Marcomannic Wars
Germanic and Sarmatian peoples — the Marcomanni, Quadi, Iazyges and others — broke across the Danube and even invaded Italy; Marcus Aurelius spent most of his last years fighting them.
- Date
- 166–180year known · duration: ≈ 14 years
- Place
- Carnuntumtoday: Petronell-Carnuntum, Lower Austria, Austria · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Roman Empire, Marcus Aurelius, Marcomanni
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Bellum Germanicum et Sarmaticum; Маркоманская война
Around 170 the invaders defeated a Roman army, crossed the Alps, destroyed Opitergium (Oderzo) and besieged Aquileia — the first invasion of Italy by a foreign enemy in nearly three centuries. Marcus Aurelius, directing the war from Carnuntum and Sirmium, drove them back and carried the fighting north of the Danube; he wrote part of his Meditations in these camps. He died on 17 March 180 at Vindobona (or, by another account, at Sirmium), reportedly planning new provinces beyond the river.
His son Commodus soon made peace with the Marcomanni and Quadi. The wars, commemorated on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, foreshadowed the great invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries.
Connections
Related events
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europethe plague struck the army as the wars began
Same participants
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europevia Roman Empire
Same place
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529 · Western and Central Europe
- Premiere of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony7 April 1805 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Wagram5–6 July 1809 · Western and Central Europe
- Congress of ViennaSeptember 1814 – 9 June 1815 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Middle East and Egypt
- Ptolemy’s Almagestc. 150
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Marcomannic Wars
- Wikipedia (Russian): Маркоманские войны
- Birley A. R. Marcus Aurelius: A Biography. — Rev. ed. — London: Batsford, 1987.
- Wikidata: Q933963