Approximately 80,000 legionnaires and 40,000 noncombatants lost their lives, leaving Rome open to being conquered. The resulting defeat was the worst Rome had suffered since the catastrophe at Cannae more than a century earlier. The barbarians quickly overran Caepio’s base and then annihilated Maximus’s army and camp.

His army was not only stopped, but the Cimbri and Teutones counterattacked and destroyed it. Without informing Maximus of his intentions, the proconsul hastily attacked the barbarians. Instead of having one of the largest Roman armies ever put into the field, the forces were divided with Caepio having erected his base in front of Maximus’s camp. Bad relations and jealousy led to separate plans and camps. Because Maximus lacked military experience and was a novus homo, the first of his family to serve in the Roman Senate, Caepio refused to serve under or even cooperate with him. Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus led a consular army north from Rome to join forces with Proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio, whose army was already in the region dealing with border violations. At that point, the Cimbri were joined by the Teutones, Ambrones, and Tigurini in their migration across Europe.Īnother significant loss occurred on October 6, 105 bc, at Arausio on the Rhone River. The clash ended with a heavy Roman defeat the following year at Noreia. A miscommunication led to a local Roman commander’s attempt of a surprise assault on the Cimbri.

Looking for sufficient lands to settle, the Cimbri arrived in Noricum, the land of Roman allies known as the Taurisci in 113 bc. The road to this crucial battle in southeast Gaul began years before with the rise of the Cimbri, who hailed from the Jutland peninsula. More important, if Marius lost, the Teutones would have an open road to Rome. Marius, in an unprecedented third consecutive term as consul, would learn if the past two years of training and conditioning his army had been worth the time, effort, and resources. Although the two sides had clashed previously, that engagement involved only a small portion of both the Roman and barbarian forces. Starting from where the Isere River flows into the Rhone, the enemy’s route had led him to Aquae Sextiae, now known as Aix-en-Provence. Marius and his army had been trailing a pair of Celto-Germanic tribes, the Teutones and Ambrones, for the past few weeks. In the evening hours on a midsummer day in 102 bc, Roman Consul Gaius Marius decided that tomorrow was to be the day to confront the barbarians.

Arausio theater