THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 103

From the Alps to Arausio: Four Victories over the Roman Legions

7-05. From the Alps to Arausio: Four Victories over the Roman Legions

As early as the year B.C. 182 we find the Bastarnae in negotiations with Philip of Macedon. Philip's plan was to get rid of the Dardanians, and after settling his allies on the territory thus vacated to use it as a base for an expedition against Italy. After long negotiations, the Bastarnae in 179 abandoned their lately-won territory, crossed the Danube and advanced into Thrace. At this point King Philip died, and after an unsuccessful battle with the Thracians the Bastarnae began a retreat to the settlement which they had abandoned; but a detachment of some 30,000 men under Clondicus pressed on into Dardania. With the aid of the Thracians and Scordiscans and with the connivance of Philip's successor, Perseus, he pressed the Dardanians hard for a time, but at last in the winter of 175 he also decided to retire.

In Rome the intrigues of the Macedonian kings had been watched with growing mistrust and displeasure, which found expression in the despatch of a commission lo investigate the situation in Macedonia and especially on the Dardanian border. This, therefore, is the first occasion on which the Roman State had to concern itself with Teutonic affairs. At that time, it is true, the racial difference between Kelts and Teutons was not yet recognised and the Bastarnae were therefore supposed to be Gauls. Before very long (168), we find the Bastarnae again in relations with the King of Macedon. Twenty thousand men, again under the command of Clondicus, were to join him in his struggle with the Romans in Paeonia. But Perseus was blinded by avarice, and failed to keep his promises. Clondicus therefore, who had already reached the country of the Maedi, promptly turned to the right-about and marched home through Thrace. From this point they disappear from history for a time, only to reappear in the Mithradatic wars as allies of that King, and they consequently appear also in the list of the nations over whom Pompey triumphed in the year 61.

In the East, on the frontiers of Europe and Asia, the Germanic race attracted little notice; but in the West, about the close of the second century B.C., it shook the edifice of the Roman State to its foundations and spread the terror of its name over the whole of Western Europe. It was the Cimbri, along with their allies the Teutones and Ambrones, who for half a score of years kept the world in suspense. All three peoples were doubtless of Germanic stock. We may take it as established that the original home of the Cimbri was on the Jutish peninsula, that of the Teutones somewhere between the Ems and the Weser, and that of the Ambrones in the same neighbourhood, also on the North Sea coast. The cause of their migration was the constant encroachment of the sea upon their coasts, the occasion being an inundation which devastated their territory, great stretches of it being engulfed by the sea. This is the account given by ancient writers and we have no reason to doubt its truth. The exodus of all three peoples took place about the same time, and obviously in such a way that from the first they went forward in close touch with one another. First they turned southwards, probably following the line of the Elbe, crossed the Erzgebirge and pressed on into Bohemia, the land of the Boii. Driven back by the latter, they seem to have made their way along the valley of the March, southwards to the Danube, and then through Pannonia into the country of the Scordisci. Here, too, they encountered such vigorous opposition in the year 114 B.C. that they preferred to turn westwards. That brought them into contact with the Taurisci who had formed a close alliance with the Romans in 115.

In the Carnic Alps was stationed a Roman army under the command of the Consul Cn. Papirius Carbo, which immediately advanced into Noricum. Carbo's attempt by means of a treacherous attack to annihilate the Teutons ended in a severe defeat. The way into Italy now lay open to the victors. But so great was the awe in which they still held the Roman name, that they promptly turned away towards the north. Their route led them to the territory of the Helveti, which then extended from the Lake of Constance as far as the Main. The Helveti do not seem to have offered any resistance ; indeed a considerable section of the Helveti — the Tigurini and Toygeni — attached themselves to the Teutonic migrants. The Germanic hosts then crossed the Rhine and pressed on southwards, plundering as they went.

In B.C. 109 they halted in the valley of the Rhone, on the frontier of the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, for the protection of which a strong army under the Consul M. Junius Silanus had taken the field. The Romans attacked, but were defeated for the second time. Again the Germans shrank from invading Roman territory and preferred to plunder and ravage the Gallic districts, which they completely laid waste. Finally, in the year 105 they appeared once more on the frontier of the Province, this time resolved to attack the Romans. Of the three armies which opposed them that of the Legate M. Aurelius Scaurus was first defeated in the territory of the Allobroges. On 6 October followed the bloody battle of Arausio in which the other two armies, under the Consul Cn. Mallius Maximus and the Proconsul Q. Servilius Caepio, in all some 60,000 troops, were completely annihilated. But instead of marching into Italy, the barbarians once again let the favourable moment slip, and thus lost the fruits of their victory. They divided their forces. The Cimbri marched away westwards, first into the country of the Volcae, then on over the Pyrenees into Spain where they carried on a desultory and indecisive struggle with the Celtiberi; the Teutons and Helveti turned northwards to continue the work of plundering Gaul. In 103 the Cimbrian hosts made their way back to Gaul and reunited, in the territory of South-Belgic Veliocasses, with their comrades who had remained behind.

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