No one probably expected from Nerva a vigorous administration either at home or abroad, although during his reign a successful campaign was carried on in Pannonia against the Germans (Suebi), for which he assumed the name Germanicus.
Goths, Vandals, Suebi, Burgundians and Langobardi embraced it; here too as a distinctive national type of Christianity it perished before the growth of medieval Catholicism, and the name of Arian ceased to represent a definite form of Christian doctrine within the church, or a definite party outside it.
From the 4th century onwards we hear also of the Suebi or Suabi.
The Hermunduri had apparently belonged to the Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new Suebic tribes had now moved westward.
In later times the names Alamanni and Suebi seem to be synonymous.