Quadi
A powerful German people of the Suevic race, who dwelt in the southeastern part of Germany,
between Mount Gabreta, the Hercynian Forest, the Sarmatian Mountains, and the Danube. They
were bounded on the west by the Marcomanni, with whom they were always closely united; on the
north by the Gothini and Osi; on the east by the Iazyges Metanastae, from whom they were
separated by the river Granuas (Gran); and on the south by the Pannonians, from whom they were
divided by the Danube. In the reign of Tiberius the Quadi were taken under the protection of
the Romans. In the reign of Marcus Aurelius, however, they joined the Marcomanni and other
German tribes in the long and bloody war against the Empire, which lasted during the
greater part of that emperor's reign. Their name is especially memorable in the history of
this war by the victory which M. Aurelius gained over them in A.D. 174 (Dio Cass. lxxi. 8-20).
Their independence was recognized by Commodus in A.D. 180. The Quadi disappear from history
towards the end of the fourth century.
