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Chamber’s Encyclopedia, Collier Publisher 1890, Volume 1, pages 95-96
The Allaman Heritage, Durward B. Allaman / Richard J. Henry
All Rights Reserved, © 1997 Richard J. Henry
ALEMANNI, (that is, all-men), was 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 3rd century.
Caracalla, whose real name is Marcus Aurelius Antonius. A.D. 188-217, Emperor of Rome (211-217), was obsessed with and sought to imitate Alexander the Great. His brutal, undisciplined rule of the empire, however, led to his assassination and left only a legacy of infamy. Caracalla fought with the Alemanni, first on the Maine in 211 A.D., but without conquering them; Alexander Severus was equally unsuccessful; but Maximinus at length succeeded against them, and drove them beyond the Rhine.
After his death, they again invaded Gaul, 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 Decumates. The mounds near Pforung on the Danube, the rampart extending through the principality of Ilohenlohe to Jaxthausen, and the ditch with palisados on the north side of the Maine, are remains of these works.
The Alemanni, however, did not desist from their incursions, although they were repeatedly driven back. After 282, being pressed upon from the northeast by the Burgundians, 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 Alemanni, and soon compelled of their chiefs to sue for peace. Their united force, in their principal battle with Julian, amounted to 35,000 men.
After the 5th century, the confederated nation is spoken of as Alemanni and Suavi or Suevi. In the course of the 4th century, they crossed the Rhine, and extended as far west as the Vosges, and south to the Helvetian Alps. At length, Clovis, king of the Franks, broke their power in 496, and made them subject to the Frankish dominion. The south 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 Alemanni, the French have given the name of Allemands and Allemagne to Germans and Germany in general, though the inhabitants of the north of Switzerland, with those of Alsace and part of Swabia, are the proper descendants of the Alemanni.
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