Ancient tribe of modern Bohemia
The
Marcomanni
were a tribe
[1]
that established a powerful kingdom north of the
Danube
, somewhere near modern
Bohemia
, during the peak of power of the nearby
Roman Empire
. According to
Tacitus
and
Strabo
, they were
Suebian
.
Origin
[
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]
It is believed their name may derive from
Proto-Germanic
*mark?
"border, boundary" (hence the English
march
or
mark
, meaning "frontier, border", as in the
Welsh marches
and the kingdom of
Mercia
) and
*mann-
(pl.
*manniz
) "man",
*Mark?manniz
,
[2]
[3]
which would have been rendered in
Latinised
form as
Marcomanni
.
The Marcomanni first appear in historical records as confederates of the
Suebi
of
Ariovistus
fighting against
Julius Caesar
in
Gaul
(now France) after they had crossed the
Rhine
from what is now southern Germany. The exact position of their lands at the time is not known. The fact that their name existed before the Romans had territory near the
Danube
or Rhine raises the question of which border they lived near to explain their name. Their name may echo an earlier demarcation between the northern Germanic tribes of the
Jastorf cultural circle
and those of the maximum expansion of the
Celts
during the earlier and later
Iron Age
of
La Tene
dominance throughout Europe. Findings in the archaeological record show that they had pressed north with some influence as far as into
Jutland
, but they mostly remained separated in the south and settled in
oppida
over what is now
Thuringia
and
Saxony
along the
Hercynian Forest
, intrinsically connected to the major trade roads that went into the more evolved centres of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, which were then all still Celtic regions. It has been suggested that they may have lived near the confluence of the Rhine and Main Rivers in areas that had been inhabited but left deserted by the
Helvetii
and
Taurisci
. However, the historian
Florus
reports that
Drusus
erected a mound of their spoils during his campaign of 12?9 BC after he had defeated the
Tencteri
and
Chatti
, and before next turning to
Cherusci
,
Suevi
, and
Sicambri
. That suggests that they were not close to any obvious border at the time.
[4]
According to the accounts of
Tacitus
(Germ. 42),
Paterculus
(2.108),
Pliny the Elder
, and
Strabo
(vii. p. 290) they eventually moved into the large area that had been occupied by the
Boii
, specifically in a region already called
Baiohaemum
, where their allies and fellow Suevi lived, the
Quadi
. It was described as being within the
Hercynian Forest
and was possibly in the region of modern
Bohemia
, but that is not certain.
[5]
By 6 BC, their king,
Maroboduus
, had established a powerful kingdom there that
Augustus
perceived as a threat to the
Roman Empire
. Before he could act, however, the
revolt
in
Illyria
intervened. Eventually, Maroboduus was deposed and exiled by
Catualda
(AD 19). Catualda was, in turn, deposed by
Vibilius
of the
Hermunduri
that year and succeeded by the Quadian
Vannius
. Around 50 AD, Vannius was himself also deposed by Vibilius, in co-ordination with his nephews
Vangio and Sido
.
In the late first century, Tacitus mentions (
Germania
I.42) the Marcomanni as being under kings appointed by Rome.
[6]
Marcomannic Wars
[
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]
In the second century AD, the Marcomanni entered into a confederation with other peoples, including the
Quadi
,
Vandals
, and
Sarmatians
, against the Roman Empire. It was probably driven by movements of larger tribes, 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
. Eutropius compared the war and Aurelius's success against the Marcomanni and their allies to the
Punic Wars
. The comparison was apt in that the war marked a turning point, had significant Roman defeats, and caused the death of two
Praetorian Guard
commanders. The war began in 166, when the Marcomanni overwhelmed the defences between
Vindobona
and
Carnuntum
, penetrated along the border between the provinces of
Pannonia
and
Noricum
, laid waste to
Flavia Solva
, and could be stopped only shortly before
Aquileia
, on the
Adriatic
Sea. The war lasted until Aurelius's death in 180. It would prove to be only a limited success for Rome since the
Danube River
remained the frontier of the empire until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Later history
[
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]
The
Christianisation
of the Marcomanni, at least into a Roman orthodox form of
Christianity
, seems to have occurred under their queen
Fritigil
in the mid-4th century. She corresponded with
Ambrose of Milan
to bring about the conversion. That was the last clear evidence of the Marcomanni having a polity, which was possibly now on the Roman side of the Danube. Soon afterward, the Pannonian and Danubian area went into a long period of turmoil.
After crossing the Rhine in 406 and the
Pyrenees
in 409, a group of Suevi that had migrated with
Vandals
and
Alans
established itself in the Roman province of
Gallaecia
(modern
Galicia
and northern Portugal), where it was considered
foederati
and founded the Suebi kingdom of Gallaecia. The Suevi were probably a mix of Suevian groups from the area north of Danube and
Pannonian basin
such as the Marcomanni, Quadi and
Buri
.
There,
Hermeric
swore fealty to the emperor in 410. Bracara Augusta, the modern city of
Braga
in Portugal, had been the capital of Roman Gallaecia and now became the capital of the
Suebic Kingdom
.
The Danubian area, meanwhile, became the core of
Attila
the
Hunnic Empire
, and within it seem to have been many Suebians. One group of them managed to reform into an independent group after the
Battle of Nedao
in 454, like many other groups that emerged from Attila's confederation. Those Suevi eventually came into conflict with the
Ostrogoths
, who had lost at Nadao.
Jordanes
, the historian of the Goths, reported (
Getica
280) that after the
Battle of Bolia
, the Ostrogoths attacked the Suevi (ruled by a man named
Hunimund
, who also seemingly led an attack on
Passau
[7]
) by crossing the Danube when it was frozen and going into a high Alpine area held by the confederates of the Suevi at the time, the
Alamanni
. (He said that several streams start in the area and enter the Danube.) The region held by those Suevi was described as having
Bavarians
to the east, Franks to the west, Burgundians to the south, and Thuringians to the north. The text seems to indicate that the Suevi had moved into the Alamannic area but that Suevi were seen as distinct from both Alamanni and Bavarians. That was also the first mention of Bavarians, who are also often proposed to have had Marcomanni in their ancestry.
According to historians such as
Herwig Wolfram
:
The Marcomanni and the Quadi gave up their special names after crossing the Danube, in fact both the emigrants and the groups remaining in Pannonia became Suebi again. The Pannonian Suebi became subjects of the Huns. After the battle at the Nadao they set up their kingdom, and when it fell, they came, successively under Herulian and Longobard rule, south of the Danube under Gothic rule, and eventually again under Longobard rule.
[8]
There is a
runic alphabet
called the Marcomannic runes, but they are not believed to be related to the Marcomanni.
Kings
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
- Schehl, Franz A. W.;
Drinkwater, John Frederick
(2012).
"Marcoman(n)i"
. In
Hornblower, Simon
; Spawforth, Antony;
Eidinow, Esther
(eds.).
The Oxford Classical Dictionary
(4 ed.).
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
9780191735257
. Retrieved
January 26,
2020
.
Marcoman(n)i... a west German (Suebic) tribe, the name meaning the inhabitants of a border country ('march')...
- Darvill, Timothy
, ed. (2009).
"Marcomanni"
.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
(3 ed.).
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
9780191727139
. Retrieved
January 25,
2020
.
Marcomanni. 'Border Men', a Germanic people...
- Fischer, Thomas; Nicholson, Oliver (2018).
"Marcomanni"
. In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.).
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
.
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
9780191744457
. Retrieved
January 26,
2020
.
Marcomanni. Germanic tribe belonging originally to the Elbe cultural grouping...
- ^
"mark - Origin and meaning of the name mark by Online Etymology Dictionary"
.
etymonline.com
.
Archived
from the original on 12 July 2017
. Retrieved
7 May
2018
.
- ^
"man - Origin and meaning of man by Online Etymology Dictionary"
.
etymonline.com
.
Archived
from the original on 27 September 2017
. Retrieved
7 May
2018
.
- ^
Smith, William (1854),
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
,
archived
from the original on 2013-11-20
- ^
Green, Dennis (2014),
"The Boii, Bavaria and Bohemia"
,
The Baiuvarii and Thuringi: An Ethnographic Perspective
, Boydell & Brewer, p. 20,
ISBN
9781843839156
,
archived
from the original on 2016-04-22
- ^
"Tacitus: Germany: Book 1 [40]"
.
- ^
Herwig Wolfram
, "History of the Goths",
p.266
Archived
2016-05-08 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples
, pp. 160?161.
- ^
a
b
Tac.
Ann.
2.62-3
- ^
Tac.
Ann.
2.63; 12.29?30
- ^
Tac.
Ann.
12.29-30
- ^
Aur. Vict.
Caes.
33,6;
Epit.
33,1; SHA
Gall.
21,3; PIR2 A 1328; PLRE I Attalus
Classical sources
[
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]
External links
[
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]