Ancient Germanic tribes

Ancient Germanic tribes
The list of early Germanic peoples is a register of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groups, and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. This information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginning in the 2nd century BC and extending into late antiquity. By the Early Middle Ages, early forms of kingship had begun to have a historical impact across Europe, with the exception of Northern Europe, where influences from the Vendel Period (from AD 550 to 800) and the subsequent Viking Age (until AD 1050) can be seen in the Germanic context.
The associations and locations of the numerous peoples and groups in ancient sources are often subject to heavy uncertainty and speculation, and classifications of ethnicity regarding a common culture or a temporary alliance of heterogeneous groups are disputed. It is uncertain whether certain groups are Germanic in the broader linguistic sense or whether they consisted of speakers of a Germanic language.
The names listed below are not terms for ethnic groups in any modern sense but the names of groups that were perceived in ancient and late antiquity as Germanic. It is essentially an inventory of peoples, groups, alliances and associations stretching from the Barbaricum region east of the Rhine to the north of the Danube (also known as Germania), especially those that arrived during the Migration Period.

The present list is largely based on the list of Germanic tribal names and its spelling variants contained in the first register of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde.[1]
The first column contains the English name and its variants, if one is common, otherwise the traditional ancient name. The second column contains ancient names of Latin and Greek authors, the latter both in transcription and in Greek. The third column gives a brief description followed by a location.
The fifth column gives important sources of tradition for the group in question. The few main ancient sources for names and location of Germanic tribes are not linked. These are:

• 
  Julius Caesar: Commentarii de Bello Gallico
  
• 
  Jordanes: De origine actibusque Getarum, short Getica
  
• 
  Ptolemy: Geography
  
• 
  Tacitus: Germania
  

East Germanic peoples (Vandilians)[edit]
Gothic associated regions and archaeological cultures
Götaland
the island of Gotland
Wielbark culture in the early 3rd century
Chernyakhov culture, in the early 4th century
Roman Empire
Avarpi
Burgundians / Burgundiones / Burgundes / Burgodiones (Frugundiones? may have been a variant of Burgundiones with the "B" as an "F" Furgundiones > Frugundiones) (Urugundes? may have been a variant of Burgundes without the initial "B" (B)urugundes > Urugundes, i.e. the Burgundians) (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Burgundian Kingdom) (Burgundians or part of them may have dwelt in Bornholm island for a time – old name of the island was Borgundarholm) (they were assimilated by the Gallo-Roman majority, however their ethnonym was the origin for the name of the region Burgundy – Bourgogne): Nibelungs (Old German) / Niflung (Old Norse), clan that was the Burgundian royal house known as Gibichungs (Old German) or Gjúkings (Old Norse)
Goths / Gothones / Gutones / Gautae / Geats
Gepids
Goths / Hreidgoths
Gothi Minores
Greuthungi (direct ancestors or an older name of the Ostrogoths)
Ostrogoths / Hreiðgoths (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Pannonia, northern Illyria and Italia) (they were assimilated by the Italo-Roman majority)
Crimean Goths (existed as a people until 16th and 17th centuries in southern Crimea Peninsula or Taurida Peninsula) (they were later assimilated by Crimea Germans, Black Sea Germans, Crimean Greeks and Crimean Tatars)
Thervingi (direct ancestors or an older name of the Visigoths)
Visigoths (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Visigothic Kingdom in Southern Gaul and Hispania) (they were assimilated by the Hispano-Roman majority)
Herules, East Germanic (East Germanic Herules)
East Herules
West Herules
Lemovii (=Turcilingi?) (also probably identical with Widsith's Glommas, Glomma or Glomman was the singular form)
Lugians (Longiones?) (=Vandals?)
Buri (Lugi Buri) (part of the Buri accompanied the Suebi in their invasion of Hispania, the Iberian Peninsula, and established themselves in a mountainous area of modern northern Portugal in the 5th century. They settled in the region between the rivers Cávado and Homem, in the area known as Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri) – Bouros = Buri – Buros in the masculine accusative Latin declension)
Diduni (Lugi Diduni) / Dunii / Duni (Δοῦνοι – Doūnoi was the Greek variant of the Latin name)
Harii
Helisii / Elysii / Helusii / Hellusii
Manimi / Omani? / Omanii? (Lugi Omani?) (the Omani may have been the same as the Manimi)
Marsigni
Vandals / Vandilii (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they migrated towards West allied with a Sarmatian Iranian people, the Alans, and founded the Vandalic Kingdom first in the Southern and Western regions of Hispania, Iberian Peninsula, the Hasdingi Vandals, settled in Gallaecia, the Silingi vandals settled in Baetica, roughly today's Andalusia; sometime after many left Hispania, and migrated to North Africa) (they were assimilated by the Hispano-Roman majority in Hispania, however their ethnonym was the origin for the name of the region Andalusia – (V)andalusia and for the Arabic name of Hispania and the Iberian Peninsula – Al-Andalus) (they were assimilated by the Berber majority and African-Romans in North Africa, including the Moors, in the narrow sense, the descendants of the Mauri)
Asdingi / Astingi / Hasdingi (Haddingjar?)
Helvecones / Helveconae / Aelvaeones / Elouaiones (possibly the Ilwan and Eolas[10] of Widsith; Eolas was the nominative plural and Eolum the dative plural)
Lacringes / Lacringi
Nahanarvali
Silingi (same as the Nahanarvali?) (at one point they lived in Silesia, and the name of this region could be derived from their ethnonym as well as, although indirectly, Andalusia – (V)andal-usia, where Silingi Vandals initially settled in Hispania)
Victohali / Victuali / Victabali
Rugi / Rugii / / Ulmerugi / Variant Latin name for the Rugians: Rugiclei? / Greek names and variants for the Rugians: Rougíklioi / Routiklioi
Sciri
Angisciri
Sulones (may have been the same as the Silingi)
Turcilingi / Torcolingi (may have been ancestors of part of the Thuringians)
Vidivarii
Visburgi / Visburgii