The Alemanni ( also Alamanni, Alamani ) were a confederation of Suebian Germanic tribes located on the upper Rhine river.

In retribution Caracalla then led the Legio II Traiana Fortis against the Alemanni, who lost and were pacified for a time.

Whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they were certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become thereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome.

Most of the Alemanni were probably at the time in fact resident in or close to the borders of Germania Superior.

Ammianus relates ( xvii. 1. 11 ) that much later the Emperor Julian undertook a punitive expedition against the Alemanni, who by then were in Alsace, and crossed the Main ( Latin Menus ), entering the forest, where the trails were blocked by felled trees.

In this context the use of Alemanni is possibly an anachronism but it reveals that Ammianus believed they were the same people, which is consistent with the location of the Alemanni of Caracalla's campaigns.

The Alemanni thus were probably not primarily the Hermunduri, although some elements of them may have been present in the mix of peoples at that time that became Alemannian.

Before the mention of Alemanni in the time of Caracalla, you would search in vain for Alemanni in the moderately detailed geography of southern Germany in Claudius Ptolemy, written in Greek in the mid-2nd century ; it is likely that at that time, the people who later used that name were known by other designations.

The Alemanni were continually engaged in conflicts with the Roman Empire in the third and fourth centuries.

Their raids throughout the three parts of Gaul were traumatic: Gregory of Tours ( died ca 594 ) mentions their destructive force at the time of Valerian and Gallienus ( 253 – 260 ), when the Alemanni assembled under their " king ", whom he calls Chrocus, who " by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times.

When the Gothic campaign ended in Roman victory at the Battle of Naissus in September, Gallienus ' successor Claudius II Gothicus turned north to deal with the Alemanni, who were swarming over all Italy north of the Po River.

The Alemanni were routed, forced back into Germany, and did not threaten Roman territory for many years afterwards.

The kingdom of Alamannia between Strasbourg and Augsburg lasted until 496, when the Alemanni were conquered by Clovis I at the Battle of Tolbiac.

The war of Clovis with the Alemanni forms the setting for the conversion of Clovis, briefly treated by Gregory of Tours ( Book II. 31 ) Subsequently the Alemanni formed part of the Frankish dominions and were governed by a Frankish duke.

We know that in the 6th century, the Alemanni were predominantly pagan, and in the 8th century, they were predominantly Christian.

In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine historian Agathias of Myrina records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, that the Alemanni fighting among the troops of Frankish king Theudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since

Apostles of the Alemanni were Saint Columbanus and his disciple Saint Gall.

Later, in the 370s, when the Romans and Alamanni were allied, the Alemanni gained control of the Wiesbaden area and were in charge of its defense against other Germanic tribes.

The first phase Migration Period displacement from between CE 300 and 500 included relocation of the Goths ( Ostrogoths and Visigoths ), Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic people ( Burgundians, Lombards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alemanni, Varangians and Normans ), Alans and numerous Slavic tribes.

The first barbarian depredations into the city by the Alemanni and Franks started during the 3rd century AD.

The Alemanni, on the other hand, never regarded the border as legitimate in the first place.

For a while the Romans managed to ward off the attacks of the Alemanni which first appeared in 213.

In 346 AD Speyer was mentioned for the first time as a diocesan town, but Christianity had been suppressed by the heathen Alemanni.

About a century after the first invasions of the Alemanni, when the " Vicus " had been completely destroyed, the Romans built a large military stronghold ( about 325 CE ).

In the 10th century the town was inhabited by Alemanni, Lombards and Franks, who built the first walls as a defense against barbarian invasions.

Area settled by the Alemanni, and sites of Roman-Alamannic battles, 3rd to 6th century

This was the derivation of Alemanni used by Edward Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and by the anonymous contributor of notes assembled from the papers of Nicolas Fréret, published in 1753, who noted that it was the name used by outsiders for those who called themselves the Suevi.

By Caracalla's time the name Alemanni was being used by cantons themselves banding together for purposes of supporting a citizen army ( the " war bands ").

Thus 6th century Gallo-Romans of Gregory's class, surrounded by the ruins of Roman temples and public buildings, attributed the destruction they saw to the plundering raids of the Alemanni.

On January 2 366 the Alemanni yet again crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Gallic provinces, this time being defeated by Valentinian ( see Battle of Solicinium ).

** Battle of Placentia — Emperor Aurelian is defeated by the Alemanni forces invading Italy

* 356, Battle of Reims — Caesar Julian is defeated by the Alemanni

Agathias expresses his hope that the Alemanni would assume better manners through prolonged contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances, in a manner of speaking, what eventually happened.

These areas had been dominated and settled by the Burgundians and the Alemanni before being removed and resettled much further south around Switzerland.

* Crisis of the Third Century: The Roman Empire is under pressure by the Alemanni, Franks, Goths, Quadi and Sassanids ( Persia ).

* The Roman Empire is threatened by the Alemanni, Franks and Marcomanni in Germania, by the Goths in the Danube region ( Moesia and Thrace ) and Asia Minor, and by the Persians in the East.

Cassius Dio ( 78. 13. 4 ) portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor.

On his return Count Theodosius succeeded Jovinus as the magister equitum praesentalis, at the court of Emperor Valentinian I, in which capacity he prosecuted another successful campaign against the Alemanni in 370.

* Caracalla's campaign against the Alemanni ( 213 )

Walafrid Strabo, a monk of the Abbey of St. Gall writing in the 9th century, remarked, in discussing the people of Switzerland and the surrounding regions, that only foreigners called them the Alemanni, but that they gave themselves the name of Suevi.

When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him ( 78. 15. 2 ).