Classification in classical sources
In the classical sources, the ethnonym Suebi is used with two different meanings: the specific tribe of Caesar's campaign, "dwelling on the Main", and "broadly, to cover a large number of tribes in central Germany."[5] The broad view is expressed in Tacitus's Germania, a basic written source for the Suebic peoples that states:[6]
We must come now to speak of the Suebi, who do not, like the Chatti or Tencteri, constitute a single nation. They actually occupy more than half of Germany, and are divided into a number of distinct tribes under distinct names, though all generally are called Suebi.
For Tacitus, the Suebi comprise the Semnones, who are "the oldest and noblest of the Suebi";[7] the Langobardi;[8] the seven tribes of Jutland and Holstein: Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suarini, Nuitones;[8] the Hermunduri on the Elbe;[9] three tribes along the Danube: Naristi, Marcomanni, Quadi;[10] the Marsigni and Buri.[11] Then there is a mountain range, and beyond that, in the drainage system of the Vistula, Tacitus places five tribes of the Lugii including the Harii, Helveconae, Manimi, Helisii and Naharvali;[11] the Gothones, Rugii, Lemovii along the Baltic Sea;[11] all the states of the Suiones, located in peninsular Scandinavia;[12] and finally the non-Germanic Aestii,[13] and the Sitones, beyond the Aestii along the Baltic yet "continuous with the Suiones".[13] Says Tacitus then: "Here Suebia ends."[14]
But few clues to the identity of the Suebi are given by Tacitus. They can be identified by their fashion of the hair style called the "Suebian knot", which "distinguishes the freeman from the slave";[15] in other words, was intended as a badge of social rank. The same passage points out that chiefs "use an even more elaborate style."
For Tacitus, a second criterion for being Suebian is residence in a territory recognized as Suebia, not identified by any linguistic coherence, apparently: Tacitus' modern editor Arthur J. Pomeroy concludes "it is clear that there is no monolithic 'Suebic' group, but a series of tribes who may share some customs (for instance, warrior burials) but also vary considerably."[16] The Suebia of Tacitus comprises the entire periphery of the Baltic Sea, including within it tribes not identified as Suebi by modern historians: the Sitones, for instance, who must have resided where Lapland and Finland are now, where Uralic has been spoken since Antiquity. In addition, on the south shore of the Baltic are the Aestii, in the territory of modern-day Baltic language speakers, or where they have been (Prussia), again equally as ancient as the Germanic-speakers.
A third criterion for Suebi simply involves sharing in the name Suebi, which is "indeed genuine and ancient" Tacitus reports.[17]
Maurer's Kulturkreise
Friedrich Maurer,[18] based on the archaeological and literary analysis of Germanic tribes done earlier by Gustaf Kossinna[19] and his own linguistic work with isoglosses, divided the Germanic folk of the first century BC through the fourth century AD into five Kulturkreise or "culture-groups": the North, Oder-Vistula, Elbe, Weser-Rhine and North-Sea Germanics.[20] The Herminones comprising the Suebi (in the narrow sense), Hermunduri and others, were the Elbe group. Their linguistic descendants speak modern Upper German. These five groups formed in the Pre-Roman Iron Age after about 800 BC.
Maurer attributes Proto Germanic to the Nordic Bronze Age, which he dates 1200-800 BC according to the information available to him then. The dates have changed a little and a Pre-Roman Iron Age has been broken out since then to which some assign the Proto Germanic language. It ranged over a region forming a rough triangle, with vertices in south Scandinavia, the mouth of the Rhine river and the mouth of the Vistula. In fact the Baltic Sea was known to the Romans as the Mare Suebicum, a name which it no doubt inherited from times when the Suebi inhabited the shores of the Baltic and were probably one with the Suiones.[3]
The Suebi eventually migrated south and west to reside for a while in the Rhineland area of modern Germany, where their name survives in the historic region known as Swabia. The Suebi under Ariovistus were invited into Gaul by the Sequani but soon came to dominate them and were finally defeated by Julius Caesar in 58 BC.
Caesar's Suebi
The Suebi of Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico[21] live in 100 cantons of arable land, of which each canton retains ownership, parceling farm lots to individuals to use for up to one year. They wear animal skins, bathe in rivers, and prohibit wine. They allow trade only to dispose of their booty and otherwise have no goods to export.
They are of a military disposition, drafting yearly 1000 men per canton for service of one year. With these troops they raid Gaul on the other side of the Rhine river frequently, thus involving Gaul's protector, the Roman Republic, whose agent in the field is one of its greatest generals, Julius Caesar. Lacking a central government and disrespecting all authority, they rely on the services of war chiefs, who in the age of migrations will become Suebian kings.
As to their location, they live next to the Cherusci, which places them between the Rhine river and the middle Elbe river. Their innermost refuge is Silva Bacenis, "Beech Wood", which various authors take to be some section of the Hercynian Forest, such as the Thuringian Forest, the Harz Mountains or the Black Forest. In ancient times Germany was heavily forested and these three forests were more or less continuous. They could not have farmed the forests, however, leaving the Main River bottom and the upper Elbe as the only possibilities.
In addition to their first known incursion under Ariovistus in 58 BC, the Suebi posed another threat in 55 BC.[22] The Germanic Ubii, who had worked out an alliance with Caesar, were complaining of being harassed by the Suebi. Caesar bridged the Rhine, the first known to do so, with a pile bridge, which though considered a marvel, was dismantled after only eighteen days. The Suebi abandoned their towns closest to the Romans, retreated to the forest and assembled an army. Caesar moved back across the bridge and broke it down, stating that he had achieved his objective of warning the Suebi. They in turn stopped harassing the Ubii.
Cassius Dio's Suebi
Cassius Dio—who wrote the history of Rome for a Greek audience—starts his account of the Suebi with Caesar's short stay over the Rhine in 55 BC.[23] In Dio it is the Sugambri who retire to strongholds, but Caesar retreats on hearing that the Suebi were collecting an army to help the Sugambri.
A generation later, shortly before 29 BC the Suebi crossed the Rhine, only to be defeated by Gaius Carrinas who along with the young Octavian Caesar celebrated a triumph in 29 BC.[24] Shortly after they turn up fighting a group of Dacians in a gladiatorial display at Rome celebrating the consecration of the Julian hero-shrine. Dio says that they "dwell across the Rhine (though many cities elsewhere claim their name)" and that they were anciently called Celts: Earlier he had explained[25] "...very anciently both peoples dwelling on ether side of the river were called Celts."
A generation later, in 9 BC, consul Nero Claudius Drusus crossed the Rhine and proceeded against the Germans, starting with the Chatti. He traversed country "as far as that of the Suebi" and then attacked the Cherusci to the north of the Suebi. He reached the Elbe. There is no evidence in Dio that he subdued the Suebi. Like Julius Caesar he withdrew to the Rhine shortly but "died on the way of some disease" with the wolves running howling through the camp.[26]
Florus' Suebi
Florus gives a more detailed view of the operations of 9 BC. He reports that the Cherusci, Suebi and Sicambri formed an alliance by crucifying twenty Roman centurions, but that Nero Claudius Drusus defeated them, confiscated their plunder and sold them into slavery.[27] Presumably only the war party was sold, as the Suebi continue to appear in the ancient sources.
Florus's report of the peace brought to Germany by Drusus is glowing but premature. He built "more than five hundred forts" and two bridges guarded by fleets. "He opened a way through the Hercynian Forest", which implies but still does not overtly state that he had subdued the Suebi. "In a word, there was such peace in Germany that the inhabitants seemed changed ... and the very climate milder and softer than it used to be."
The peace did not outlast the year. After the death of Drusus the Cherusci annihilated three legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest and thereafter "... the empire ... was checked on the banks of the Rhine."
Suetonius's Suebi
Suetonius gives the Suebi brief mention in connection with their defeat in 9 BC. He says that the Suebi and Sugambri "submitted to him and were taken into Gaul and settled in lands near the Rhine" while the other Germani were pushed "to the farther side of the river Albis."[28] He must have meant the temporary military success of Drusus, as it is unlikely the Rhine was cleared of Germans. Elsewhere he identifies the settlers as 40,000 prisoners of war,[29] only a fraction of the yearly draft of militia.
cuo sam za tu legendu ako je tako mogu nazvati (mesec ukrao devojku za sebe) Ali ja nisam ni pominjao kosmonaute,samo sam postavio pitanje: kako su znali da se zid vidi sa meseca??? Samo jos da se nadovezem na pleme DROPA imas to na netu pa procackaj malo
