Rome Vs Germanic Tribes, Round One: the Genocide of the Cimbrii

A History of Mankind (198)

To check all previous newsletters in the History of Mankind, which is pretty long, you can click here.

Marius’ glorious return to Rome from the Jugurthan War coincided with an extremely convenient crisis: the problem with the Cimbrii Germans that defeated the reckless Marcus Junius Silanus in 109 BC, while Marius was preparing his consular run, had only worsened along the northern borders.

The problem stemmed from the actions of a series of venal Roman commanders, whose only interest was personal advancement and enrichment. These commanders had failed to contain growing insurgency among Gaulish tribes and the nomadic Germans, whose proposal to settle on Rome’s northern borders — which never really had a chance of approval — had later been rejected by the senate.

Romans were in no mood to share anything with barbarians. Quintus Servilius Caepio, a consul in 106 BC, famously managed to take Tolosa/Toulouse from rebellious Gaulish tribes, in the process securing a massive cache of loot that he was widely suspected of stealing entirely for himself.