Germani Cisrhenani

The germani cisrhenani, Latin for Germani "on this side of the Rhine" (), were a group of tribes who lived during classical times to the west of the Rhine river. They are also sometimes referred to as "Left bank Germani".Julius Caesar, the first to use the term, was writing specifically about Germanic tribes near the Meuse river, who had settled among the Belgic Gauls before Roman intrusion into the area. Tribes who were certainly considered to be among the original Germani cisrhenani include the Eburones, the Condrusi, the Caeraesi, the Segni and the Paemani, who collectively form a group which apparently later came to be referred to as Tungri, in order to avoid confusion with other "Germani".

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. 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. In contrast, the cisrhenane Germani were sometimes referred to as living in Germania cisrhenana, but this territory was considered to also be part of Gaul, and later part of the Roman empire.

While the Romans clearly believed these people to be related culturally and ancestrally to tribes east of the Rhine, it is widely doubted today whether the Romans were correct in describing all the different peoples that they called Germani as belonging to one ethnic group. In modern analyses of cultural groups, languages are generally used as a means of classification, and the modern language family associated with the Germani, including such classical groups as the Suebi, including the Alemanni, is today called Germanic. But there is no consensus as to whether the pre-Roman imperial Germani all spoke the same language. In fact, the earliest reported Germani cisrhenani seem to have had tribal names based on Celtic languages, and they were clearly considered Gauls, or at least Belgae, in some contexts. Celtic naming even appears to have extended across the Rhine to such tribes as the Usipetes and Tencteri.

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