The threat from the north

The annexation of Carthaginian Spain had the effect of focusing Roman attention more closely on Gaul. Roman officials and soldiers frequently travelled overland between Italy and Spain, following the Mediterranean coast. The route was dotted with friendly Greek cities such as Massalia, Antipolis (Antibes) and Nicea (Nice) but the roads between them were exposed to attacks by the Gauls and Ligurians (a Celtic-influenced but non-Celtic-speaking people). These attacks were not limited to simple banditry - in 189 a Roman governor was killed while travelling to Spain despite being accompanied by 7,000 troops - and they were as much of a threat to the Greek cities as to the Romans. The need to protect themselves and their allies drew the Romans into deeper and deeper military engagement in the region. Finally in 125, following an appeal for assistance by Massalia, the Romans conquered the Ligurians and two Gaulish tribes of the Rhone valley, the Saluvii and Voconti. This Roman intrusion into Gaul provoked the Arverni (from the Auvergne) and the Allobroges (from between the Rhone and the Isere) into war, but in typical Celtic fashion they did not coordinate their efforts. The Allobroges were defeated near Avignon in 121 and brought under Roman rule; the Arverni were defeated soon afterwards but escaped with their liberty. The Romans then pushed west, securing their route to Spain by completing the conquest of Gaul’s Mediterranean coastline in 118. The conquered territories became the province of Gallia Transalpina or simply Provincia Romana, whence Provence. By no means all the Gauls were dismayed to find the Romans encamped on their doorstep. The Aedui welcomed the Romans as allies against their traditional tribal enemies and as trading partners, an arrangement which served them well for 70 years.

Plate 10 Doorway with skulls, from a sanctuary of the Saluvii, Roquepertuse, France (third to second century bc)

Source: Musee Borely, Marseille, France/Lauros-Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library, Www. bridgeman. co. uk

The Romans had scarcely completed their conquest of southern Gaul when they received an unwelcome reminder of the threat from the north. Some years previously two German tribes, the Cimbri and Teutones, had left their homeland in Jutland and begun a seemingly aimless rampage that took them across the length and breadth of central and western Europe. The first the Romans heard of this was that the tribes had passed through the territory of the Boii in Bohemia on their way south-east to the middle Danube. There they had been defeated by the Scordisci near Belgrade before turning west into the territory of the Taurisci, a Celtic tribe of the eastern Alps who were allied to Rome. The Romans dispatched an army to protect them but it was heavily defeated at Noreia in 113.

The way to Italy now lay open, but the two tribes inexplicably turned north-west before reappearing on the frontier of Transalpine Gaul in 110 in alliance with two Gaulish tribes, the Helvetii and Tigurini. After the Germans’ victory over another Roman army, sent to drive them off from the frontier in 109, they were joined by two more Gaulish tribes, the Volcae and Tectosages from the region around Toulouse. The Romans quickly conquered the Volcae and Tectosages in 107-106, plundering a hundred

Tons of gold and silver from their temple at Toulouse in the process, but if they thought the worst was over they were sadly mistaken. In 105 the Cimbri and Teutones caused panic in Rome when they annihilated a third Roman army at Arausio (Orange) in Transalpine Gaul. Once again the way to Italy lay open, and once again the Germans let the Romans off the hook. After the battle, the two tribes split up, the Teutones heading north into the territory of the Belgae, the Cimbri heading west into Spain. The consul Marius used the breathing space to reorganise the Roman legions as a fulltime professional army. Arms drill and weapons training, adapted from the gladiatorial schools, was introduced. The maniple was abandoned in favour of the larger cohort of 480 men, subdivided into six units of 80 men called centuries. A legion was made up of 10 cohorts, one of which was double strength. Equipment was standardised. All soldiers were issued with an oblong shield, a chain mail coat, iron helmet, javelin and gladius, a short thrusting sword well suited to close-order fighting. Soldiers had to carry emergency supplies, cooking equipment and tools to build a fortified camp every night when on campaign. Only Roman citizens could join the legions, but auxiliary units, often of specialist troops such as archers and cavalry, were recruited from the provinces and allied states. These reforms gave Rome one of the most effective instruments of imperial expansion known to history. When the Cimbri and Teutones again returned to Roman territory they were defeated and massacred: the Teutones at Aix-en-Provence in 102, the Cimbri, having finally invaded Italy, at Vercellae a year later. The Romans heaved a collective sigh of relief but they did not forget.