Gallic appearance

[Aryaman2]

So why would the 'wild' Germanics be taller than the 'civilized' ones? Because it fits the poet, that's why. It would be prepostrous to even assume that Germanics shrunk upon becoming civilized.. D

There is an anthropometric study in ancient Raetia that shows just that, average size of people diminishing after Roman conquest. That is not to deny the particular example given by Ammianus being a poetic convention, I am myself convinced that is the case in many ancient sources, but it seems that Roman social system being more unequal than "barbarian" system actually have the effect of lowering the average size of population