German and other tribes, 0 - 600 AD. The Roman Empire is not shown on this map.
by F.J.P.M. Kwaad
Introduction
This website gives information about the tribe of the Quadi who lived in Central-Europe in the first centuries A.D. The site is meant to serve as background information concerning the possible origin of the surname Quade. The site is composed of excerpts from other websites. For more information concerning the meaning and origin of the surname Quade click here.
German and other tribes, 0 - 600 AD. The Roman Empire is not shown
on this map.
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From: http://www.balcanica.org/history/lostInvaders.html
QUADI
They were Germanic tribes inhabiting the lands north of the Main by
the middle of the 1st century BC. Towards the end of the same century
the
Quadi
migrated in present Slovakia and North Hungary. In alliance with the
Marcomanni,
they invaded and devastated the Balkan Peninsula. Part of them moved
westward
towards Italy together with the Vandals and disappeared from history
with
them.
MARCOMANNI
They were Germanic tribes that settled in the Main River valley during
the 1st century BC. In AD 166-180 they moved to Pannonia, where they
started
their invasions to Rome. They are not mentioned in the 4th century and
are not reported in later times.
VANDALS
They were Germanic tribes inhabiting the regions between the Vistula
River and Oder in the 3rd century BC. In AD 270 they invaded Pannonia
and
Dacia, devastating the Balkan Peninsula from there. Afterwards, they
fled
to the west and settled in Africa. They controlled the western
Mediterranean
till around AD 534. The Vandals played no further role in history.
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From: http://www.geocities.com/historyofaustria/germania.html
Germania by Tacitus
The Nariscans, The Marcomanians, & The Quadians
Close by the Hermondurians reside the Nariscans, and next to them the
Marcomanians and Quadians. Amongst these the
Marcomanians are most signal in force and renown; nay, their habitation
itself they acquired by their bravery, as from thence
they formerly expulsed the Boians. Nor do the Nariscans or Quadians
degenerate in spirit. Now this is as it were the frontier of Germany,
as
far as Germany is washed by the Danube. To the times within our memory
the Marcomanians and Quadians were governed by kings, who were
natives
of their own, descended from the noble line of Maroboduus and Tudrus.
At
present they are even subject to such as are foreigners. But the whole
strength and sway of their kings is derived from the authority of the
Romans.
From our arms, they rarely receive any aid; from our money very
frequently.
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From: http://www.motherbedford.com/German3.htm
The first appearance of extended German tribes in written history were the Quadi and the Marcomanni, who invaded the region along the Danube in the period from 166 to 180 A.D. The two tribes both arose in the region of present-day Bohemia. The existence of the Quadi and the Marcomanni as unified Germanic tribes was brought to an end by the Romans against whose Empire their invasion was directed. The majority of the men were forced into service for the Roman army and sent to Britain to fight there for the Roman Empire.
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From: http://www.geocities.com/davidbofinger/rome.htm
Quadia and Marcomannia
The title of this section is a possible Latin name for Bohemia, if
the Romans follow their convention of naming places after the
people who live in them. Potentially a fairly wealthy province, which
of course is why the Romans ever went there in the first
place. “Quadia” just means “the land of the four tribes”, and
“Marcomannia” something like “the land of the people who follow
Marcus”.
Both names are indications of the jury-rigged nature of German
political
machinery in this era, the latter may also be evidence of the
importance
of Roman renegades in providing to the barbarians those elements of
civilisation
they found useful.
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From: http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable/05034.html
The Suebi, or Suevi, mentioned by Tacitus as a central German
people,
gave their name to Swabia. They probably included a
number of smaller tribes, of whom the Alemanni and the Marcomanni were
two. Others were the Semoni, the Hermunduri, and
the Quadi. The Suebi lived near the Elbe c.650 B.C.; thence
they spread S into Germany. By 100 B.C. they no longer
constituted a political unit, although Tacitus maintained that they
retained cultural and religious unity. The Teutons, who were
allied with the Cimbri in 103 B.C., were crushed (102 B.C.) by Marius
at Aquae Sextiae (present-day Aix-en-Provence). By
an extension of the name of that tribe the Germanic peoples are
sometimes
called Teutonic.
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From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/6711/austria.html#The
The Marcomanni
It is now generally believed that the Bavarians are the descendants
of the "lost" Germanic tribe known to the Romans as the
Marcomanni. The name Marcomanni literally means "men of the
marches"
or borders (Gibbon i.98,261-263), and refers to
their geographic location in relation to the Roman Empire. The
Marcomanni, who came originally from the upper Main valley in
present-day northern Bavaria or from the Elbe valley in present-day
Saxony, moved into Bohemia in the year 6 BC, pushing
out a Celtic people known as the Boii, who were settled about the
Hercynian
forest in southern Bohemia, in present-day
Czechoslavakia (Todd 31, 58-59). Considered the most important
of the southern Suevic tribes, the Marcomanni were led by
a brave noble, Maroboduus, who took his people into the Bohemian
plateau
(Kohlrausch 37) through the Elbe valley, settling
into the region surrounding present-day Prague. They were
probably
accompanied by another Germanic tribe, the Quadi, who
were closely associated with the Marcomanni throughout their history,
and who settled in Moravia, southeast of Bohemia in
present-day eastern Czechoslavakia (Todd 62). The Marcomanni
stayed in Bohemia for about 500 years, eventually taking on
the Celtic name of their homeland. The ancient Celtic name for
Bohemia was Boja or Bojos, which has subsequently been
transplanted to Bojoheim, Baiheim, or Beheim (Kohlrausch 76).
The name Bavarians, derived from Baioarii, Bajuvarii,
and Bajjawarjos, literally means "inhabitants of the Boiic land"
(Leeper
58).
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From: http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/EMPCONT/e212.htm
Valentinian I
Emperor A. D. 364 - 375
After the death of the Roman Emperor Jovian, Valentinian was raised to the throne by the soldiers at Nicaea. In the interest of future stability, the army made it a condition of Valentinian's elevation that he appoint a Co-emperor to help him rule. Accordingly, Valentinian chose his brother Valens to rule the East about a month later. Unlike the all to common tale of brothers sharing the empire and continuously plotting against each other in bitter hatred and contention, (see Geta, Caracalla, Constans, and Constantine II). Valens and Valentinian got along wonderfully and shared a true affection for each other.
Valentinian spent much of his reign defending the Rhine frontier against Sarmatians, Quadi, and Goths. There was also trouble in Britain. Picts, Scots, Saxons, and Franks had all but taken over the island province, and Valentinian had to send his capable general Theodosius to deal with these barbarians. It took him two years to chastise the barbarians and chase them back across the frontiers. Theodosius was the father of the first emperor by the same name. History has not preserved the details, but evidently the elder Theodosius later fell out of favor with Valentinian and was executed and his family disgraced. His son was nevertheless able to forgive Valentinian’s young son Gratian in his hour of need and become his co-emperor and protector when asked to do so.
Valentinian died in the year A. D. 375 after having received a
deputation
of Quadi to discuss making a treaty. The insolent
behavior so enraged the emperor that he had a fit and died of a stroke.
His fifteen year old son Gratian was appointed emperor
in his place.
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From: http://www.wargamer.com/greatbattles/Sava.asp
Sava 100 CE
by Wayne Schultz
In 100 CE, Decebalus, the King of Dacia, unites with the German tribes along the Danube and invades Pannonia Superior and moves towards Italy with this massive army of Marcomanni, Quadi and Sarmatian Iazges . The Parthian King Osroes lends his support in the form of 10,000 Calvary. Trajan in Rome starts for Pannonia with the two new legions and 10 cohorts of Praetorian Guards and 10 ala of Moorish Calvary, and meets up with the main Roman force of 12 legions and detachments of 2 others near the river Sava in modern day Croatia under Hadrian. Decebalus on hearing of the roman army massing near the Sava River. With one third of force coming down a valley from the north hoping to flank the Romans, his main force confronts the Romans from the east. The Romans dispositions are as follows. This battle is fiction, most of the Roman legions in this battle where from the Danube frontier, with 2 from Britain, and 2 or 3 from the Rhine, this battle is what might have happened if the Dacians had joined forces with the 2 German tribes that where on the north side of the Danube river.
Romans north flanks in order running west to east: 5 cohorts of IV Flavia. VII Claudia, I AD, III Augusta, 5 cohorts of XI Claudia, with 11 aux cohort running south to north along the high ground with supporting missile units.
Romans east flank with legions in order running north to south. IV Macedonica, V Macedonica, IX Hispana, VIII Augusta, I Italica, X Gemina, XV Apollinaria with XXI Rapax and XX Valeria behind the legions to the south of the river with 25 ala of Calvary on the southern flank, 5 cohorts of Marines holding the southern high ground with various missile units.
Trajan with the two newly formed legions II Traiana , XXX Ulpia , ten cohorts of Praetorian Guards and 10 ala of Moorish Calvary coming in from the west.
Total Romans: 74,200 legionnairs, 10,000 aux heavy infantry, 9,100 light infantry, 2,100 archers and slingers, 16,500 Calvary, 4 ballista and 8 scorpion.
Total: 96,100 Infantry, 16,500 Calvary.
The Dacian army. North force running west to east: Quadi, 20,700, Marcomanni, 14,400, Sarmatian Iazyges, 17,500.
The Dacian east force running north to south: east force north side of river, Marcomanni, 15,900 with 12,000 LI behind them. Quadi, 16,500, Sarmatian Iazyges, 9,100. 9,000 Calvary behind the Quadi and Iazyges, with Maroboduus of the Marcomanni in command.
East force, south of river: Dacians, 30,000 HI, 9,100 LI, 5,000 Calvary. The Parthians, 11,500 Heavy and light Calvary under there King Osroes. Decebalus, King of Dacia in command of Dacian, Parthian and German forces.
Total 145,200 Infantry, 25,500 Calvary.
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From: http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_378/Marcus.2.html
Marcus Aurelius 2
Wars On The Danube
The main enemies that troubled the Danube border during the later
years
of Marcus' reign were the Germanic Quadi and
Marcomanni on the mid to upper Danube in modern Czechoslovakia and
southern Germany and the Iranian (Sarmatian)
Iazyges to the immediate west of Roman Dacia and east of the Quadi
(various smaller tribes were also involved). These
peoples would be active from 167 until his death in 180.
The troubles began in early 167 when the Langobardi and Obii, tribes
from the interior, crossed the Danube into Moesia. They
must have done so with the consent of the Quadi, through whose
territory they had to cross--presumably the Quadi wished to
avoid trouble themselves by allowing these tribes to pass through into
Roman territory. This invasion was apparently thrown
back without too much difficulty, but it marked the start of a large
series of attempts to cross the border en masse. During this
same summer someone--presumably the Iazyges--captured the gold mines
in western Dacia.
The sources available for piecing together an account of these wars
is similar to that concerning Trajan's wars. The only
narrative source that we know of is Dio Cassius, who again is preserved
only in excerpts made by Xiphilinus. Accordingly, the
vignettes that struck the abridger's interest are often hard to ascribe
chronologically and the narrative has to be eked out of
"potted" histories made in late antiquity. A column is preserved in
Rome that copies that of Trajan and clearly refers to some
portion of his Marcomannic War, but it is indicative of how poor the
sources are that it is not entirely clearly which campaigns it
refers to (probably 172-75).
In 167 Marcus was detailed in Rome by the troubles caused by the
plague,
but by early 168 Marcus apparently felt compelled
to go north to handle the damage to the border, taking along an
unwilling
Lucius Verus. They toured the defenses around the
Alps and passed on to Pannonia. They were in Aquileia for the winter
of 168/69, but the plague was still abroad, and Lucius
insisted on returning to Rome. Soon after setting off, he promptly
died. The Historia Augusta actually claims that Marcus
murdered him, but that is incredible.
Marcus returned with the body to Rome, and saw to his brother's
deification.
He also had to decide what to do with Lucius'
widow, his own daughter. He decided, over her and her mother's
objections,
to marry her to one of his most trusted
commanders, Ti. Claudius Pompeianus. This man was a Syrian of fairly
advanced age, whose father had not even been a
senator. This marriage had the double advantage of retaining the man's
loyalties while at the same time he would not (hopefully!)
be a threat because of his lowly origins.
Meanwhile, disaster ensued on the Danube. The poor sources make it
very
hard to follow events in chronological order. The
Marcomanni and Quadi, with assistance from other tribes like
the Vandals, crossed the Danube, overwhelmed a Roman army,
passed over the Alps and put the town of Aquileia in northern Italy
under siege. It used to be thought that this took place in 167
and was the cause of Marcus and Lucius moving north. Modern studies
tend to make much of the fact that the scrappy
information we have seems to mention only Marcus and not Lucius in
connection with relieving this siege, and thus they put this
event after the death of Lucius, thus in 169 or 170. Yet, not much
store can be set in such "argumentation from silence"
(particularly when the sources would be likely to downplay the
involvement
of the "lazy" co-emperor). Furthermore, it seems a
bit of a coincidence that the two emperors should have spent the winter
of 168/9 in Aquileia, a town which would only later be
besieged.
In any case, already by 169 Marcus was hard pressed by a great
invasion.
He is recorded in Rome auctioning off valuable
possessions from the palace to raise funds for the war, since the
plague
had made it impossible to raise taxes. He also found the
same sort of trouble as Augustus had in trying to raise new troops
to replace the large losses in battle. Two new legions were
raised, as well as auxiliary units recruited from freed slaves.
In 170, Marcus was back on the Danube and himself suffered a defeat
in attacking across the Danube. Whether this caused or
followed the attack on Aquileia is not clear. Certainly in that year
the Costoboci, a tribe along the Black Sea, crossed the
Danube and advanced so far into the Balkans that they attacked Eleusis
to the west of Athens. In this year and/or the next the
Chatti and Chauci crossed the Rhine into Belgica. This invasions were
thrown back with some difficulty. In 171, Marcus
managed to make peace with some of the tribes along the Danube,
including
the Quadi.
In 172 he began a series of campaigns that beat back the invasions,
and are mostly likely commemorated on his column. In that
year, he launched a major attack on the territory of the Marcomanni
and then turned on the Quadi, who had supposedly been
aiding refugees from the Marcomanni. Apparently in this year belong
two "miracles" referred to on coins and the Column--in
one lightning struck an enemy siege engine after he prayed and in the
other a sudden cloudburst saved a tired and thirsty Roman
contingent in the middle of battle and was attributed to divine
intervention.
In this year coins commemorated the "subjugation of
Germany" (Germania subacta)--perhaps an exaggeration, but at least
a sign that things were getting better. The war went on
into 175, with apparently increasing success. The final conquest of
the area was cut short by news of a revolt in the east in 175,
but the war was sufficiently satisfactorily over for him to adopt the
titles "Germanicus" and "Sarmaticus."
As if this activity in the north weren't enough, in 173-4 the Mauri
actually crossed the straights of Gibraltar to invade Spain.
Earlier, in 172-3 herders in Lower Egypt took up arms and were on the
point of capturing Alexandria. The senatorial governor
of Syria had to enter Egypt in violation of Augustus' prohibition to
suppress this revolt. This was the man who rebelled in 175.
©1998 Christopher S. Mackay
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The History of the Decline and Fall of The Roman
Empire
- Vol 2
by Edward Gibbon
The emperor of the West, who had resigned to his brother the command
of the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care the defence of the
Rhætian and Illyrian provinces, which spread so many hundred
miles
along the greatest of the European rivers. The active policy of
Valentinian
was continually employed in adding new fortifications to the security
of
the frontier: but the abuse of this policy provoked the just resentment
of the Barbarians. The Quadi complained, that the ground for
an
intended fortress had been marked out on their territories; and their
complaints
were urged with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius,
master-general
of Illyricum, consented to suspend the prosecution of the work, till he
should be more clearly informed of the will of his sovereign. This fair
occasion of injuring a rival, and of advancing the fortune of his
son, was eagerly embraced by the inhuman Maximin, the
præfect,
or rather tyrant, of Gaul. The passions of Valentinian were impatient
of
control; and he
credulously listened to the assurances of his favorite, that if the
government of Valeria, and the direction of the work, were intrusted to
the zeal of his son Marcellinus, the emperor should no longer be
importuned
with the audacious remonstrances of the Barbarians. The subjects of
Rome,
and the natives of Germany, were insulted by the arrogance of a young
and
worthless minister, who considered his rapid elevation as the proof and
reward of his superior merit. He affected, however, to receive the
modest
application of Gabinius, king of the Quadi, with some attention
and regard: but this artful civility concealed a dark and bloody
design,
and the credulous prince was persuaded to accept the pressing
invitation
of Marcellinus. I am at a loss how to vary the narrative of similar
crimes;
or how to relate, that, in the course of the same year, but in
remote
parts of the empire, the inhospitable table of two Imperial generals
was
stained with the royal blood of two guests and allies, inhumanly
murdered
by their order, and in their presence. The fate of Gabinius, and of
Para,
was the same: but the cruel death of their sovereign was resented
in a very different manner by the servile temper of the Armenians, and
the free and daring spirit of the Germans. The Quadi were much
declined
from that formidable power, which, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, had
spread terror to the gates
of Rome. But they still possessed arms and courage; their courage was
animated by despair, and they obtained the usual reenforcement of the
cavalry
of their Sarmatian allies. So improvident was the assassin Marcellinus,
that he chose the moment when the bravest veterans had been drawn away,
to suppress the revolt of Firmus; and the whole province was exposed,
with
a very feeble defence, to the rage of the exasperated Barbarians. They
invaded Pannonia in the season of harvest; unmercifully destroyed
every object of plunder which they could not easily transport; and
either
disregarded, or demolished, the empty fortifications. The princess
Constantia,
the daughter of the emperor Constantius, and the granddaughter of the
great
Constantine, very narrowly escaped. That royal maid, who had innocently
supported the revolt of Procopius, was now the destined wife of the
heir
of the Western empire. She traversed the peaceful province with a
splendid
and unarmed train. Her person was saved from danger, and the republic
from
disgrace, by the active zeal of Messala, governor of the provinces. As
soon as he was informed that the village, where she stopped only to
dine,
was almost encompassed by the Barbarians, he
hastily placed her in his own chariot, and drove full speed till he
reached the gates of Sirmium, which were at the distance of
six-and-twenty miles. Even Sirmium might not have been secure, if the
Quadi
and Sarmatians had diligently advanced during the general consternation
of the magistrates and people. Their delay allowed Probus, the
Prætorian
præfect, sufficient time to recover his own spirits, and to
revive
the courage of the citizens. He skilfully directed their strenuous
efforts
to repair and strengthen the decayed fortifications; and procured the
seasonable
and effectual assistance of a company of archers, to protect the
capital
of the Illyrian provinces. Disappointed in their attempts against the
walls
of Sirmium, the indignant Barbarians turned their arms against the
master
general of the frontier, to whom they unjustly attributed the murder of
their king. Equitius could bring into the field no more than two
legions;
but they contained the veteran strength of the Mæsian and
Pannonian
bands.
The obstinacy with which they disputed the vain honors of rank and
precedency, was the cause of their destruction; and while they acted
with
separate forces and divided councils, they were surprised and
slaughtered
by the active vigor of the Sarmatian horse. The success of this
invasion
provoked the emulation of the bordering tribes; and the province of
Mæsia
would infallibly have been lost, if young Theodosius, the duke, or
military
commander, of the frontier, had not signalized, in the defeat of the
public
enemy, an intrepid genius, worthy of his illustrious father, and of his
future greatness.
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