This list of Germanic tribes includes names of populations speaking Germanic languages or otherwise considered Germanic in sources from the late 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD. The c. 300 tribes do not necessarily represent contemporaneous, distinct or Germanic-speaking populations or have common ancestral populations. Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes. Some may not have spoken Germanic at all, but were bundled by the sources with the Germanic speakers. Some were undoubtedly of mixed culture. They may have assimilated to Germanic or to other cultures from Germanic.
In 213 CE, the Alemanni dwelt in the basin of the Main, to the south of the Chatti. They captured the Agri Decumates in 260 CE, and later expanded into present-day Alsace and northern Switzerland.
Around the middle of the river Ems, which flows into the North Sea, at the Dutch-German border. Most likely they lived between the Bructeriminores (located at the delta of the Yssel) and the Bructeri maiores that were living south of them at the end of the Ems.
North side of the Danube, near the Luna forest, and the Quadi, and with the Gambreta forest of the Marcomanni to their northwest. This would place them in or around modern Slovakia, Moravia, and Lower Austria. In this region had lived the Boier (later slav. Boika in Bohemia and parts of Bajuvari in Bavaria).
Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda), west of the Rhine. Exact location is still unknown, although two proposals are: first, that it might be the source of the name of the Belgian village of Geetbets; and second, that it might be further east, nearer to the Sunuci with whom they interacted in the Batavian revolt, and to the Cugerni who lived at Xanten. The area of Gennep, Goch, and Geldern has been proposed for example.
Baenochaemae, Bainochaimai, Bonochamae; name derived from "Boii"
Near the Elbe river, east of the Melibokus mountains (probably not the modern Melibokus, but rather the Harz mountains, the Thüringerwald, or both.[3][4] This is in turn north of the Askiburgium mountains (probably the modern Sudetes) and the Lugi Buri, which are in turn north of the source of the Vistula river. This position may be north of both modern Bohemia and modern Bavaria.
A Germanic tribe from Vistula, mostly in Alliance with sarmatian Roxolani and Dacians (under Burebista). Their homelands was Pomerania or Prussia. Migrated south to present day Moldavia, also occupying the Danube Delta with Peuce Island. They have inhabited land Moldavia just north of the Carpathian Mountains as well. Her Graves between Sereth and Prut (Sântana de Mureș). Ca. 106 BC after a rebellion in Neapolis. they built a Skythian Kingdom around Olbia unter Palakus and Skilurus beside the rest of Dacian ruled Costoboci in West, southwest Zalmoxis(Getea) and Mithridates VI of Pontus in East. Ca. 300 AD defeated by Goths. Often invaded the Roman Empire alongside the Dacian (e.g. Dionysopolis 48 BC) and Thervingi Goths around 360 BC.
Northwestern Germany; present-day North Rhine-Westphalia. Their territory included both sides of the upper Ems (Latin Amisia) and Lippe (Latin Luppia) rivers. At its greatest extent, their territory apparently stretched between the vicinities of the Rhine in the west and the Teutoburg Forest and Weser river in the east. In late Roman times, they moved south to settle upon the east bank of the Rhine facing Cologne, an area later known as the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks.
May have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the Baltic island of Bornholm, and from there to the Vistula basin, in the middle of modern Poland. A part of the Boergondian tribes migrated further westward, where they may have participated in the 406 Crossing of the Rhine, after which they settled in the Rhine Valley and established the Kingdom of the Burgundians. Another group of Boergondians stayed in their previous homeland in the Oder-Vistula basin and formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451.[5][6]
Central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of the Weser River and in the valleys and mountains of the Eder, Fulda, and Weser River regions, a district approximately corresponding to Hesse-Kassel, though probably somewhat more extensive.
Belgium; the region now known as Condroz (named after them), between Liège and Namur. The terrain is wooded hills on the northeastern edge of the Ardennes.
Resided in the vicinity of Asciburgius Mountain somewhere near the sources of the Vistula. Asciburgius was on the edge of the modern Sudetes range; closest neighbours were the Lugi Buri.
Northeast of Gaul, in what is now the southern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, and the German Rhineland, in the period immediately before this region was conquered by Rome.
Gepids, Gifþas; closely related to/subdivision of the Goths
The Gepids are thought to have migrated (along with the Goths) from Scandinavia to the Vistula River, and then onward into Dacia around 260 CE. After being driven out of their homeland in 504 CE by Theodoric the Great, the Gepids settled in the rich area around Singidunum (modern Belgrade).
Dwelt in southern Scandinavia (Scadanan) before migrating to seek new lands. In the 1st century CE, they formed part of the Suebi in northwestern Germany. By the end of the 5th century, they had moved into the area roughly coinciding with modern Austria north of the Danube river. After defeating the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567, Alboin led the Langobardes to Italy, which had become severely depopulated after the long Gothic War (535–554) between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom there.
Migrating southward from the Baltic Sea, the Greutungi built up a huge empire stretching from the Dniester to the Volga River and from the Black Sea to the Baltic shores. After their subjugation by the Huns around 370 CE, little is heard of the Ostrogoths for about 80 years, after which they reappear in Pannonia on the middle Danube River as federates of the Romans, while a pocket remained behind in the Crimea. After the collapse of the Hun empire in 453, the Ostrogoths first moved to Moesia (c. 475–488) and later conquered the Italian Kingdom.
Perhaps originating north of the River Main, the Quadi (along with the Marcomanni) migrated into what is now Moravia, western Slovakia, and Lower Austria where they displaced Celtic cultures and were first noticed by Romans in 8–6 BCE.
First encountered dwelling on the right bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar; transported in 39 BCE by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to the left bank, apparently at their own request, as they feared the incursions of their neighbours the Chatti.
Associated with the Przeworsk culture; possibly the same people as the Lugii.
Believed to have migrated from southern Scandinavia (possibly Vendel in Sweden) to the area between the lower Oder and Vistula rivers during the 2nd century BCE, and to have settled in Silesia (southern part of modern Poland) from around 120 BCE, where they were first heard of by ancient writers. Expanded into Dacia during the Marcomannic Wars and to Pannonia during the Crisis of the Third Century. Around 400 CE, they were pushed westward into Roman Europe by the Huns, establishing kingdoms in Spain, Sardinia, Corsica and later North Africa in the 5th century.
Unknown origin. After being defeated while participating in an invasion of Gaul in 58 BC, they made peace with the Romans and were allowed to settle among the Mediomatrici in northern Alsace. They gradually assumed control of the Celtic city of Burbetomagus, later Worms.
Many of the authors relating ethnic names of Germanic peoples speculated concerning their origin, from the earliest writers to approximately the Renaissance. One cross-cultural approach over this more than a millennium of historical speculation was to assign an eponymous ancestor of the same name as, or reconstructed from, the name of the people. For example, Hellen was the founder of the Hellenes.
Although some Enlightenment historians continued to repeat these ancient stories as though fact, today they are recognised as manifestly mythological. There was, for example, no Franko, or Francio, ancestor of the Franks. The convergence of data from history, linguistics and archaeology have made this conclusion inevitable. A list of the mythical founders of Germanic peoples follows.
^Luebe, Die Boergunder, in Krüger II, p. 373 n. 21, in Herbert Schutz, Tools, weapons and ornaments: Germanic material culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750, BRILL, 2001, p.36
^Domingos Maria da Silva, "De Buricis (Acerca dos Búrios)", Bracara Augusta, 36, 1982, pp. 237–68.
^Domingos Maria da Silva, Os Búrios, Terras de Bouro, Câmara Municipal de Terras de Bouro, 2006. (in Portuguese)