Editing Germanic peoples (section)

====Marcomannic Wars to 375 CE====
{{Further|Marcomannic Wars|Crisis of the Third Century}}
Following sixty years of quiet on the frontier, 166&nbsp;CE saw a major incursion of peoples from north of the Danube during the reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]], beginning the [[Marcomannic Wars]].{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=54}} By 168 (during the [[Antonine plague]]), barbarian hosts consisting of Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges, attacked and pushed their way to Italy.{{sfn|Ward|Heichelheim|Yeo|2016|p=340}} They advanced as far as Upper Italy, destroyed Opitergium/Oderzo and besieged Aquileia.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=26}} The Romans had finished the war by 180, through a combination of Roman military victories, the resettling of some peoples on Roman territory, and by making alliances with others.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=55}} Marcus Aurelius's successor [[Commodus]] chose not to permanently occupy any territory conquered north of the Danube, and the following decades saw an increase in the defenses at the ''limes''.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=26}} The Romans renewed their right to choose the kings of the Marcomanni and Quadi, and Commodus forbid them to hold assemblies unless a Roman centurion was present.{{sfn|James|2014|p=32}}

[[Image:10 2023 - Palazzo Altemps, Roma, Lazio, 00186, Italia - Sarcofago Grande Ludovisi (Grande Ludovisi sarcophagus) - Arte Romana - Photo Paolo Villa FO232047 ombre gimp bis.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Depiction of Romans fighting Goths on the [[Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus]] (c.&nbsp;250–260 CE)]]
The period after the Marcomannic Wars saw the emergence of peoples with new names along the Roman frontiers, which were probably formed by the merger of smaller groups.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=55}} These new confederacies or peoples tended to border the Roman imperial frontier.{{sfn|Halsall|2007|p=120}} Many ethnic names from earlier periods disappear.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|pp=26–27}} The [[Alamanni]] emerged along the upper Rhine and are mentioned in Roman sources from the third century onward.{{sfn|Geary|1999|p=109}} The [[Goths]] begin to be mentioned along the lower Danube, where they attacked the city of [[Histria (ancient city)|Histria]] in 238.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=140}} The Franks are first mentioned occupying territory between the Rhine and Weser.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=56}} The Lombards seem to have moved their center of power to the central Elbe.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=57}} Groups such as the Alamanni, Goths, and Franks were not unified polities; they formed multiple, loosely associated groups, who often fought each other and some of whom sought Roman friendship.{{sfn|James|2014|pp=40–45}} The Romans also begin to mention seaborne attacks by the Saxons, a term used generically in Latin for Germanic-speaking pirates. A system of defenses on both sides of the [[English Channel]], the [[Saxon Shore]], was established to deal with their raids.{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=244}}{{sfn|James|2014|p=122}}

From 250 onward, the Gothic peoples formed the "single most potent threat to the northern frontier of Rome".{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=56}} In 250&nbsp;CE a Gothic king [[Cniva]] led Goths with Bastarnae, Carpi, Vandals, and [[Taifali]] into the empire, laying siege to [[Philippopolis (Thrace)|Philippopolis]]. He followed his victory there with another on the marshy terrain at [[Battle of Abritus|Abrittus]], a battle which cost the life of Roman emperor [[Decius]].{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=140}} In 253/254, further attacks occurred reaching [[Thessalonica]] and possibly [[Thrace]].{{sfn|Heather|2009|p=112}} In 267/268 there were large raids led by the Herules in 267/268, and a mixed group of Goths and Herules in 269/270. Gothic attacks were abruptly ended in the years after 270, after a Roman victory in which the Gothic king [[Cannabaudes]] was killed.{{sfn|Todd|1999|pp=141–142}}

The Roman ''limes'' largely collapsed in 259/260,{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=57}} during the [[Crisis of the Third Century]] (235–284),{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=57}} and Germanic raids penetrated as far as northern Italy.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=27}} The ''limes'' on the Rhine and upper Danube was brought under control again in 270s, and by 300 the Romans had reestablished control over areas they had abandoned during the crisis.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=27}} From the later third century onward, the Roman army relied increasingly on troops of Barbarian origin, often recruited from Germanic peoples, with some functioning as senior commanders in the Roman army.{{sfn|Todd|1999|pp=59–61}} In the 4th century, warfare along the Rhine frontier between the Romans and Franks and Alemanni seems to have mostly consisted of campaigns of plunder, during which major battles were avoided.{{sfn|Pohl|2004a|p=35}} The Romans generally followed a policy of trying to prevent strong leaders from emerging among the barbarians, using treachery, kidnapping, and assassination, paying off rival tribes to attack them, or by supporting internal rivals.{{sfn|Halsall|2007|p=125}}