VANDALS.
The earliest home of the Goths in historic times seems to have been to the east of the Burgundians on the east side of the upper course of the river Vistula. In the third century A.D. they had settled in the Roman province of Dacia north of the Lower Danube and in the adjoining region north of the Black Sea. At that time they were already divided into Visigoths, or West Goths, and Ostrogoths, or East. Goths. The Gepid(e, a closely related tribe. had followed them south and were located to the north of the Visigoths. Momentum was imparted to this great Teutonic mass by the incursions of the Huns, who began at that time to pour into Europe through the great gate between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian. The East Gotbs submitted to the Huns. The Visigoths, after seeking refuge in the Roman dominions south of the Danube, began that important westward movement which first landed them in Italy, whence they were expelled ; next in Gaul, of which they conquered the region between the rivers and Loire, and the Pyrenees; and finally in Spain, where they sus tained themselves until they succumbed to the Saracens in 711. The Ostrogotbs, to the Huns, became part of Attila's empire, but after his death achieved independence and found ed their State in Pannonia (Hungary). In 488 they broke into Italy, finally vanquished King Odoacer in 493, and founded their own short lived o which succumbed to ,Tustinian's generals, Ilelisarins and Narses (536-53). See GOTIIS.
The North Germans advanced from the north ernmost part of the common Teutonic territory, that is, from Schleswig-Holstein, into Denmark, whence they passed to Schonen (Seania), the southernmost part of Sweden. gradually spread ing from there over the Scandinavian peninsula, and the islands to the westward, especially Ice land.
The Western Continental Germans were di vided by Tacitus and Pliny into three groups: the Ingvreones, who coincide with the Low Ger man peoples along the north coast of Germany: the Istevones, corresponding to the Franconians: and the Hermiones (q.v.), eorrespondin“ to the High Germans. The principal Low German races were the Saxons, the Frisians, and the Franconians or Franks. The ancient seat of the Saxons was on the eastern side of the mouth of the river Elbe; to the north of them in Schleswig Holstein were the Angles. In the middle of the
fifth century the British King Vortigern called in the aid of the Saxon chief Hengist as a hired auxiliary. With the related Jutes (q.v.), the Saxons overran England south of the Thames; during the same century the Angles occupied Cen tral and Northern England. To this mixture of Celts and Teutons the Norman Conquest (1066) added a new and peculiar ingredient, Teutonic as to stock, Romance as to speech and institutions. See ANGLO-SAXONS.
The Continental Saxons (Old Saxons), the great nation whom Charlemagne forcibly con verted to Christianity, are in the first centuries after Christ the occupants of Lower Germany. At the root they are the same Saxons who to gether with the Angles accomplished the con quest of Britain. The Frisians are the western most division of the Ingv(eonie Teutons. Their ancient home was on the North Sea, in the marshes found about the Zuyder Zee, and from there east as far as the river Ems.
The Franconians or Franks (q.v.) are a more modern name for the ancient Istxvones. Their original home was on both sides of the middle and lower course of the Rhine.
The High German peoples coincide almost ex actly with the third division of the West Ger mans whom Pliny calls Hermiones, Tacitus Herminones. Their territory anciently extended very much farther to the north than in mediaeval and modern times, Adjoining the Saxons to the southeast dwelt the Lombards (q.v.) before they started on their long migration to Italy (568), Southwest of them were the Semni or Semnones, and due south of them the Hermunduri or Thu ringians. To the west of them, along the lower course of the river Main, were the ancient seats of the Suevi (Swabians) and Alemanni. Again to the east of the Thuringians, in the present Kingdom of Bohemia and parts of Bavaria, dwelt at the beginning of our era the powerful people of the Marcomanni (q.v.). After Charle magne's conquest of the Avars the Bavarian Marcomanni crossed the river Enns and colo nized part of the present German provinces of Austria. Consult: Bremer, "Ethnographic der germanischen Stlimme," in Paul, Grundriss der gernlanisehm Philologie„ vol. iii. (Strassburg, 1896 et seq.).