Alemanni (Suevi)
The Suevi, a Germanic people, were situated around the Baltic Sea, east of the Elbe, during the early days of the Roman empire (AD 98). Their name (Suevi/Suebi and later Sweben) was probably also appended to what became Sweden. Not really one people, they were made up of a broad coalition of tribes which also included the Angles, Jutes, Mattiaci, and Semnones (Juthungi). Later, while the main host of the Suebi migrated into Spain, the Langobards and Alemanni, both part of the Suebian confederation, remained behind. To the Alemanni themselves, their name was interchangeable with the Suebi name.
The Alemanni settled south-western Germany, northern Switzerland, and the Alsace region. Just like the Suebi, they were not a single people but a confederation, their very fitting name meaning 'all men'. The largest of their tribes included the Bucinobantes, and probably the Hermunduri (broken during the Marcomannic Wars and later absorbed into both the Alemanni and Thuringians), plus the Semnones. Territory also included the eastern edge of the later Liechtenstein. Until at least the sixth century, it is likely that each tribe in the confederation largely ruled itself, with a possible over-king simply providing military leadership in times of trouble (a system very similar to that used by the Roman republic).
As they were located on the eastern side of the upper Rhine, and were therefore close to the borders of the Roman empire, the Alemanni name survives today in the Romance terms for the German people as a whole, such as Allemagne.
The Bucinobantes tribal name is not German at all - it's Celtic. It breaks down into 'buci-' and 'nobantes', the latter of which is exactly the same as in the Novantes of Britain. The first part, 'buci', would be 'wuk' or 'wok' in proto-Celtic. The main suspicion has to be that it is a corrupted form of *wo-kāno-, meaning 'excellent'. But excellent may not be accurate, or the meaning spans more than that one word. Modern Welsh contains 'enwog', meaning 'famous'. For 'novantes', the Welsh dictionary contains the noun 'nwyf' [m.], meaning 'vivacity, energy, vigour', and 'nwyfiant' [nwyfiannau, m.], meaning 'vivacity, vigour'. It should be remembered that in Welsh an 'f' is pronounced as a 'v', so 'novantes' could be 'the vigorous'. Cognate in Latin is 'navitas', meaning 'energy, get-up-and-go', which supports this analysis. This type of name is also fairly similar to that of the Insular Trinovantes. So the Bucinovantes were probably the 'famous' or 'excellent vigorous' (with famous or excellent as the noun, and vigorous as the modifier in Celtic word order). The name is more evidence of intermixing between German and Celtic tribes.
(Additional information by Edward Dawson, from Chronicon, Marius, and from the Historia Francorum, Gregory of Tours.)
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c.200 - 250
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The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni are an alliance of war bands that forms up between various smallerGermanic tribes that have been migrating southwards from the Baltic Sea. By the start of the third century they are to be found in what is now Central Germany, having emerged there from around the Elbe. They probably also absorb the Hermunduri in this period, and the Sedusii before the start of the fifth century.
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213
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The Alemanni are first mentioned by Cassius Dio when they request help from Rome. Emperor Antoninus (Septimius Bassianus Caracalla) tries to dominate and colonise them and fighting breaks out in 213. They apparently live in the basin of the River Main, to the south of the Chatti. According to Asinius Quadratus, they have emerged from the Irminone grouping of Germanic tribes that was to be found in the Elbe region by the late first century AD. The Alemanni lose the encounter with Antoninus, and are pacified and partially colonised, but only temporarily. While they may previously have been friendly towards the empire, or at least neutral, this encounter turns them into implacable adversaries of Rome.
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