MARCOMANNI. — A Germanic population whose fortunes can be followed during the Roman Empire. The clear etymology of the name is universally accepted: men of the border regions, originally in relation to tribes of another name or perhaps even of another stock (Celts?). They are first mentioned when they took part, together with the Suebi of Ariovistus, in expeditions beyond the Rhine undertaken following the appeal of the Sequani, who were in conflict with the Aedui; together with the Suebi, they were driven back by Caesar (De bell. Gall., I, 31–58). They were defeated again by the Roman legions when Drusus marched as far as the Elbe (Dio Cassius, Hist. Rom., LV, 10 a); following this Roman pressure, they moved toward the south-east, farther into Germany, toward Bohemia. Their fortunes were revived by an able and valiant leader of theirs, Maroboduo, who, gathering other Germanic tribes around him as well, succeeded in forming a powerful state between the Danube, the Elbe, and the Oder. It became so powerful that Augustus grew concerned and contemplated a major expedition against them, to be entrusted to Tiberius and Sentius Saturninus. The disaster of Varus in inferior Germany led to the suspension of overly audacious plans in the interior of Germany. The Cheruscan Arminius, victor over Varus, attempted to win Maroboduo over to his side and sent him Varus’s head in order to compromise him; but Maroboduo handed the macabre trophy over to Augustus. He thus remained on good terms with the Romans, from whom he requested asylum when internal dissensions and conflicts with other Germanic tribes compelled him to flee his homeland. Tiberius favored the union of the M. with the Quadi, relying on the authority of the chiefs whom Roman diplomacy succeeded in inducing them to accept. Hostilities arose when the M. established themselves more decisively on the left bank of the middle Danube.
Domitian fought them, more than once unsuccessfully, despite repeated acclamations as imperator. It was only during the reign of Marcus Aurelius that the great, protracted wars began. In 166, countless hordes of barbarians, operating simultaneously along the entire line of the Danube, succeeded in breaking through the Roman defenses at several points and pouring like a devastating torrent into the provinces on the right bank. The Quadi and the M., better armed and organized than the others, advanced as far as crossing the Alps, destroyed Opitergium (Oderzo), and laid siege to Aquileia. The city troops (praetorians, urban cohorts, marines), the only forces available because a large part of the legions had been sent to the East against the Parthians, were bloodily defeated. Only the swift return of the two Emperors (Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus) from the East halted the furious onslaught. Unfortunately, the legions brought back from the eastern regions carried the plague with them. The war was directed especially against the most formidable enemies, the Quadi and the M., and it was long and bloody (166–72). The tenacity with which it was fought is attested, amid the scant poverty of the literary sources, by reports of the deaths in battle of distinguished Roman commanders (Furius Victorinus and Macrinius Vindex, prefects of the praetorium; Marcus Claudius Fronto, governor of Moesia) and, indirectly, by the fierce and desperate character revealed in the reliefs of the Antonine Column. In 172 the Germans requested and obtained peace, agreeing to receive Roman garrisons within their borders. There was also talk of a province of Marcomannia and Sarmatia, which, if it ever existed, had only an ephemeral life. In 177, in fact, the war broke out again; it was interrupted by the death of Marcus Aurelius at Vindobona on 17 March of the year 180, and was immediately abandoned by his son and successor Commodus, eager to hasten to Rome to secure the imperial crown. It is therefore understandable that the peace granted must have been fairly lenient; moreover, the heavy losses that such lengthy wars must have inflicted meant that the name of the M. was no longer heard with particular prominence among those of the other Germanic peoples. Christianity must have penetrated among them at approximately the time when it was making its way among other Germans. There is no reliable information about this, nor can what Paulinus relates in the Vita Ambrosi, 36 (PL 14, 42), be taken literally: namely, that “Frigitil quaedam regina Marcomannorum,” having heard of the saint’s great virtues, “Christo credidit... missis Mediolanum muneribus ad ecclesiam per legatos postulavit, ut scriptis ipsius qualiter credere debuit, informaretur”. If Christianity truly reached the M. through s. Ambrogio, it would not have been tainted by Arianism, as was the faith of the Goths and of several Germanic peoples.