Marcomanni

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The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Suebi or Suevi. Contemporary scholars believe their name derives from one of two possible sources: (1) old Germanic forms of March (frontier) and Men, or (2) the tribe has taken on the name of a Roman captain named Marcus Romanus who deserted the legions of Drusus during his campaign in Germania of roughly 13 BC and was thought to have banded together an essentially ragtag group of Germanic tribes into a reasonably cohesive fighting force (see POMOERIVM, vol.3, 1998). Drusus attacked them in 9 BC, forcing them into present-day Bohemia. In that region their king Maroboduus established a powerful kingdom that Augustus perceived as a threat to Rome. Before he could act on this, the war in Illyria intervened. Eventually Maroboduus was deposed and exiled by Catualda (AD 19).

In the 2nd century AD, they entered into a confederation with other peoples which included the Quadi, Vandals, and Sarmatians against Rome. This was driven probably by greater tribal movements like the Goths. According to the historian Eutropius, the forces of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius battled against the Marcomannic confederation for three years at the fortress of Carnuntum in Pannonia. He compared the war and Marcus Aurelius' success against the Marcomanni and their allies to the Punic Wars. The comparison was fair in that this war marked a turning point and had significant Roman defeats. It began in 166 and lasted to Marcus Aurelius's death in 180, involving the unheard-of defeats and the death of two Praetorian Guard commanders. It was in fact only a limited success since from the next century onwards the Danube was the main Roman battlefront until the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.