56 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



1. The Goths. 



The Gotlis (Gode-men) are a German nation, and it is supposed that 

 they originally resided far north in the Scandinavian peninsula. Inclosed 

 by the sea on two sides, they early became mariners. They abandoned 

 their rude homes, and setting out upon frail vessels under King Yerig, 

 they located in European Sarmatia. Historians represent them as early as 

 320 B.C. living at the mouth of the Vistula. We see them about the end 

 of the second century of the Christian era uniting with other German 

 tribes, and breaking beyond their boundaries in vast numbers. In the third 

 century they appeared in Dacia, and penetrating in an eastern direction, 

 seized the best portions of coast along the Black and Caspian seas. They 

 made continual incursions into the Roman provinces, and carried on 

 numerous and successful piratical expeditions. While residing in the 

 south-east of Europe, they separated into two grand political divisions, 

 ruled by special royal families : the Ostrogoths, who occupied the coasts 

 of Pontus ; and the Yisigoths, who settled in Dacia. Their subsequent 

 history has already been given. {PI. ^O^fig. 1, a Goth.) 



2. The Suevi. 



Some writers attribute the derivation of the name Suevi to a custom of 

 wearing the hair tied at the top of the head, though it seems more natural to 

 deduce it from their principal river, Suevus (Oder). Suevi is a compre- 

 hensive appellation for all the tribes living between the Yistula, Upper 

 Elbe, and Danube, the principal of whom were the Semnones, Quadi, 

 Marcomanni, Goths, &c., who were members of the powerful alliance 

 mentioned as the Suevian Union. Caesar gives the earliest account of 

 them. He says that their state was divided into one hundred counties, 

 every one of which annually furnished 1000 armed men for war purposes. 

 Those who remained at home cultivated the soil for their own support and 

 that of the army ; and every year the husbandmen and the warriors 

 exchanged employments. ]^one had private landed property, and the 

 residences were changed yearly ; for that reason they are not likely to 

 have had cities. 



Irritated by some incursions of the Eomans into Pannonia and E'oricum, 

 the Suevi crossed the Danube, under their leader Marbodius, and seized 

 upon the adjacent countries. From that period the name Suevi has been 

 applied only to the southern branch of the alliance, though, in the fourth 

 century, these tribes were called by their different names, while only the 

 Germans who settled in the modern Suabia were known by the name of 

 Suevi, which henceforth became the appellation of one people. {Pl^ 20, 

 jig. 2, a Suevian.) 



228 



