Cimbri

Chapter 5.

The Cimbri and Teutones.

The Jugurthine War ended in 105 B.C.

In one way it had been of real service to Rome.

A terrible crisis was at hand, and this war had given her both soldiers and a general worthy of the name.

Before, however, the story of the struggle with the Cimbri is told, something must be said about what had been going on at Rome, about the man who had now most influence there, and about his rivals.

The great social struggle had recommenced.

The personal rivalry between Marius and Sulla had begun before the Cimbric War.

And so the Kariski, ever reputed good and just, are now called cowards and fools, while in the case of the victorious Kedi success has been identified with prudence.

The downfall of the Kariski brought with it also that of the Fossi, a neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their disasters, though they had been inferior to them in prosperous days.

in the same remote corner of germany bordering on the ocean dwell the khimri a now insignificant tribe but of great renown of their ancient glory wide-spread traces yet remain on both the sides of the rhine are encampments of vast extent and by their circuit you may even now measure the warlike strength of the tribe and find evidence of that mighty emigration Rome was in her 640th year, when we first heard of the Cimbrian invader, in the consulship of Cecilius Matalus and Papirius Carbo, from which time to the second consulship of the emperor Trajan we have to reckon about 210 years.

So long have we been in conquering Germany.

in the space of this long epoch many losses have been sustained on both sides neither samnite nor carthaginian neither spain nor gaul not even the parthians have given us more frequent warnings german independence truly is fiercer than the despotism of a narcissus what else indeed can the east taunt us with but the slaughter of grasses when it has itself lost pachyrus and been crushed under a But Germans, by routing or making prisoners of Carbo, Cassius, Scurus, Aurelius, Servilius Capio, and Marcellus Manlius, deprived the Roman people of five consular armies, and they robbed even the Caesar of Verus and his three legions.

It's from The Waterboy, it's a beautiful movie.

Ayo, Kimbrove with Marte.

Uh, well, one got DFA'd, so I guess it's just the one now that you're picking out.

We got DePaula.

They were exposed, however, to attacks from the east, which not only menaced their own independence, but were a source of danger to Rome.

The devastating incursions of the Cimbri and Teutoni at the end of the second century before Christ were followed after an interval of thirty years by the invasion of the German chieftain Ariovistus, and a few years later, by the appearance of marauders from Switzerland on the right bank of the Rhone.

Thus, when Caesar was appointed governor of Illyricum in Gaul, his tenure of office was likely to be eventful, especially as his commission apparently gave him the right to include the whole of independent Gaul north of the province within his sphere of action.

His appointment carried with it the command of an army consisting of four legions, perhaps about twenty thousand men.

And this, considering the great power of the Roman people, he regarded as an extreme disgrace to himself and his country.

Besides that the Germans should insensibly form the habit of crossing the Rhine and enter Gaul in the large numbers was, he saw, fraught with danger to the Roman people.

He believed, too, that being fierce barbarians, they would not stop short when they had taken possession of the whole of Gaul, but would pass on into the province, as the Cimbri and Teutoni had done before them, and thence push on into Italy, especially as the Sequani were only separated from our province by the Rhone, and he thought it essential to obviate this danger at the earliest possible moment.

Moreover, Ariovistus himself had assumed an inflated and arrogant demeanor which made him quite insufferable.

Now, if powerful and populous generals could win the support of the legions, they had tens of thousands of full-time career soldiers supporting them.

While Marius was leading the Numidian War to a successful conclusion, two Germanic tribes, the Cimbri and Teutones, invaded northern Italy in large numbers, posing a major threat to Rome's safety.

The Senate now elected Marius to a second consulship in 104 BC and gave him the responsibility of defeating the Germanic tribes.

After rebuilding the legions on the northern frontier, Marius turned the tide of the war and served an unprecedented five consecutive terms as consul between 104 and 100 BC.

He has this kind of, this, this hair that's so golden that it's almost red, which is very striking in Rome.

He has kind of blue eyes, actually, a bit like a Cimbrian, so again, very striking.

And he's, again, if we can trust Plutarch, he seems to have operated as a bit of a gigolo.

Um, both his stepmother, rather sinisterly, and Rome's most famous courtesan are said to have become obsessed by him, and in their wills, both these women leave most of their property to Sulla.

While Rome was distracted by Jugurtha, something enormous was moving towards Italy from the north.

Two Germanic tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons.

Romans said hundreds of thousands of fighting men.

And that's before you could count the families traveling with them.

The first is that Marius saved Rome.

The second is that his reforms were the only reason he could.

His reformed legions, the landless professionals trained as a standing army, met the Cimbri and the Teutons and destroyed them.

Aquae Sextii in 102 BC, which is modern Aix-en-Provence, takes out the Teutons.

[upbeat music] And now it was.

The news began to reach Rome of the Teutons and the Cimbri.

Initially, the reports detailing the numbers and strength of these invaders seemed fantastical.

But it soon became clear that all the rumors were in reality underestimates of the truth.

Firstly, their enormous size.

Next, the light blue color of their eyes.

And finally, the fact that Cimbri is a word which in the language of the Germans means plunderer.

That was the Greek historian Plutarch, and he's describing in very chilling and spine-tingling terms one of the most terrifying moments in Roman history, a migration of barbarians which by the year 113 BC had arrived at the gates of Roman Italy.