QUADI
Eth.
QUADI (
Κουάδιο), a great German tribe in the south-east of Bohemia, in Moravia and Hungary, between Mons Gabreta, the Hercynian and Sarmatian mountains, and the Danube. (Tac.
Germ. 42,
Ann. 12.29,
Hist. 3.5, 211;
Ptol. 2.11.26; Plin 4.25.). They were surrounded on the north-west by the Marcomanni, with whom they were always closely connected, on the north by the Gothini and Osi, on the east by the Jazyges Metanastae, and on the south by the Pannonians.
It is not known when they came to occupy that country, but it seems probable that they arrived there about the same time when the Marcomanni established themselves in Bohemia.
At the time when the Marcomannian king Maroboduus and his successor Catualda, on being driven from their kingdom, implored the protection of the Romans, the latter in A.D. 19 assigned to them and their companions in exile the districts between the rivers Marus and Cusus, and appointed Vannius, a Quadian, king of the territory (
Tac. Ann. 2.63;
Plin. Nat. 4.25).
This new kingdom of the Quadi, after the expulsion of Vannius, was divided between his nephews Vangio and Sido, who, however, continued to keep up a good understanding with the Romans. (
Tac. Ann. 12.29,
30.) Tacitus (
Germ. l.c.) says that down to his own time the Marcomanni and Quadi had been governed by kings of the house of Maroboduus, but that then foreigners ruled over them, though the power of these rulers was dependent on that of the Roman emperors.
At a later time the Quadi took an active part in the war of the Marcomanni against the Romans, and once nearly annihilated the whole army of M. Aurelius, which was saved only by a sudden tempest. (
D. C. 71.8). Notwithstanding the peace then concluded with them, they still continued to harass the Romans by renewed acts of hostility, and the emperor was obliged, for the protection of his own dominions, to erect several forts both in and around their kingdom, in consequence of which the people were nearly driven to abandon their country. (
D. C. 71.11,
13,
20.) In A.D. 180 the emperor Commodus renewed the peace with them (
D. C. 72.2; Lamprid.
Com. 3; Herodian, 1.6), but they still continued their in-roads into the Roman empire (
Eutrop. 9.9; Vopisc.
Aurel. 18;
Amm. Marc. 17.12,
29.6). Towards the end of the fourth century the Quadi entirely disappear from history; they had probably migrated westward with the Suevi, for Quadi are mentioned among the Suevi in Spain. (Hieron. Ep. 9.)
According to Ammianus Marcellinus (
17.12) the Quadi resembled in many respects the Sarmatians, for they used long spears and a coat of mail consisting of linen covered with thin Sates of horn; they had in war generally three swift horses for every man, to enable him to change them, and were on the whole better as skirmishers than in an open battle in the field. Ptolemy (
l.c.) mentions a considerable number of towns in their country, such as Eburodunum, Meliodunum, Caridorgis, Medoslanium, &c.; the Celtic names of which suggest that those districts previous to the arrival of the Quadi had been inhabited by Celts, who were either subdued by them or had become amalgamated with them.
The name Quadi itself seems to be connected with the Celtic word col,, cold, or coad, that is, a wood or forest, an etymology which receives support from the fact that Strabo (
vii. p.290), the first ancient author that notices them, mentions them under the name of
Κόλδουοι. Tacitus evidently regards them as Germans, but Latham (
ad Tac. Germ. p. 154) is inclined to treat them as Sarmatians. (Comp. Wilhelm,
Germanien, p. 223, fol.)
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L.S]
