But the stories around it show that it was no ordinary defeat, even taking Marian propaganda into account. generally speaking, the Romans did not lose to pure numbers, and the circumstances of the battle were pretty bizarre.
But even with that getting even a basic guess at a casualty figure is difficult, because there are no good analogues. If we don't want to discard Livy's figures entirely, we could perhaps say that there were 80,000 Romans present-that is, Caepio had 40,000 beforehand and Mallius Maximus reinforced him with an equal number.
the details is certainly an ironic invention, but the perception behind it is telling. The reputation of the battle was such that Plutarch said the fields in the area produced excellent harvests afterwards due to the fertilization by the dead bodies. The battlefield, spanning several square kilometers, was discovered in December 2008 and is currently being excavated.
Battleof arausio trial#
It caused the trial of both Roman generals present, and even Varro, the general at Cannae, was not tried after his defeat. The Battle at the Harzhorn took place in the early 3rd century between Germanic and Roman troops near the Harzhorn hill between the towns of Kalefeld and Bad Gandersheim, in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is also possible that it led in some way to the increased internal tensions that later exploded in the Social War. The Battle of Arausio took place on 6 October 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio (modern day Orange, Vaucluse) and the Rhône River. It was so bad that it allowed Marius to be elected consul five times simultaneously, despite him having been consul only three years before.
The dubiousness of the number of Romans on the field only compounds the issue of how many were lost. this rather brings up a different issue: to a Roman reader, seeing eighty thousand soldiers slaughtered brings up the specter of Hannibal, and could thus be considered a literary device. Until the Principate I don't think there were ever that many Romans on a single field except at Cannae, but don't quote me on that. Crassus marched into Carrhae with far fewer, and it would be far more men than Caesar had at Alesia, or Marius at Vercellae or Aquae Sextiae. I find it rather unlikely simply because 80,000 men is truly massive for a single Roman army (Caepio and Mallius Maximus were undoubtedly intended to be a single army). Army camps, battle sites, and the geography and strategy of Roman.
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