Istvaeones

The Istvaeones, also called Istaevones, Istriaones, Istriones, Sthraones, Thracones, Rhine Germans and Weser-Rhine Germans (Istwäonen, Weser-Rhein-Germanen in German), were a West Germanic cultural group or proto-tribe. Their name was recorded in Germania by Tacitus, a 1st century Roman historian, who categorized them as one of the tribes of the sons of Mannus and labelled them as those tribes who were neither Ingvaeones nor Irminones. The Istvaeones were the tribe of Istaev, son of Mannus. They dwelt around the Atlantic coast (modern day Netherlands, Belgium and northern France) as well as the Rhine and Weser river systems from perhaps 500 BCE, until the differentiation of localized Teutonic tribes (Chatti, Hessians, Franks) in that region circa 250 CE; Istvaeonic, or Low Franconian, is the grouping that includes Dutch and related languages in Friedrich Maurer's classification. There is also evidence some of them merged with the North Sea Germans (Ingvaeones).