Battle of Noreia

date	113 BC Chr.
place	Noreia
output	Germanic victory

Parties to the conflict
Cimbri , Teutons , Ambrons	Roman Empire
Commander
Boiorix , Teutobod	Gnaeus Papirius Carbo
Troop strength
300,000	30,000
losses
unknown	24,000

The battle of Noreia took place in 113 BC. Chr. By Roman troops under the Consul Papirius Carbo and the Cimbri , Teutons and the Ambrones instead. The battle is the first documentary mention of Germanic tribes. The battle was the beginning of a whole series of clashes between the Teutons and the Romans.

Noreia

Noreia was a fortified Celtic settlement and the presumed capital of Noricum ; the exact location is not certain.

prehistory

Presumably storm surges and land shortages caused this in the second half of the 2nd century BC. Some of the Cimbri and Teutons to leave their home in North Jutland and look for new seats in southern areas.

About the Moravian gate they came down the Danube to the Celtic Scordisci in what is now Serbia , but she pushed away from their territories. Up the Drava and up the Mur , they reached the northern Noricum , from which, after the fear of the Romans, they intended to advance south.

The battle

The strong key fortress Noreia, however, offered the Cimbri and Teutons a hold, as did the approach of the Roman army, which, according to Appian, originally set up at the Pontafel pass to prevent a Cimbrian invasion of Italy, but then moved towards the Cimbri.

In negotiations with the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo , the ambassadors of the Cimbri declared their willingness to leave the country. The consul gave the embassy local guides to take them back to the camp via a detour. He himself hurried ahead on the shorter route to ambush the Cimbri camped at Noreia from behind.

The fight must therefore have started in the afternoon.

According to the Roman manipulative meeting tactics of that time, as described by Polybius , a legion with the normal level of 4200 infantry and 300 riders needed an average front width of 180 m (1 stadium = 185 m) and a depth of 100 m for the formation of the battle order ; the cavalry took up positions on the flanks . It can be assumed that the Romans set up such a normal order of battle, which, however, was broken through and overrun by the Teutons. There was therefore no longer any room for Roman warfare . Only a thunderstorm prevented the total annihilation of the Romans, since the Germanic peoples believed the thunderstorm to be the wrath of the gods, which they feared more than anything else.

Effects

Contrary to the fear of the Roman side, these tribes behaved differently from the Celtic Senones under Brennus , who in the 4th century BC. BC to Rome, and did not attack Rome directly, but turned westwards via the Helvetii and Sequani territories towards the left bank of the Rhine , from where Roman territory was again threatened. It happened there in 105 BC. BC again to a crushing defeat of the Roman army in the battle of Arausio . It was only under Marius that the Teutons and Ambrones could be defeated in the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and the Cimbri in the Battle of Vercellae (101 BC). Marius had previously carried out his army reform under the impression of defeat .

Notes and individual references

↑ Cf. Theodor Mommsen : Roman History. Nobel Prize in Literature Collection, Volume 2 (1901–1903). Coron-Verlag, Zurich 1987, p. 314.
↑ See Stefan Seitschek: Noreia. Many answers, no solution. Keltische Forschungen 3 (2008), pp. 221–244. One of the last of many attempts to localize the place was made by the military historian and professional officer Reinhard Stradner, who believes he can identify it relatively precisely based on military-scientific assessments of the situation in the Styrian-Carinthian border area.
↑ Cf. Das Neue Fischer Lexikon. Vol. 9, Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979.
↑ The helmet of Negau with the incised inscription of the owner Harigast's name is a direct evidence of her stay in the Radkersburg area ; see. Marstrander: Les inscriptions des casques de Negau. Sybm. Osloenses III, p. 64.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Theodor Mommsen, Roman History. P. 315.
^ Klaus Bringmann: Roman history. From the beginning to late antiquity. 6th edition, Beck, Munich 2001.

Web links

[1] Cf. Theodor Mommsen : Roman History. Nobel Prize in Literature Collection, Volume 2 (1901–1903). Coron-Verlag, Zurich 1987, p. 314.

[2] See Stefan Seitschek: Noreia. Many answers, no solution. Keltische Forschungen 3 (2008), pp. 221–244. One of the last of many attempts to localize the place was made by the military historian and professional officer Reinhard Stradner, who believes he can identify it relatively precisely based on military-scientific assessments of the situation in the Styrian-Carinthian border area.

[3] Cf. Das Neue Fischer Lexikon. Vol. 9, Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979.

[4] The helmet of Negau with the incised inscription of the owner Harigast's name is a direct evidence of her stay in the Radkersburg area ; see. Marstrander: Les inscriptions des casques de Negau. Sybm. Osloenses III, p. 64.

[Mommsen_315-5] Theodor Mommsen, Roman History. P. 315.

[6] Klaus Bringmann: Roman history. From the beginning to late antiquity. 6th edition, Beck, Munich 2001.