 | It has been suggested thatTeutobochus bemerged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2024. |
L Cimbri and Teutons defeats.
W Cimbri and Teutons victories.Teutobod was a king of theTeutons, who, together with the alliedCimbri, invaded theRoman Republic in theCimbrian War and won a spectacular victory at theBattle of Arausio in 105 BC. He was later captured at theBattle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC.[1]
In the late 2nd century BC, together with their neighbors, allies, and possible relatives, theCimbri, the Teutons attacked south into theDanube valley, southernGaul and northernItaly. Here they began to intrude upon the lands ofRome (Julius Caesar, in hisGallic Wars accountDe Bello Gallico, reports that it was theBoii who had attackedNoricum). The inevitable conflict which followed is called theCimbrian War. The Cimbri (under their KingBoiorix) and the Teutons, won the opening battles of this war, defeating tribes allied with the Romans and destroying a huge Roman army at theBattle of Arausio in 105 BC. But Rome regrouped and reorganized underConsulGaius Marius. In 104 BC the Cimbri left theRhône valley to raid Spain, while the Teutons remained in Gaul, still strong but not powerful enough to march on Rome on their own. This gave Marius time to build a new army and in 102 BC he moved against the Teutons. At theBattle of Aquae Sextiae the Teutons were virtually annihilated and Teutobod along with, reportedly, 20,000 of his people, were captured. After this, he and his tribe drop out of history. He most likely was sent to Rome for a triumphal procession to celebrate his defeat, then ritually executed afterward. The following year, the Cimbri would suffer a similar fate at theBattle of Vercellae, where two of their leaders,Caesorix andClaodicus, were captured, while two other leaders,Boiorix andLugius, were killed.[2]
In 1869 W.A. Seaver wrote: "In times more modern (1613), some masons digging near the ruins of a castle inDauphiné, in a field which by tradition had long been called 'The Giant's Field,' at a depth of 18 feet discovered a brick tomb 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet high, on which was a gray stone with the words 'Theutobochus Rex' cut thereon. When the tomb was opened they found a human skeleton entire, 30-1/2 feet long, 10 feet wide across the shoulders, and 5 feet deep from the breast to the back. His teeth were about the size of an ox's foot, and his shin-bone measured 4 feet in length."[3]
The bones were displayed in Paris by Pierre Mazurier, a surgeon who claimed to be one of the finders.[4]
After the finding of the bones, the legend of the king Teutobochus, which was thought to be Teutobod, spread despite analysis by anatomistJean Riolan the Younger, who ascribed the bones to one ofHannibal's elephants. The French scholarPeiresc also demonstrated that such bones belong to elephants.[5] Theutobochus mentioned byRobert Plot in hisNatural history of Oxfordshire, 1677, along with other purported giant skeletons.[6]
Much later, the zoologistHenri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville analyzed the bones and concluded they came from amastodon. Finally in 1984, the paleontologistLéonard Ginsburg [fr] analyzed a plaster mold from the ParisMuséum national d'histoire naturelle, that came from the giant bones, and identified aDeinotherium.[7] The bones are housed in theGallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy.[8]
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