Markomannen#

Marcomanni, German tribe of the Suebi group that settled in the Main valley soon after 100 B.C. Vanquished by the Romans in 9 B.C., they moved to Bohemia under King Marbod. Pressure exercised by other Germanic tribes, along with social and economic changes and the weakness of Roman defences led to repeated wars which lasted, with interruptions, from 166 to 180 A.D., and in the course of which the Marcomanni and their allies penetrated into Northern Italy. The Romans under the personal leadership of Emperor Marcus Aurelius had considerable difficulty in repelling them. Events during the subsequent Roman offensive in the area north of the Danube are shown in a sequence of scenes depicted on the Marcus Aurelius column in Rome ( Rain Miracle). In consequence of the fighting, Noricum was equipped with camps in which Roman legions were quartered, at first at Albing and subsequently at Lauriacum (now Enns). Further invasions by the Marcomanni occurred in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Around 396 some Marcomanni were given land in eastern Austria and western Hungary, where they settled as Roman allies ( Fritigil).