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The Marcommanic Wars are not well documented, even though the Emperor at the time, Marcus Aurelius, was an author whose works have survived. All three of thes battles covered here are poorly documented – one only has a single source, while the others are only really known because of unusual features of the battles – one was fought on a frozen river, the other saw a Roman army that was outnumbered, surrounded and trapped with no water being saved by a sudden rainstorm. Little or nothing is known about the campaigns these battles took place in, their location, their date, or even the order they actually happened in!
The first of the three battles, the Roman defeat at Carnuntum, is only mentioned in a single work by Lucian, a satirical accouint of the rise of the prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus, founder of a religion that was briefly popular at the time. Other sources do support the idea of a Roman setback at about this period,
The second battle, the Battle on the Ice, is a little better documented – it gets mentioned in the summary and fragments of Dio, but the date and, exact details of the campaign are unclear. We do know that the battle was fought on the frozen Danube, where the Romans were surrounded by tribes more familiar with fighting on ice, but held their nerve and defeated the attackers. The author uses other sources to describe how the Romans of this period might have fought against the enemy cavalry mentioned in this battle.
The start of the section on the Miracle of the Rain continues the theme of poor documentation – the author starts by admitting that even the order of the battles is unclear with it possible that the Battle on the Ice actually came after the Miracle of the Rain, rather than before it here. Once again we don’t have much detail about the campaign this battle took place in. The battle itself does have a clear outline – an outnumbered Roman army was surrounded in a dry area in hot weather, and only saved by a sudden downpour of rain, followed by a thunder storm that hit their enemies. The main interest here comes from the analysis of the sources for this battle, many of which tried to claim the miracle for whichever religion they followed.
The author is still able to come to some interesting conclusions. First is that the Roman border defences didn’t work. The wars started with a series of disasters for the Romans in which frontier armies and regional governers suffered heavy defeats, with many of the governors being killed in battle. Second is that the main Roman army, especially when led by the Emperor in person, was still very effective – the Romans were able to cross the Danube into enemy territory and force them to make significant concessions. Outnumbered Roman armies were capable of defeating much larger enemy forces, but this was also a sign that the Romans were often outnumbered, despite the size and power of the Empire.
Chapters
The Opposing Sides
Carnuntum AD 170
The Battle on the Ice AD 172
The Miracle of the Rain AD 174
Analysis – Barbarian effectiveness – Roman effectiveness
Aftermath
Author: Murray Dahm
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 80
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2024