Editing Suebi (section)

====Northern bank of the Danube====
[[File:20181124Lobdengau-Museum05.jpg|thumb|Suebi ceramics. Lobdengau-Museum, [[Ladenburg]], Germany]]

In the time of Caesar, southern Germany had a mixture of [[Celts|Celtic]] and Germanic tribes and was increasingly coming under pressure from Germanic groups led by the Suebi. As described later by Tacitus, what is today southern Germany between the [[Danube]], the [[Main (river)|Main]], and the Rhine had been deserted by the departure of two large Celtic nations, the [[Helvetii]] in modern [[Schwaben]] and the [[Boii]] further east near the [[Hercynian forest]].<ref name="Tac. Ger. 28">{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Tac.%20Ger.%2028&lang=original |title=Tac. Ger. 28 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2014-05-01}}</ref> In addition, near the Hercynian forest Caesar believed that the Celtic [[Tectosages]] had once lived. All of these peoples had for the most part moved by the time of Tacitus. Nevertheless, [[Cassius Dio]] wrote that the Suebi, who dwelt across the Rhine, were called Celts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dio|first1=Cassius|title=Delphi Complete Works of Cassius Dio (Illustrated)|date=19 September 2014|publisher=Delphi Classics}}</ref> This may follow a Greek tradition of labelling all barbarian people north of the Alps as Celtic.

Strabo (64/63 BC – c. 24 AD), in Book IV (6.9) of his ''Geography'' also associates the Suebi with the [[Hercynian Forest]] and the south of Germania north of the Danube. He describes a chain of mountains north of the Danube that is like a lower extension of the Alps, possibly the [[Swabian Alps]], and further east the [[Gabreta Forest]], possibly the modern [[Bohemian forest]]. In Book VII (1.3) Strabo specifically mentions as Suevic peoples the [[Marcomanni]], who under King [[Marobodus]] had moved into the same Hercynian forest as the [[Coldui]] (possibly the [[Quadi]]), taking over an area called "Boihaemum". This king "took the rulership and acquired, in addition to the peoples aforementioned, the [[Lugii]] (a large tribe), the [[Zumi]], the [[Butones]], the [[Mugilones]], the [[Sibini]], and also the [[Semnones]], a large tribe of the Suevi themselves". Some of these tribes were "inside the forest" and some "outside of it".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0198:book=7:chapter=1&highlight=boihaemum |title=Strab. 7.1 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2014-05-01}}</ref> Tacitus confirms the name "Boiemum", saying it was a survival marking the old traditional population of the place, the Celtic [[Boii]], though the population had changed.<ref name="Tac. Ger. 28"/>

[[Tacitus]] describes a series of very powerful Suebian states in his own time, running along the north of the Danube which was the frontier with Rome, and stretching into the lands where the Elbe originates in the modern day [[Czech Republic]]. Going from west to east the first were the [[Hermunduri]], living near the sources of the [[Elbe]] and stretching across the Danube into Roman [[Rhaetia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D41 |title=Section 41 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2014-05-01}}</ref> Next came the [[Naristi]], the [[Marcomanni]], and then the [[Quadi]]. The Quadi are on the edge of greater Suebia, having the [[Sarmatians]] to the southeast.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D42 |title=Section 42 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2014-05-01}}</ref>
[[File:Suebi Germanic with nodus found in Apt, France.jpg|thumb|Suebi Germanic with nodus found in Apt, France]]
[[Claudius Ptolemy]] the geographer did not always state which tribes were Suebi, but along the northern bank of the Danube, from west to east and starting at the "[[Agri Decumates|desert]]" formerly occupied by the [[Helvetii]], he names the [[Parmaecampi]], then the [[Adrabaecampi]], and then a "large people" known as the [[Baemoi]] (whose name appears to recall the [[Boii]] again), and then the [[Racatriae]]. North of the Baemoi, is the [[Luna forest]] which has iron mines, and which is south of the Quadi. North of the Adrabaecampi, are the [[Sudini]] and then the Marcomanni living in the Gambreta forest. North of them, but south of the Sudetes mountains (which are not likely to be the same as the modern ones of that name) are the [[Varisti]], who are probably the same as Tacitus' "Naristi" mentioned above.

[[Jordanes]] writes that in the early 4th century the Vandals had moved to the north of the Danube, but with the Marcomanni still to their west, and the Hermunduri still to their north. A possible sign of confusion in this comment is that he equates the area in question to later [[Gepidia]], which was further south, in Pannonia, modern Hungary, and east of the Danube.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.romansonline.com/Src_Frame.asp?DocID=Gth_Goth_22 |title=Chapt 22 |publisher=Romansonline.com |access-date=2014-05-01 |archive-date=2013-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105120230/http://www.romansonline.com/Src_Frame.asp?DocID=Gth_Goth_22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In general, as discussed below, the Danubian Suebi, along with the neighbours such as the Vandals, apparently moved southwards into Roman territories, both south and east of the Danube, during this period.