprised at the price paid for
it. Aquileia, which has yielded the largest collection of Roman
amber in existence,149 was the chief emporium for receiving it, and
an industry for making up fine carved amber articles seems to have
flourished there (pl. xi). Objects of this kind are found from time
to time on provincial sites, and probably most of them were made in
Italy, largely in Aquileia itself. There are plentiful literary references,
particularly among the writers of the first and second centuries,
to the vogue for amber,150 showing how it was prized for its orna-
mental, medical and magical properties. The most famous haul of
amber recorded is that made by Pliny's knight,151 who brought
such quantities back from the Baltic, including one lump weighing
13 lbs., that the very nets, arms and litters in the amphitheatre were
decorated with it. Pausanias152 mentions a life-size statue of
Augustus of amber (presumably a coating), made for Trajan's
Forum, and the high price of carved amber goods receives
comment.153 Elagabalus is said to have lamented that he could
not cover the floors of his palace with powdered amber.154
Most of the amber objects155 which are dated, notably those
from Aquileian graves, are of the first or second century. After the
second century, discoveries of amber and literary references to it
become rare, and it is not mentioned in what survives of the Edict of
Diocletian. The movements of the Goths killed this trade with the
south so that the fashion for amber died out in Italy. But, no longer
being sold at high prices to the southerners, it now becomes more
frequent in the graves of the barbarians themselves.156
146Bluimner, P-W, s.v. 'Bernstein, 295-304, Lombard peasant women cannot have been par-
1897. Discussion of the nature of amber and the pos- ticularly costly.)
sibilities of distinguishing the Baltic from other 54 SHA, Vita Elagab. 31.
' 155 Fine pieces of Roman amber are relatively
types by W. La Baume, s.v. Bernstein' in Ebert,
Reallex. and de Navarro, op. cit. scarce, but there are small collections in some of
147 Pliny, NH xxxvii, 33. Some Pomeranian the museums (e.g. British Museum, Louvre, Bibl.
amber may also have gone south, thus accounting Nationale, Nimes, Brussels, Leiden, Utrecht,
for the large quantities of Roman goods in Wallraf-Reichart Museum at Cologne, Bonn, Trier,
Pomerania. Worms,Terme Museum at Rome, Vienna, Budapest:
148 Germ. 45. Messrs. G. C. Dunning and A. D. Trendall have
149 G. Brusin, Aquileia, Guida storica e artistica, kindly helped me in collecting records). Brusin
I929, I62-9; Gli scavi di Aquileia, 1934, 213, 232; notes large quantities of amber objects at Aquileia,
Rostovtzeff, Social and Economic History, 71, 506. Udine and Trieste. Amber beads are not uncommon
1 0 in collections of Roman and provincial antiquities.
Notes, supra, also NH xxii, 99, Martial, iii,
iv, 32, 59; vi, 15; vi, 573; ix, 50;
Chinese records of trade with Ta-Ts'in (the
65, 5; Juv,
Clem. Alex., Paed. 3, 2; Strom. 2, 6. Roman empire and Syria in particular) in the
151 third century mention amber among its products:
xxxvii, 45. this may be re-exported amber (F. Hirth, China and
152V, 12. the Roman Orient, I885, 41, 73, 245).
153NH xxxvii, 49. (As Friedlander9 ii, 325 156
Preidel, 1930, i, 325, states that after 200 it is
-remarks, the necklaces worn as amulets by more common in Bohemian burials.
 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS 22I

Fur.-It is often said that the Russian fur trade was flourishing in
the time of the Greeks, but Professor Minns, 15 7 though agreeing that
it existed-and the discovery of fur cloaks, one identified as sable, in
Scythian graves makes that clearl58-says that so far as he can dis-
cover, the Greeks themselves, apart from those of the Bosporus,
were not affected by it. From the Scythian tumuli to our chief
Roman authority is a long step, but Jordanes writes in the sixth
century of the splendid dark furs, saphirinae pelles, passed from
people to people from the north to the Roman world.5 9 Caesar,
Tacitus and the rest refer to the barbarians wearing skins, but say
nothing about Romans wearing fur coats; and the failure of the
satirists to attack this luxury is striking. A much-restored Vatican
relief shows an individual of northern type, more likely a Gaul than
a German, wearing a skin mantle, probably a sheepskin ;160 the
standard-bearers on Trajan's Column wear bearskin ' busbies,' but
neither of these instances is very helpful. Hides were for a time paid
as tribute to Rome by the Frisians ;161 Tacitus refers to trade in
skins among the Germans themselves. 162 References to pelliones,16 3
dealers in skins, or furriers, occur in the life of Severus Alexander, in
the Theodosian Code and the Digest, but again there is no indication
that they were engaged in what is meant to-day by the fur trade.
Diocletian's Edict 164 fixes prices for a long list of skins (pelles), but
these are not furs, with the exception of beaver and marten which may
be a sign of a developing fur-trade consequent upon the introduction
of barbarian customs and dress into the empire. 165 On present
evidence it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that if a fur trade with
the north existed, it was late in developing. Settlements166 of the
Roman period have been found in the north-Russian and Finnish
forests, whose inhabitants must have been largely dependent on
hunting and trapping. They have been taken for the outposts of
the great fur trade Jordanes writes of-but how far afield their
wares penetrated can hardly yet be judged.

Military Service and Subsidies

There remains for consideration military service, and this, ren-
dered or implied, was one of the most important means which
157 E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks, 161 Ann. iv, 72.
1913, 441;
Herodotus is familiar with northern fur-bearing 162 Germ. 17. Jacob-Friesen, op. cit., 177, men-
animals; Schrader, Reallex. der Indogerm. Alter- tions a female corpse found in a peat bog near
tumsk., s.v. ' Pelzkleider.' Juellinge, wearing a short fur cloak (Fellmiantel).
158 Minns,
210, 248, 430; Rostovtzeff, Iranians
and Greeks22. 163 SHA, VitaSev. Alex, 24; Cod. Theod. xiii, 4,
159 Get. iii, 2I, 'alia vero gens ibi [isle of 2; Dig. 1, 6, 6 (from Tarrutenus Paternus, prob-
Scanzia] moratur Suethans quae velut Thuringi ably time of Commodus).
equis utuntur eximiis. Hi quoque sunt qui in usus 164 C1L iii, p. 23. Neither beaver nor marten
Romanorum saphirinas pelles, commercio inter- need comefrom the far north (Juv., I2, 34); Sidonius
veniente, per alias innumeras gentes transmittunt, Apollinaris, Ep. v, 7, 4, ' pelliti . . . castorinati.'
famosi pellium decora nigredine.' 165 Minns, op.
160W. cit., 441, n.
n. 2.2, rrefers tto aasstele oof aa
160 W. Capelle,
Capelle, DasDas alte
alte Germanien,
Germanfen,I929,
I929, Greek furrier of the sixth century A.D. at Kertch.
Plate, p. 144; K. Schumacher, Germanen-
Darstellungen, 1912, 8I-82 166 s.v. ' Finno-Ugrier,' Ebert, Reallex.
(fig.).
222 TRADE BETWEEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND FREE GERMANS

produced the money circulating so freely in German hands. German

mercenaries167 entered Roman service in various capacities from very
early times, and in increasing numbers as time went on, and it is not
necessary to assume that they all cut themselves off entirely from
their former homes, and that they never returned bearing with them
some of their earnings and other trophies of their sojourn in southern
lands.168 Still more important were subsidiesl6 9 paid to client
states from the beginning. It is well known how these payments
increased during the later empire-how the later foederati were paid
for refraining from attack rather than for promising services or friend-
ship. From the economic point of view it is perhaps not unfair to
represent these payments as acting as international loans for facilitating
trade. Many of the Roman objects found in free Germany were
thus probably paid for in hard cash, and the invisible export which
earned that cash was the variable goodwill of German tribes.
167 M. 168 E.g., repatriation of the bodyguards of Nero,
Bang, Die Germanen im romischen Dienst
bis zum Regierungsantritt Constantius I, I906. Caracalla and Pupienus.
169
Klose, op. cit., 150 (Geldzahlungen).
JRS vol. xxvI (1936) PLATE XI

I. AQUILEIA: AMBER PYXIS NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 1

(See p. 220)

2. DITCHLEY, OXON: BRONZE TERRET ENAMELLED IN RED, FOUND IN A

ROMAN HOUSE; NOW IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD 1 (See p. 258, note)

By courtesy of the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the ' Victoria County History of Oxfordshire '