Battle of Burdigala

Overview

The Battle of Burdigala took place during the Cimbrian War in 107 BC. The battle was fought between a combined Celtic-Germanic army including the Helvetian Tigurini under the command of Divico, and the forces of the Roman Republic under the command of Lucius Cassius Longinus, Lucius Caesoninus, and Gaius Popillius Laenas. Longinus and Caesoninus were killed in the fighting and the battle resulted in a victory for the Celtic-Germanic tribes.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Burdigala was a Roman defeat during the Cimbrian War, resulting in the deaths of both Roman commanders Lucius Cassius Longinus and Lucius Calpurnius Caesoninus. With a recorded force of 40,000 Romans engaged and 10,000 casualties sustained, the battle represents one of the more costly engagements of the broader conflict against the migrating Celtic-Germanic confederacy. The opposing force included the Helvetian Tigurini under Divico, marking the involvement of that tribe as a significant combatant alongside the Cimbric coalition. The loss of two commanders in a single engagement reflects the severity of the defeat and would have disrupted Roman operational capacity in the theater. The battle belongs to a sequence of Roman reverses during the Cimbrian War before Rome reorganized its forces under later commanders.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)