Marcomanni

MARCOMANNI. - A Germanic population whose history can be traced during the Roman Empire. The etymology of the name is universally accepted as clear: men of the border zones, connected at first with tribes of another name or perhaps even of another stock (Celts?). They are first mentioned when they take part together with the Suebi of Ariovistus in the expeditions beyond the Rhine, undertaken following the call of the Sequani in their struggle with the Aedui, and together with the Suebi they were driven back by Caesar (De bell. Gall., I, 31-58). They were again defeated by the Roman legions when Drusus marched as far as the Elbe (Cassius Dio, Hist. Rom., LV, 10 a), and as a result of this Roman pressure they moved toward the south-east, deeper into Germany toward Bohemia. Their fortunes were raised again by an able and valiant leader of theirs, Maroboduus, who, gathering around himself other Germanic tribes as well, succeeded in forming a powerful state between the Danube, the Elbe and the Oder. To such an extent that Augustus became worried about it and thought of a large expedition against them to be entrusted to Tiberius and Sentius Saturninus. The disaster of Varus in inferior Germany caused plans too bold for the interior of Germany to be suspended. The Cheruscan Arminius, victor over Varus, tried to win Maroboduus over to his side, and to compromise him sent him the head of Varus, but Maroboduus returned that macabre trophy to Augustus. He thus remained on good terms with the Romans, of whom he requested hospitality when internal discord and struggles with other Germanic tribes forced him to flee from his homeland. Tiberius favored the union of the M. with the Quadi, trusting in the authority of the chiefs whom Roman diplomacy managed to have them 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 imperial acclamations. Only during the reign of Marcus Aurelius did the great, stubborn wars come about. In 166 countless hordes of barbarians, operating simultaneously along the entire line of the Danube, managed to break through the Roman defenses at several points and to burst like a destroying torrent into the provinces of the right bank. The Quadi and the M., better armed and organized than the others, even succeeded in crossing the Alps, destroyed Opitergium (Oderzo) and laid siege to Aquileia. The city troops (praetorians, urban cohorts, marines), the only ones available, since a good part of the legions had been sent to the East against the Parthians, were bloodily defeated. And only the rapid return of the two Emperors (Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus) from the East halted the furious wave. Unfortunately the legions brought back from the eastern regions carried the plague with them. The war was directed especially against the most feared enemies: the Quadi and the M., and it was a long and bloody war (166-72). Of the determination with which it was fought, witness is borne, amid the bare poverty of the literary sources, by the reports of the death on the field of illustrious Roman commanders (Furius Victorinus and Macrinius Vindex, praetorian prefects; 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 asked for 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 an ephemeral life. In 177, in fact, the war blazed up again, interrupted by the death of Marcus Aurelius at Vindobona on 17 March of the year 180, and 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 mild, and on the other hand the heavy losses that such long wars must have inflicted meant that the name of the M. was no longer heard with particular prominence among those of the other Germanic populations. Christianity must have penetrated among them at about the same time as it made its way among other Germans. There is no certain information about it, 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 great virtues of the Saint, «Christo credidit... missis Mediolanum muneribus ad ecclesiam per legatos postulavit, ut scriptis ipsius qualiter credere debuit, informaretur». If Christianity truly reached the M. through St. Ambrose, it would not have been tainted with Arianism as was the faith of the Goths and of several Germanic populations.

Roberto Paribeni