Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/30

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6
Bohemia

peace with the Marcomanni. The conditions were less onerous than those of the former treaty. Though they were to remain dependent on Rome, the land of the Marcomanni was no longer to be occupied by a Roman army. There can be no doubt that this long war had greatly weakened the Marcomanni and diminished their number. We find occasional mention of their name in connection with those of the German tribes who, during the reigns of the successors of Marcus Aurelius, invaded the Roman Empire in every direction. They are mentioned as having invaded the Roman territory dining the reigns of the Emperors Caracalla, Alexander Severus, Maximinus, Valerianus, Gallienas, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, and (in 358) during the reign of the Emperor Julian. Hardly any records of these expeditions, that seem to have been undertaken more for the sake of plunder than of conquest, have reached us. In the year 404 the German prince Radagaisus attacked Italy at the head of a large army, to which the Marcomanni sent a contingent. He was, however, defeated in the following year, and almost his whole army perished on the battle-field. A great number of Marcomanni also joined Godegisil, king of the Vandals, in his expedition to Africa.

It is probable that only a scanty population now remained in the lands near the Hercynian forest. The Marcomanni who had remained in their former abode were, like the neighbouring tribes, unable to resist the attacks of the Huns, and soon became subject to them. The last notice concerning the Marcomanni which we find in history tells us that they were among the Germans subject to Attila, who formed part of the army with which he attacked Gaul. They took part in the battle of the Catalaunian fields, in which Attila was defeated, and it is probable that most of the few remaining Marcomanni perished there. Bohemia had after this battle probably but a small population. The Celtic Boji and the Teutonic Marcomanni were now, however, to have as successors Slavic tribes, of which the Čechs were the most powerful. Though there may have been an autochthonous Slavic population in Bohemia, it was only then that the Čechs began to form the majority of the population of Bohemia, as they have continued to do up to the present day.