TEUTONS

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''This entry is about the tribe of the Teutons. The term "Teutons" is also used to refer to the Germanic peoples summarily, not to be confused with the Teutonic Knights. ''

The 'Teutons' or ''Teutones'' (from Proto-Germanic
★ ''Þeudanōz'') were 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)[1]. In any case, they are believed to have given their name to the region of Thy (Old Norse ''Thiuthæ sysæl'') in northern Denmark.
Earlier than 100 BC, many of the Teutones, as well as the Cimbri, migrated south and west to the Danube valley, where they encountered the expanding Roman Republic. During the late 2nd century BC, the Teutons are recorded as marching west through Gaul along with their neighbors, the Cimbri, and attacking Roman Italy. After several victories for the invading armies, the Cimbri and Teutones were then defeated by Marius in 102 BC at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (near present-day Aix-en-Provence). Their King, Teutobod, was taken in irons.
The captured women committed mass suicide, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism (cf Jerome, letter cxxiii.8, 409 AD [2]):
:''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 name Teutones is a proto – Germanic (teudanoz) or Celtic (tuath) or Latvian (tauta) and even South Italian Oscan (touto) word meaning people or race or town. The king of the Teutones in 101 BC was Teutobod, “bod” (badb in Irish) being Celtic for raven (Rankin, 1987) – suggesting a Celtic origin of these people.

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See also

★ Theodisca

Source

★ Fick, August, Torp, Alf, Falk, Hjalmar: ''Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen''. Teil 3, Wortschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit. 4. Aufl. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909.