Alamanni
ALAMANNI, or ALLEMANNI, a German tribe, first mentioned by Dio Cassius, under the year 213. They apparently dwelt in the basin of the Maine, to the south of the Chatti. According to Asinius Quadratus their name indicates that they were a conglomeration of various tribes. There can be little doubt, however, that the ancient Hermunduri formed the preponderating element in the nation. Among the other elements may be mentioned the Juthungi, Bucinobantes, Lentienses, and perhaps the Armalausi. From the 4th century onwards we hear also of the Suebi or Suabi. The Hermunduri had apparendy belonged to the Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new Suebic tribes had now moved westward. In later times the names Alamanni and Suebi seem to be synonymous. The tribe was continually engaged in conflicts with the Romans, the most famous encounter being that at Strassburg, in which they were defeated by Julian, afterwards emperor, in the year 357, when their king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. Early in the 5th century the Alamanni appear to have crossed the Rhine and conquered and settled Alsace and a large part of Switzerlafid. Their kingdom lasted until the year 405, when they were conquered by Clovis, from which time they formed part of the Frankish dominions. The Alamannic and Swabian dialects are now spoken in German Switzerland, the southern parts of Baden and Alsace, Wurttemberg and a small portion of Bavaria.
See Dio Cassius lxvii. ff.; Ammianus Marcellinus, passim;
Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, book ii.; C. Zeuss, Die
Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme (Munich, 1837), pp. Ro5 ff.;
O. Bremer in H. Paul, Grundriss der Permanischen Philologie
(2nd ed., Strassburg, 1900), vol. iii. pp. 930 h. (F. G. M. B.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
