Marcomannic Wars
The term Marcomannenkriege encompasses the conflicts between the Roman Empire and the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes mainly in the area of the central Danube ( Moravia , Slovakia , Hungary , Romania ). They took place under the rule of the emperor Marcus Aurelius from 166 to 180. In contemporary sources and ancient historiography, the wars are referred to as "expeditio Germanica prima et secunda" . The “expeditio Burica” , which ended under Emperor Commodus in 182 and is known as the “third marcomannary war” , also belongs to the framework of these disputes .
The main opponents of Rome during the wars were the Marcomanni , Quaden , Jazygen and Vandals ; in addition, Roxolans , Lombards , Bastarnen , Hermunduren , Narisker and other tribes in the forefront and hinterland of the Roman Limes on the central Danube were involved in the fighting.
On the territory of the Roman Empire, the Danube provinces of Raetia , Pannonia , Moesia and Dacia , and in some cases Noricum , were particularly affected by the fighting . The headquarters of the Roman army command were in Carnuntum , Vindobona and Sirmium .
The exact dating of the events and the military operations is subject to the fact that the sources are not very productive, which is why the chronological representation given below can only be one of several interpretations.
course
prehistory
Under the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius , the first Germanic tribes pushed to the Danube Limes and asked for admission into the Roman Empire. However, the emperor refused this request and tried to master the situation in a peaceful way by installing a Rome-friendly king among the Quads , which was achieved by minting coins with the inscription "rex Quadis datus" ("A king was given to the Quads") is attested. However, since the unrest continued at the beginning of Mark Aurel's rule, he was forced to act militarily, but first had to wait for the end of the Parthian War and the return of the troops from the east. So the governors of the Danube provinces first negotiated with the border peoples in order to calm them down and delay them. Towards the end of 165 or the beginning of the following year, the legates Julius Verus and Marcus Claudius Fronto raised troops in Italy after their return from the Parthian War . Two new legions were set up.
First Marcomann War
Towards the end of 166 or the beginning of the following year, 6000 Longobards and Obier invaded Pannonia for the first time . But they were quickly repulsed and were subject to auxiliary troops , consisting of cavalry under the command of Marcus Macrinius Avitus Catonius Vindex and a division of infantry under the command of Candidus. Vandals and Sarmatians attacked the province's gold mines in western dakia .
Marcus Iulius Bassus , the governor of Pannonia superior, led peace negotiations in 167 with representatives of a total of eleven tribes. Ballomar , the king of the marcomanni, mediated between the negotiating partners. The peoples who had invaded the empire withdrew and committed themselves to rest. The marcomanni should guarantee this. However, a permanent solution was not achieved; the troubled situation on the border remained.
The planned offensive could only take place after the troops had returned from the east. At the start of the campaign , Emperor Marcus Aurelius gave a speech to the Praetorians in Rome on January 6, 168 . In the spring of the same year he and his co-emperor Lucius Verus moved into headquarters in Aquileia in northern Italy . The first measures were the establishment of a military administration zone with large defense bases in northern Italy and the Danube provinces (“praetentura Italiae et Alpium”) and the raising of new legions. One of these legions, the Legio III Italica , was later stationed in Raetien in the Castra Regina camp , from which today's Regensburg emerged.
A pandemic , known as the Antonine Plague , which the army brought in from the east, quickly spread within the Roman army and resulted in a dramatic decimation of the troops. So the planned offensive had to be postponed. In the spring of 169 the emperors decided to return to Rome on the advice of court doctor Galen ; Lucius Verus died on the trip. In the autumn of the same year, Marcus Aurelius set out again from Rome for the front. He was accompanied, among others, by Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus , the emperor's son-in-law, who was to become his closest advisor during the wars.
In 170 a first offensive by the Roman army on Germanic territory failed. 20,000 Romans fell in battle, whereupon Germanic tribes invaded the Danube provinces and northern Italy, besieged Aquileia and completely destroyed the neighboring Opitergium . The Kostoboks advanced via Moesia inferior , Thracia and Macedonia to Eleusis in the province of Achaea . To their defense was Vehilius Gratus Julian command of a military contingent (vexillatio per Achaiam et Macedoniam) . As part of the defensive measures, the cities in the affected provinces were fortified.
Valerius Maximianus was given command of the divisions of the misenischen and Ravenna Fleet and units of the classis Britannica with the order to secure the supply of the Pannonian troops.
In the course of the year 171 the invaders were driven out of the provinces, whereby the later emperor Pertinax distinguished himself. Towards the end of the year extensive diplomatic negotiations followed in Carnuntum in preparation for the campaign. The Quads committed themselves to neutrality. The Romans tried to persuade Germanic tribes to fight the Marcomanni. Cornelius Clemens, the governor in Dacia, negotiated with the Vandal tribes of the Asdingen and Lakringen , who finally went to the field as Roman allies against the Kostoboks. The Kotines , a people with a strong Celtic influence, agreed to fight the Marcomanni under the leadership of Taruttienus Paternus , the imperial secretary for Latin correspondence, but fell back a short time later.
In 172 the Roman army started a counter-offensive across the Limes . At first they moved against the marcomanni. Campaigns followed against the Quadi, who had broken their contracts and helped the Marcomanni, and finally against the Narisker and Jazygen . Special events during these campaigns were the so-called “ rain miracle in Quadenland ” and the “lightning miracle”, in which, according to Roman propaganda, the gods, prompted by the emperor's prayers, saved the Roman troops from danger. The Christians attributed these miracles to the prayers of their fellow believers serving in the army (see legends about the Legio XII Fulminata and about St. Donatus ).
In 174, King Furtius , who was friendly to Rome, was expelled from the Quads and replaced by his rival Ariogaesus . Marcus Aurelius refused to acknowledge him and put a bounty on him. A renewal of the peace treaty was refused despite the offer to extradite 50,000 prisoners. Ariogaesus was captured and exiled to Alexandria .
The first Marcomannic War ended in 175 after a campaign against the Jazygen with an armistice . They delivered 100,000 Roman prisoners and provided a contingent of 8,000 horsemen, 5500 of whom were posted to Britain .
After the revolt of Avidius Cassius , the emperor moved with most of the troops to the eastern provinces. A contingent of troops made up of marcomanns, quads and nariskers under the leadership of the procurator Marcus Valerius Maximianus also took part in this procession. After their return, Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus celebrated a mutual triumph in Rome on December 23rd, 176 (“de Germanis”, “de Sarmatis”) .
Second Marcomann War
After a short period of rest, the fighting on the Danube flared up again in 177. On August 3, 178, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus embarked on the second marcomannic war ("expeditio Germanica secunda") . The Praetorian prefect Taruttienus Paternus received the supreme command in the field.
A special event was a battle against the Quads in what is now Slovakia, which lasted a whole day. Semi-permanent military camps with a total of 40,000 men were set up in the area of the Marcomanni and Quadi. In the winter of 179/180 Valerius Maximianus camped with troops of the Legio II Adiutrix near Laugaricio ( Trenčín in Slovakia). On March 17, 180, Emperor Mark Aurel died, probably in Vindobona. Against the advice of the military, his son Commodus concluded a peace treaty with the Germanic tribes and returned to Rome , where he celebrated a triumph on October 22 of the same year.
Third Marcomannic War
An inscription attests to a campaign against the Germanic tribe of the Boers ("expeditio Burica") . Little is known about the course of this dispute. The main focus of the fighting must have been in the Dacian region. The fighting came to an end in 182, when Emperor Commodus assumed the victory surname "Germanicus Maximus" .
Troops involved
The following legions took part in the Marcomann Wars : I Adiutrix , I Italica , I Minervia , II Adiutrix , II Italica , III Italica , X Gemina , XI Claudia , XIII Gemina , XIV Gemina and XII Fulminata .
Also attended vexillations the following legions in part: II Traiana Fortis , III Augusta , III Cyrenaica , III Gallica , VII Claudia , IIII Flavia Felix , X Fretensis , XV Apollinaris , XXX Ulpia Victrix .
In addition, an unknown number of auxiliary troops were involved in the fighting.
causes
One cause of the wars is seen in the population shifts in the interior of Germania, which began around the middle of the 2nd century. Presumably they are mainly due to the first spread of the Goths towards the south. Climate deterioration in Central Europe and the resulting economic crises are held responsible for this. These migrations led to increased pressure on the borders of the Roman Empire and to destabilization within the client states that directly adjoined the Empire and which were an important factor in the Roman defense system.
Before these wars, the social and economic conditions among the Germanic peoples were shaped by a large number of loosely connected clans who had little power overall. The trade in Roman goods as well as political influence on the part of the Roman Empire led to a stronger structure of society within the Germanic client states, so that the power relations were consolidated. This was beneficial to the Romans, who sought to build politically reliable client states to protect the empire on the other side of the Limes. In the individual tribes, larger followers took over the military discipline and weapon technology of the Romans. Such allegiances could also be used by forces hostile to Rome within the tribes. The Germans who were pushing for land to the border of the empire aggravated the situation.
meaning
The Marcomann Wars were part of the military, social and economic problems that began under the reign of Emperor Mark Aurel and were to lead to a profound crisis in the empire in the 3rd century . The Parthian War , which continued in the 3rd century in the Persian Wars , also belongs to the military . From the second half of the 2nd century onwards, the Roman Empire was marked by economically motivated unrest, as well as by increased conflicts with religious outsiders, especially Christians. The first systematic persecution of Christians began under Emperor Mark Aurel .
In the Marcomann Wars the problem, which lasted until the end of the Roman Empire, arose for the first time as to how and to what extent the peoples living outside the empire, especially the Germanic tribes, should participate in the cultural and civilizational achievements of the empire. The Germanic upper class increasingly assimilated the living conditions as they ruled in the empire. So the cultural boundaries began to blur. At the same time, the Teutons retained their traditional cultural characteristics. The Roman leadership was concerned on the one hand with exerting influence on the other side of the Limes, but on the other hand with strict territorial demarcation and maintenance of the imperial borders. In this context, the Marcomann Wars mean, after a long phase of peaceful settlement, both sides are turning towards a violent solution to the conflict.
consequences
The Marcomann Wars showed that the Limes strategy, which had previously worked well under the relatively calm conditions of the Flavian dynasty and the adoptive emperors, no longer worked when the borders were threatened at several focal points at the same time. Since almost the entire army was divided into all provinces in order to defend the empire at the borders, it was only possible to set a strategic focus by withdrawing contingents from less endangered parts of the empire.
In the Marcomannic Wars, so-called vexillations , smaller detachments, were deployed instead of entire legions . As a result, there was a mix of small and very small, not well-coordinated departments, which ultimately gave rise to far greater organizational problems than was the case with the relocation of entire legions. In addition, there was a risk that opponents would take advantage of the opportunity to carry out raids into the empire unhindered in weakened, but previously quiet sections. This gave rise to the need for a mobile reserve posted in the interior of the empire, which emerged in late antiquity in the form of the Comitatenses .
As a direct result of the Marcomann Wars, the calm on the Danube border lasted for a few years, but lasting pacification was not achieved. From the 3rd century the Germanic raids into the Roman Empire increased. The clientele tried to loosen the guardianship of Rome or to shake it off completely. It was no longer possible for the Romans to expand the empire territorially and in this way to master the situation. From today's point of view, the Marcomannic Wars are often seen as the preliminary stage of the great migration .
Research problems
The exact dating as well as the chronological sequence of the individual war incidents are unclear, which is mainly due to the poor sources. Furthermore, the final war aims of the Romans are controversial: The repeated reference in the Marcus biography of the Historia Augusta that Marcus Aurelius planned the establishment of two new provinces, Marcomannia and Sarmatia , on the other side of the Danube , is doubted in the research due to the lack of confirmation from other sources and controversial. On the one hand, mountain ranges could have made a border easier to defend than the Danube; on the other hand, the establishment and expansion of two new provinces would have required resources which were scarcely available in the given, extremely tense situation of the empire.
Sources
In addition to the sources of inscriptions and the writings of ancient historians (especially Cassius Dio and the - albeit controversial - Historia Augusta ), archaeological finds in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary can be proven, especially in the form of military camps and layers of destruction in military and civil facilities .
The Regensburg-Kumpfmühl fort in the province of Raetia was destroyed in 172 at the latest, and the so-called “ Kumpfmühl treasure ” was also uncovered here, the largest deposit found in southern Germany in terms of the number of coins . In Iža in Slovakia one which was above the Danube military camp Brigetio opposite bridgehead fort was, according to a recent dating of the coin after the spring 179 forcibly destroyed - built during the First Marcomannic war - that.
In Mušov in Moravia, a far more extensive military base with the remains of a Roman bath house and several military camps came to light. The so-called “ Royal Tomb of Mušov ”, which dates back to the time of the Marcomann Wars and in which a Germanic ruler who was probably friendly to Rome, was buried here.
The stay of contingents of troops of the Legio II Adiutrix near Laugaricio (today western Slovakia) is attested by the inscription from Trenčín and the tombstone of Valerius Maximianus found in 1955 in Zana in Algeria , the ancient Diana Veteranorum . Individual events are also mentioned on the gravestones of fallen or missing soldiers.
Another important source is the Marcus Aurelius column on the Field of Mars in Rome , which was erected in his honor after the death of the emperor and on which the campaign events are depicted. The exact chronology of the depiction is controversial, however, according to the most common thesis, it is about scenes from the first marcomann war, in the lower half the campaigns against the marcomanni and quadrupeds in the years 172 and 173, in the upper half the successes of the emperor the Sarmatians in 174 and 175. The story begins with the passage of the army across the Danube. Further historical events to be identified are the “ rain miracle ” and the “lightning miracle”.
Further reliefs with scenes from the Marcomann Wars were used again in the 4th century on the Arch of Constantine .
literature
- Anthony R. Birley : Mark Aurel. Emperor and philosopher. 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-406-06760-3 (see also: Anthony R. Birley: Marcus Aurelius. Improved and expanded English new edition, 1987).
- Herwig Friesinger, Jaroslav Tejral, Alois Stuppner (eds.): Marcomann wars - cause and effects. (= Spisy Archeologického Ústavu AV CR Brno. Volume 1, VI. International Symposium “Basic Problems of Protohistoric Development in the Northern Central Danube Region ”, Vienna, November 23-26, 1993). Brno 1994, ISBN 80-901679-3-6 .
- Dénes Gabler : The archaeological evidence of the Marcomanno-Sarmatian wars (166–180 AD) in the Danube provinces. In: Študijné zvesti. Volume 61, 2017, pp. 21-40 ( PDF ).
- Peter Kehne : On the ancient historical research of the Marcomann Wars. An approximation with an updated chronicle from 166 to 180 AD. In: Slovenská archeológia. Volume 64, 2016, pp. 193-260 ( PDF ).
- William George Kerr: A Chronological Study of the Marcomannic Wars of Marcus Aurelius. Princeton 1995.
- Péter Kovács : Marcus Aurelius' Rain Miracle and the Marcomannic Wars (= Mnemosyne Supplements. Volume 308). Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-16639-4 .
- Gerhard Langmann : The Markomannenkriege 166/167 to 180. (= military historical series of publications . Volume 43). Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-215-04086-7 .
- Falko von Saldern: Studies on the politics of Commodus. Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2003, ISBN 3-89646-833-2 , pp. 76-89 (also dissertation , University of Würzburg 2002).
- Gudrun Schindler-Horstkotte: The "Marcomann War" of Mark Aurel and the imperial coinage. Dissertation . University of Cologne 1985, DNB 850681065 .
Web links
- Bibliography on the archeology and history of the Marcomannic Wars
- Marcus Aurelius and the Danube border. Archived from the original on September 3, 2006 ; Retrieved March 12, 2018 (Spanish).
Remarks
- ↑ The presentation of the chronological sequence is mainly based on the following investigation: AR Birley: Mark Aurel. Emperor and philosopher. 2nd Edition. Munich 1977.
- ↑ CIL III, 5937
- ↑ Ján Rajtár : The wood-earth warehouse from the time of the Marcomann Wars in Iža. In: Problems of relative and absolute chronology from the Laténe period to the early Middle Ages. Krakau 1992, pp. 149–170, here: 162.
- ↑ Jaroslav Peška, Jaroslav Tejral: The Germanic royal tomb of Mušov in Moravia. 3 volumes, Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum , Mainz 2002.
- ↑ CIL III, 13439
- ^ AE 1956, 124 = AE 1959, 183
- ↑ CIL III, 04310 .
- ↑ Jörg Scheuerbrandt : On life and death. The war against the Teutons. Harc életre-halálra. Háború a germánok ellen. In: On behalf of the eagle. A római sas szolgálatában. Publius Ferrasius Avitus. Book accompanying the German-Hungarian special exhibition 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-037759-4 , pp. 57–75, here: p. 56.