Publius Cornelius Tacitus

The earliest description we have of the German tribes who later would be collectively referred to as barbarians is from the Germania of Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus, one of Rome's greatest historians, lived from about A.D. 56 to 120. Although he never visited the Germans in their lands beyond the northern and northeastern borders of the Roman Empire, he did learn much about them from German prisoners of war and the Roman soldiers who had campaigned against them. Although some modern historians have questioned the accuracy of some of Tacitus's statements, generally he is considered a reliable source for the customs and culture of a people whose descendants would one day be largely responsible for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

Ishould say that the Germans themselves were an indigenous people, without any subsequent mixture of blood through immigration...