12.  The Alleman’ni were another confederation of German tribes, which took its name from including a great variety of nations.  It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the name is compounded of the words all and man which still continue unchanged in our language.  Their territories extended between the Danube, the Rhine, and the Maine, and they rendered themselves formidable to the Romans by their frequent inroads into Gaul and Italy during the third and fourth centuries.

THE SAXONS AND ANGLES.

13.  The Saxons began to be conspicuous about the close of the second century.  They were then settled beyond the Elbe, in modern Holstein; having for their neighbours the ANGLI, or ANGLES, inhabiting Sleswick.  These nations were early distinguished as pirates, and their plundering expeditions kept the shores of western Europe in constant alarm.  Being invited by the Britons to assist in repelling the invasions of the Picts, they subdued the southern part of the island, which has ever since retained the name of England, from its conquerors the An’gli.  When the Franks penetrated into Gaul, the Saxons passed the Elbe, and seizing on the vacated territory, gave the name of Saxony to ancient France.

THE HUNS.

14.  The Huns were the most ferocious and sanguinary of the barbarians.  They seem to have been originally Kalmuck or Mongolian Tartars, and, during the period of their supremacy, seem never to have laid aside the savage customs which they brought from their native deserts. 15.  After having expelled the Goths from the banks of the Danube, they fell upon the eastern empire, and compelled the court of Constantinople to pay them tribute.  They then, under the guidance of Attila, invaded Italy, and after devastating the peninsula, captured and plundered Rome.  After the death of Attila, the Huns were broken up into a number of petty states, which maintained their independence until the close of the eighth century, when they were subdued by Charlemagne.

THE BURGUNDIANS.

16.  The Burgundians were originally inhabitants of the countries situated between the Oder and the Vistula.  They followed nearly the track of the Visigoths, and at the beginning of the fifth century had established themselves on the Upper Rhine and in Switzerland.  On the dissolution of the empire, they seized on that part of Gaul, which from them retains the name of Burgundy.

THE LOMBARDS, THE GEPIDAE, AND THE AVARS.

17.  The Lombards, more properly called Longo-bardi, from the length of their beards, are supposed by some to have been a branch of the Sue’vi, and by others to have migrated from Scandina’via.  They joined with the Avars, a fierce Asiatic people, in attacking the Gep’idae, then in possession of that part of Dacia lying on the left bank of the Danube, but who are supposed to have come thither from some more northern country.  The Avars and Lombards triumphed, but the former soon turned their arms against their allies, and compelled them to seek new habitations. 18.  About the middle of the sixth century they invaded Italy, which the Eastern emperors had just before wrested from the Turks, and made themselves masters of the northern part; which has since borne the name of Lombardy.