or TRUTONI, (anc. geogr.) a people always by historians joined with the Cimbri; both feasted, according to Mela, beyond the Elbe, on the Sinus Codanus, or Baltic; and there, it is supposed, lay the country of the Teutones, now Dithmarsch; diversity of dialects producing the different terms Teut, Tut, Dit, Tid, and Thed, which in the ancient German language signified people. Of these Teutones, Virgil is to be understood in the epithet Teutonicus, an appellation which more lately came to be applied to the Germans in general, and later still the appellation Alamanni.

The Teutones, in conjunction with the Cimbri and Ambones, made war on the Romans, and marched towards Italy in the year 101 B.C. We are told, that the Teutones alone were so numerous, that they were fix whole days without intermission in patting by the Roman camp. In Transalpine Gaul they enraged the Roman consul Marius; but were defeated with incredible slaughter; 100,000 of them, according to the lowest calculations, being killed on the spot. According to others, the number of those killed and taken prisoners amounted to 290,000. The inhabitants of the neighbouring country made fences for vineyards of their bones. Their king Teutobochus, said to be a monstrous giant, was taken prisoner and carried to Rome. See the article Giant.