Cimbrian War

The Cimbrian War, also called the Cimbric War, was fought from 113 to 101 BC between the Roman Republic and the Germanic and Celtic tribes of the Cimbri, Teutons, Ambrones and Tigurini, who had migrated from the Jutland peninsula into Roman-controlled territory. It was the first time since the Second Punic War that Italy and Rome itself were seriously threatened, and the first of many centuries of Roman confrontations with Germanic peoples. The tribes inflicted the heaviest Roman losses since the Second Punic War, notably at Arausio and Noreia, but were nearly annihilated after Roman victories at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae. Some captives are reported to have joined the rebelling gladiators of the Third Servile War. The war shaped Roman politics and military organization and advanced the career of Gaius Marius; the Cimbrian threat, with the Jugurthine War, is said to have inspired the so-called Marian reforms of the legions, a view modern historians now contest.