Caepio was convicted, and was given the harshest sentence allowable: he was stripped of his citizenship, forbidden fire and water within eight hundred miles of Rome, nominally fined 15,000 talents (about 825,000 lb) of gold, and forbidden to see or speak to his friends or family until he had left for exile. Upon his return to Rome, Caepio was tried for 'the loss of his army' by a tribune of the plebs, Gaius Norbanus. Caepio refused even to camp with Maximus and his troops when it appeared that Maximus was going to reach a treaty and take the glory for the resolution, Caepio ordered his men to engage the Germans, and the battle that ensued saw the complete destruction of the Roman army. The Gold of Tolosa was never found, and was said to have been passed all the way down to the last heir of the Servilii Caepiones, Marcus Junius Brutus.Īt the Battle of Arausio, Caepio refused to co-operate with his superior officer, the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, who was a new man, not a member of the Roman elite. The riches of Tolosa were shipped back to Rome, but only the silver made it the gold was stolen by a band of marauders, who were believed to have been hired by Caepio himself. For the Cimbri and Teutones it was a great (though temporary) triumph. the details is certainly an ironic invention, but the perception behind it is telling. The Battle of Arausio was the costliest defeat Rome had suffered since Cannae and, in fact, the losses and long-term consequences were far greater. Ranged against the migratory tribes of the Cimbri. Strabo reports a story told in his time of this semi-legendary treasure, the aurum Tolosanum, supposed to have been the 'cursed gold' looted during the sack of Delphi during the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. 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 Battle of Arausio took place on 6 October 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio (modern day Orange, Vaucluse) and the Rhne River. While marching to Arausio (modern-day Orange) Caepio plundered the temples of the town of Tolosa, ancient Tolouse, finding over 50,000 fifteen-pound bars of gold and 10,000 fifteen-pound bars of silver. In the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC, Caepio led one of the two forces against the Germanic tribes (the Teutones, the Cimbri, and Tigurini/ Marcomanni/Cherusci) along with the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. He was the father of Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger and the grandfather of Servilia Caepionis.ĭuring his year of office as consul, he brought forward a law by which the jurymen were again to be chosen from the senators instead of the equites (Tacitus, Ann. Quintus Servilius Caepio the Elder was a Roman statesman and general, consul in 106 BC, and proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul in 105 BC.

The battle of arausio