The related tribes, speaking Germanic languages, by the beginning of our era occupied a vast area between the Rhine and the Vistula, the Danube and the northern seas. Gradually gaining strength, they eventually served as the basis for the formation of many European nations. This edition includes the most significant information about the ancient Germans from ancient sources - "Notes on the Gallic War" by Gaius Julius Caesar "Geographies" by Strabo , Roman History by Pliny the Elder , Works by Tacitus , Plutarch , Appiana , Ammianus Marcellinus and others , which describe in detail the mores of the Germanic tribes , their social structure and methods of warfare . Built in chronological sequence, the fragments tell about the oldest period in the history of the Germans - from the Cimbrian war at the end of the II century BC. e. when the Romans first encountered the "Northern Barbarians", prior to the events of the 2nd century AD e. before the destruction of the Western Roman Empire and the formation on its ruins of the Germanic states .