Cimbrian War

The Cimbrian War (Latin: Bellum Cimbricum,113-101 BC) was a war between the Roman Republic at the end of the second century BC and the Germanic tribes of the Cimbri, Teutons, and a number of Celtic tribes.

Ancient tradition sometimes associated the Cimbri and Teutones with Gauls, but they should be studied alongside the Celts as distinct and debated groups.

Movements of the Cimbri, Teutones and associated groups brought them into conflict with Rome in the late second century BCE. Ancient writers explained the migrations partly through flooding of earlier homelands, but these accounts do not establish one proven cause.

The Cimbri and Teutones are traditionally associated with northern, including Germanic, populations. Their composition and connections with Celtic groups remain debated. The Tigurini were part of the Helvetii, not synonymous with all Helvetii. The origins of the Ambrones likewise should not be presented as settled.

Course of the war

Having conquered several Celtic tribes on the Upper Danube, the Teutons and Cimbrians moved further towards Italy. The Romans and Cimbri first came face to face with the Teutons, in the northeastern Alps, when they invaded Noricum (present-day Austria) in 113 BC. Here they began to plunder and ravage the tribes and cities allied to Rome. The Senate sent a Roman army against them, led by the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. Carbo, in order to block their way from Noricum to Italy, occupied the mountain passes in the North-Eastern Alps. After unsuccessful negotiations, a battle took place, which the Romans lost. After the battle, the Cimbri continued west. After passing through the Helvetii, where they were joined by the Tigurini and Tougeni tribes, the Cimbri crossed the Rhine and entered Gaul. Here they defeated the Romans in several battles over several years (109,107,105 BC). In 105 BC, at the Battle of Arausio, a Celtic settlement on the left bank of the Rhone, the Teutons and Cimbri were able to completely destroy two Roman armies commanded by Proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. As a result, the Romans were unable to stop the advance of the Germanic tribes from Gaul to Italy. Roman historians Tacitus and Orosius report that the Romans lost ca. 80 thousand soldiers and 40 thousand servants, which exceeded the loss of the Romans in the battle with Hannibal, at Cannae. Modern historians believe that such high losses among the Romans are explained by the fact that the Germans managed to first pin down and then throw both Roman armies into the Rhone River. But the Romans were lucky, as after this victory, the Germans abandoned an immediate invasion of Italy for the time being. They ravaged the village, which was left defenseless, since all the Roman troops capable of defending it were destroyed, Narbonese Gaul and from there they invaded Spain, where the Celtiberians (a group of tribes in central and northern Spain and in Portugal before the Roman conquest of these territories) forced them to return to Gaul. All this gave the Romans a little respite. The victories of the Germanic tribes over the Roman armies within a few years, caused the inhabitants of Rome terror cimbricus ("Cimbrian horror"). In the wake of such tragic events, the Romans elected Gaius Marius, an experienced general, as consul in 104 BC. Marius made good use of the time when the Cimbri and Teutons were plundering Gaul and Spain, carrying out a military reform of the Roman army (for more information, see the article on Gaius Marius) and beginning its preparation for battle with the barbarians. Finally, in 102 BC, the combined barbarian forces marched in 3 columns to Italy. The Teutons and Ambrons took the shortest route along the coast. The Cimbri set out across Noricum, skirting the Alps. The Tigurins lingered in the Alpine foothills and dispersed after the news of the Allied defeat. About this method of attack of the Germans on Rome, we are informed by the Roman historian Lucius Annaeus Flor. "Epitomes".1.38. The first people Gaius Marius encountered were the Teutons and Ambrons as they marched along the coast to Italy from Gaul. Marius managed to gain an advantageous position near the city of Aquae Sextii (today this place is located north of the modern city of Marseille), near which the battle took place in the summer of 102 BC. e. the Romans won. Ancient historians have variously estimated the barbarian losses: Plutarch writes about the dead and captured by the number of about 100 thousand people; Velleius Paterculus reports about 150 thousand people; Tacitus reports about 200 thousand people killed and 90 thousand prisoners. The Romans destroyed the Teutonic people, either by killing them in battle or by capturing them. Captured by the Romans was the Teutonic leader Teutobod, who would later be ” honored " as a prisoner through the streets of Rome during the triumph. The second column, the Cimbri, moving around the Alps to Italy, was stopped by the second consul of 102 BC, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, who was stationed with troops in the north-eastern Alps. Catulus was unable to hold off, much less defeat, the Cimbri and retreated to the southern bank of the Po, thus leaving the Cimbri to plunder the north of Italy between the Po and the Alps. Thus ended another year of the Cimbrian War. In 101 BC, Gaius Marius, again elected consul, joined forces with the proconsul Catulus and again crossed to the southern bank of the Po River, where he began to impose a decisive battle on the Cimbri. They initially evaded it, but after learning what fate befell their Teutonic allies, they agreed to battle. The battle took place on July 30,101 BC on the Field of Ravda near the town of Vercell (modern Vercelli, Italy). Catulus and his army were positioned in the center, while Marius and his army occupied the flanks. The Cimbri formed a large square. Putting all his cavalry on the right flank. In the end, the Romans won, but Catulus and Marius argued over who had inflicted the decisive defeat on the Cimbri. Two of the 4 Cimbrian chieftains, Boiorix and Lugius, were killed in the battle, while two other chieftains, Claodicus and Caesorix, were captured. The wives of the Cimbri defended themselves fiercely, and committed suicide, as did the Teutonic women. As with the losses in the battle of Aquae Sextii, ancient authors differ in the number of enemies killed and captured: Florus reports 65 thousand people killed; Velleius Paterculus reports 100 thousand Cimbri killed and captured, and Plutarch reported 120 thousand killed and 60 thousand captured enemies.

Results

Victories at Aquae Sextiae in 102 and Vercellae in 101 BCE ended the immediate threat to Italy. The invading forces were defeated, with many people killed or enslaved.

Ancient casualty totals differ and may be exaggerated. Destruction of migrating armies does not establish the extermination of every population bearing their names: Cimbri appear in later sources. The war enhanced Marius’ prestige but did not end Rome’s relations with northern peoples.

Related topics

• Roman Republic

Literature and sources

Ancient authors: - Lucius Annaeus Flor. "Epitomes". Book I. 38.; - Strabo. Geografiya (7.2.2,5.1.8); - Titus Liivius," The History of Rome from the foundation of the city "(books 63,65,67,68); - Julius Caesar “The Gallic Wars” (1.7,1.12—13,2.4,7.77); - Appian," On the Wars with the Celts "(fr. 13); - Granius Licinianus (fragm., book 33); 67; - P. Orosius. "History against the Gentiles". (5.16.); - Plutarch. "Comparative biographies. Gaius Marius”; - Vellei Paterkul. "Roman History". (2.12.). Modern literature: - Die Germanen: Ein Handbuch / Hrsg. B. Krüger. 2. Aufl. B.,1976–1983. Bd 1-2; Shchukin M. B., Eremenko V. E. K probleme kimbrov, Teutonov i keltoskov: tri zagadki [On the problem of the Cimbri, Teutons and Celtoscientists: three riddles]. 1999. No. 34; Kulakov V. I. Istoriya Prussii do 1283 g. [History of Prussia before 1283] Moscow,2003, pp. 246,247.