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Battle of Burdigala | |||||||
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Part of the Cimbrian War and Roman–Germanic Wars | |||||||
The migrations of the Cimbri and the Teutons. Roman victories Cimbrian and Teutone victories | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Roman Republic | A combined Germano–Celtic army:
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Divico | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
40,000 [1] | Unknown but severely outnumbering the Romans [2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
10,000 [1] | Relatively low |
The Battle of Burdigala (Roman name for Bordeaux) took place during the Cimbrian War in 107 BC. The battle was fought between a combined Germano-Celtic army including the Helvetian Tigurini under the command of Divico, and the forces of the Roman Republic under the command of Lucius Cassius Longinus, Lucius Caesoninus, and Gaius Popillius Laenas. Longinus and Caesoninus were killed in the action and the battle resulted in a victory for the combined tribes.
In 113 BC, the Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons invaded Roman territory, defeating an army under the command of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo in Noricum at the Battle of Noreia. The Germanic tribes demanded to be given the right to settle in Roman territory. When denied, the Germanic force marched all the way to Gallia Narbonensis where they defeated another Roman army under the command of Marcus Junius Silanus at an unknown location. It was thereafter that the Germans forged an alliance with the Tigurini tribe and Rome prepared for an invasion of the lower peninsula that did not come.
In 107 BC, the Roman Senate launched another campaign under Lucius Cassius Longinus, Lucius Caesoninus, and Gaius Popillius Laenas (son of Publius Popillius Laenas), to defend one of their allied tribes. At first, all went well for Rome. Just outside Tolosa, the combatants met and, despite the huge numbers of Germans and their allies, Longinus defeated them and they retreated in disorder, leaving behind a large number of baggage wagons. Flushed with his success, Longinus followed them, but was reluctant to leave behind the captured baggage train, which slowed his army down significantly. [1]
By the time he reached Burdigala, it was heavily fortified and the barbarians had been reinforced. Longinus made a camp on a defensible hilltop near Burdigala and decided to attack the oppidum. He put the camp under the command of Popillius Laenas and marched on Burdigala, but did so without tightening ranks or marching in squares. He apparently did not even bother to send out scouts. Near Burdigala, Longinus and his army were ambushed by the combined tribes. He was killed in the action along with 10,000 of his men. The remaining Roman forces were saved from the same fate by Laenas, who was forced to surrender a majority of the army's supplies in return for permission to retire from the field "under the yoke". [1]
When news of the Roman defeat reached the Gallic countryside, several towns rose in revolt including Toulouse. The following year, another consul, Quintus Servilius Caepio, marched on the rebellious Gallic forces and captured Toulouse, capturing the Gold of Tolosa (Aurum Tolosanum) amongst other spoils. Much of these spoils "vanished" whilst being transferred to Massilia. In 105 BC, the Germanic forces and the Tigurini won a further victory against the Romans at the Battle of Arausio.
The Cimbri were an ancient tribe in Europe. Ancient authors described them variously as a Celtic, Gaulish), Germanic, or even Cimmerian people. Several ancient sources indicate that they lived in Jutland, which in some classical texts was called the Cimbrian peninsula. There is no direct evidence for the language they spoke, though some scholars argue that it was a Germanic language, while others argue that it was Celtic.
The Helvetii, anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or pagi. Of these, Caesar names only the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, while Posidonius mentions the Tigurini and the Tougeni (Τωυγενοί). They feature prominently in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, with their failed migration attempt to southwestern Gaul serving as a catalyst for Caesar's conquest of Gaul.
Year 107 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Ravilla and Marius and the Fourth Year of Yuanfeng. The denomination 107 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Teutons were an ancient northern European tribe mentioned by Roman authors. The Teutons are best known for their participation, together with the Cimbri and other groups, in the Cimbrian War with the Roman Republic in the late second century BC.
The Battle of Vercellae or Battle of the Raudine Plain was fought on 30 July 101 BC on a plain near Vercellae in Gallia Cisalpina. A Celto-Germanic confederation under the command of the Cimbric king Boiorix was defeated by a Roman army under the joint command of the consul Gaius Marius and the proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus. The battle marked the end of the Germanic threat to the Roman Republic.
This is a chronology of warfare between the Romans and various Germanic peoples. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings, later Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire that started in the late second century BC, and more. The series of conflicts was one factor which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire in particular and ancient Rome in general in 476.
The Battle of Arausio took place on 6 October 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio, now Orange, Vaucluse, and the Rhône river, where two Roman armies, commanded by proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, were heavily defeated after clashing with the migratory tribes of the Cimbri under Boiorix and the Teutons under Teutobod.
Quintus Servilius Caepio was a Roman statesman and general, consul in 106 BC, and proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul in 105 BC. He was the father of Quintus Servilius Caepio and the grandfather of Servilia.
The Battle of the Arar was fought between the migrating tribes of the Helvetii and six Roman legions under the command of Gaius Julius Caesar in 58 BC. It was the first major battle of the Gallic Wars and ended in a tactical victory for the outnumbered Roman army.
The Battle of Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman defeats, the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones as they attempted to advance through the Alps into Italy. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War. Local lore associates the name of the mountain, Mont St. Victoire, with the Roman victory at the battle of Aquae Sextiae, but Frédéric Mistral and other scholars have debunked this theory.
The Ambrones were an ancient tribe mentioned by Roman authors. They are believed by some to have been a Germanic tribe from Jutland; the Romans were not clear about their exact origin.
Teutobod was a king of the Teutons, who, together with the allied Cimbri, invaded the Roman Republic in the Cimbrian War and won a spectacular victory at the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. He was later captured at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC.
The Cimbrian or Cimbric War 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.
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus was the son of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, consul in 148 BC.
Lucius Cassius Longinus was consul of the Roman Republic in 107 BC. His colleague was Gaius Marius, then serving the first of his seven consulships.
The Tigurini were a clan or tribe forming one out of four pagi (provinces) of the Helvetii.
Divico was a Celtic king and the leader of the Helvetian tribe of the Tigurini. During the Cimbrian War, in which the Cimbri and Teutons invaded the Roman Republic, he led the Tigurini across the Rhine to invade Gaul in 109 BC. He defeated a Roman army near present-day Agen on the Garonne river at the Battle of Burdigala in 107 BC, killing its leaders Lucius Cassius Longinus, the Roman consul, and Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. Eventually he led his people back to the tribes of the Helvetii, near present-day Switzerland where they settled in the Jura Mountains near Lac Leman. 49 years later, before the Battle of Bibracte, he led a delegation back to Gaul to negotiate for a safe passage for his tribe through the Roman region of Provence. The request was denied by Caesar who wanted revenge for a relative who had been killed in the battle near Agen in 107 BC.
This section of the timeline of Hispania concerns Spanish and Portuguese history events from the Carthaginian conquests to before the barbarian invasions.
The Gold of Tolosa was a treasure hoard seized by the ancient Roman proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio from the Volcae town of Tolosa, modern-day Toulouse.