Cimbrian War
Cimbrian War | |||||||
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Supposed migrations of the Cimbri and the Teutons: Roman victories Victories of the Cimbri and Teutons | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Roman Republic Celtiberians | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Boiorix † (Cimbri) Lugius † (Cimbri) Claodicus (Cimbri) Caesorix (Cimbri) Divico (Tigurini) Teutobod (Teutons) |
The Cimbrian or Cimbric War (113–101 BC) was fought between the
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 Marius, whose consulships and political conflicts challenged many of the Roman Republic's political institutions and customs of the time. The Cimbrian threat, along with the Jugurthine War, allegedly inspired the putative Marian reforms of the Roman legions, a view now contested by modern historians.
Rome was finally victorious, and its Germanic adversaries, who had inflicted on the Roman armies the heaviest losses that they had suffered since the
Migrations and conflicts
According to some Roman accounts, sometime around 120–115 BC, the Cimbri left their original lands around the North Sea due to flooding (Strabo, on the other hand, wrote that this was unlikely or impossible[2]) They supposedly journeyed to the south-east and were soon joined by their neighbours and possible relatives the Teutones. Together they defeated the Scordisci, along with the Boii, many of whom apparently joined them. In 113 BC they arrived on the Danube, in Noricum, home to the Roman-allied Taurisci. Unable to hold back these new, powerful invaders on their own, the Taurisci called on Rome for aid.
Initial Roman defeats
The following year the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo led the legions into Noricum, and after making a show of force, took up a strong defensive position and demanded that the Cimbri and their allies leave the province immediately. The Cimbri initially set about complying peacefully with Rome's demands, but soon discovered that Carbo had laid an ambush against them. Infuriated by this treachery, they attacked and, at the Battle of Noreia, 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 moved west over the Alps and into Gaul. In 109 BC, they invaded the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis and defeated the Roman army there under Marcus Junius Silanus. In 107 BC, the Romans were defeated again, this time by the Tigurini, who were allies of the Cimbri whom they had met on their way through the Alps. That same year, they defeated another Roman army at the Battle of Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux) and killed its commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravalla.
Disaster at Arausio
In 105 BC, Rome and its new consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio, in order to settle the matter once and for all, gathered the largest force it had fielded since the Second Punic War, and possibly the largest force it had ever sent to battle. The force consisted of over 80,000 men, along with tens of thousands of support personnel and camp followers in two armies, one led by each consul.
The consuls led their armies on their own armed migration to the
Instead of immediately gathering their allies and marching on Rome, the Cimbri proceeded to Hispania. There, they suffered their first defeat, not at the hands of a Roman army, but against a Celtiberian coalition.[3] In the meantime, the Teutones remained in Gaul. Why they again failed to invade Italy remains a mystery. Theodor Mommsen speculatively 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.[4]
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 Marius, the victor over Jugurtha of Numidia was elected consul for an unprecedented, and arguably illegal, five years in a row, starting in 104 BC. Because of the destruction of the Roman force at Arausio and the pressure of the impending crisis, Marius was tasked with rebuilding, effectively from scratch, the Gallic legions.[5] Building his army around a core of trained legionaries from the last year, Marius again secured exemption from the property requirements and with his newly minted reputation for victory, raised an army of some thirty thousand Romans and forty thousand Italian allies and auxiliaries.[6] He established a base around the town of Aquae Sextiae (modern Aix-en-Provence) and trained his men.[6] Over his successive consulships, Marius was not idle. He trained his troops, built his intelligence network, and conducted diplomacy with the Gallic tribes on the provincial frontiers.[7]
While the panicked Senate and people of Rome gave Marius the power he needed to build his army, the failure of the Cimbri and Teutones to follow up on their victory gave him the time he needed to finish it. They would soon be confronted by an army of organized and trained soldiers under the leadership of a brilliant and ruthless commander.
Turning point
By 102 BC, Marius was ready to face the Cimbri; the latter, after difficulties in Spain, had turned north into Gaul, where they were joined by the
In 101 BC, the Cimbri returned to Gaul and prepared for the final stage of their struggle with Rome. For the first time they penetrated through the Alpine passes, which Marius's co-consul for that year,
Aftermath
The Cimbri were not completely wiped off the face of the map or from the pages of history. Their allies, the Boii, with whom they intermixed, settled in southern Gaul and Germania and were there to welcome and confront Julius Caesar, Marius's nephew, in his campaigns of conquest. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War.[1]
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
According to traditional historiography, henceforth Italian legions became Roman legions and the allied cities of the Italian peninsula progressively began to demand a greater say in the external policy of the Republic, leading eventually to the Social War.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4165-3205-7.
marius german.
- ^ Geographia Book VII Chapter 2
- ^ Livio. Periochae. LXVII.
- ^ "Theodor Mommsen History of Rome – The Revolution". italian.classic-literature.co.uk. p. 67.
- ^ Duncan 2017, p. 130.
- ^ a b Duncan 2017, p. 131.
- ^ Duncan 2017, p. 135.
- ^ A. H. Beesely, The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History, (Kindle edition), ch. V., p. 53
- ^ a b c Beesely, p. 54
- ^ a b Marc Hyden, Gaius Marius, pp. 132–134; Plutarch, Life of Marius, 19.1–6; Orosius, Against the Pagans, 5.16; Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 1.38.9.
- ^ "Collections: The Marian Reforms Weren't a Thing". 30 June 2023.
- Duncan, Mike (2017). The Storm before the Storm. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-5417-2403-7.
- Dupuy, R. Ernest, and Trevor N. Dupuy, The Encyclopedia Of Military History: From 3500 B.C. To The Present. (2nd Revised Edition 1986) pp. 90–91.
- Jar García de Andoain, Enaitz. "La Guerra Cimbria" (PDF). Revista Ejército (Nº 919, noviembre de 2017) (in Spanish): 92–98.
- Mommsen, Theodor, History of Rome, Book IV "The Revolution", pp. 66–72.