TEUTONS |
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The Teutons or Teutones mentioned as a Germanic tribe in early historical writings by Greek and Roman authors such as Strabo and Velleius. According to Ptolemy's map, they lived on Jutland, whereas Pomponius Mela placed them in Scandinavia (Codanonia). German historians did not associate the name Teutons with Proto-Germanic ancestors until the 13th century. More than 100 years Before Christ many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Empire. The captured women committed mass suicide, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism (cf Jerome, letter cxxiii.8, 409 AD : |
By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans. When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.
The terms Teuton and Teutonic have sometimes been used in reference to all of the Germanic peoples. The Latin name Teutōnī was borrowed via a Celtic language from Proto-Germanic *Þeudanōz (meaning 'they of the tribe'), the word *þeudō being a Proto-Germanic name for 'tribe' or 'people'. The words can be further reconstructed as an earlier name *Teut-onōs and the root *Teutā, which is a western Proto-Indo-European word root meaning 'people'. |