This might be better suited for a linguistics sub, but ah well.

I recently read that Romans didn't have a 'v' sound, it was just pronounced 'w'. So Vespasian would have been something like "Wespasian." Is there any connection between this v-w pronunciation and the fact that Germany and other nearby countries pronounce 'w' as a 'v'? Did the latter somehow come from the other, or is it just a coincidence?