What if Marcus Aurelius had created the province of Marcomannia?
Marcus Aurelius died on campaign in 180 and his son made peace. Had he lived, Rome might have annexed Bohemia and Moravia.
What actually happened
The Marcomannic Wars were the hardest fighting Rome faced on the upper Danube in the second century. Around 170 the Marcomanni and Quadi, peoples living in what are now Bohemia, Moravia and western Slovakia, broke through the frontier, besieged Aquileia and burned Opitergium in northern Italy. It was the first time in centuries that barbarian raiders had reached Italy, and it came while the empire was being weakened by the Antonine Plague.
Marcus Aurelius spent most of the 170s on the Danube, campaigning from bases such as Carnuntum against the Marcomanni, the Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges of the Hungarian plain. By 179 Roman troops were wintering deep inside Quadic territory: an inscription carved into the rock at Trenčín (ancient Laugaricio) records a legionary detachment there, and archaeologists have found Roman works at Mušov in Moravia. According to the Historia Augusta, Marcus intended to make two new provinces, Marcomannia and Sarmatia.
He never did. Marcus died on 17 March 180, at Vindobona or Sirmium, and his nineteen-year-old son Commodus quickly made peace. The tribes returned captives, supplied grain and recruits and accepted limits on where they could assemble, and the Roman garrisons north of the river were withdrawn. The Danube remained the frontier.
The turning point
The decisive moment was a death, not a battle. Marcus was about 58 and had been ill for years; had he lived another few seasons, the occupation already under way in 179 might have been turned into a permanent province, as Trajan had done in Dacia seventy years earlier. Commodus, eager to return to Rome, chose the cheaper option.
Historians disagree about how real the plan was. The Historia Augusta is a late and often unreliable source, and some scholars doubt that Rome, short of men and money after the plague, could have held the forests north of the Danube. Others, such as Marcus's biographer Anthony Birley, take the provincial plan seriously and point to the scale of the 179 occupation. Edward Gibbon famously blamed Commodus for abandoning his father's work; most modern historians judge the peace more kindly, as a sensible settlement after a ruinous war.
The world that might have been
In Crown & Plough the alternative reads: the Emperor survived that spring's fever, the legions kept their winter camps north of the river, surveyors and roads pushed into the forests of Bohemia, and the Senate approved the province of Marcomannia.
Beyond the game, a Roman Bohemia is plausible but expensive. A frontier running along the mountains that ring Bohemia, then east along the Carpathians, would have been longer in places and shorter in others, and it would have needed several legions that the empire could barely spare. Roman roads, towns and later churches would have spread into lands that, in reality, saw little Roman settlement, and the peoples pushed out of Bohemia would have had to go somewhere, perhaps adding pressure elsewhere on the frontier.
It is also possible that a Marcomannia would have been lost again within a few decades, as Dacia was abandoned in the 270s. A province is only as strong as the army and the treasury behind it, and the third century was about to test both to breaking point.
Ripples through time
In the game an extra province makes the empire harder to break apart: if Marcomannia exists, the chance that the Gallic Empire and Palmyra survive on their own in 274 drops.
If you carry your house into the Age of Vikings and Coronations, the world remembers: Bohemia and Moravia start the 800 era already Christian, with Roman-era roads and churches, and Prague is a little more developed.
- Shapes What if the Gallic Empire and Palmyra had survived?
- Carries into the next era Age of Vikings and Coronations
Play this turning point
Start in the Roman Empire era (117), or take the scenario Winter on the Danube, which begins in 167 in the middle of the war. Join the Currents of History story Marcomannic Wars on the side of the emperor's legions to push for the province, or with the tribes across the river to keep them free; in 178 a camp-side event lets you guide Roman surveyors or harass their forts.
The turning point only occurs if the Marcomanni still hold Bohemia, Moravia or Upper Hungary in your world. Rome's overwhelming strength works against change here: history is stubborn, and your contribution matters most if you rule land on the Roman side.
Play this turning point → Start the scenario “Winter on the Danube” →
Questions and answers
Did Marcus Aurelius really plan to annex Bohemia?
The only explicit statement is in the Historia Augusta, which says he wished to make provinces of Marcomannia and Sarmatia. The source is unreliable, but archaeology shows large Roman forces deep in Quadic and Marcomannic land in 179–180, so many historians think an annexation was at least being prepared.
Why did Commodus make peace?
The war had lasted more than a decade, the empire was weakened by plague and a new emperor needed to secure his position in Rome. The peace gave Rome grain, recruits and the return of captives, and kept the Danube quiet for years.
Where did Marcus Aurelius die?
Ancient sources disagree. Vindobona (Vienna) and Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) are both named; the date was 17 March 180.
Can I make Marcomannia a province in Crown & Plough?
Yes, if the turning point occurs in your game. Side with the emperor's legions in the Marcomannic Wars story and fight the tribes; the more land you hold on the Roman side, the more your contribution shifts the odds.
Sources and further reading
Cassius Dio, book 72; the Historia Augusta, Life of Marcus. Modern accounts: Anthony Birley, Marcus Aurelius: A Biography; Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 4.