Germanic Tribes

Vandals

Believed to have migrated from Scandinavia in2nd Century BC. Associated with the Iron Age Przeworsk culture. A "barbarian" Germanic people who sacked Rome, battled the Huns and the Goths, and founded a kingdom in North Africa that flourished for about a century until it succumbed to an invasion force from the Byzantine Empire in A.D. 534 First mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Natural History.

Gepids

East Germanic people that teamed up with the Goths for the invasion of Dacia in 260 AD. Defeated the Huns after the death of Atilla. Defeated by the Lombards 100 years later.

Marcomanni

German tribe that settled in the Main River valley soon after 100 bc; they were members of the Suebi group (see Suebi). To escape Roman aggression in 9 bc they migrated east to Bohemia, where under their king Maroboduus they built a powerful confederation of tribes.

Saxons

Germanic people that inhabited parts of central and northern Germany from Roman times, many of whom conquered and settled in southern England in the 5th-6th centuries.

Lombards

Germanic people who ruled Italy from 568 to 774AD. Led by Audoin.

Alamanni

Name means "all men" or "men United". A confederacy of Germanic-speaking people who occupied the regions south of the Main and east of the Rhine rivers

Goths

The "barbarians" sacked Rome in AD 410. After the sacking of Rome, a group of these people moved to Gaul (in modern-day France) and Iberia and formed a new kingdom. Probably helped preserve Roman culture. Where they became the first Germanic people to become Christians.

Ostrogoths

The Eastern tribe of the Goths. Conquered by Atilla the Hun. Reached their peak under Theodoric the Great. He became regent of Italy in 493 AD.

Visigoths

The Western tribe of the Goths. Settled by the Black Sea in 3rd Century AD. Invaded Italy under Alaric I. Ended Roman rule of Spain. Established a kingdom in South France. Eventually driven out by the Franks.

Franks

a member of a Germanic people that conquered Gaul in the 6th century and controlled much of western Europe for several centuries afterward.

Angles

a member of a Germanic people, originally inhabitants who migrated to England in the 5th century AD. They founded kingdoms in Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia and gave their name to England and the English.

Moors

a member of a northwestern African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. In the 8th century they conquered the Iberian peninsula, but were finally driven out of their last stronghold in Granada at the end of the 15th century.

Hyksos

a people of mixed Semitic and Asian descent who invaded Egypt and settled in the Nile delta circa 1640 BC. They formed the 15th and 16th dynasties of Egypt and ruled a large part of the country until driven out circa 1532 BC.