once been applied only to the Tungri, west of the Rhine, but it became an "artificial name" (invento nomine) for supposedly-related peoples east of the Rhine. Many modern scholars consider Tacitus's story to be plausible, but they are unsure whether the name was commonly used by Germani to refer to themselves. Geography The boundaries of Germania are not clearly defined, particularly at its northern and eastern fringes. Magna Germania stretched approximately from the Rhine in the west to beyond the Vistula river in the east, and from the Danube in the south and northwards along the North and Baltic seas, including Scandinavia. Germania Superior encompassed parts of modern-day Switzerland, southwest Germany and eastern France, while Germania Inferior encompassed much of modern-day Belgium and Netherlands. In his Geography (150 AD), the Roman geographer Ptolemy provides descriptions of the geography of Germania. Modern scholars have been able to localize many of the place names mentioned by Ptolemy, and associated them with place names of the present day. Germania was inhabited by a large number of peoples, and there was not much unity among them. It appears that Germania was not entirely inhabited by Germanic peoples. Hydronymy provides evidence for the presence of another Indo-European group, which probably lived under Germanic domination. History During the Gallic Wars of the 1st century BC, the Roman general Julius Caesar came into contact with peoples originating east of the Rhine. In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Caesar refers to these peoples as the Germani, and the lands from where they originated as Germania. The Romans appear to have borrowed the name from the Gauls. Having defeated the Germanic chieftain Ariovistus in Gaul, Caesar built bridges across the Rhine and conducted punitive expeditions in Germania. He writes the area was composed of numerous Germanic states, which were not entirely united. According to Caesar, the Gallic Volcae Tectosages had once crossed the Rhine and colonized parts of Germania, but had since become militarily inferior to the Germani. He also writes that Germani had once crossed the Rhine into northeast Gaul and driven away its Gallic inhabitants, and that the Belgae claimed to be largely descended from these Germanic invaders. In the late 1st century BC, the Roman emperor Augustus launched campaigns across the Rhine, and incorporated areas of Germania as far east as the Elbe into the Roman Empire, creating the short-lived Roman province of Germania Antiqua in