Abstract
Of all Suebian rulers known to us, the figure of Marbod has been best described by historiography and it is to him that the greatest number of works have been devoted. Marbod stayed in Rome in his youth and it was there that he won friendship, favours and protection from Augustus himself. About the year 8 B.C. Romans helped him to gain power and rule over Marcomanii and Quadi. It was probably at that time that he performed the role of the client ruler in the face of the Empire. However, he began to rule independently soon after that. He conquered the majority of middle European tribes and made them pay tribute to him. Those tribes, for example the Lugii (Lugiorum nomen), Goths, Longobardii and Semnones helped Marbod to create a powerful empire spreading from the middle Danube to the mouth of Elbe and to the coast of the Baltic sea. This fact led to the rapid conflict with Rome, the culminating point of which was the year 6th A.D. when Romans took steps in order to annihilate Marbod’s rule and power. Marbod was saved by the failures of the Romans in other frontlines; for instance in Pannonia, Illiria and, especially, by defeat of Varus in the Teutoburg Forest (year 9). However, that moment marks also the beginning of the end of the Marcomanian king losing his hitherto charisma in favour of Arminius, proclaimed “liberator” of the germanic world. The confrontation with the latter took place in the year 17 A.D. and it resulted in the defeat of Marbod who completely lost his political significance. To make matters worse, he was attacked and deprived of the throne by a rebellious Marcomanian aristocrat –Catualda. The ending of the career of the once powerful ruler was, offered to him by Romans, the asylum in Ravenna, where, as Tacitus said, he (Marbod) lived to the old age.
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