Why were Celtic Oppida’s abandoned?

[Tim Hare]

Thank-you for your very informative response. It is interesting that one of the key factors in the Roman conquest of Gaul was the Gauls own economic infrastructure making it easy to move large troop concentrations around.

I’m still unclear as to why perfectly serviceable population centres like Oppida’s seem to have been abandoned in mass by the Germans in areas the Romans never established a permeant and settled presence in. In other societies towns and cities are typically only abandoned due to natural catastrophes that mean people physically cannot resettle, but as far as I’m aware Germania never experienced anything on this scale during antiquity. I understand your point that Celtic Gaul was always ahead of Germania economically because closer contact with the Mediterranean increased the chances for trade, but did the Germans remain in a real life case of medieval stasis for the entire 500 year period of the Western Roman Empire?

I know that the Germanic tribes were in a constant state of shifting militarily alliances, but wars very rarely result in cities being completely abandoned. (Just look at how many times Jerusalem has changed hands throughout history, even after the entire population has been subjected to death and deportation)

Finally, is there a good point of reference for understanding how the expansion of the Roman Empire into Gaul impacted the Germanic economy. As I said in my initial post, my understanding is that overall Roman expansion had the main effect of unifying Germanic society in the face of an external foe in wartime and providing a vast market for tradable goods during peacetime, which decreased internal strife between Germanic tribes. I’ve read that in both North Africa and Germania Berber and Germanic chieftains built themselves Roman styled villas, drank Roman wine from Roman imported goblets and used subsidies of coin paid by Rome to furnish their own household armies. Is there any evidence that Germans attempted to copy the purpose of a Roman town (i.e industry, communication and trade) in their own territory, or did their urbanisation always remain static at the level of small villages and villas? (Presumably with Roman traders providing them with what would normally be manufactured and sold in towns and cities west of the Rhine)

Considering it was close contact with the civilisations around the Mediterranean Sea that spurned economic growth in Gaul, you would expect to see the same in Germania after a few generations once the Roman border moves to the Rhine.