Native American Vs Germanic Culture Essay

When history is reviewed there is commonly a culture gap between the reader and the time period. These gaps in time create difficulties when historians attempt to fully comprehend an event due to changes in culture, religion, morals...etc. When contrasting two ancient civilizations such as the Romans and the Germanic peoples, these differences can create certain bias. Similar to the early American settlers and the Native Americans, it is important to remain impartial to either civilization and realize history tends to be written by the conqueror. There is an insufficient amount of information we have on early Germanic civilization due to the lack of written text. In order to best understand these two cultures differences, it is important to

Leaders either have military strength, wealth/land, or they’ve earned their power through prestige. These factors are key differences between the Germanic and Roman view of civilization. According to Beowulf “Hrothgar has given success in warfare, glory in battle so that his retainers gladly obeyed him and their company grew” (pg 2). Even though this passage comes from a fiction, it is relatively clear how their society most likely operated in early Briton. Loyalty and power came from proving one's strength on a battlefield while also sharing the earnings with your companions. Within Roman civilization, when a soldier retires with high prestige they’re still honored and respected, unlike the Germanic style of replacing the weak leader with a stronger one. The Roman empire obeys rulers due to the prestige that is associated with a title. The Britons obeyed strength and leadership skills, prestige was earned rather than given. Similarly to the political structure, Germanic and Romans military styles are polar opposites. The Roman military is historically regarded as one of the most efficient and powerful military forces of all time. According to the Agricola Tacitus mentioned, “nothing has helped us more in the war with their strongest nation than their inability to cooperate”(pg 6). The Germanic people may have had a strong fighting force, but