suevi
appearance: c. -72
disappearance: 586
ascendancy: west germans[1]
the suevi were originally not so much a tribe as a confederation of tribes and, as such, it is difficult to list them in a tree like this. in fact, this problem is recurrent throughout early german history and prehistory because tribal confederations were rarely led by a single tribe. this federation would have originally formed in the areas around saxony and thuringia but, like all early germans, they wandered around over a considerable distance. they have given their name to swabia and eventually settled in iberia. they were destroyed by the visigoths.
some tribes that were listed as "suevi" at some point or another were the angles, the marcomanni and the quadi. the suevi seem to have therefore been a mix of central and originally east german tribes.
[1]: the role of migration in the history of the eurasian steppe, andrew bell-fialkoff, 2000
[2]: the germanic invasions, lucien musset, 1965
page last updated june 1, 2005