Ballomar (140-192) was a leader of the Germanic Marcomanni tribe during the Marcomannic Wars of the late 2nd century AD.
Biography[]
Ballomar was born in present-day Bohemia in 140 AD to the Suebian Marcomanni tribe, and, from 167 to 170 AD, he led a coalition of Celtic and Germanic tribes in an invasion of the Roman province of Italia, marking the first time that Italy faced a foreign invasion since the Cimbrian invasion of the late 2nd century BC. He defeated a force of 20,000 Roman soldiers near Carnuntum and destroyed Opitergium (Oderzo) before besieging Aquilea. In 172 AD, he surrendered to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, but he continued his resistance in the ensuing years, and he outlasted four campaigns waged against his people by the Roman general Gaius Livius. During the reign of Emperor Commodus, Ballomar and his court were finally captured, and Livius and the Greek freedman Timonides persuaded the Roman Senate to allow the captive Germans to farm on Italian soil in order to show the barbarians that the Romans desired peace. This incensed Commodus, and, after Livius decided to march on Rome with an army and overthrow Commodus, Commodus had his soldiers massacre Ballomar, Timonides, and the German colony in Italy in 192 AD.