50 BC: Rome Conquers Gaul, Pushing Its Frontier to the Rhine and Acquiring German Subjects

The Roman Conquest of Gaul under Julius Caesar, 55-50 BC (source)

50 BC Conquest of Gaul by Roman general Julius Caesar is completed after a nine-year campaign. All of Gaul now in Roman hands to the Rhine. The vast area (present-day Francea and Belgium) included many Celtic tribes, including the Belgica in northern Gaul, but also includes a group of Germans, the germani cisrhenani (Latin for Germani "on this side of the Rhine") living principally in the Meuse valley.

The Romans frequently described the Rhine as an important natural border between Gaul on the west, which became part of the Roman empire, and the Germanic territories to the east.

During the lifetime of Julius Caesar, the germani cisrhenani referred especially to such Germanic tribes near the Meuse river, who had settled among the Belgic Gauls before Roman intrusion into the area.

The Germani on the east side of the Rhine were considered to be living in their original homeland. So this land was referred to not only as "Germania Transrhenana," (the opposite of cisrhenana) but also, for example by Ptolemy and Strabo, as Germania magna, meaning "Greater Germany." It is also referred to as being outside of Roman control: Germania libera, "Free Germany" or Germania barbara, indicating it was wild and uncivilized.

52 BC Battle of Alesia. Last major engagement between the Gauls and Romans. Long siege ends in complete defeat by the Gauls. Considered one of Julius Caesar's greatest military achievements and a classic example of siege warfare and investment.  The battle marked the end of Gallic independence in France and Belgium.

The event is described by several contemporary authors, including Caesar himself in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico. After the Roman victory, Gaul (very roughly modern France) was subdued and became a Roman province. The Roman senate granted a thanksgiving of 20 days for his victory in the Gallic War

53 BC Crassus, one of the Triumvirate, is defeated and killed leading a disastrous Roman war against the Parthian Empire, Rome's long-time Eastern enemy (Battle of Carrhae).

55 BC Julius Caesar makes the first Roman incursion into Great Britain.

58 BC Julius Caesar leads a Roman invasion of Gaul, defeating large Gaulic armies over the next several years.

Not content with an idle governorship, Caesar strove to find reason to invade Gaul (modern France and Belgium), which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. When two local tribes began to migrate on a route that would take them near (not into) the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse he needed for his Gallic Wars, fought between 58 BC and 49 BC.

59 BC Julius Caesar, Roman praetor in the Iberian peninsula, is appointed to a five-year term as the proconsular Roman Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (part of current northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (current southern France) and Illyria (part of the modern Balkans)

60 BC First Triumvirate formed in the Roman Republic, an unofficial political alliance between Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey the Great to share power and influence.

63 BC Pompey the Great conquers Palestine for the Roman Republic.

71 BC Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") subdues rebellion in Roman  Hispania.

71 BC Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus puts down the Third Servile War, a rebellion against Rome led by the slave Spartacus.

100 BC (Jul 13) Gaius Julius Caesar is born.

222 BC  First use of the Latin term "Germani" appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ(aneis) which may simply be referring to Gaul or related people but this may be an inaccurate date since the inscription was erected in about 18 BC despite referencing an earlier date. The term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios (from 80 BC), but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later (around 190 AD). Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, whose memoirs are based on first-hand experience.

Valley of the Meuse (Maas) river. Location of the habitation of the most of the germani cisrhenani at the time of the Roman conquest of Gaul

(source) The expansion of the Germanic tribes 750 BC – AD 1 (after the Penguin Atlas of World History 1988):    Settlements before 750 BC    New settlements by 500 BC    New settlements by 250 BC    New settlements by AD 1