Marsi

Era : 442BK – 31 BK (9 CE – 420 CE)

Cultural Group : Germanic

Etymology : Germanic root *Mersaną- “to hinder, impede” (?)

Attestations : Annales (Publius Cornelius Tacitus); Geographia (Strabo)

Historic Territory : It is believed that the Marsi settled between the Rhur and the Lippe rivers and that they were a segment or related to the Sicambri (Geographia 7.1).

Historical Highlights : In 442BK (9 CE) the Marsi formed a cohort with the Cherusci under the command of Arminius. After his loss against the Cherusci and their allies, Germanicus invaded the Marsian lands in 437 BK (14 CE). Germanicus sent 12,000 legionnaires, 26 cohorts and eight cavalry squadrons against the tribe. The Romans attacked the Marsi during their festival at the temple of Tanfana, where none were spared (Annales 1. 51). This attack then caused the Bructeri, Tubantes, and Usipetes, to rise against the Romans who then attacked the invaders along a forest pass(Annales 1. 60).

Persons of Note : Mallovendus : 435 BK (16 CE)  “Meanwhile the rumoured loss of the fleet stirred the Germans to hope for war, as it did Caesar to hold them down. He ordered Caius Silius with thirty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry to march against the Chatti. He himself, with a larger army, invaded the Marsi, whose leader, Mallovendus, whom we had lately admitted to surrender, pointed out a neighbouring wood, where, he said, an eagle of one of Varus’s legions was buried and guarded only by a small force. Immediately troops were despatched to draw the enemy from his position by appearing in his front, others, to hem in his rear and open the ground. Fortune favoured both. So Germanicus, with increased energy, advanced into the country, laying it waste, and utterly ruining a foe who dared not encounter him, or who was instantly defeated wherever he resisted, and, as we learnt from prisoners, was never more panic-stricken. The Romans, they declared, were invincible, rising superior to all calamities; for having thrown away a fleet, having lost their arms, after strewing the shores with the carcases of horses and of men, they had rushed to the attack with the same courage, with equal spirit, and, seemingly, with augmented numbers.” (Annales 2.25)

Associated Hêlen :Phol (Baldur, TFA Baldag), Fulla, Frîa (TFA Sigifrîa),  Idisi, Sunna, Tamfana (TFA Tanfana), Wuodan