CIM'BRI, or KIM'BRI, a people who issued from the n. of Germany in conjunction with the Teutones, and first came into hostile contact with the Romans in the eastern Alps in 113 B.C. They were victorious in several great engagements, and were only prevented from devastating Italy by sustaining a terrible defeat from Marius, on tho Raudii Campi, near Verona, or, according to others, near Vercelli, in Aug., 101 B.C. Their infantry fought with their shields fastened together by long chains; their horse men, of whom they had 15,000, were well armed with helmet. coat of mail, shield, and spear. Marius had so chosen his position that the sun and dust were in their faces, and vet they contested the victory most bravely with the Romans, who were 55,000 strong. When the battle was lost, the women, who remained in the camp formed of the wagons, killed themselves and their children. 140,000 C. are said to have fallen in the battle; the number of prisoners is given at 60,000. It is not till long afterwards, when the Romans themselves penetrated into Germany, that the name of the C. again appears.
Caesar represents the Aduatici of Belgium as the descendants of the C. and the Tcu tones. Tacitus speaks of a people, bearing the name of C., few in number, but of great. reputation, that sent ambassadors to Augustus. This people lived in the extreme n. of Germany, on the borders of the ocean; according to Pliny and Ptolemy, at the extremity of the peninsula called from them the Cimbric Chersonese, now Jutland. The ethnology of the C. is doubtful. Greek writers associated them groundlessly with the elm merians (q.v.); Sallust calls them Gauls; Caesar, Tacitus, and Plutarch looked upon them as Germans, and the opinion of their German origin has been adopted by most moderns. Yet H. Muller, in his Harken des Vaterlands (1837), has endeavored to show that they belonged to the Celtic race, and lived originally on the n.e. of the Belgic, of kindred origin; and that their name is the same as that by which the Celts of Wales designate themselves to this day—Cymri.