Battle of Aquae Sextiae

The Battle of Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman defeats (see: the Battle of Noreia, the Battle of Burdigala, and the Battle of Arausio), the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones as they attempted to advance through the Alps into Italy. The Teutones and the Ambrones were defeated,. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War. Local lore associates the name of the mountain, Mont St Victoire, with the Roman victory at the battle of Aquae Sextiae, but Frédéric Mistral and other scholars have debunked this theory. According to ancient sources, sometime around 120–115 BC, the Germanic tribe of the Cimbri left their homeland around the North Sea due to climate changes. They supposedly journeyed to the south-east and were soon joined by their neighbours the Teutones. On their way south they defeated several other Germanic tribes, but also Celtic and Germano-Celtic tribes. A number of these defeated tribes joined their migration. In 113 BC the Cimbri-Teutones confederation, led by Boiorix the Cimbric king and Teutobod of the Teutones, defeated the Scordisci. The invaders then moved on to the Danube, arriving in Noricum, home to the Roman-allied Taurisci people. Unable to hold back these new, powerful invaders on their own, the Taurisci appealed to Rome for help. The Senate commissioned Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, one of the consuls, to lead a substantial Roman army to Noricum to force the barbarians out. An engagement, later called the battle of Noreia, took place, in which the invaders, to everyone's surprise, completely overwhelmed the Legions and inflicted a devastating loss on Carbo and his men. After the Noreia victory, the Cimbri and Teutones moved westward towards Gaul. A few years later, in 109 BC, they moved along the River Rhodanus (now called the Rhône) towards the Roman province in Transalpine Gaul. Another consul, Marcus Junius Silanus, was sent to take care of the renewed Germanic threat.