Between 14 and 16 AD, Germanicus took command in Germania. The Cherusci tribe, under Arminius (Hermann) destroyed 3 full Legions, the XVII, XVIII, and XIX, resulting in the death of 20,000 Legionaries. In 9 AD under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus the Romans were caught in a surprise attack while marching through the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans, however, had overestimated their position and found the tribes unwilling to accept the offer of provincial status. Tiberius fought a number of smaller wars and eventually left Germania in the hands of various legates who had established friendly relations among the Germans.Īugustus, satisfied with the accomplishments of both Drusus and Tiberius, pushed to make Germania Magna (between the Rhenus and Albis) a province of the Roman Empire. Drusus died later that year and was replaced by his brother Tiberius. Many of the Germanic tribes were conquered and by 9 BC he had pushed the border of northern Roman Germania to the Albis (Elbe). In 12 BC Nero Claudius Drusus "the elder" crossed the Rhenus to establish Roman control. He reorganized the provinces and established Germania Inferior in the North, east of Belgica and west of the Rhenus, and Germania Superior bordering southern Gaul and Noricum in the east. Over the next several decades, Germanic incursions into Gallia would continue and Augustus' victory over Antonius, establishing the Imperial system, gave him the power and resources necessary to focus on Germania. The civil war between Caesar and Pompeius would put an end to any further ideas he may have for campaigns into Germania. Caesar bridged the Rhenus again, in 53 BC, to pursue the Germanic tribes who had aided the Celts in Gallia, but the Germans avoided contact with the Legions and Caesar withdrew empty-handed. Caesar bridged the Rhenus and along with his Legate, Labienus, drive them out by defeating their Prince, Induciomer. In 55 BC the Germanic Tencteri and Usipii tribes arrived along the banks of the Rhenus and overtook the Menapii. Caesar, with his Germanic allies the Ubii routed the Seubi and sent them back across the River. In 58 BC, a Celtic request for help gave Caesar the excuse he needed to begin his campaigns in Gaul. The Germanic Suebi tribe crossed the Rhenus River and had invaded Celtic lands earlier, before Caesar's arrival. During his conquests he was forced to make 3 separate campaigns against the Germans. Relative peace between Rome and the Germanic tribes would reign until the campaigns of Caesar some 50 years later in Gaul. Their king Boiorix was killed and the whole army of over 60,000 men was destroyed. Lutatius Catulus across the Po River, but In 101 Marius overthrew them on the Raudine Plain near Vercellae. The Cimbri succeeded in passing the Alps and driving Q. Fortune had run out for them, and in 102 BC, the Teutoni were defeated by Gaius Marius at Aquae Sextiae, losing over 100,000 men. Driven from Hispania by the Celtibereans, the two tribes reunited and by 103 BC were again moving against Italia. They crushed the armies of Mallius and Caepio at Arausio (Orange), killing over 60,000 Roman Legionaries.Īgain they turned away from Italia, the Teutoni settling in southern Gallia and the Cimbri moved towards Hispania. They didn't follow up by pressing further and disappeared from Roman influence, but by 105 BC, the Cimbri King Boiorix and the roving Germans returned. A request to settle the land was refused by Rome, and in 109 BC they again defeated another Roman army under Marcus Junius Silanus in southern Gaul. They then pushed west of the Rhenus and threatened the territory of the Celtic Allobroges. In 113 BC, the Cimbri and Teutoni defeated a Roman army under Gnaeus Papirius Carbo in Noricum. Displacing Celtic tribes as they moved, the force of these "first-contacts" was a harbinger of what would come over the next several centuries. These migrations were neither simple warrior-raids nor armies on the march, as the Romans were accustomed to, but the complete relocation of entire tribes of people. Rome's first major contact with Germanic people came in the late 2nd Century BC when members of the Cimbri and Teutoni tribes wandered en masse into Southern Europe and Gallia. From the third century BC onwards the Germanic world was continually affected by migrations that would continue to gain momentum and significance as time advanced.
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