This essay is mainly about the tribes that inhabited Germany before it became a nation and their struggles against the Romans.
Those who were once known as the Germanic tribes were in many ways different than the people of ancient Rome, but were also the same in some senses. The two cultures thrived around their beliefs and relied on the military to bring the people honor and fame. It was the goal of both the Germanic tribes and the Romans to conquer as much land as possible and spread their beliefs and way of life throughout the country, building their empire as they went. The differences came later when the Germanics converted to being monotheistic and following Christianity and failed to evolve like the Romans did.
The Germanic tribes started out being polytheistic, much like the Romans. They had gods of all different things, but a smaller parallel between the two cultures is the existence of heroes.
Map of the "barbarian" invasions of the Roman Empi...
The Roman empire in the time of Hadrian (ruled 117...
The Hunnic Empire ---- Attila's imperial capital (...Having heroes in a culture was uncommon, but people like Beowulf in the Germanic tribes were well known and had many stories told of their adventures. The Germanics lived for their military leaders and tended to put men who are outrageously courageous on a pedestal and worshipped them nearly as much as their gods. After being ravaged by Huns such as Attila, the Germanics were quickly forced to convert to monotheism and followed mainly Christianity.
Instead of expanding as the Romans had done, the Germanic people spent their time trying to become closer to their god and converting their enemies, but evolution of their people wasn't important. The Romans were always busy fighting wars for more land and for the purpose of spreading their empire across Europe and Asia, but the Roman Empire was far more advanced and far more evolved than the...