germania was a roman name originally given to tribe of people who lived along the rhine river. they were a teutonic people, who were first mentioned in the 4th century bc. the gauls changed it from a name for a people to the name for the territory. this was a vast forested wilderness to the north that rome knew very little about. it ran from the west on the river "rhenus" (rhine) to the east and the carpathian mountains and the river vistula. on the north it was bounded by the north sea and on the south by the river hister (danube).