After initial setbacks, the enemies appeared to be defeated in 175, but after a brief peace, the war was continued, and Marcus died at the front, in Vindobona (modern Vienna). His son Commodus signed the final peace treaty when victory was really achieved, and erected this column as a monument to his father.

The Column of Marcus Aurelius, located in the Piazza Colonna in Rome, was built between 176 and 193 AD to commemorate the Roman Emperor's successful military campaigns against the Germanic tribes (the Marcomanni and Quadi) and the Sarmatians along the Danube frontier. It was modeled directly after the more famous Trajan's Column and features a spiraling bas-relief frieze that depicts the brutal reality of the Marcomannic Wars. Beyond being a monument to military victory, the column served as a powerful piece of imperial propaganda, illustrating the Emperor's "pietas" (duty) and the strength of the Roman legions in maintaining "Pax Romana" (Roman Peace) against northern "barbarians." One of the most famous scenes depicted is the "Miracle of the Rain," where a sudden thunderstorm was credited with saving a thirsty Roman legion and terrifying the enemy. While it was originally topped with a statue of Marcus Aurelius, Pope Sixtus V replaced it with a bronze statue of Saint Paul in 1589. Today, it remains one of the few surviving victory columns of antiquity, offering historians a detailed "stone comic book" of 2nd-century Roman warfare and costume.