The Daukiones (Greek) or Dauciones (Latinization) were a Germanic tribe mentioned by Ptolemy (2.10) as living in Scandia, i.e. Scandinavia.
Ptolemy's view of the north is so distorted that his names require some decoding to locate them, nor can that be done with very great certainty. The Dauciones are mentioned in the same breath as the Goutai, undoubtedly the Goths of south central Sweden. This coupling implies that they were in the same region, but even this placement leaves plenty of room for doubt.
It should be mentioned though, that Denmark, was named Dacia of the North, for quite a while, also the Geats/Goutai/Geata/Getai are mentioned by Jordanes as being one and the same with the Getae, Dacians, from the proper Carpathian Dacia. Let's not forget that the Goths made their proven hystorical appearance, in post roman province of Dacia.
It has been fashionable in the earlier 20th century to regard Ptolemy's names more as distortions and to try to correct them. This path is beset with danger, as it entails altering the original text. Ancient texts sometimes do get inadvertently altered, but the problem of restoration is that the original remains unknown and therefore unverifiable.
Ptolemy offers some 8000 plus names, but many of the names he gives for Germany are close to their reconstructed common Germanic. Ptolemy's latitudes, longitudes and landforms are often distorted, due to the lack of scientific geography of the times, but his names are not necessarily so.
One corrective theory turns the Dauciones into the Danes (Dankiones—Daneiones). This transformation replaces the u with an n and then alters that to make it look Danish. After all, Halland just south of the Goths remained Danish through the Middle Ages until Sweden managed to assimilate it.
The weakness of the theory is that Ptolemy's and Ptolemy's sources' times are too early for a Danish/Swedish language, social or political distinction. The migrations had not begun and the original tribes were for the most part still living in their classical lands. The same language was most likely spoken in both places, Denmark was occupied by the Jutes and the Angles, and the Danes were not known.
Kendrick (1930) presents an ingenious but equally weak subtle alteration of the Greek. A single passage in Ptolemy relates all he knew about the Scandinavian tribes. They are listed in paratactic form; that is, a list of items connected by coordinating conjunction, or "particles", without subordination. The list has the form
which in this case is
In this argument, the "restorer" wants to change the D- into d', which drops the e in de before a vowel, as is customary in ancient Greek. By abandoning D as a foreshortened enclitic (d') and dropping the k, the restoration becomes Aviones (meaning islanders, cf. Germanic awi), well known in the Germania , and perhaps a name borne by the inhabitants of Öland at this time.
In addition to altering the text, this argument ignores the kai, or "and". In the construction, kai is always used as an alternative to de. You would typically not find both series markers kai and de, although you might find the two together in a contrast: "and on the other hand". The "foreshortening" of de pretty much excludes this possibility.
It is perhaps sounder method to be wary of text replacements except in cases where the existing text is unintelligible as Greek. Here it is not. Ptolemy's Dauciones remain to be located.
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The Suebi or Suebians were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names such as the Marcomanni, Quadi, Hermunduri, Semnones, and Lombards. New groupings formed later, such as the Alamanni and Bavarians, and two kingdoms in the Migration Period were simply referred to as Suebian.
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The Rugii, Rogi or Rugians, were a Roman-era Germanic people. They were first clearly recorded by Tacitus, in his Germania who called them the Rugii, and located them near the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Some centuries later, they were considered one of the "Gothic" or "Scythian" peoples who were located in the Middle Danube region. Like several other Gothic peoples there, they possibly arrived in the area as allies of Attila until his death in 453. They settled in what is now Lower Austria after the defeat of the Huns at Nedao in 454.
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The Gutones were a Germanic people who were reported by Roman era writers in the 1st and 2nd centuries to have lived in what is now Poland. The most accurate description of their location, by the geographer Ptolemy, placed them east of the Vistula river.
Favonae is a Latinization of Greek Phauonai, the name of a Germanic people in Ptolemy’s Geography (2.10) located in eastern Scandinavia. They are not found elsewhere in classical sources. Moreover, Ptolemy’s view of the north is so distorted that the location of his east Scandinavia remains uncertain.
The Firaesi (Latinization) or Phiraisoi are a people listed in Ptolemy's Geography (2.10).
The Taurisci were a federation of Celtic tribes who dwelt in today's Carinthia and northern Slovenia (Carniola) before the coming of the Romans. According to Pliny the Elder, they are the same as the people known as the Norici.
North Germanic peoples, Nordic peoples and in a medieval context Norsemen, were a Germanic linguistic group originating from the Scandinavian Peninsula. They are identified by their cultural similarities, common ancestry and common use of the Proto-Norse language from around 200 AD, a language that around 800 AD became the Old Norse language, which in turn later became the North Germanic languages of today.
The name of the Goths is one of the most discussed topics in Germanic philology. It is first recorded by Greco-Roman writers in the 3rd century AD, although names that are probably related appear earlier. Derived from Proto-Germanic *Gutōz ~ *Gutaniz, it is closely related to and probably means the same as the names of both the Geats of southern Sweden and Gutes of Gotland. The implications of these similarities, and the actual meaning of the Gothic name, are disputed in scholarship. Although the Goths have disappeared as a people, their name has survived in various appellations up to the present day.
