page_title: Cimbrian War
section_title: Turning point
hierarchical_section_title: Cimbrian War / Turning point
context_page_description: The Cimbrian or Cimbric War was fought between the Roman Republic and the Germanic and Celtic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutones, Ambrones and Tigurini, who migrated from the Jutland peninsula into Roman controlled territory, and clashed with Rome and her allies. The Cimbrian War was the first time since the Second Punic War that Italia and Rome 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 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, inspired the landmark Marian reforms of the Roman legions.
  Rome was finally victorious, and its Germanic adversaries, who had inflicted on the Roman armies the heaviest losses that they had suffered since the Second Punic War, with victories at the battles of Arausio and Noreia, were left almost completely annihilated after Roman victories at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae.
context_section_description: 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 Teutons, a Germanic tribe apparently from north-Germany or Denmark. After this union, the Germanic coalition determined to move back south upon Italy, which they had previously avoided. Marching south through Switzerland and Savoy, their army was augmented by some tribes of Helvetians, particularly the Tigurini, and the Ambrones of uncertain descent. Before approaching Italy, the Germans decided on a two pronged movement; the Teutons with the Ambrones and the Tigurini would move from the west along the coast-road from Transalpine into Cisalpine Gaul; while the Cimbri would march east and turn around into Italy by the Julian and Carnic Alps. When Marius heard of their movements, he advanced to Valence, and established his camp at the confluence of the Isère and the Rhône, where he could observe and halt the march of the Teutons. When the Teutons arrived, they attempted to force him into battle, but he declined; they attacked the Roman camp, but were beaten off. Impatient of the delay and of Marius' passivity, they finally decided to simply march past him into Italy. So enormous were their numbers, that they reportedly took 6 whole days marching by his camp, and in their arrogance they taunted the Romans, what message they wished them to give to their wives?  Marius followed cautiously, maintaining distance from the enemy, but closely following his movements. A few days later, a skirmish turned into a battle with the Ambrones, who for some reason camped separately from the Teutones. The Ambrones were defeated with heavy losses and fled to their Teutonic allies. The Teutones halted their trek south and awaited Marius near Aquae Sextiae. This afforded Marius favorable conditions, for with his enemy stationary he got to scout the battlegrounds and he chose his ground carefully. In the subsequent battle, he lured the Teutones and their allies into attacking him while his army was occupying the highground. During their attack they were ambushed from the rear by a select force of five cohorts which Marius had hidden in a nearby wood. The Teutones were routed and massacred and their king, Teutobod, was placed in Roman chains. But Aquae Sextiae had only evened the score: while the Teutones had been eliminated, the Cimbri remained a formidable threat.
  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, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, had failed to fortify, into northern Italy. Catulus withdrew behind the Po River, leaving the countryside open to the invaders. But the Cimbri took their time ravishing the fertile region, which gave Marius time to arrive with reinforcements — his same victorious legions from Aquae Sextiae. It would be at Vercellae near the confluence of the Sesia River with the Po on the Raudine Plain where the superiority of the new Roman legions and their cavalry were clearly demonstrated. In the devastating defeat the Cimbri were virtually annihilated, and both their highest leaders, Boiorix and Lugius, fell. The women killed both themselves and their children in order to avoid slavery. Thus the war, which began with a mass migration, ended in defeat and mass suicide.
caption: The Defeat of the Cimbri, by Alexandre Gabriel Décamps
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