Germania, Germani, Germanica have all been used to refer to the group of peoples comprising of the German Tribes in the first centuries CE (AD), We have good and reliable written information from the Roman author Tacitus' Germania and Agricola, Jordanes' Getica, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as well as other sources.

The Germans are a great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, north and central France, Lowland Scotland, and England. From archaeology it is clear that the Germans had little ethnic solidarity; by the 7th cent. B.C. they had begun a division into many peoples. They did not call themselves Germans; the origin of the name is uncertain. Their rise to significance (4th century B.C.) in the history of Europe began roughly with the general breakup of Celtic culture in central Europe. Before their expansion, the Germans inhabited northern Germany, southern Sweden and Denmark, and the shores of the Baltic. From these areas they spread out in great migrations southward, southeastward, and westward.