Hermunduri

 ( Early Germanic Peoples ) 

Now as for the tribe of the Suevi, it is the largest, for it extends from the Rhenus Rhine to the Albis Elbe; and a part of them even dwell on the far side of the Albis Elbe, as, for instance, the Hermondori and the Langobardi; and at the present time these latter, at least, have, to the last man, been driven in flight out of their country into the land on the far side of the river.

Cassius Dio first reports that in the year 1 AD, a Roman named Domitius (possibly Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus), "while still governing the districts along the Danube Danube, had intercepted the Hermunduri, a tribe which for some reason or other had left their own land and were wandering about in quest of another, and he had settled them in a part of the territory"; then he had crossed the Albis Elbe, meeting with no opposition, had made a friendly alliance with the barbarians on the further side, and had set up an altar to Augustus on the bank of the river.

Velleius Paterculus also described their position:

The power of the Langobardi was broken, a race surpassing even the Germans in savagery; and finally — and this is something which had never before been entertained even as a hope, much less actually attempted — a Roman army with its standards was led four hundred miles beyond the Rhine as far as the river Elbe, which flows past the territories of the Semnones and the Hermunduri.Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.106

Pliny the elder, in his Historia Naturalis, lists the Hermunduri as one of the nations of the Hermiones, all descended from the same line of descent from Mannus. In the same category he places the Chatti, Cherusci, and Suebi.

In his Germania, Tacitus describes the Hermunduri after listing some of the Suebian nations, placing them near the Danube, and the sources of the Elbe:

Nearer to us is the state of the Hermunduri (I shall follow the course of the Danube as I did before that of the Rhine), a people loyal to Rome. Consequently they, alone of the Germans, trade not merely on the banks of the river, but far inland, and in the most flourishing colony of the province of Rhaetia. Everywhere they are allowed to pass without a guard; and while to the other tribes we display only our arms and our camps, to them we have thrown open our houses and country-seats, which they do not covet. It is in their lands that the Elbe takes its rise, a famous river known to us in past days; now we only hear of it. —Tac. Ger. 41

In his Annales, Tacitus recounts how the Hermundurian Vibilius in 18 AD led the overthrow of the Marcomannic king Catualda in favor of the Vannius.Tacitus. Around 50 AD, allied with Vannius' nephews Vangio and Sido and allied Lugii, Vibilius led the deposition of Vannius as well. In 58 AD the Hermunduri defeated the Chatti in a border dispute over a religiously significant river.

The Hermunduri shared a disputed border with the Chatti, along a river with salt reserves near it, possibly the Werra or the Saxon Saale. The Hermunduri won this conflict.

When Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD, he was involved in Marcomannic Wars with an alliance of the Marcomanni, the Hermunduri, the Sarmatians, and the Quadi.

Some have suggested that the remnants of the Hermanduri went on to become the Thuringii, arguing that ( -duri) could represent corrupted ( -thuri) and the Germanic suffix -ing, suggests a meaning of "descendants of (the Hermanduri)".Schutz, 402. This has been argued against by other scholars such as Matthias Springer.

• Vibilius, c. 18 - c. 50Tac. Ann. 2.63; 12.29

• Herminones
• Armalausi
• Alamanni
• List of Germanic peoples
• The Collection of Pre- and Protohistoric Artifacts at the University of Jena

• Tacitus,