One can only speculate as to what might have happened, had Rutilius rather than Maximus taken command - whether Caepio would have been willing to defer to Rutilius's military record and accept him as the senior commander, or still insisted that his aristocratic birth gave him the right to keep his army separate (and commit the same blunders as before and have his army annihilated). Mommsen claims that besides the 80,000 Roman soldiers, half as many of the auxiliaries and camp-followers perished. Though the actual casualty figure remains debated, Livy claims that the total number of Roman casualties (not including camp followers or other non-combatants) amounted to 80,000.
This includes the servants and camp followers, who usually numbered at least half as many again as the actual troops. Certainly, the number of Romans who managed to escape were very few. Many tried to escape in that direction, but legionaries of the time were not known for their prowess at swimming, and certainly not when encumbered with armor. In other circumstances the army might have fled, but the poor positioning of the camp left them with their backs to the river. Already at a low ebb due to the infighting of the commanders, this Roman force had also witnessed the complete destruction of their colleagues. With a great boost in confidence from an easy victory, the Cimbri then proceeded to destroy the force commanded by Maximus. Caepio himself escaped from the battle unhurt. The Cimbri were also able to ransack Caepio's own camp, which had been left practically undefended. However, Caepio's force was annihilated because of the hasty nature of the assault and the tenacity of Cimbri defence. The sight of two Roman armies gave Boiorix pause for thought, and he entertained negotiations with Maximus.Īccording to Mommsen, Caepio was presumably motivated into action by the thought that Maximus might be successful in negotiations and claim all the credit for a successful outcome he launched a unilateral attack on the Cimbri camp on October 6. Meanwhile, Maximus had managed to convince Caepio to move his force to the same side of the river, but Caepio still insisted on a different camp, and actually pitched his closer to the enemy. The king of the Cimbri was indignant at this impudence and had Scaurus executed. Scaurus was not humbled by his capture and advised Boiorix to turn back before his people were destroyed by the Roman forces. The Roman force was completely overwhelmed and the legate was captured and brought before Boiorix. The initial contact between the two forces occurred when a detached picketing group under the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus met an advance party of the Cimbri. However, because Maximus was a novus homo and therefore lacked the noble background of the Roman aristocracy - in addition to his military inexperience - Caepio refused to serve under him and made camp on the opposite side of the river. As the consul of the year, Maximus out-ranked Caepio and therefore should by law have been the senior commander of the combined armies. (The reasons for Rutilius not taking charge himself do not seem to be known: perhaps he faced political opposition because of his friendship with Gaius Marius, or perhaps he believed Mallius Maximus deserved the chance to earn himself a share of glory, or perhaps he was simply temporarily ill.) Two of the major Roman forces available were camped out on the Rhone River, near Arausio: one led by Mallius Maximus, and the other by the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio. The senior of the year's two consuls, Publius Rutilius Rufus, was an experienced and highly decorated soldier, veteran of the recent war in Numidia, but for some reason did not take charge of the military campaign himself but remained in Rome while his inexperienced, untried colleague Gnaeus Mallius Maximus led the legions north. In October of 105 BC, they did.Įven before battle was joined, the Romans were in trouble. Having regained Tolosa, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio adopted a defensive strategy, waiting to see if the Cimbri would move toward Roman territories again. An ambush of Roman troops and the temporary rebellion of the town of Tolosa caused Roman troops to mobilize in the area, with three strong forces. The migrations of the Cimbri tribe through Gaul and adjacent territories had disturbed the balance of power and incited or provoked other tribes, such as the Helvetii, into conflict with the Romans.
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