Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/95

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The Bohemian forest.] In the time of Czech and Krokus, about the year 550 of the Christian æra, the whole of the country now called Bohemia was nearly one vast forest, which by the ancient Romans was called the Hercynian Forest, and was 150 miles in depth. According to Cæsar, the Boii inhabited that forest (see Comm. lib. vi., c. 24), whence the name of Boiimians, afterwards Bohemians. The Boii seem to have settled in that country in the year 590 before Christ. They afterwards migrated to Bavaria, which country was called after them Boiaria, now Bavaria.

In the first century after Christ, the Marcomanes inhabited Bohemia, and Marbod was their king. They were incessantly involved in wars with the Romans. When, in the year 476, the Roman empire became the prey of the Legres, the Rugieres, and the Herulæans, the Marcomanes disappeared from Bohemia, and the Thuringians and Franks took their place, till the sixth century, when the Sclavonian race extended itself into Bohemia.