ALEMAN'NI (that is, all-men), the name of a military confederacy of several German tribes which began to appear on the lower and middle Maine about the beginning of the Ed c. Caracalla fought with them first on the Maine in 211 A.n., but without conquer ing them; Alexander Sevenis was equally unsuccessful; but Maximinus at length succeeded against them, and drove them beyond the Rhine. After his death they again invaded Gual, but were defeated by Posthumius, who pursued them into Germany, and fortified with ramparts and ditches the boundary of the Roman territory, called the Agri Deeumates. The mounds near PfOrung, on the Danube, the rampart extending through the principality of Holienlohe to Jaxihausen, and the ditch with palisados on the a. side of the Maine, are remains of these works. The A., however, did not desist from their incursions, although they were repeatedly driven back, After 2S2, being pressed upon from the the. by the bmrgMli:ins, they took up permanent settlements within the Roman boundary from Maintz to lake Constance. At last, Julian came
(357) to the relief of Gaul, which had been suffering from the incursions of the A., and soon compelled eight of their chiefs to sue for peace. Their united force, in their principal battle with Julian, amounted to 35,000 men. After the 5th c., the con federated nation is spoken of as A. and Suavi or Suevi. In the course of the 4th c. they had crossed the Rhine, and extended as far w. as the Vosges, and s. to the Hel vetian Alps. At length Clovis, king of the Franks, broke their power in 496, and made them subject to the Frankish dominion. The s. part of their territory was formed into a duchy, called Alemannia. The name Of Swabia came afterwards to be applied to the part of the duchy lying east of the Rhine. From the A. the French have given the name of Alleniands and Allemagne to Germans and Germany in general, though the inhabitants of the n. of Switzerland, with those of Alsace and part of Swabia, are the proper descendants of the Alemanni.