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.
Up to 40,000 Romans may have died, including Valens.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. Led by their chieftain Fritigern, they beat off a number of uncoordinated Roman attacks on their camp before counterattacking with their heavy cavalry. But the Goths were much more numerous than Valens had realised. Valens, the emperor of the eastern part of the empire, tried to quell a Gothic uprising in Thrace by attacking the Goths outside the city of Adrianople. Accounts vary over Valerian’s fate: some say the Romans were relatively well treated and Valerian was eventually released others claim that the Persian king Shapur humiliated the elderly emperor by using him as a footstool and, when Valerian eventually died, had his body stuffed with straw and displayed as a trophy. Explore Carrhae and 9 more of the top military blunders in historyĪn entire Roman army was captured by the Persians at Edessa in southern Turkey, with Emperor Valerian himself amongst the prisoners.Most of the Romans were killed or taken prisoner, and Crassus himself died when truce negotiations broke down and turned violent. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Parthian cavalry outmaneuvered the Roman heavy infantry at Carrhae in modern-day Turkey. Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome and a member of the Third Triumvirate (alongside Pompey and Julius Caesar) took it upon himself to invade Parthia without the consent of the Senate. Some 80,000 troops are said to have been slain, together with 40,000 auxiliaries and camp followers. Two Roman armies confronted the tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutoni near Arausio in southern France, but bitter differences between the Roman commanders – Quintus Servilius Caepio and Gnaeus Mallius Maximus – prevented them from co-operating, with disastrous consequences. According to classical writers, 50,000 Romans were killed and 10,000 captured. Despite having the advantage of numbers, they were caught in a pincer movement, surrounded and massacred. Beyond Teutoburg Forest: 5 more times the Roman war machine broke downĭisaster struck when Republican Rome’s main field army, led by consuls Varro and Paullus, took on Hannibal’s Carthaginians in southeast Italy.
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