Editing Marcomanni (section)

==The empire of Maroboduus==
Maroboduus built up a Rome-aligned Suebian empire. According to Strabo it included the [[Lugii]], Semnones, and Hermunduri, and he also mentioned otherwise unknown peoples: Zumi, Butones (perhaps the [[Gutones]]), Mugilones and Sibini. Velleius and Tacitus made it clear that by 5 AD it also included the Langobardi. According to Velleius he could call upon 70,000 experienced infantry and 4,000 cavalry, although these were probably not only Marcomanni.<ref>{{harvtxt|Kehne|2001a|p=294}} citing Strabo 7.1.3, Velleius 2.106, Tacitus ''Annals'' 2.45.1-2</ref> 

In 6 AD Augustus aimed to eliminate the last power center in Germania and sent two Roman army groups under Sentius Saturninus and Tiberius to attack the Marcomanni in a pincer movement starting from Roman camps or bases which were in or near in present day [[Marktbreit]] to the west and [[Carnuntum]] on the Danube. This did not go ahead because a [[Great Illyrian Revolt|major revolt]] started in [[Pannonia]], south of the Danube, which had also only recently been conquered. Maroboduus remained neutral.{{sfn|Kehne|2001a|p=294}}

In 9 AD, [[Arminius]] of the Cherusci began his major revolt against the Romans. He sent the head of the defeated Roman general [[Publius Quinctilius Varus]] to Maroboduus, but Maroboduus sent it to Rome. The Langobardi and Semnones, Suebians living near to the Cherusci on the Elbe, defected from this kingdom in the name of freedom, both because Maroboduus did not support the revolt, and because he held royal power.<ref>{{harvtxt|Kehne|2001a|pp=294-295}} citing Tacitus ''Annals'' 2.45-46, 2.62-63, 3.11.1</ref>

In 17 AD war broke out among these two alliances of Germanic peoples, led by Arminius and Maroboduus. Maroboduus requested help from Rome but the Romans reject him. According to Tacitus the Romans claimed that Maroboduus "had no right to invoke the aid of Roman arms against the Cherusci, when he had rendered no assistance to the Romans in their conflict with the same enemy". After an indecisive battle, Maroboduus withdrew into the hilly forests of Bohemia in 18 AD.<ref>[[Tacitus]], ''Annals'' 2, 44-46</ref> According to Tacitus, the Romans reacted by deliberately sowing discord among the Germani, "urging them to complete the destruction of the now broken power of Maroboduus".<ref>Tacitus ''Annals'' 2.63</ref> This was all in line with the new foreign policy of the emperor [[Tiberius]].{{sfn|Kehne|2001a|p=295}}

Already in 19 AD, Maroboduus was deposed and exiled by [[Catualda]], who was a prince who had been living in exile among the [[Gutones]] on the Baltic coast, in what is now northern Poland. Maroboduus went into exile among the Romans and lived another 18 years in Ravenna.{{sfn|Kehne|2001a|p=295}}