In the year 642 from the founding of the City, the consul Gaius Manlius and the proconsul Quintus Caepio, sent against the Cimbri, the Teutones, the Tigurini, and the Ambrones — nations of Gauls and Germans who had then conspired to extinguish the Roman empire — divided the provinces between themselves, with the river Rhône between them.1
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCXLII C. Manlius consul et Q. Caepio proconsule aduersus Cimbros et Teutonas et Tigurinos et Ambronas, Gallorum Germanorum gentes, quae tunc ut imperium Romanum extinguerent conspirauerant, missi prouincias sibi Rhodano flumine medio diuiserunt.
1This is the battle of Arausio (Orange), 105 BC. The consul was Gnaeus Mallius Maximus; Orosius calls him Gaius Manlius.
There, while they wrangled with each other in the bitterest jealousy and contention, they were defeated, to the great disgrace and peril of the Roman name. For in that battle Marcus Aemilius, a man of consular rank, was captured and killed, and the consul’s two sons were slain;2
2 ubi dum inter se grauissima inuidia et contentione disceptant, cum magna ignominia et periculo Romani nominis uicti sunt. siquidem in ea pugna M. Aemilius consularis captus atque interfectus est, duo filii consulis caesi;
2The consular captured and killed by the Cimbri was Marcus Aurelius Scaurus, Mallius’s legate; Orosius has “M. Aemilius.”
eighty thousand Romans and allies were slaughtered on that occasion, and forty thousand camp-servants and sutlers killed, as Antias writes.
3 LXXX milia Romanorum sociorumque ea tempestate trucidata, XL milia calonum atque lixarum interfecta Antias scribit.
Thus, of the whole army, only ten men are reported to have survived, to bring back the wretched news and add to the miseries.
4 ita ex omni penitus exercitu decem tantummodo homines, qui miserum nuntium ad augendas miserias reportarent, superfuisse referuntur.
The enemy, having taken possession of both camps and enormous booty, by a new and unheard-of form of execration sent to destruction everything they had taken;
5 hostes binis castris atque ingenti praeda potiti noua quadam atque insolita exsecratione cuncta quae ceperant pessum dederunt;
clothing was torn up and thrown away, gold and silver cast into the river, the men’s breastplates hacked to pieces, the horses’ trappings ruined, the horses themselves plunged into the eddies, and men hanged from trees with nooses put round their necks, so that the victor acknowledged no booty, and the vanquished no mercy.
6 uestis discissa et proiecta est, aurum argentumque in flumen abiectum, loricae uirorum concisae, phalerae equorum disperditae, equi ipsi gurgitibus inmersi, homines laqueis collo inditis ex arboribus suspensi sunt, ita ut nihil praedae uictor, nihil misericordiae uictus adgnosceret.
At Rome there was then very great grief, and fear as well, lest the Cimbri should at once cross the Alps and destroy Italy.
7 maximus tunc Romae non solum luctus, uerum etiam metus fuit, ne confestim Cimbri Alpes transgrederentur Italiamque delerent.
At the same time Quintus Fabius Maximus killed his young son, whom he had banished to the country, with two slaves as his accomplices in the parricide, and at once freed those very slaves as the price of the crime. A day was set for his trial, Gnaeus Pompeius prosecuting, and he was condemned.
8 Isdem temporibus Q. Fabius Maximus filium suum adulescentem, rus relegatum, cum duobus seruis parricidii ministris interfecit ipsosque continuo seruos in pretium sceleris manumisit. die dicta Cn. Pompeio accusante damnatus est.
So when Marius, consul for the fourth time, had pitched his camp near the rivers Isère and Rhône, where they flow together, the Teutones, Cimbri, Tigurini, and Ambrones, after fighting around the Roman camp for three days on end, to see if by some means they could dislodge them from the rampart and draw them out onto the level ground, resolved to make for Italy in three columns.
9 Igitur Marius quarto consul cum iuxta Isarae Rhodanique flumina, ubi in sese confluunt, castra posuisset, Teutones Cimbri et Tigurini et Ambrones postquam continuo triduo circa Romanorum castra pugnarunt, si quo pacto eos excuterent uallo atque in aequor effunderent, tribus agminibus Italiam petere destinarunt.
After the departure of the enemy Marius moved his camp and occupied a hill which overlooked the plain and the river where the enemy had spread themselves out. And when his army lacked water to drink and he was assailed with the complaints of all, he replied that there was indeed water in sight, but that it must be claimed with the sword. So, as the camp-servants first rushed into battle with a shout, the army followed, and soon the war was waged in a regular engagement with ranks drawn up, and the Romans conquered.
10 Marius, post digressum hostium castra mouit et collem occupauit, qui campo et fluuio, ubi hostes sese diffuderant, imminebat. cumque exercitui eius aqua ad potandum deesset, querellisque omnium coargueretur, aquam quidem in conspectu esse respondit, sed eam ferro uindicandam. primis itaque calonibus cum clamore in pugnam ruentibus subsecutus exercitus, mox iusto certamine conpositis ordinibus bellum gestum et uicere Romani.
On the fourth day the battle lines were again led out on both sides into the plain and fought until almost midday with nearly equal fortune. Afterwards, when, as the sun grew hot, the slack bodies of the Gauls melted away like snow, it was slaughter rather than battle that was drawn out until nightfall.
11 quarto die rursus productae utrimque in campum acies usque ad meridiem paene pari pugnauere discrimine. post ubi incalescente sole fluxa Gallorum corpora in modum niuium distabuerunt, usque in noctem caedes potius quam pugna protracta est.
Two hundred thousand armed men were killed in that war, eighty thousand captured, and scarcely three thousand are reported to have escaped by flight; their leader Teutobodus too was killed.
12 ducenta milia armatorum in eo bello interfecta sunt, octoginta milia capta, uix tria milia fugisse referuntur; dux quoque eorum Teutobodus occisus est.
Their women, with more steadfast spirit than if they had conquered, petitioned the consul that, if they might serve the sacred virgins and the gods with their chastity unviolated, he would spare their lives. And so, when they did not obtain what they had asked, they dashed their little children against the rocks, and all destroyed themselves by the sword and by hanging. These were the deeds concerning the Tigurini and the Ambrones.3
13 mulieres eorum constantiore animo quam si uicissent consuluere consulem, ut, si inuiolata castitate uirginibus sacris ac dis seruiendum esset, uitam sibi reseruarent. itaque cum petita non impetrauissent, paruulis suis ad saxa conlisis cunctae sese ferro ac suspendio peremerunt. haec de Tigurinis et Ambronibus gesta sunt.
3This was the battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC), fought against the Teutones and Ambrones; Teutobod was king of the Teutones. Orosius has swapped the Teutones and the Tigurini: it was the Cimbri, with the Tigurini in support, who went on into Italy.
The Teutones and Cimbri, however, with their forces intact, having traversed the snows of the Alps, had overrun the plains of Italy; and there, while that hardy race was for a long time softened by the milder air, by drink, food, and baths, Marius, consul for the fifth time, and Catulus were sent against them; and when a day and a field had been granted for battle, they followed the stratagem of Hannibal: they drew up their battle line in the mist, and fought in the sun.4
14 Teutones autem et Cimbri integris copiis Alpium niues emensi Italiae plana peruaserant, ibique cum rigidum genus diu blandioribus auris, poculis, cibis ac lauacris emolliretur, Marius V consul et Catulus aduersum eos missi, die ad pugnam et campo dato Hannibalis secuti ingenium in nebula disposuere pugnam, in sole pugnarunt.
4The battle of the Raudine Plain near Vercellae (101 BC), in which the Cimbri were destroyed.
For the first confusion of the Gauls was that they came upon the Roman line already drawn up before they perceived that it was there. And when their horsemen, wounded on the spot, were driven back upon their own men and threw into confusion the whole multitude, which was still coming up in disorder, and the sun, which had risen together with the wind, flashed full in their faces, dust filled their eyes and the glare dulled their sight.
15 prima siquidem perturbatio Gallorum fuit, quod Romanam aciem prius offendere dispositam quam adesse senserunt. cumque ilico uulnerati equites retro in suos cogerentur totamque multitudinem indisposite adhuc aduentantem conturbarent et sol cum uento ortus ex aduerso emicuisset, uisus eorum puluis oppleuit et splendor hebetauit.
Thus it came about that so great and so terrible a multitude was cut down with the slightest loss to the Romans but to its own utter annihilation. It is said that 140,000 of them were slain in battle then, and 60,000 captured.
16 ita factum est, ut tanta ac tam terribilis multitudo minima Romanorum clade, sua autem ultima internecione caederetur. centum quadraginta milia eorum tunc in bello caesa, sexaginta milia capta dicuntur.
The women roused an almost fiercer battle: with their wagons drawn up around them like a camp, and fighting from on top of them, they long drove back the Romans. But when they were terrified by them with a new kind of slaughter — for the crowns of their heads were cut off together with the hair, and they were left disfigured by a wound shameful enough — they turned the steel which they had taken up against the enemy upon themselves and their own.
17 mulieres grauiorem paene excitauere pugnam, quae plaustris in modum castrorum circumstructis, ipsae autem desuper propugnantes, diu repulere Romanos. sed cum ab his nouo caedis genere terrerentur - abscisis enim cum crine uerticibus inhonesto satis uulnere turpes relinquebantur - ferrum, quod in hostes sumpserant, in se suosque uerterunt.
For some cut one another’s throats in mutual encounter; some seized one another by the throat and were strangled; some tied ropes round the legs of horses and then at once spurred the horses on, after putting their own necks into the same ropes with which they had bound the horses’ legs, and were dragged away and killed; others hanged themselves with nooses from the upraised poles of the wagons.
18 namque aliae concursu mutuo iugulatae, aliae apprehensis inuicem faucibus strangulatae, aliae funibus per equorum crura consertis ipsisque continuo equis exstimulatis, postquam suas isdem funibus, quibus equorum crura nexuerant, indidere ceruices, protractae atque exanimatae sunt, aliae laqueo de subrectis plaustrorum temonibus pependerunt.
One woman was even found who had passed nooses round the necks of her two sons and bound them to her feet, and when she had let herself drop to die by hanging, dragged them with her to their deaths.
19 inuenta est etiam quaedam, quae duos filios traiectis per colla eorum laqueis ad suos pedes uinxerit et, cum se ipsam suspendio morituram dimisisset, secum traxerit occidendos.
Amid these many and pitiable kinds of death, two chieftains too are reported to have run at each other with drawn swords. The kings Lugius and Boiorix fell in battle; Claodicus and Caesorix were captured.
20 inter haec multa ac miserabilia mortis genera reguli quoque duo strictis in se gladiis concurrisse referuntur. Lugius et Boiorix reges in acie ceciderunt; Claodicus et Caesorix capti sunt.
Thus in these two battles 340,000 Gauls were killed and 140,000 captured, not counting the countless multitude of women who killed themselves and their little ones with a woman’s frenzy but a man’s force.
21 ita in his duobus proeliis CCCXL milia Gallorum occisa et CXL milia capta sunt, absque innumera mulierum multitudine, quae se suosque paruulos femineo furore, ui autem uirili necauerunt.
And so this triumph of Marius and the Roman victory were darkened by an incredible crime, never before known to the Romans, suddenly committed at Rome, and the whole City was turned to horror and grief.
22 igitur talem Marii triumphum Romanamque uictoriam incredibile facinus et numquam antea Romanis cognitum Romae subito perpetratum uersa in horrorem ac maerorem tota urbe fuscauit.
For Publicius Malleolus, with the help of slaves, killed his own mother; condemned for parricide, he was sewn into a sack and thrown into the sea;
23 Publicius siquidem Malleolus seruis adnitentibus matrem suam interfecit; damnatus parricidii insutusque in culleum et in mare proiectus est;
and so the Romans brought to fulfilment both the crime and the punishment concerning which even Solon of Athens had not dared to legislate, since he did not believe it could happen; whereas the Romans, knowing that they were sprung from Romulus, understood that even this could happen, and ordained a singular punishment for it.
24 inpleueruntque Romani et facinus et poenam, unde et Solon Atheniensis decernere non ausus fuerat, dum fieri posse non credit, et Romani, qui se ortos a Romulo scirent, etiam hoc fieri posse intellegentes supplicium singulare sanxerunt.