CIMBRI, kim'bre, a tribe which inhabited Jutland (the Chersonesus Cimbrica), whence they sallied, together with the Teutones, and became among the most formidable of the ene mies of Rome. In the year 114 B.C., when the Romans were already masters of a part of the eastern Alps, in the present Carniola, Istria, etc., and had established themselves in Dal matia and Illyria, along the coast, immense bodies of barbarians suddenly made their ap pearance, who overcame the consul Papirius Carbo in the country now called Styria; but instead of entering Italy they proceeded to the north, and soon after, jointly with the Tigur ians, entered the territory of the Allobroges. The Romans sent two armies, commanded by the consuls L. Cassius and M. Aurelius Scaurus, to oppose them, but both were defeated— the former by the Tigurians, the latter by the Cimbri. Even after this success the victors did not enter Italy, but overran Gaul• with three bodies, consisting of Teutones, Cimbri and Am brones. Two new armies, with which the con sul C. Manlius and the proconsul Q. Scrvilius Cmpio hastened to oppose them, were likewise defeated beyond the Rhodanus. The Romans lost, according to Aetius, 80,000 men. While Rome placed her last hope in Marius, the bar barians overran the other western countries of Europe. Gaul suffered severely, but the Iber ians and Belgians repulsed the invaders. Upon this they resolved to descend into Italy. The Teutones and Ambrones were to enter on the western side of the Alps, the Cimbri and Tigur ians on the east. After Marius had waited the
approach of the first during three entire years, and had accustomed his troops to their ap pearance, he routed them completely (102 n.c.) in two days—on the first day the Ambroncs, on the second the Teutoncs —at Aix in Prov ence. The Cimbri, on the other hand, who had driven back the consul Catulus on the Adige, and had spread themselves along the Po, de-• manded land of the Romans, but were totally routed by Marius at Vercelli 101 ac. About a century after this the Cimbri sent (from the Cimbrian Chersonesus) an embassy to the Roman emperor Augustus, to offer him presents and to ask pardon for what they had previously done against the Romans. The nationality of the Cimbri is a disputed point. Similarity of name led the ancients to identify them with the Cimmerians, but this view is no longer held. Some authorities believe them to have been of Germanic, others of Celtic race. Their name certainly has a great resemblance to that of the Celtic Kymri; and their armor and customs, according to Plutarch and Strabo, were very different from those of the Germans. "All these circumstances,)' says Schmitz, in Smith's 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,' "render it in the highest degree probable that the Cimbri were a Celtic or Gallic and not a Germanic nation."