When Caesar's troops reached the Rhine around 50 BC, they found the Celts to have a distinctly structured society with a rising aristocracy. The Romans knew how to cleverly use the rich mineral resources of the territory and the Germanic tribes' good trade relations for their own benefits and political goals.

From their citadels, the legionnaires were to protect agriculture and mineral resources and to keep at bay the Germanic tribes of the Tencteri, Usipeters, Menapians, Eburons and Treveri. In addition to the Rhine river itself, a paved road along the left bank and the Hunsrück-Höhenweg, a road across the mountainous region of the Hunsrück, served as the main transportation routes.

The agricultural settlements in the hinterland guaranteed the food provisions for the people in the towns and in the military camps. The Limes, a defensive wall built from 83-85 AD onward, had to be given up around 260 AD, and the border had to be moved back to the Rhine. In the 5th Century, the Alemanni and the Franconians forced the Romans to completely retreat from the territory. The tribes took over the Roman towns; the Franconians founded new settlements in the country which were usually independent from the sites of the old Roman farms. Those places were characterised by farming and cattle breeding and can still be distinguished nowadays by their names ending with -heim.

At the end of the 5th Century, a Franconian empire was formed under King Chlodwig (House of Merowingen). Even though the Roman population was declining, the people spoke a Franconian-Roman dialect and the lingua franca was Latin.