The
Cimbrian War (
113-Rome:* Germanic tribes attack Gaul and northern Spain, the Cimbri defeated a Roman army under G. Papirius Carbo in the Drava Valley.* War between the Celtiberians and the Romans.-Art:...
-
101 BC-Rome:* The Roman consuls Gaius Marius and Manius Aquillius defeat the Cimbri in the Battle of Campi Raudii .-Deaths:* Cleopatra III of Egypt assassinated by her son Ptolemy X Alexander I...
) was fought between the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
and the Proto-Germanic tribes of the
CimbriThe Cimbri were a tribe from Northern Europe, who, together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC. The Cimbri were probably Germanic, though some believe them to be of Celtic origin...
and the
TeutonsThe Teutons or Teutones were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek and Roman authors, notably Strabo and Marcus Velleius Paterculus and normally in close connection with the Cimbri, whose ethnicity is contested between Gauls and Germani...
(Teutones), who migrated from northern Europe into Roman controlled territory, and clashed with Rome and her allies. The Cimbrian War was the first time since the
Second Punic WarThe Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, who had three warring conflicts against each...
that
ItaliaItalia, under the Roman Republic and later Empire, was the name of the Italian peninsula.-Under the Republic and Augustan organization :During the Republic and the first centuries of the empire, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status:...
and
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
itself had been seriously threatened.
The timing of the war had a great effect on the internal politics of Rome, and the organization of its military. The war contributed greatly to the political career of
Gaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career...
whose
consul-Ancient Rome:During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together...
ships and political conflicts challenged many of the
Roman republicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
's political institutions and customs of the time. The Cimbrian threat, along with the
Jugurthine WarThe Jugurthine War takes its name from Jugurtha, nephew and later adopted son of Micipsa, King of Numidia.-Jugurtha and Numidia:Numidia was a kingdom located in North Africa not far from Rome's arch enemy, Carthage. King Micipsa died in 118 BC. He was survived by two natural sons, Adherbal and...
, inspired the
Marian reformsThe Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic.- Roman army before the Marian reforms :...
of the
Roman legionThe Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the...
s, which would have a significant effect on the history of the later Republic.
Rome eventually won the protracted and bloody war — which inflicted the heaviest losses to Rome's armies that they had suffered since the
Second Punic WarThe Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, who had three warring conflicts against each...
— with the victories at
Aquae SextiaeThe Battle of Aquae Sextiae took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman defeats , the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones.- The Battle :...
and
VercellaeThe Battle of Vercellae, or Battle of the Raudine Plain, in 101 BC was the Roman victory of Consul Gaius Marius over the Germanic Cimbri invasion force near the settlement of Vercellae in Cisalpine Gaul....
resulting in the almost complete annihilation of the two Proto-Germanic tribes.
Migrations and conflicts
For unknown reasons (possibly due to climate change, see
Pre-Roman Iron AgeThe Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River. These regions feature many extensive archaeological excavation sites, which have yielded a wealth of artifacts...
) sometime around
120-Births:*Berenice III, reigning Queen of Egypt *Lucius Cornelius Sisenna, writer and politician *Verres, corrupt praetor -Deaths:...
-
115 BC115 BC was a year in the second century BC.-Middle East:* Parthia makes a trade treaty with China.* The Kingdom of Sheba collapses.-Rome:* Gaius Marius is praetor in Rome, he defeats barbarian tribes in modern-day Spain.-Deaths:...
, the Cimbri left their original lands around the
Baltic seaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
in the
JutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, forms the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish-German border to its south...
peninsula and Southern
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
. They journeyed to the southeast, and were soon joined by their neighbors and possible relatives the Teutones. Together they defeated the
ScordisciThe Scordisci were an ancient tribe centred in what would become the Roman Provinces of lower Pannonia, Moesia and present-day Serbia at the confluence of the Savus , Dravus and Danube rivers. They were historically notable from the beginning of the third century B.C. until the turn of the common...
tribe, along with the
BoiiBoii is the Roman name of an Iron age tribe located at the beginning of their history in central Europe, perhaps in or including the regions that still bear their name: Bavaria and Bohemia...
, many of whom apparently joined them. In
113 BC-Rome:* Germanic tribes attack Gaul and northern Spain, the Cimbri defeated a Roman army under G. Papirius Carbo in the Drava Valley.* War between the Celtiberians and the Romans.-Art:...
they arrived on the
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
, in
NoricumNoricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a fraction of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...
, home to the Roman allied
TaurisciThe Taurisci were a people who dwelt in the north of Carniola before the coming of the Romans According to Pliny the Elder, they are the same people known as the Norici....
. Unable to hold back these new, powerful invaders on their own, the Taurisci called to Rome for aid.
Initial Roman defeats
The following year Roman
Consul-Ancient Rome:During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together...
Gnaeus Papirius CarboGnaeus Papirius Carbo, son of Gaius Papirius Carbo, was consul in 113 BC, together with Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius.He was according to Cicero the father of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, who was thrice consul, whereas this latter is called by Velleius Paterculus a brother of Gaius Papirius Carbo...
, led the
legionsThe Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the...
into Noricum, and after making an impressive show of force, took up a strong defensive position and demanded the Cimbri and their allies leave the province immediately. The Cimbri set about to comply peacefully with Rome's demands, when they discovered Carbo had laid an ambush against them. Infuriated by this treachery, they attacked and, at the
Battle of NoreiaThe Battle of Noreia in 112 BC, was the opening action of the Cimbrian War fought between the Roman Republic and the migrating Proto-Germanic tribes the Cimbri and the Teutons . It ended in defeat, and near disaster, for the Romans.- Prelude :...
annihilated Carbo's army, almost killing Carbo in the process.
Italy was now open to invasion, yet for some reason, the Cimbri and their allies headed west over the Alps and into
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
. In
109 BC-Rome:* A Roman army under Marcus Junius Silanus was defeated by the Cimbri and Teutones near the Rhone River....
, they invaded the Roman province of
Gallia NarbonensisGallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in southern France. It was also known as Gallia Transalpina , which was originally a designation for that part of Gaul lying across the Alps from Italia...
and defeated the Roman army there under Marcus Junius Silanus. That same year, they defeated another Roman army at Burdigala (modern day
Bordeauxis a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department...
) and killed its commander, the Consul Gaius Cassius Longinus Ravalla. In
107 BC-Crimea:* The uprising of Saumachus against Mithridates VI in the Bosporan Kingdom.-Rome:* Gaius Marius, having enacted the Marian reforms of the Roman army, arrived in North Africa to lead the war against Jugurtha, with a young quaestor named Lucius Cornelius Sulla as a subordinate....
, the Romans lost again, this time to the Tigurines, who were allies of the Cimbri they had met on their way through the
AlpsThe Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
.
Disaster at ArausioThe Battle of Arausio took place on October 6, 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio and the Rhône River. Ranged against the migratory tribes of the Cimbri under Boiorix and the Teutoni were two Roman armies, commanded by the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and consul Gnaeus Mallius...
In
105 BC-Rome:* October 6—The Battle of Arausio, where the Cimbri destroy two Roman armies on the Rhône, is the most severe defeat of Roman forces since the Battle of Cannae....
, Rome and its new consuls
Quintus Servilius CaepioQuintus Servilius Caepio the Elder was a Roman statesman and general, Consul in 106 BC, Proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul 105 BC. He was the father of Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger, the grandfather of Servilia Caepionis, and the great-grandfather of Marcus Junius Brutus.During his year of office...
and
Gnaeus Mallius MaximusGnaeus Mallius Maximus was a Roman politician and general.He was a novus homo when he was elected to the consulship of the Roman Republic in 105 BC. He drew Gallia Transalpina as his province for the year. He was defeated by Cimbri at the battle of Arausio...
decided they had had enough of these invaders. So to settle the matter once and for all, the Republic gathered the largest force it had fielded since the Second Punic War, possibly the largest force it had ever sent to battle, with over 80,000 troops along with tens of thousands of support personnel and camp followers in two armies, one led by Caepio and one led by Maximus.
The consuls led their armies on their own armed migration to the
Rhône RiverThe Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, originating in Switzerland and running from there through the south-eastern corner of France...
near
Orange, VaucluseOrange is a town and commune in the département of Vaucluse, in the south of France. It has a population of 27,989 people , with a primarily agricultural economy. It is located about north of Avignon...
where they made separate camps on opposite sides of the river. The two Roman commanders disliked and distrusted one another, consequently their armies, instead of acting as a single, overwhelming force, would be separate entities for the Cimbri, Teutones and their allies to destroy in detail. The overconfident Caepio foolishly attacked without support from Mallius Maximus, and his legions were wiped out and his undefended camp overrun. The now isolated and demoralized troops of Maximus were then easily defeated. Thousands more were slain trying desperately to rally and defend his poorly positioned camp. Only Caepio, Maximus and a few hundred Romans escaped over the carnage-choked river with their lives. The
Battle of ArausioThe Battle of Arausio took place on October 6, 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio and the Rhône River. Ranged against the migratory tribes of the Cimbri under Boiorix and the Teutoni were two Roman armies, commanded by the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and consul Gnaeus Mallius...
was the costliest defeat Rome had suffered since
CannaeThe Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, taking place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...
. In fact the losses were far greater and so were the long term consequences. For the Cimbri and Teutones it was a great triumph, yet in it and in their failure to follow up on it were to be sown the seeds of their destruction. Instead of immediately gathering their allies and marching on Rome, the Cimbri went on to
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
, while the Teutones remained in Gaul. Why they did not, for a second and fatal time, invade Italy remains a mystery. Perhaps they thought easier plunder could be found in Gaul and Spain. Possibly too, they might have suffered heavy casualties in their triumphs over the Romans and felt they were not yet strong enough to take them on their home grounds. With their reckless battle tactics, even their victories could have been rendered costly.
Theodor MommsenChristian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
thus describes their methods of war:
Their system of warfare was substantially that of the Celts of this period, who no longer fought, as the Italian Celts had formerly done, bareheaded and with merely sword and dagger, but with copper helmets often richly adorned and with a peculiar missile weapon, the -materis-; the large sword was retained and the long narrow shield, along with which they probably wore also a coat of mail. They were not destitute of cavalry; but the Romans were superior to them in that arm. Their order of battle was as formerly a rude phalanx professedly drawn up with just as many ranks in depth as in breadth, the first rank of which in dangerous combats not unfrequently tied together their metallic girdles with cords.1
So with all these tactical disadvantages, they had to rely on superior numbers, their own fearsome courage and mistakes by Roman commanders to bring them victories. Yet they would soon be faced with a Roman General who seldom made mistakes at the head of a new Roman army which would prove a much deadlier foe.
Marius takes command
Following the devastation of the Arausio, fear shook the Roman Republic to its foundations. The
terror cimbricus became a watchword, as Rome expected the Cimbri at its gates at any time. In this atmosphere of panic and desperation, an emergency was declared. The constitution was ignored and
Gaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career...
, the victor over
JugurthaJugurtha or Jugurthen was a Libyan King of Numidia, born in Cirta . The name Jugurthen is actually a Libyan name and phrase meaning: is greater than them.-Background:...
of
NumidiaNumidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in present-day Algeria and part of Tunisia that later alternated between being a Roman province and being a Roman client state, and is no longer in existence today...
was elected consul for an unprecedented, and technically illegal, five years in a row, starting in
104 BC-Rome:* Athenion starts a slave rebellion in Segesta.* In Rome exist a state of emergency, the way to Italy lays open to the Germanic invaders. Gaius Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, is elected consul for the second time.* Second Servile War starts in Sicily....
, and appointed
ImperatorThe Latin word Imperator was a title originally roughly equivalent to commander during the period of the Roman Republic. It later went on to become a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen...
, supreme commander of the army, with unprecedented powers which he would use to transform the
Roman armyThe Roman Army was employed by the Romans, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion, whose soldiers were called legionaries....
.
Up until this time the army had been a well trained, well regulated
MilitiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
of all able-bodied, land-owning male citizens. Marius replaced this with a standing, professional force made up mostly of able bodied but landless volunteers. He would improve and standardize training, weapons, armor and equipment. He would improve the command structure and make the
CohortsA cohort was the basic tactical unit of a Roman legion following the reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC.-Legionary Cohort:...
the main tactical and administrative units of the legions. Along with these new arrangements would come new standards and symbols- the
AquilaThe Aquila was the eagle standard of a Roman legion, carried by a special grade legionary known as an Aquilifer. One eagle standard was carried by each legion.-History:...
which he taught his troops to revere and never allow to fall into enemy hands.
While the panicked Senate and people of Rome gave Marius the power he needed to undertake his military reforms, the failure of the Cimbri and Teutones to follow up on their victory would give him the time he needed to finish them. They would soon be confronted by an army of organized, highly trained, professional soldiers under the leadership of a brilliant and ruthless commander.
The Roman Republic strikes back
By
102 BC-Rome:*Gaius Marius defeats the Scirii and Teutones at Aix-en-Provence .*The Cimbri defeat the Consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus in the Adige Valley.-Asia:...
, Marius was ready to move against the Teutons. He chose his ground carefully and built a well fortified camp on the top of a hill near
Aquae SextiaeThe Battle of Aquae Sextiae took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman defeats , the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones.- The Battle :...
, where he enticed the Teutones and their
AmbronesThe tribe of the Ambrones appears briefly in the Roman sources relating to the 2nd century BC. Their location at the beginning of their brief history was the coast of north Europe, north of the Rhinemouth, in the Frisian Islands, the region now occupied by what is left of the Zuider Zee, and...
allies to attack him. Once they did, they were attacked in the rear by a select force of five cohorts Marius had hidden in a nearby wood. The Teutons were routed and massacred and their king,
TeutobodTeutobod was King of the Teutons. In the late 2nd century BCE, together with their neighbours, allies and possible relatives, the Cimbri, the Teutons migrated from their original homes in southern Scandinavia and on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, south into the Danube valley, southern Gaul and...
, placed in Roman chains. But Aquae Sextiae had only evened the score: while the Teutons had been eliminated, the Cimbri remained a formidable threat.
In
101 BC-Rome:* The Roman consuls Gaius Marius and Manius Aquillius defeat the Cimbri in the Battle of Campi Raudii .-Deaths:* Cleopatra III of Egypt assassinated by her son Ptolemy X Alexander I...
, the Cimbri returned to Gaul and prepared for the final act of their drama with Rome. For the first time they penetrated through the Alpine passes, which Marius' co-consul for that year,
Quintus Lutatius CatulusQuintus Lutatius Catulus was a general and consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC, and the leading public figure of the gens Lutatia of the time. His colleague in the consulship was Gaius Marius, but the two feuded and Catulus sided with Sulla in the civil war of 88–87 BC...
, had failed to fortify, into northern Italy. Catulus withdrew behind the
Po RiverThe Po is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest...
, leaving the countryside open to the invaders. But the Cimbri took their time ravishing this fertile region, which gave Marius time to arrive with reinforcements — his victorious legions from Aquae Sextiae. It would be at
VercellaeThe Battle of Vercellae, or Battle of the Raudine Plain, in 101 BC was the Roman victory of Consul Gaius Marius over the Germanic Cimbri invasion force near the settlement of Vercellae in Cisalpine Gaul....
near the confluence of the
Sesia RiverThe Sesia is a river in north-western Italy, tributary to the Po. Its sources are the glaciers of Monte Rosa at the border with Switzerland. It flows through the Alpine valley Valsesia and the towns Varallo Sesia, Quarona, Borgosesia and Vercelli...
with the Po on the Raudine Plain, where the superiority of the new Roman legions and their cavalry would be clearly demonstrated. In the devastating defeat the Cimbri were virtually annihilated, and both their main leaders,
BoiorixBoiorix was a king of the Cimbri tribe. His most notable achievement was a spectacular victory against the Romans at the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. He was later defeated and slain at the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BC....
and Lugius, fell. The women killed both themselves and their children in order to avoid slavery. Thus the war which began with migration, ended in genocide and mass suicide.
Aftermath
The Cimbri were not completely wiped off the face of the map or from the pages of history. A small remnant population of Cimbri and Teutones remained in northern Jutland, southern Scandinavia and the Baltic coast at least until the 1st century. Their allies, the
BoiiBoii is the Roman name of an Iron age tribe located at the beginning of their history in central Europe, perhaps in or including the regions that still bear their name: Bavaria and Bohemia...
, with whom they intermixed, settled in southern Gaul and Germania and were there to welcome and confront
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Marius' nephew, in his campaigns of conquest.
The political consequences from the war had an immediate and lasting impact on Rome. The end of the Cimbrian war marked the beginning of the rivalry between Marius and
SullaLucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , or simply Sulla, was a Roman general and politician, holding the office of consul twice as well as the dictatorship....
, which eventually lead to the first of Rome's great civil wars. Moreover, following the final victory at Vercellae, and without first asking permission from the Senate, Marius granted Roman citizenship to his Italian allied soldiers, claiming that in the din of battle he could not distinguish the voice of Roman from ally from the voice of the law. Henceforth all Italian legions became Roman legions and the allied cities of the Italian peninsula progressively sought a greater say in the external policy of the Republic, leading eventually to the Social War.