What's A Prussian?

 I imagine that in recent years Prussians have felt a renewed spirit of unity. Once they traded and fought with Romans, viking Northmen, and Swedes with dignity. For a time they found it difficult to maintain their independence in the face of German, Pole, Lithuanian, and Russian incursions. At other times they found support from Lithuanians and learned a bit from Poles and Germans. They have found it difficult to love Russians, but very likely share some Slavic cousins with them.


For a time, being named by Romans disturbed their identity. Later their identity was disturbed by being tools and creators of the German state.


They are a people of the Baltic. It doesn't seem wrong to call a Prussian a Balt.


If you can find northwest Europe on your map, you can probably find the Baltic Sea. I think the people on the eastern shore of that sea may have been termed West Balts. I don't know why. Anyway if you are walking a beach of that eastern shore, look down, you may spot a nice little hunk of amber. There have probably been Prussians along that shore since before there were Romans in Rome.


The Prussian language, like other languages has changed over time. Some languages have disappeared with time. Prussian has come close to disappearing, but it has not. The old Baltic language is one of the oldest in Europe.


How close have my imaginings come to the facts. Tell me where I seem  to be closest to the facts and where I have been farthest from them.

German

A Germanic people have been around for a long time. Although there hasn't always been a Federal Republic of Germany, and  there hasn't even been a Germany for very long, and even though it may be said that there wasn't even a German history until Roman times,the prehistory of the a Germanic people is very long.


German history for the world begins with Germanic peoples early contact with Rome. Rome came to them in the form of Roman Legions. They learned from those contacts. They learned to deal with the Legions of Rome.


Looking at German and Nordic myth and recent archeology I am taken back to, at least, 2700 BC, say about 5000 ears ago. I believe it fair to say that a people can have identifying traits. I'd guess that the identifying traits of Germanic peoples were well developed by 1700 BC.


Peoples I have called German or Germanic had contacts with peoples I call call Celtic, Baltic, and Slavic perhaps 5000, or more, years ago. I think that before that time they had contact with a people we might call Iranian.


These are just my best guesses at the moment. Ask me for evidence or provide me with some.


Romans may have been calling Germanic peoples Alimani, Franks, Chatti, Saxsons, Frisians, and Thuingii before Christ. How wrong am I?


Germans learned to defend themselves in fact of Roman Legions. Not much later they visited Rome.


I think that some of their early cultural development came through Prussian interaction with peoples around the Baltic Sea.


Without them we would not have gotten to kindergarten.