, the Celts in western Europe, the Germans in central Europe, and
the Slavs to the east. All of these four families were distantly
related, as can be proved by the languages which they spoke. The
Greeks, while not belonging to any one of the four, were also distant
cousins of both Germans and Latins. Probably all five peoples are
descended from one big family of tribes.

In addition to these, there were, from time to time invasions of
Europe by other nations which did not have any connection by blood
with Celts, Latins, Greeks, Germans, or Slavs. For instance, the
ferocious Huns, a people of the yellow race, rushed into Europe about
400 A.D., but were beaten in a big battle by the Romans and Germans
and finally went back to Asia. Three hundred years later, a great
horde of Moors and Arabs from Africa crossed over into Europe by way
of the Straits of Gibraltar, and at one time threatened to sweep
before them all the Christian nations. For several hundred years after
this, they held the southern part of Spain, but were finally driven
out.

Let us now come back to the story of what happened in Europe after the
Romans had conquered all the country south and west of the Danube and
Rhine. The wild tribes of the Germans were restlessly roaming through
the central part of Europe. They were not at peace with each other. In
fact, constant war was going on. Julius Caesar, the great Roman
general, who conquered what is now France and added it to the Roman
world, tells us that one great tribe of Germans, the Suevi (Swe'vi),
made it their boast that they would let no other tribe live anywhere
near them. About a hundred years B.C., two great German tribes. the
Cimbri and the Teutones, broke across the Rhine and poured into the
Roman lands in countless numbers. For seven years they roamed about
until at last they were conquered in two bloody battles by a Roman
general, who was Caesar's uncle by marriage. After this time, the
Romans tried to conquer the country of the Germans and they might have
been successful but for a young German chief named Arminius. He had
lived in Rome as a young man and had learned the Romans' method of
war; so when an army came against his tribe, he taught the Germans how
to defend themselves. As a result, the Roman army was trapped in a big
forest and slaughtered, almost to a man.

[Illustration: Gaius Julius Caesar. From a bust in the British Museum]

This defeat ended any thought that the Romans may have