In the Roman Empire, 9 of the 10 cities were in the Middle East/Mediterranean. Outside of Rome, there was no European city on that list. Therefore the Roman Empire was more of a Middle Eastern/mediterranean Empire, and not a European one. 

In other words, your Germanic ancestors lived in communities that were not cities by world standards, from 4000 B.C. (roughly when civilization began) till the 16th century A.D. This is not surprising - civilizations began on large river valleys like that of the Nile, Tigris, Indus, Yangtze, etc. The Rhine is not on that list.