Kindreds synonyms

High above all the medley of kindreds and tongues, untrammelled by national traditions, for he had outgrown the compass of any one nation, invested with the glory of achievements in which the old bounds of the possible seemed to fall away, stood in 324 the man Alexander.

This view is based mainly on the numerous place-names ending in -ing, -Ingham, -ington, &c., in which the syllable -ing is thought to refer to kindreds of cultivators.

It appears also in the tenure of land, and according to Tacitus the tribal armies were drawn up by kindreds.

Caesar, moreover, says that the clans or kindreds to whom the lands were allotted changed their abodes also from year to year - a statement which gives a certain amount of colour to Strabo's description of the Germani as quasi-nomadic. Yet there is good reason for believing that this representation of early Teutonic life was by no means universally true.