Eluveitie - Slanias Song

Eluveitie - Slanias Song Eluveitie use traditional instruments amidst guitars and loud vocals. The lyrics are often in the extinct language Gaulish. The name of the band comes from a graffito on a vessel from Mantua (ca. 300 BC). The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic (h)elvetios (“the Helvetian”), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.

The Helvetii were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation,occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or pagi. Of these Caesar only names the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, while Poseidonios mentions the Tigurini and the Toygenoi (Τωυγενοί). They feature prominently in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, with their failed migration attempt to southwestern Gaul (58 BC) serving as a catalyst for Caesar’s conquest of Gaul.

Area settled by the Alamanni, and sites of Roman-Alamannic battles, 3rd to 6th centuryAlemannic belt mountings, from a 7th century grave in the grave field atWeingarten.

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river (Germany). One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–217 and claimed thereby to be their conqueror. The nature of this alliance and their previous tribal affiliations remain uncertain. The alliance was aggressive in nature, attacking the Roman province of Germania Superior whenever it could^{[citation needed]}. Generally its strategy with respect to the Empire was similar to that of the Franks.

From the 1st century, the Rhine had become the border between Roman Gaul and tribal Germania. Germanic peoples, Celts, and tribes of mixed Celto-Germanic ethnicity were settled in the lands along both banks. The Romans divided these territories into two districts, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior situated along the lower (north) and upper (south) Rhinerespectively.

Upper Germania included the region between the upper Rhine and the upper Danube, (the Black Forest region that was larger than today: see Hercynian Forest). The Romans called this the Agri Decumates, (i.e. “Decumates territories”), a name of unknown origin. Some scholars have translated the expression as “the ten cantons”, but whose cantons of what entity is not known.

The exterior Roman fortified border around the area of Germania Superior was called the Limes Germanicus. The assembled warbands of the Alamanni frequently crossed the limes, attacking Germania Superior and moving into the Agri Decumates. As a confederation, from the 5th century, they settled the Alsace and expanded into the Swiss Plateau, as well as parts of what are now Bavaria and Austria, reaching the valleys of the Alps by the 8th century.

According to Historia Augusta the confederates in the 3rd century were still simply called Germani. Proculus, an imperial usurper in 280, derived some of his popularity in Gaul by his battle successes against the Alamanni. The Alamanni, thereafter became the nation of Alamannia, that was sometimes independent, but more often was ruled by the Franks. The name of Germany and the German language, in French, Allemagne, allemand, in Portuguese Alemanha, alemão, in Spanish Alemania, alemán, and in Welsh (Yr) Almaen, almaeneg are derived from the name of this early Germanic nation. Persian and Arabic also designate Germans Almaani, and Germany asAlmaan in Persian and Almaania in Arabic. In Turkish, German is Alman and Germany is Almanya.

The region of the Alamanni was always somewhat sprawling and comprised a number of different districts, reflecting its mixed origins. In theEarly Middle Ages its territories were divided between the Diocese of Strassburg, which dates from about 614, the territory of Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) from 736, the Moguntiacum (Mainz) archdiocese from 745, and of Basilia (Basel) from 805. Its distinctive laws were codified under Charlemagne as the Duchy of Alamannia in Swabia. Today the descendants of the Alamanni are divided between parts of four nations: France (Alsace), Germany (Swabia and parts of Bavaria), Switzerland and Austria, and the German spoken in those regions has distinctive regional dialects.