Who were the Germanic tribes? What was the Migration Period? What is European continuity? The history of the Roman Empire and its Germanic tribes ended the migration of the nations. The Roman state gave up the monopoly on violence. Tax collection has been privatized. The general Justinian imperial law applied in Byzantine Rome and Ravenna, but no longer in Longobard Pavia and Milan, even less on the Rhine and Danube and on the British Isles. The cities shrank, the provincialization increased. Herwig Wolfram describes in this book the emergence, the duration and the history of the Germanic kingdoms that took over the legacy of Rome. The history of these forms of rule, their supposed splendor and their tragic demise, which only the Franconian Empire could avoid, still arouse our interest. The author introduces the origins and myths, life and work of the Teutons, portrays their tribes and tells the story of the migration of the nations . A basic and knowledgeable account of the Germanic world, which contributes to a deeper understanding of this world.