Storm Over Europe - The Wandering Tribes

"An incredible mass of people surged forwards. 300,000 warriors, women and children were in search of land capable of feeding such a vast horde." It was the year 113 BC when the terrible news reached distant Rome. The Cimbrians and the Teutons were heading south: the first great mass migration of the Germanic tribes. "They fell upon Gaul and Italy like a tempest."

The Romans knew virtually nothing about Germanic tribes, but this was to change. "They found skulls nailed to trees and altars. Here the Cherusci had sacrificed the most high-ranking Roman prisoners to their gods." When Roman power was at its peak, in the year 9 AD, Arminius chief of the Cherusci defeated the troops of Rome at what was known for centuries as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

"They came down from the high mountains like a whirlwind." It was almost certainly hunger that drove the nomadic Huns from the Mongolian steppes towards Europe. They were in search of grain, cattle and gold. Experts resolve the question of precisely why the Huns invaded Europe, and why they enjoyed such immense military success.

Starting in the 5th century AD, the Franks migrated to France, the Anglo-Saxons to Britain, and the Goths to Spain and Italy. Europe and the Christian west grew out of their empires.