And the proud host
Of the With-Myrgings;
Wulfhere I sought and Wyrnhere;
Full oft war ceas'd not there,
When the _Hraeds'_ army,
With hard swords,
About _Vistula's_ wood
Had to defend
Their ancient native seat
Against the folk of AEtla.

Such faint light then as can be thrown upon the Reudigni of Tacitus
disconnects them with the Angli both geographically and ethnologically,
connecting them with the Prussians, and placing them on the Lower
Vistula.

_The Aviones._--The Aviones are either unknown to history, or known
under the slightly modified form of _Chaviones_. Maximian conquers them
about A.D. 289. His Panegyrist Mamertinus associates them with the
Heruli. Perhaps, the _Obii_ are the same people. If so, they cross the
Danube in conjunction with the Langobardi, and are mentioned, as having
done so, by Petrus Patricius.

The _Eudoses_ will be noticed when Ptolemy's list comes under
consideration.

So will the _Suardones_.

No light has ever been thrown on the _Nuithones_.

Over and above the Saxons, to whom a special chapter will be devoted,
_Ptolemy's_ list contains:--

1. _The Sigulones._--The Saxons lay to the north of Elbe, on the neck of
the Chersonese, and the Sigulones occupied the Chersonese itself,
westwards. Two populations thus placed between the Atlantic and the
Baltic, immediately north of the Elbe, leave but little room for each
other.

"Then," writes Ptolemy, "come--

"2. _The Sabalingii._--then--

"3. _The Kobandi._--above these--

"4. _The Chali._--and above them, but more to the west--

"5. _The Phundusii._--more to the east--

"6. _The Charudes._--and most to the north of all--

"7. _The Cimbri._"

8. _The Pharodini_ lay next to the Saxons, between the Rivers Chalusus
and Suebus.

Tacitus' geography is obscure; Ptolemy's is difficult. One wants light.
The other gives us conflicting facts. Neither have the attempts to
reconcile them been successful. The first point that strikes us is the
difference of the names in the two authors. No Sigulones and Sabalingii
in Tacitus. No Nuithones and Reudigni in Ptolemy. Then there is the
extremely northern position which the latter gives the Cimbri. His
Charudes, too, cannot well be separated from Caesar's Harudes.
Nevertheless, their area is inconveniently distant from the seat of war
in the invasion of Gaul under Ariovistus, of whose armies the Harudes
form a part. The River Chalusus is reasona