From Caesar to Tacitus: Changes in Early Germanic Governance circa 50 BC-50 AD

Andrew Young ()

No 14-37, Working Papers from Department of Economics, West Virginia University

Abstract: Julius Caesar and Cornelius Tacitus provide characterizations of early Germanic (barbarian) society around, respectively, 50 BC and 50 AD. The earlier date corresponds to expansion of Rome to the Rhine and Danube. During the subsequent century Germanic governance institutions changed in a number of ways. In particular, (1) temporary military commanders elected from the nobility gave way to standing retinues under the leadership of professional commanders, (2) public assemblies met more frequently and regularly, (3) councils made up of nobility gained agenda control in the assemblies, and (4) these councils relinquished their control over the allocations of land. I account for these constitutional exchanges in light of Rome’s encroachment upon Germania. In particular, it brought new sources of wealth and also constraints on the expansion of Germans into new lands. Incentives favored a reallocation of resources away from pastoralism and towards both sedentary farming and raids across the frontier.

Keywords: governance institutions; constitutional exchange; antiquity; early Germanic peoples; the Roman Empire; political economy; Julius Caesar; Tacitus; roving versus stationary bandits; ancient economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 N43 N93 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Journal Article: From Caesar to Tacitus: changes in early Germanic governance circa 50 BC-50 AD (2015)
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