ALANI, a number of nomadic tribes of eastern origin, who spread themselves over Europe during the decline of the Roman empire. The name was probably at first confined to one tribe of Tatar race, whose original seat was on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, and was afterwards, as the power of that race extended, applied to other tribes. It is supposed that their first encounter with the Romans was during the Mithridatic war, when Pompey led an expedition into the Caucasus. Isolated statements in contemporary writers show that the Alani were frequently in conflict with the Roman power. In March 276 a.d. they received a decisive check in an attempt to make their way eastward into Persia, being defeated by the emperor Tacitus, who forced them to recross the Phasis. The most complete account of the Alani is to be found in the pages of Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. xxxi.), who describes their manners and customs at considerable length. From him, too, we learn of the advance of the Huns, who signally defeated the Alani in a battle fought on the banks of the Tanais in 375. The race thereupon divided, some retiring to the east, while the great majority joined their conquerors in an invasion of the kingdom of the Goths. Associated with the Vandals and Suevi, they left the settlements they had in Pannonia and entered Gaul in 406, whence three years later they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, and founded a settlement in Lusitania and Baetica, where they remained in peace for some years. In 418, however, they were attacked and defeated by Wallia, king of the Visigoths, with whom they had quarrelled. Their king, Ataces, was slain in the battle, and they became subject to Gunderic, king of the Vandals, their national independence being lost. Those of the Alani who had remained in ...