Volume 6 of the "Begleithefte zur Dauerausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle". It was only around the turn of the millennium, with the increasing expansionist ambitions of the Roman Empire, that the Germanic tribes entered the historical record. "The Invention of the Germanic Tribes" alludes to the external designation used by Roman historians for the heterogeneous population east of the Rhine frontier, consisting of numerous tribes and subtribes, possessed neither its own written language nor did it have such a collective term or consider itself an ethnic unit. One goal of the policy of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (r. 27 BC14 AD), was to extend the Roman Empire as far as the Elbe River; however, this plan was abandoned after the defeat of three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Subsequently, however, diverse contacts developed between Romans and Germanic tribes, ranging from isolated military conflicts and peaceful trade relations to alliances.
