The Alamanni were a tribal confederacy of Germanics that emerged east of the Rhine and south of the Main River in present-day southwestern Germany in the third century c. E. in territory formerly inhabited by the Suebi and spread to neighboring regions, including Alsace west of the Rhine in present-day northeastern France and later southward into the northern Alps. Territory in France and Germany on both sides of the Rhine became known as Alamannia; part of it was later referred to as Swabia derived from the tribal name Suebi.
Origins
The exact makeup of the Alamanni is not known. They may have consisted of a core of
Suebian peoples located in central Germany in earlier centuries, such as the Hermunduri, Naristi, and Semnones. Or they may have been a core group who invaded Suebia territory from elsewhere. other tribes joined them later, such as the Iuthungi in the fourth century c. e. Their confederacy may, like that of other Germanic confederacies such as the Goths, have been a multiethnic, multicultural one. Their name was derived from alamans, meaning “all the people.”
The Alamannic dialect is related to Swabian (Suebian). Some inhabitants of the Black Forest region of present-day southern Germany as well as the independent principality of Liechtenstein still speak Alamannic.
History
Early Incursions onto Roman Territory
Those tribes grouped as Alamanni ranged widely from their homeland in southwestern Germany. The Alamanni are the first large Germanic tribal confederacy mentioned in historical sources: Coming to the notice of the Romans, they were driven out of Upper Germany by an army under Emperor Caracalla in 213 C. E. Caracalla’s victory did not deter the Alamanni for long, and they broke through the Roman limes (fortifications) in the mid-third century, pushing westward across the Rhine as far as present-day Trier (Treves) on the banks of the Prum River in western Germany and settling south of the Danube near Lake Constance on the present-day border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. With the Goths they are considered the first Germanics to occupy what had been Roman-held territory. Their incursions were one of the reasons the Romans gave up defending the Rhine-Danube frontier in 260. The Alamanni did not proceed deeper into Roman territory until later that decade, when they began carrying out raids in northern italy. In 268 a Roman force under Claudius II defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus (Lake Garda) near Milan.
In 275 the Alamanni were among Germanic forces, also including Goths and Vandals, who overran part of the Roman province of Dacia in the steppe region of the Lower Danube basin west of the Black Sea, defeating a force of Sarmatians. By about 300 groups of settlers were occupying territory between the Black Forest and the upper Danube. From there they began attacking the upper Rhine valley and eastern Gaul.
Alamanni attacked by Romans under Emperor Caracalla.
After Alamanni invade northern upper Italy, they are defeated by Romans under Claudius II near Milan.
Alamanni along with Goths and Vandals overrun part of Roman province of Dacia, defeating Sarmatians.
Alamanni defeated by Romans under Julian at Strasbourg.
Alamanni defeated by Romans under Valentinian I.
406-407 Alamanni are among horde of tribes crossing frozen Rhine.
Mid-fifth century Alamanni settle in Alsace; later in century, they occupy parts of Baden-Wurttemburg in Germany and Switzerland.
496 Alamanni conquered by Clovis I of Franks.
730 Duchy of Alamannia incorporated into Frankish Empire.
Later Encounters with the Romans
In the fourth century some Alamanni moved westward into Alsace, also part of Gaul. The Romans under the soon-to-be-emperor Julian fought and defeated them at Strasbourg in 357, at which time their king, Cnodomarius, was taken prisoner. In 368, after an Alamanni force under Macrianus had attacked present-day Mainz on the Rhine, the Romans under Emperor Valentinian I carried out a successful counterattack. Yet the Alamannic resistance persisted, and Valentinian, needing his troops to quell the QUADI and Sarmatians to the east, made peace with Macrianus. Some of the Alamanni served in the Roman army Among them were the Alamannic king Fraomarius, who led a contingent to Britain as reinforcements.
In 380 Alamannic enemies, the Burgundii, who had settled to their south the century before, won territory from them between the Main and Neckar Rivers. The Romans used the Burgundii to impede Alamannic expansion.
The Alamanni were part of the great movement of Germanic groups across the frozen Rhine River in the winter of 406-407, which spelled the beginning of the end of Roman control of Gaul. Some among them settled in Alsace between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France.
Franks, Ostrogoths, and Alamanni
In 496 the Franks under the Salian king Clovis I defeated the Alamanni at Tolbiacum (modern Zulpich), and Alamannic lands became part of the eastward-expanding Frankish Empire. After defeat the Alamanni resettled in southern Germany, taking up residence in the present-day German state of Baden-Wurttemberg in the Black Forest region as well as in Switzerland and controlling the best land in the northern Alps. They continued to conduct raids in Gaul, Italy, and the Upper Danube region, but not intensively enough to seize territory. At this time they entered under the protection of Theodoric of the Ostrogoths.
During and after the sixth century the Franks imposed increasing dominion over the Alamanni until the Frankish leader Charles Martel took them into his empire in the eighth century. Alamannia in northeastern France and southwestern Germany on both sides of the Rhine was a Frankish province for centuries. There is debate about when it became a formal duchy in the Frankish Empire; it may have occurred in 713 or later.
World History
