The two following facts are the chief reasons for this latter view:—
1. Their subsequent maritime career on the Euxine.
2. Their non-occurrence at intermediate points.—The first place whereat we hear of them is Marcianopolis, as far east as the vicinity of the Euxine. From this they afterwards move westward, i.e. towards Rome and Spain.
β.
HIGH GERMANS.
Area.—Hesse and parts of Thuringia and Bavaria; conterminous (though by frontiers hitherto imperfectly investigated) with the Kelts of the Upper Rhine, the Slavonians of the Upper Elbe, and the original area of the Mœso-Goths.
Language.—Forming the plurals of nouns in -n rather than in -s, and those of verbs in -n, -m, or -nt, rather than in -th (dh).
High Germans of the Roman period.—Alemanni, Suevi(?), Burgundians(?).
The spread of the Teutonic populations, as contrasted with the Keltic, Slavonic, and Roman, in general, combined with the numerous displacements of particular portions of the German tribes themselves, makes the question of descent excessively complicated. Perhaps the best present representatives of the High-Germanic division are the modern—
HESSIANS.
Locality.—Hesse, conterminous with the Franks, Saxons, and Thuringians.