Germanic Kingdoms: Military History and Notable Events

113 BCE - 101 BCE - Cimbrian War (All Facts) 

• War in which the two large namesake Celtic groups were ultimately defeated by Gaius Marius and Quintus Catulus and the Romans

• War which

  • Began when the the namesake Celtic subtribe and the Teutones, another Celtic subtribe, left their homes at the time and went looking for new homes in Southern Gaul / northern Italy

    • The Romans sent several armies north to deal with them

  • In 109 BCE, the namesake subtribe and Teutones requested land to settle on in exchange for military service

    • However, Rome refused their offer and thus took a loss at one of its armies being destroyed as a result and then another army later on

• War which marked the end of the Germanic threat to the Roman Republic

113 BCE - Battle of Noreia (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Romans were defeated by the Cimbri and Teutones, it began the Cimbrian War

105 BCE - Battle of Arausio (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Romans were defeated by the Cimbri, Teutones, and Ambrones, during the Cimbrian War

• Battle regarded as the worst defeat in the history of ancient Rome surpassing the Battle of Cannae, in terms of Romans killed

102 BCE - Battle of Aquae Sextiae (All Facts)

• Battle in which Gaius Marius and the Romans defeated the Teutones and Cimbri, subtribes of Celts that were advancing into Italy and southern Gaul, during the Cimbrian War

  • 200K Teutones were killed

  • 90K Teutones were taken prisoner

101 BCE - Battle of Vercellae (All Facts)

• Battle in which Gaius Marius and Quintus Catulus and the Romans defeated the Cimbri and Teutones, subtribes of Celts that were advancing into Italy and southern Gaul, thus ending the Cimbrian War

  • 140K Cimbri were killed

  • Many Teutones women were enslaved after this battle

• Thus, the invincible barbarians from the north who had Italy at their mercy were invincible no more when faced, for the first time, with the toughened Volunteer Army of Marius

• Battle which marked the end of the Germanic threat and defeat of the Cimbri to the Roman Republic

9 CE - Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (All Facts)

• Battle in which Varus and the Romans were defeated by Arminius and the Cherusci tribe of the Germans, also known as the “Varian Disaster”

  • Was caused by the need to pacify a region that was neglected to revolts elsewhere

  • Varus had trusted Arminius’s loyalty to Rome, which he was initially loyal to despite being German

  • However, he was led into an ambush where he and three Roman legions were slaughtered, hemmed in by forests and marshes

  • Varus, who had deluded himself into thinking the tribesmen were grateful for Roman rule, killed himself with his sword after which his head was cut off and sent to Rome by the victorious Germans

• Battle which thus proved to be a damaging blow to Roman prestige and its hold in Germany

  • Emperor Augustus was so overcome by the defeat that he

    • Refused to cut his beard or hair for several months

    • Abandoned the attempted conquest of Germany

16 - Battle of the Weser River (All Facts)

• Battle in which Germanicus and the Romans defeated Arminius and the Germans

• Battle which was the latest victory in a series of campaigns organized by Rome to avenge Varus and themselves for the crushing defeat they suffered at the hands of the Germans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

• Battle which made Germanicus popular, so much so that it aroused jealousy in Tiberius who had him recalled to Rome so he could keep a close watch of him

16 - Battle of the Angrivarian Wall (All Facts)

• Battle in which Germanicus and the Romans defeated Arminius and the Germans

• Battle which was the latest victory in a series of campaigns organized by Rome to avenge Varus and themselves for the crushing defeat they suffered at the hands of the Germans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

• Battle which made Germanicus popular, so much so that it aroused jealousy in Tiberius who had him recalled to Rome so he could keep a close watch of him

69 - Batavian Revolt / Revolt of the Batavi (All Facts)

• Revolt in which Quintus Cerialis (a general under Vespasian) and the Roman legions defeated Gaius Julius Civilis and his Germanic army

• Sometimes referred to as the “War of Liberation”

• It began under the pretext of providing support for Vespasian, and was joined by Gallic tribes such as the Treveri and the Lingones

166 - 180 - Marcomannic Wars (All Facts)

• Series of wars in which Marcus Aurelius and the Romans fought the namesake Germanic tribe and the Quadi and Sarmatian Iazyges

• 166 - German tribes poured across the upper and lower Danube River and invaded northern Italy

• 167 - Claudius Pompeianus and the Romans halted the German invaders in Pannonia

• 168 - At Aquileia, Aurelius and Verus reach peace terms with the German invaders who entered northern Italy in 166, in which the region is freed from foreign interference

• 169 - The namesake tribe and the Quadi get as far as the plains of north Italy, in which they cause panic in Rome

• 172 - Aurelius imposed a peace on the namesake tribe and the Quadi, in which a strip of land almost five miles wide to the north of the Danube River became forbidden to them

• 173 - Avidius Cassius crushed the insurrections of the shepherd brigands known as the Boukoloi

• 175 - Aurelius imposed a peace on the Sarmatian Iazyges in the Danubian region

• 177 - The namesake tribe and the Quadi declare war on the Roman Empire again

• 179 - Tarrutenius Paternus and the Romans won against the Marcomanni on the Danube River in the Battle of Vindobona

• 180 - Commodus, after consolidating his power and retaining the sole emperorship, abandons plans for Roman conquest of the German tribes’ lands and makes peace with the namesake before returning to Rome

212 - 305 - Barbarian Invasions of the Third Century (All Facts) 

• Uninterrupted period of raids within the borders of the Roman Empire, conducted for purposes of plunder and booty, by armed peoples belonging to various populations

• Notable Raids include

  • 233 / 235 - The Alamanni raided the frontier of the upper Rhine and an area called the Agri Decumates 

    • They withdrew after they were bribed or paid tribute by the Romans 

  • 238 - The Goths and the Carpi took possession of land north of the Black Sea, crossed the Danube River and invaded the province of Moesia 

    • Despite the Romans paying them tribute, they could not persuade these two groups to withdraw from the province of Moesia 

  • 250 - The Carpi invade Dacia

  • 250 / 251 - The Goths invade Moesia, penetrating Dacia

  • 253 - The Franks invaded Gaul

  • 253 - The Alamanni invaded Gaul

  • 260 - The Franks invaded Gaul again, having swept into Spain

  • 260 - The Goths and Vandals invaded Italy and Greece

  • 260 - The Berbers attacked Roman land in Africa

  • 267 - The Goths pillage Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece

  • 271 - Romans are forced to evacuate Dacia

  • 275 - The Franks pillaged Gaul 

  • 275 - The Alamanni pillaged Gaul 

• This period roughly corresponds with the “Crisis of the Third Century”

251 - Battle of Abrittus (All Facts)

• Battle in which Cniva and the Goths and Scythians defeated Decius and his son and led to Gallus’s emperorship

• Battle which began as a result of the disloyalty of Gallus, the governor of Moesia