are celebrated in "old songs" celebrant carminibus antiquis which describe how they descend from an ancestor Mannus. However, he then adds that some people "taking the liberty allowed by antiquity", assert that other names of peoples gentis appellationes, among which he lists the Suebi, "are also true and ancient names" vera et antiqua nomina.

Tacitus noted that the Semnones, who lived on the Elbe, were believed to be the head , and origin of the Suebian people initia gentis.