TEUTONES
Eth.
TEUTONES or
TEUTONI (
Τεύτονες), the name of a powerful German tribe, which about B.C. 113 appeared on the frontiers of Gaul at the same time when the Cimbri, probably a Celtic people after defeating the Romans in several battles, traversed Gaul and invaded Spain. The Teutones, however, remained behind ravaging Gaul, and were joined by the Ombrones At length, in ii. B.C. 102, they were defeated by C. Marius in a great battle near Aquac Sextiae, where, according to the most moderate accounts, 100,000 of them were slain while 80,000 or 90,000 are said to have been taken prisoners.
A body of 6000 men, who survived that terrible day, are said to have established themselves in Gaul between the
Maas and
Schelde, where they became the ancestors of the Aduatici. (Liv.
Epit. lib. lxvii.;
Vell. 2.12;
Flor. 3.3;
Plut. Mar. 36, foll.;
Oros. 5.16;
Caes. Gal. 2.4,
29.)
After this great defeat, the Teutones are for a long time not heard of in history, while during the preceding ten years they are described as wandering about the Upper Rhine, and eastward even as far as Pannonia.
In later times a tribe bearing the name of Tentones is mentioned by Pomp. Mela (3.3), Pliny (
37.11), and Ptolemy (
2.11.17) as inhabiting a district in the north-west of Germany, on the north of the river Albis, where according to Pliny, they dwelt even as early as the time of Pytheas of Massilia.
The question here naturally presents itself whether these Teutones in the north of Germany were the same as those who in the time of Marius invaded Gaeul in conjunction with the Cimbri, who in fact came from the same quarters.
This question must be answered in the affirmative; or in other words, the Teutones who appeared in the south were a branch of those in the northwest of Germany, having been induced to migrate southward either by inundations or other calamities. Thle numerous body of emigrants so much reduced the number of those remaining behind, that thereafter they were a tribe of no great importance.
That the name of Teutones was never employed, either by the Germans themselves by the Romans, as a general name for the whole German nation, has already been explained in the article
GERMANIA Some writers even regard the Teutones as not Germans at al but either as Slavonians or Celts. (Latham,
Epileg. ad Tac. Germ p. cx.)
The fact that the country between the lower Elbe and the Baltic was once inhabited by the
[p. 2.1134]Teutones seems to be attested by the names of
Teutenwinkel, a village near
Rostock, and
Teutendorf, between
Travemünde and
Schwartau. [
L.S]
