TEUTONIC CONFEDERACIES.--Of the confederacies of German tribes, the _Goths_ are first to be mentioned. In the third century they had spread over the immense territory between the Baltic and the Black seas. They were divided into the West Goths (_Visigoths_) and East Goths (_Ostrogoths_). Their force was augmented by the junction of kindred tribes. To the east of them, towards the Don, was a tribe of mixed race, the _Alani_. In the third century the Goths had made their terrible inroads into _Mæsia_ and _Thrace_, and the brave emperor _Decius_ had perished in the combat with them. They had pushed their marauding excursions as far as the coasts of Greece and Ionia. In the middle of the fourth century they were united, with their allied tribes, under the sovereignty of the East Gothic chieftain, _Hermanric_. A second league of Germanic peoples was the _Alemanni_, which included the formidable tribes called by Cæsar the _Suevi_, and who, after various incursions, had established themselves on the Upper Rhine, in what is now Baden, Würtemberg, and north-east in Switzerland, and in the region southward to the summits of the Alps. Their invasion of Italy in 255, when they poured through the passes of the Rhetian Alps, and penetrated as far as _Ravenna_, was repelled by _Aurelian_, afterwards emperor. A third confederacy was that of the _Franks_ (or Freemen) on the Lower Rhine and the Weser. In North Germany, between the Elbe and the Rhine, were the _Saxons_. The _Burgundians_, between the Saxons and the Alemanni, made their way to the same river near _Worms_. East of the Franks and Saxons, were the valiant _Lombards_, who made their way southwards to the center of Europe, and finally to the Danube. The _Frisians_ were situated on the shore of the North Sea and in the adjacent islands. North of the Saxons were the _Danes_ and other peoples of _Scandinavia_,--Teutons all, but a separate branch of the Teutonic household. To bold and warlike tribes, now banded together, such as were the Franks and the Alemanni, the Rhine, with its line of Roman cities and fortresses, could form no permanent barrier. When they crossed it, they might be driven back; but this was only to renew their expeditions at the first favorable moment. The prey which they saw near by, and of which they dreamed in the distance, was too enticing. No more could the Danube fence off the thronging nations; all of whom had heard, and some of whom had beheld, the wealth and luxury of the civilized lands. Beginning at the _Euxine_, and moving westward along the line of the _Danube_ and the _Rhine_, we find, at the end of the fourth century, that the six most prominent names of _Teutonic_ tribes are the _Goths_, _Vandals_, _Burgundians_, _Franks_, _Saxons_, and _Lombards_. Over the vast plains to the south and west of the Caspian are spread the _Huns_, who belong to one branch of the Scythian or Turanian group of nations.