Marcomanni

The Marcomanni were a Germanic people^[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

It is believed their name may derive from

form as Marcomanni.

The Marcomanni first appear in historical records as confederates of the

According to the accounts of

.

In the late first century, Tacitus mentions (Germania I.42) the Marcomanni as being under kings appointed by Rome.[6]

Marcomannic Wars

In the second century AD, the Marcomanni entered into a confederation with other peoples, including the

remained the frontier of the empire until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Later history

The

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

.

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

, who had lost at Nadao.

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

called the Marcomannic runes, but they are not believed to be related to the Marcomanni.

Kings

• Maroboduus, c. 9 BC – 18 AD^[9]
• Catualda, 18 – 20^[9]
• Vannius, 20 – c. 50^[10]
• Vangio and Sido, c. 50 – ?^[11]
• Ballomar, c. 166? – 172 or 178?
• Attalus, c. 260/2^[12]
• Fritigil, mid-4th century, queen

See also

• History of Portugal
• History of Spain
• Irminones
• List of ancient Germanic peoples
• Migrations period
• Timeline of Germanic kingdoms

References

Classical sources

• Caesar De Bello Gallico, at The Latin Library
• Tacitus Germania, at The Latin Library
• Tacitus Annales, at The Latin Library

External links

• "Marcomanni" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.