Ambrones

The Ambrones (Ancient Greek: Ἄμβρωνες) were an ancient tribe, believed by the Romans to have come from Jutland, that appeared briefly in the Roman sources relating to the 2nd century BC. In the late 2nd century BC, along with the fellow Germanic Cimbri and Teutons, the Ambrones were said to have migrated from their original homes and invaded the Roman Republic, winning a spectacular victory at the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. The Ambrones and the Teutons, led by Teutobod, were eventually defeated at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling Gladiators in the Third Servile War.

The three neighbors began their career in Roman history as an alliance determined to emigrate to the lands of the south. A Roman source reports that "The Cimbri, Teutones and Tigurini, fugitives from the extreme parts of Gaul, since the Ocean had inundated their territories, began to seek new settlement throughout the world." The Zuider Zee region was suffering from catastrophic salt-water flooding; this section of seacoast had been barely above sea level during the BCE period of human history, but was now in the process of sinking below it.

The Ambrones were part of the fleeing multitude. Plutarch gives the numbers advancing on Italy as 300,000 armed fighting men, and much larger hordes of women and children. (It should be noted that many of Plutarch's figures were enormous exaggerations). The Barbarians divided themselves into two bands, and it fell to the lot of the Cimbri to proceed through Noricum in the interior of the country against Catulus, and of a passage there, while the Teutones and Ambrones were to march through Liguria along the sea-coast against the consul Gaius Marius, who had set up camp on the Rhône. Plutarch tells us that Ambrones alone numbered more than 30,000 and were the most warlike division of the enemy, who had earlier defeated the Romans under Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and Quintus Servilius Caepio. It was the Battle of Arausio in 105 in which the Romans were defeated under Servilius Caepio and Gnaeus Mallius.

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