Germania-Figuren 72-AN-3006 "The Homecoming II." Germanic warriors return to their home village after a raid.

Teutons (Latin Germani) is a group of Indo-European peoples who initially lived in central and northern Europe, using Germanic languages. The name "Teutons" was probably first used in Latin sources at the turn of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and later it entered Roman historiography. Examples include the works of Julius Caesar. The Germans were most often dangerous neighbors of the Roman Empire. Rome interacted with them on a larger scale around 100 BC, when Germanic tribes (including the Teutons) invaded the Empire. They were repulsed, among others as a result of the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC), but caused Rome a lot of trouble. Also in the later period, they turned out to be a difficult opponent, as evidenced by the Roman defeat in the Teutoburg Forest of AD 9, inflicted on the Empire by several Germanic tribes led by Arminius. They also caused the Roman Empire considerable difficulties in the course of the Marcomannic wars during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the years 167-180 AD. Finally, the invasions of the Germans turned out to be the proverbial "nail in the coffin" for the Roman empire in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, when tribes such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals poured into the territory of the Western Roman state. It is worth adding that throughout this period (from the 1st century BC to the 4th-5th century AD) the Germans did not develop a regular army modeled in one way or another on the Roman war machine. It was not until the 4th-5th centuries BC that the Germanic troops began to be slightly better organized. The Germans formed rather loose units composed of warriors, probably numbering from about 100 to about 1000 people. Initially, they were primarily interested in looting, only in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The Germans wanted to settle in the territories controlled by Rome.