Cimbrian War

Cimbrian War

Supposed migrations of the Cimbri and the Teutons:
BattleL Roman victories
BattleW Victories of the Cimbri and Teutons
Date6 October 113–101 BC (12 years)
Location
Central, Southern and Western Europe, Noricum and Gaul
Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic
Celtiberians
Cimbri
Teutones
Ambrones
Tigurini
Commanders and leaders
Gaius Marius
Quintus Lutatius Catulus
Quintus Servilius Caepio
Gnaeus Mallius Maximus
Gnaeus Papirius Carbo
Lucius Cassius Longinus 
Lucius Calpurnius Piso 
Marcus Junius Silanus
Boiorix  (Cimbri)
Lugius  (Cimbri)
Claodicus Surrendered (Cimbri)
Caesorix Surrendered (Cimbri)
Divico (Tigurini)
Teutobod Surrendered (Teutons)

The Cimbrian or Cimbric War (113–101 BC) was fought between the Roman Republic and the Germanic and Celtic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons, 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, 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 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. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators during the Third Servile War.[1]

  1. ^ Strauss, Barry (2009). The Spartacus War. Simon and Schuster. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-1-4165-3205-7. marius german.