ABSTRACT
A large group of a Germano-Celtic tribe, the Cimbri, abandoned their home territory in Schleswig-Holstein and the southern Jutland peninsula and began to march southeast in search of new lands. The Cimbri were accompanied by the Teutones and first encountered the Boii and the Scordisci, who pushed them towards the Eravisci in the region of Budapest. The latter tribe then put them to a west-erly flight into Noricum, the territory of the Taurisci who were allies of Rome. Roman legions came to their aid, led by the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, but were destroyed at the battle of Noreia in 114 BC. The term Arausio apparently refers to a sacred spring that lent its name to a small oppidum established on the Saint-Eutrope Hill, which overlooks the plain where the later Roman colony developed. The archaeological data already acquired for the Lampourdier site demonstrates that a sizeable Roman military camp occupied it at the end of the 2nd century BC.
