But the Rhine would not be the problem. It was the Danube that would prove to be the sieve through which the Germans would attack Rome and its Mediterranean provinces over a three hundred year period and bring down the empire in the west.
Who were these Germans?
They were not one people but a group of tribes inhabiting Germany and points east to the north shore of the Black Sea. Our knowledge of them is sketchy and the facts missing or unreliable, so we have to piece together the history. We do have their names and maps showing where they lived.