an ancient Celtic nation, inhabiting the northern parts of Germany. They are said to have been descended from the Asiatic Cimmerians, and to have taken the name of Cimbri when they changed their old habitations. When they first became remarkable, they inhabited chiefly the peninsula now called Jutland, and by the ancients Cimbrica Chersonesus. About 113 years B.C. they left their peninsula, with their wives and children, and joining the Teutones, a neighbouring nation, took their journey southward in quest of a better country. They first fell upon the Boii, a Gaulish nation situated near the Hercynian forest; but here they were repulsed, and obliged to move nearer the Roman provinces. The republic being then alarmed at the approach of such multitudes of barbarians, sent an army against them, under the consul Papirius Carbo. On the approach of the Roman army, the Cimbri made proposals of peace, which the consul pretended to accept; but having thrown them into a disadvantageous situation, he treacherously attacked their camp. His perfidy was rewarded as it deserved; the Cimbri flew to arms, and not only repulsed the Romans, but, attacking them in their turn, utterly defeated them, and obliged the shattered remains of their forces to conceal themselves in the neighbouring forests. After this victory, the Cimbri entered Transalpine Gaul, which they quickly covered with slaughter and desolation. Here they continued five or six years, when another Roman army, under the consul Silanus, marched against them; but this general met with no better success than Carbo had done. His army was routed at the first onset, and all Gallia Narbonensis was in consequence exposed to the ravages of these barbarians.

About 105 years B.C. the Cimbri began to threaten the Roman empire itself with destruction; and the Gauls marched from all parts, with a design to join them in the invasion of Italy. The Roman army was commanded by the proconsul Cæpio and the consul Mallius; but as these two commanders could not agree, they were advised to separate and divide their forces. This advice proved ruinous to the whole army. The Cimbri immediately fell upon a strong detachment of the consular army, commanded by M. Aurelius Scaurus, which they cut off to a man, and made Scaurus himself prisoner. Mallius being greatly intimidated by this defeat, desired a reconciliation with Cæpio, but was haughtily refused. He moved nearer the consul, however, with his army, in order that the enemy might not be defeated without his having a share in the action. The Cimbri imagining, by this movement, that the commanders had made up their quarrel, sent ambassadors to Mallius with proposals of peace; and as they could not avoid passing through Cæpio's camp, he ordered them to be brought before him; but finding they were empowered to treat only with Mallius, he could scarcely be restrained from putting them to death. His troops, however, forced him to confer with Mallius about the proposals sent by the barbarians; but as Cæpio proceeded to the consul's tent against his will, so he opposed him in every thing, contradicted him with great obstinacy, and insulted him in the grossest manner. The deputies, on their return, acquainted their countrymen that the misunderstanding between the Roman commanders still subsisted; upon which the Cimbri attacked the camp of Cæpio, and the Gauls that of Mallius, both of which were forced, and the Romans slaughtered without mercy. Eighty thousand citizens and allies of Rome, with forty thousand servants and sutlers, perished on that fatal day. In short, of the two Roman armies, only ten men, with the two generals, escaped, to carry the news of this dreadful defeat. The conquerors destroyed all the spoil, pursuant to a vow they had made before the battle. The gold and silver they threw into the Rhone, then drowned the horses they had taken, and put to death all the prisoners.

The Romans were thrown into the utmost consternation on the news of so terrible an overthrow. They saw themselves threatened with a deluge of Cimbri and Gauls, numerous enough to overrun the whole country; but they did not on that account despair. A new army was raised with incredible expedition, no citizen who was able to bear arms being exempted. On this occasion also, fencing-masters were first introduced into the Roman camp; by which means the soldiers were soon rendered in a manner invincible. Marius, who enjoyed at that time a high reputation on account of his victories in Africa, was chosen commander, and waited for the enemy in Transalpine Gaul; but they had resolved to enter Italy by two different routes; the Cimbri over the eastern, and the Teutones and other allies over the western Alps. The Roman general, therefore, marched to oppose the latter, and defeated the Ambrones and Teutones with great slaughter. The Cimbri, in the mean time, entered Italy, and struck the whole country with terror. Catullus and Sylla attempted to oppose them; but their soldiers were so intimidated by the fierce countenances and terrible appearance of these barbarians, that nothing could prevent their flying before them. Rome was now totally defenceless; and had the Cimbri only marched briskly forward, they would undoubtedly have become masters of the city; but not having heard of the defeat of their allies by Marius, they waited in expectation of being joined by the Ambrones and Teutones, till the senate had time to recall him to the defence of his country. By their order he joined his army to that of Catullus and Sylla, and upon this junction he was declared commander-in-chief. The Roman army consisted of 52,300 men. The cavalry of the Cimbri were no more than 15,000, but their foot seemed innumerable; for, being drawn up in a square, they are said to have covered thirty furlongs. The Cimbri attacked the Romans with the utmost fury; but being unaccustomed to endure the heats of Italy, they soon began to lose their strength, and were easily overcome. They had put it out of their power to fly; for, that they might keep their ranks the better, they had, like true barbarians, tied themselves together with cords fastened to their belts, so that the Romans made a terrible havoc of them. The battle therefore was soon over, and the whole day employed in the most unsparing butchery. An hundred and twenty thousand were killed on the field of battle, and sixty thousand taken prisoners. The victorious Romans then marched to the enemy's camp, where they had a new battle to fight with the women, whom they found even more fierce than their husbands. From their carts and waggons, which formed a kind of fortification, they discharged showers of darts and arrows on friends and foes without distinction; and, finding themselves about to be overpowered, they first suffocated their children in their arms, and then put an end to their own lives. The greater part of them hanged themselves on trees. One was found hanging at a cart with two of her children at her heels. Many of the men, for want of trees and stakes, tied strings in running knots about their necks, and fastened them to the tails of their horses, and the horns and feet of their oxen, in order to strangle themselves in that way; and thus the whole multitude was destroyed.

The country of the Cimbri, which, after this terrible catastrophe, was left a mere desert, was again peopled by the Scythians, who, being driven by Pompey out of the space included between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea, marched towards the north and west of Europe, subduing all the nations they met with in their way. They conquered Russia, Saxony, Westphalia, and other countries as far as Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It is pretended that Wodin, or Odin, their leader, traversed so many countries, and endeavoured to subdue them, only with a view to excite the people against the Romans; and that the spirit of animosity which he had excited operated so powerfully after his death, that the northern nations combined to attack the empire, and never ceased their incursions until it was totally subverted.