The Cimbri are generally believed to have been a tribe of Germanics. Their ancestral homeland was north of the Teutones on the Jutland Peninsula in present-day Denmark. in the late second century b. c.e. the two tribes departed from their ancestral homeland and traveled through much of western Europe, becoming the first known Germanic peoples to invade territory held by the Romans.
ORIGINS
Jutland was known to the Romans as Cher-sonesus Cimbrica, or the Cimbric Peninsula. Despite their Scandinavian homeland, which indicates a connection to other Germanic-speaking peoples around them, the Cimbri were in fact Celts, according to some scholars. The Greek philosopher Poseidonius of the second-first century b. c.e. indeed classified them as well as the Teutones as Celts. But the Greek geographer Strabo of the first centuries b. c.e. and C. E., interpreting Poseidonius’s work, said that they were Germanics who migrated across the Rhine. In general the Romans labored under considerable confusion when trying to identify and classify those “barbarians” who lived in northern, central, and eastern Europe beyond the bounds of their empire. The Romans who lived in Gaul reportedly called them Germani, meaning either “genuine” or “people of pure descent,” to indicate that they were the original or real Celts. They may have seen the Cimbri as Celts in the sense that their society and culture were in many ways quite similar to those of the Celts, particularly in having a prominent warrior class. The Germanics across the Rhine, including the Cimbri, were “genuine” and “original” in the sense that their societies had felt as yet little of that influence of the Greco-Roman world that had altered Celtic societies so greatly. Strabo does mention physical differences between Germanics and Celts, the latter being taller and having yellower hair.
HISTORY
Starting in about 120 b. c.e. the Cimbri and Teutones migrated from Jutland. It has been theorized that a cataclysmic Atlantic high tide destroyed their coastal villages, leading to their departure. Most are thought to have headed southward. They moved first through Moravia and Hungary to the middle Danube, where they attacked the Celtic Scordisci. One group of Cimbri may have migrated from Jutland along the coast of the Baltic Sea into present-day Poland.
In 113 B. C.E. the Cimbri and Teutones invaded the territory of the Celtic Taurisci, allies of the Romans, south of present-day Vienna, Austria, in the province of Noricum, and defeated a Roman army sent to defend the Taurisci. The migrants proceeded westward, gaining allies from among both Germanic and Celtic peoples. Although their defeat of the Roman army left italy defenseless before them, causing fear and panic in Rome, for unknown reasons they continued westward and looped through Gaul. An alliance of Celtic Belgae in northern Gaul repelled them, but they generally were unimpeded as they moved southward again, through the province of Gallia Transalpina, destroying town after town and again inflicting disastrous defeats on Roman armies sent against them in 109, 107, and 105 b. c.e. The continuing migration took some of them across the Pyrenees onto the iberian Peninsula.
By 102 B. C.E. those tribal members who had been in Spain returned to join tribal members in a two-pronged invasion of Italy—the first such Germanic invasion—most of the Teutones along the coastal route, and the Cimbri reaching the Po River valley in northern italy by way of the Alps. Because of the new Germanic threat the Roman consul Gaius Marius reformed the Roman army, taking soldiers from among the landless citizens, including the growing urban proletariat. He defeated the Teutones at present-day Aix-en-Provence in southeastern France in 102 B. C.E., and the Cimbri near Vercellae (modern Vercelli) in present-day northwestern Italy in 101 B. C.E. It is said that when the outcome of the battle was clear, Cimbri women killed their children and themselves. Marius was viewed as the savior of Rome.
So deep was Roman fear of the northern barbarians, of whom the Cimbri were but the latest representatives whom they had faced, that Roman society embarked on a process of greater militarization than ever before, and when in the next century Julius Caesar was determined to conquer Gaul, he had only to play on this fear in the Senate to have his way. The Cimbri and their allies therefore contributed greatly to the impetus that led to the creation of the Roman Empire.
According to the writings of Julius Caesar the Aduatuci of Belgium claimed to be descendants of the Cimbri and the Teutones, although they are generally classified among Celtic-speaking peoples.
Roman writers. Archaeology can be invaluable in revealing a people’s culture through the material remains they leave behind, but tribes such as the Cimbri, constantly on the move by the time they attracted the attention of ancient writers, left little of themselves in any one place. Even though they were said to have originated in northern Jutland, there is no way to know how long they had been there or whether their original homeland lay elsewhere. Thus it is not certain that archaeological finds in Jutland are indeed from the Cimbri.
Roman writers described the Cimbri as hordes of warlike men carrying swords and spears and with animal totems on their helmets, accompanied by blonde women and children whose hair was like that of old men—that is, white blond, as the hair of Danish children is today They were typically described as ferocious.
In 5 C. E., when Tiberius sailed with a fleet to Jutland, his men came upon the ruins of large fortifications. They assumed these must have been built by the Cimbri, reputed to have been from this country. Ruins the Romans found later in the former La Tene region of the Rhineland were ascribed to the departed Cimbri but were actually those of Celtic hill forts.
The Cimbri were known for using trained dogs in battles. Their swords were poor and easily bent so that the Cimbri warriors often had to stamp them back into shape. Cimbri women reportedly took part in war by attacking their men to prevent them from retreating and, when this failed, killing their own children and themselves to prevent being captured.
Use of Omens A puzzle about the Cimbri and Teutones is why, after they had repeatedly demolished Roman armies, they did not fall upon a defenseless Rome but instead moved off. It is possible that they did so because of omens from their gods warning them away. Seeresses would gaze into the steaming blood of a sacrificed youth perhaps in silver cauldrons such as the one found in Gundestrup in Denmark seeking omens. Dice throwing and observing the flight of birds or listening to their cries were other means of receiving divine messages.
Bull Cult According to Roman accounts, the Cimbri had an important bull cult. This may have dated to the Bronze Age, when helmets with bull horns were made. Although the
Gundestrup Cauldron was probably made in the territory of the Celtic Scordisci (near Belgrade in present-day Serbia) by a Thracian silversmith using Celtic motifs, it may have been taken to Jutland by a Cimbric warrior with the prominent figure of a bull with which it was adorned.
The history of the Cimbri and Teutones with regard to the Romans represents a foreshadowing of events over the next centuries: Germanic tribes battled the Romans throughout Europe, and Roman generals gained power through key victories. The powerful unleashing of societal and cultural forces during and after the Roman period threw together cultural groups throughout Eurasia, groups that had for centuries and millennia remained mostly isolated and unchanging in their territories. The new interaction is revealed in the history of a single artifact: the Gundestrup Cauldron, named for the Danish town in former Cimbric territory near which it was found. Considered a key piece of evidence for Celtic religious belief, it was probably made in the first half of the second century B. C.E. by a Thracian (see Thracians), judging by its style. Some of its images are Celtic (see Celts); others are Greek (see Greeks), Scythian (see Scythians), Iranian, and Indian; others can be traced as far away as Siberia and China. And it is thought likely that this enormous silver cauldron was carried, after a raiding foray somewhere in the south, back to his homeland by a Cimbric warrior, to be hurled into a bog as tribute to the gods for his victories.
World History
