I Romani oltre il Danubio (167-180 d.C.): Marco Aurelio imitator Augusti

The debate about the Marcomannic wars has always focused on the provincialization of the Quadi and Marcomanni’s territory, on the almost sole basis of written sources. The recent progress in archaeological research between Lower Austria, Moravia and south-western Slovakia enables to shed new light on the Marcomannic wars: this article, using both written sources and archaeological data, aims to demonstrate that Marcus Aurelius intended to provincialize the land beyond the middle Danube and that this operation was probably preliminary to the reconquest of Germania Magna, as a programmatic imitatio Augusti.