Sourced by our German correspondant from:
Strassmeir, Andreas and Gagelmann, Andreas, Das Heer des Arminius: Germanische Krieger zu Beginn des 1. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts, Heere und Waffen, No. 11, Zeughaus Verlag, Berlin, 2009.
Early German Warriors
Clothing
German clothing could be solid colors, striped, or checked. Tunic cuffs sometimes had decorative bands. Cloaks generally had a decorative border or fringe and were often multi-colored. White wool was mostly used in Roman times for weaving cloth. The three basic dyes were yellow (from various native plants), indigo, and madder (red) imported from Roman territories. By mixing the concentrations of the dyes and the mordants other colors such as olive green, brown, green, orange, and violet could be produced. Actual specimens: a blue woman’s dress, an undyed light and dark checked skirt, a black and yellow checked shoulder cloth, a red and blue dress, a shoulder cloth (shawl?) with a blue and red checked pattern, a hair ribbon of brown wool with white stripes, red trousers, blue leg wrappings, a blue and light blue checked cloak with a light border (late Roman period), a red and blue striped cloak (late Roman period), a blue and yellow cloak (late Roman period), a red cloak with a brown and white striped border and red fringe (late Roman period), a red long-sleeved tunic with purple “cuffs” (late Roman period). Finds in the Danish bogs are 60% dyed with yellow dyes, 16% with indigo, and even fewer with madder. The Germans also used undyed natural colored wool: brown, black, gray, and white. The cloaks were the article of clothing most commonly striped or checked, but tunics often had colored edges at the sleeve cuffs.
Belts and Spurs
Belt buckles, belt ends, and other fittings were either bronze or iron, but iron buckles seem to be more common.
Spurs could be bronze or iron. Sometimes the point was iron, the rest bronze.
Weapons
Spears and Javelins
The Germans used only a thrusting spear until the first two decades AD, when they began using spears that could be either thrust or thrown. The dual-purpose weapon is called the framea, and by the time of Tacitus (98 AD) was the standard pole arm of the Germans. At the same time as the development of the framea, the Germans also began using a javelin—which was always a supplementary weapon to the framea, never a substitute.
Swords
There were two basic types of German swords: the La Téne sword, copied from the Celts and carried in a metal scabbard, and a single-edged slashing sword in a wooden scabbard. Only 20-30% of German graves contain swords, indicating that they were not a common weapon. The pommel was often (usually?) bronze. The grip was probably, like that of contemporary Roman swords, of wood or bone. By the beginning of the 1st century AD German swords no longer had the bronze or iron edging to the hand guard typical of Celtic La Téne swords (presumably this means that the hand guard itself, being an integral part of the hilt, was wood or bone).
The scabbards for La Téne swords almost always consist of two bronze or iron plates. Usually both the front and back panels were of the same metal, but examples have been found with a bronze front panel and an iron back panel. Scabbards were sometimes decorated with small, usually circular, bronze plates.
The single-edged sword had a wooden scabbard and a wooden hilt with no guard. The hilt on the single-edged sword could also occasionally be of some other organic material, and there is a single example from the 2d century AD with an iron hilt.
The wooden scabbard for the single-edged sword was held together with narrow bronze or iron clamps (these really look almost like wire in the illustrations and would probably be too small to paint on a 15-mm figure). The scabbard tips could be either bronze or iron.
It is not know how the Germans wore their swords, but the most likely conclusion is that they were worn on a shoulder strap and suspended on the right side like the Roman and Celtic swords.
The two-edged sword seems to have been used only by the cavalry; the single-edged type by the infantry.
Other Weapons
In this time period, although most Germanic warriors probably carried knives, they were probably mostly used as tools rather than weapons. Their handles were most likely generally of wood, but perhaps also of bone or antler and were occasionally decorated with bronze fittings. Scabbards are not known, but may have been of leather or wood, the former also sometimes decorated with bronze plates and a bronze tip.
Clubs were almost certainly not used by the Early Germans.
The bow was not used except as a hunting weapon until the 3d century AD.
The battle ax was very rarely used.
Helmets and body armor were extremely rare, being used only by army leaders as a status symbol, and were always Roman products.
Shields
Shields were wood with a hole in the middle for the handgrip, over which a wooden grip was laid, sometimes strengthened with a metal strip on the outside. On the front, over the hole, was fastened the metal boss. The edges of the shield were sometimes strengthened with metal strips. Towards the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age, many shields were decorated with bronze disks, i.e. phalerae. The front surface of the shield was covered with leather. Shields were sometimes also covered with leather on the back as well as the front, but many shields had no leather covering at all.
It is probable that there were also shields in which all the metal parts were of wood instead. Certainly all-wooden shields have been found from the pre-Roman Period. On these shields, the boss consists of a barleycorn-shaped piece of wood.
From Tacitus we know that the German in the Early Roman Imperial Period painted their shields in bright colors. He does not, however, tell us what the colors were, nor whether they were painted in patterns or not. He only mentions that the “Harier” (I don’t know how this tribal name is usually written in English) painted their shields black. Other ancient authors note that the Cimbri had white shields and the Franks white and yellow shields. Archeological finds from the Late Imperial Period have traces of either blue or red or blue and red (finds in North Germany). A find in Central Germany has traces of blue, red, and white. The colors have been identified as “chalk white,” vermilion, and “Egyptian blue.”
Shield bosses in this period were exclusively of iron fastened to the shield with iron nails. The nail heads, though, were sometimes covered with bronze plates.
The metal plate attached to the handgrip of the shield was generally of iron, rarely of bronze.
Towards the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age and the beginning of the Roman Imperial Age, there was a temporary fashion among the Germans for decorative metal disks (bronze, iron, or silver), or phalerae, on the shields. The disks were of two basic types: a large (10 cm.) disk fastened to the shield with rivets around its outer edge and a smaller disk fastened to the shield by a single rivet through the center. The outer edges of the phalerae were sometimes decorated with patterns of various sorts.
The most common shield form in the Early Roman Imperial Period was the oval, either a long oval practically identical to the Roman scutum or a shorter, rounded oval. There were also rectangular shields of various shapes—though they are much rarer—the rectangular shields with rounded corners were fairly common in the pre-Roman Iron Age. The round shield only comes into general use in the Later Roman Imperial Period. For the Early Imperial Period Tacitus ascribes this shield to the East Germans; however, archeological evidence is insufficient to say with certainty just how wide-spread this shield type was—though it was certainly more than just a local type. The hexagonal shield (identical to that of the Roman auxiliaries) was in use among the Elbe Germans by the middle of the 1st century AD; however, its adoption by Roman auxiliary units is an indication that it was in fact more wide-spread and in use earlier than the archeological evidence indicates, since the Romans undoubtedly adopted it from the Rhine-Weser Germans.
If one looks at the longer period, there is a trend towards shorter swords and spearheads. Javelins are rarely met with in the Early Roman Imperial Period, but become more common later. The phalerae on the shields also disappear, as does the metal sword scabbard. Bronze was an expensive import, but iron was plentiful; however, iron production and the forging of swords was so difficult and laborious a process that iron was nevertheless expensive; thereby limiting swords to the wealthier classes.
Organization and Tactics
Germanic warriors in the Early Roman Imperial Period can be roughly divided into three types: mounted warriors with the full panoply (sword, shield, and spear), foot warriors with the full panoply, and foot warriors with the regular panoply (spear and shield). The last category made up the bulk of the German forces. The mounted warriors almost always had the two-edged long sword in a metal scabbard; whereas the foot warriors always had the single-edged weapon in a wooden scabbard. The fully armed warriors, both foot and mounted, generally carried a spear with a long head; the lesser armed, a short-headed spear. It appears from the lack of metal remains in some graves that some of the more poorly equipped warriors most likely carried the all-wooden shield and had spearheads made of some organic material (bone or antler). Their spears were more likely to be the kind that could be either thrust or thrown.
Due to the lack of pastureland and the expense of maintaining a horse, the Germans fought primarily as infantry; although some tribes were noted for their superior quality cavalry (Batavi, Usipetes, Tencteri, Frisii); while the Chatti were renowned for their disciplined and well-trained infantry.
The 100 best warriors from each district (Gau, pagus) were formed into elite units called “hundreds” (centeni). They were then brigaded with an equal number of cavalrymen from the same district to form a mixed unit of cavalry and infantry, each foot soldier being paired with a cavalryman for mutual support. It is probable that these foot warriors assigned to the cavalry had the full panoply rather than the regular.
The Suebi under Ariovistus, according to Caesar, could raise approximately 100 horse and 2000 foot per district (Gau, pagus). Various other sources also indicate that the normal ratio of foot to mounted among the Germans was approximately 20 to 1.
Besides the regular tribal levy, the warriors of which were only part-time soldiers, spending most of their time as farmers, there were also bands of professional warriors, elite groups formed around a proven leader (comitatus, Gefolgschaft). These comitatus consisted of only a few hundred men (the comitatus of the Alemannic king Chnodomar in a later period numbered 300).
Among the Chatti, according to Tacitus, there was a special class of elite warrior, who always formed the front rank in battle. They continued to wear the dress of novice warriors, had long hair and beards, and may have worn an iron torque around their necks.
The Marcomannic king Maroboduus had, according to Roman sources, an army of 74,000 men. According to Cassius Dio, the Germans fought in groups of approximately 300 men. If that is so, then the group would most likely have been formed up 20 men wide and 15 deep. Each man probably had one meter of frontage and two meters of depth. On the defense, the Germans could form a shield wall. According to the Strategikon, this was between 4 and 16 ranks deep.
The cuneus, or boar’s head formation, despite the name, was most likely a square formation. The idea of a wedge in combat is absurd, and several ancient sources, including Tacitus, describe the German fighting formation as a massive square.
The Germans’ baggage wagons could be formed into a Wagenburg for the protection of the non-combatants. The Chatti, who were known for their exceptionally well-disciplined armies, also made use of fortified camps.
The Germans seldom made use of cavalry charges, their mounted troops generally fighting with their assigned foot troops, and even the cavalrymen often dismounted and fought on foot. On the defensive, the cavalry almost always dismounted and fought in the shield wall.
Since mounted combat and especially the mixed infantry-cavalry groups required a lot of practice, these formations were generally made up of the professional warrior class.
In Caesar’s time the following tribes provided auxiliaries for the Romans: the Batavi, Caninefates, Ubii, and the Sugambri. Later the Frisians and Chauci and for a short time the Cherusci also provided troops.