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. 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. 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. In 109 BC, they invaded the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis and defeated the Roman army there under Marcus Junius Silanus. Italy was now open to invasion, yet for some reason, the Cimbri and their allies moved west over the Alps and into Gaul. Infuriated by this treachery, they attacked and, at the Battle of Noreia, annihilated Carbo’s army, almost killing Carbo in the process. The Cimbri initially set about complying peacefully with Rome’s demands, but soon discovered that Carbo had laid an ambush against them. The following year the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo led the legions into Noricum, and after making an impressive show of force, took up a strong defensive position and demanded that the Cimbri and their allies leave the province immediately. Unable to hold back these new, powerful invaders on their own, the Taurisci called on Rome for aid. In 113 BC they arrived on the Danube, in Noricum, home to the Roman-allied Taurisci. Together they defeated the Scordisci, along with the Boii, many of whom apparently joined them. They supposedly journeyed to the south-east and were soon joined by their neighbours and possible relatives the Teutones. Migrations and ConflictsĪccording 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). Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators during the Third Servile War. 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. The Cimbrian threat, along with the Jugurthine War, inspired the landmark Marian reforms of the Roman legions. 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 timing of the war had a great effect on the internal politics of Rome, and the organization of its military.
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