At Roman times, many barbarian tribes were given the broad label of Germanic. In the absence of large-scale political unification, the various tribes remained free only led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders.
The Germanic tribes spoke mutually intelligible dialects and shared a common mythology. The existence of a common identity is testified by the fact that they had a name for non-Germanic peoples, Walha, from which the local names Welsh, Wallis, Walloon, and Wallachia have been derived.
back to the province of Germania
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