Marbod

Marbod or Maroboduus (born c. in 30 BC, died in A.D. 37), was king of the Marcomanni. In his novel "I, Claudius" Robert Graves interprets the name 'Marbod' as meaning "he-who-walks-on-the-bottom-of-the-lake". If Graves' interpretation is correct it would suggest that Marbod was a devotee of a Germanic lake divinity, such as Nerthus.

Marbod was born into a noble family of the Marcomanni. As a young man he lived in Italy and enjoyed the favour of the Emperor Augustus. [Strabo 7, 1, 3, p. 290] The Marcomanni had been beaten utterly by the Romans in 10 BC. About 9 BC Marbod returned to Germany and became ruler of his people. To deal with the threat of Roman expansion into the Rhine-Danube basin he led the Marcomanni to the area later known as Bohemia to be outside the range of the Roman influence. There he took the title of a king and organized a confederation of several neighboring Germanic tribes. [Strabo 7, 1, 3, p. 290; Marcus Velleius Paterculus, "Compendium of Roman History" 2, 108] He was the first historical ruler of Bohemia.

Augustus planned in 6 A.D. to destroy the mighty kingdom of Marbod, which he considered to be too dangerous for the Romans. The later Emperor Tiberius commanded twelve legions to attack the Marcomanni. But the outbreak of the Great Illyrian revolt in the back of the Romans forced Tiberius to conclude a treaty with Marbod and to recognize him as king. [Velleius Paterculus, "Compendium of Roman History" 2, 109, 5; Cassius Dio, "Roman History" 55, 28, 6-7]

Rivalry between him and Arminius, the Cheruscan leader who inflicted the devastating defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest on the Romans under Publius Quinctilius Varus in 9 A.D., prevented a concerted attack on Roman territory across the Rhine in the north (by Arminius) and in the Danube basin in the south (by Marbod).

However, according to the first century A.D. historian Marcus Velleius Paterculus Arminius sent Varus' head to Marbod. But the king of the Marcomanni sent it to Augustus. [Velleius Paterculus, "Compendium of Roman History" 2, 119: "caput eius abscisum latumque ad Maroboduum et ab eo missum ad Caesarem"] In the revenge war of Tiberius and Germanicus against the Cherusci Marbod stayed neutral.

In 17 A.D., after Arminius had successfully compelled the Romans to abandon their efforts at conquering northern Germany, war broke out between Arminius and Marbod, and after an indecisive battle Marbod withdrew into the area now known as Bohemia in 18 A.D. [Tacitus, "Annals" 2, 44-46] In the next year Catualda, a nobleman, who had been exiled by Marbod, returned - perhaps by a subversive Roman intervention - and defeated Marbod. The deposed king had to flee to Italy and Tiberius detained him 18 years in Ravenna. There Marbod died in 37 A.D. [Tacitus, "Annals" 2, 62-63]

Notes

References

*Peter Kehne: Marbod. In: "Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde", vol. 19 (2001), p. 258-262.