Province of Germania 1-200 AD

A Brief History of Germania
Hoping to complete his adoptive father's plans, and shorten the frontier lines, Caesar Augustus launched his invasion of Germania in the first decade of the AD reckoning. The Primitive tribes failed to organize except on one occassion. In AD 9, in the depths of the black forest, a Former Legionary auxiliary led a conglomeration of various Germanic tribes in an ambush of three Legions. It very nearly turned into a rout of the Legions, but the commander on the scene, Varius, turned out to be a tactical genius. Rallying his men in the forest later renamed Varian Forest in his honor, he saved his command and
turned the tide with a brilliant counter attack and the discpline of the Legions.

This desperate battle seemed to break the Germanic tribes, and by 12 AD, the natives resistance was at an end and the organization of the Germania province was begun. The capital of the provence, Coloni Augustius, situated on the Main River (OTL Frankfurt-am-Main) , was a rival to Coloni Agrippias (OTL Cologne) on the Rhine. Like all the northern European Roman cities, it was initially little more than a Legion garrison and the people who supported it. The really important cities were Elbevici (OTL Magdeburg), founded in 30 AD on the Elbe river, a trade post with contacts in Gothia as far off as the Volga river, and the port of Hamn, at the mouth of the Elbe, from which Roman goods penetrated the frozen north of Skandia. By the mid-2nd Century, both cities were as important as Lugudium (OTL Lyons) and Trier as trading centers in Europe. Romanization caught on fast among the Elites -- former Tribal leaders -- but much slower in the rural countryside, much the same as in Gaul. Neverless, by AD 200, the Germani language all but disappeared, except in isolated areas in the deep forest, and along the Jute Coast. Some remnants of the Language exist in a few scattered slang words in areas of the Black Forest today.

In many ways, this was the least Romanized provence, and was the source of many of the difficulties facing Rome in the late 2nd and Early 3rd Centuries.
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basically: POD is Varius successfully rallies his three Legions and beats back the Germanic tribes. A new, shorter 'border' of the Elbe-Danube river line allows greater Roman penetration of Scandianavia culturally, as well as deep into modern Poland and Russia, Romanizing the tribal elites. (This happened even OTL, but here its the early Proto-Norse who get the treatment of Roman contact that OTL happened on the Rhine Border. Goths (Gothia) get the Romanization sooner, instead of after being driven into Rome by the Huns in the 200s.


thoughts?
 
Two problems:

1) Publius Quinctilius Varus was an administrator by training and had little experience of either leading troops or combat; making him a military genius with a wave of your hand is not really credible. He could get lucky, or pay attention when Arminius' father-in-law denounces him, or the Germans could blunder their chances away, perhaps.

2) The Elbe-Erzgebirge-Danube border is actually approximately one hundred miles longer than the Rhine-Danube frontier previously held. The real reason for taking part of Germania is to form a buffer zone to keep the Germans further from Gaul and Italy.
 
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Two problems:

1) Publius Quinctilius Varus was an administrator by training and had little experience of either leading troops or combat; making him a military genius with a wave of your hand is not really credible. He could get lucky, or pay attention when Arminius' father-in-law denounces him, or the Germans could blunder their chances away, perhaps.
Indeed he was. I'm suggesting he had actual skill enough to salvage the situation and win. a victory against a well prepared ambush would probably break the back of the local resistance. It owuld earn Varius a reputation for genius, even if it was just luck.
2) The Elbe-Ergebirge-Danube border is actually approximately one hundred miles longer than the Rhine-Danube frontier previously held. The real reason for taking part of Germania is to form a buffer zone to keep the Germans further from Gaul and Italy.

doesn't seem that way when I look at the map, follow the Elbe down, then a rough bisection of modern Czech Republic down to Vienna, then follow the Danube. Not turning back to the OTL rhine/danube line. It cuts out a lot of the east-west run of the Danube up to Vienna. Even if longer, its straighter.

As for buffer zones, that seems to be a large part of how Rome grew in the West. Each new buffer zone protected the previous buffer zone. in OTL, Agustus had a desire to conquer and annex Germania
 
Well the first issue is that Teutoburg wasn't decisive, the second is that Germania is piss poor making it even worse of a money sink than Britain (look at the agricultural and burial practices in Gaul v. Germania), and finally that Rome always has more attractive options to throw their money away in Mesopotamia. In general the problem is that the Med. areas are rich enough to subsidize taking Gaul and Britain, but Britain and Gaul are not at this time rich enough to subsidize Germania.

I've come around to thinking a Roman Germania is possible (improbable), but not under the circumstances you outline.
 
And supplying the Elbe/Ergebirge garrisons with food overland from the Rhine valley, because the locals don't (can't?) produce enough of a surplus to feed them, is going to be seriously expensive too...
 
Roman Germania in the first century is very, very tough, for reasons people have already outlined. It's too poor, too far from the Mediterranean, and lacks a social structure conducive to "Romanisation". Plus, there are better places for the Romans to go adventuring- Dacia, Bosporus, the Caucasus, and, of course, Mesopotamia. Even Britain is a better idea than Germania for Roman imperialism.

Now, if you somehow butterfly away the crisis of the third century, I can see Roman hegemony emerging in Germania after the year 250- by that time, spurred by its contact with the Roman state, the Germanic peoples have become wealthier and more economically and socially sophisticated.
 
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