The Cimbri Appear

Book excerpt: In 120 BC the Cimbri are a Germanic tribe living on the very edge of survival. Rising sea levels, rising temperatures, and increased precipitation over decades have resulted in hunger and uncertainty for their future. When a jealous god sends a final cataclysmic tidal wave that destroys their homeland and threatens their very existence, they are faced with a momentous decision. The Cimbri nation embarks on an unprecedented migration that will take them on a twenty-year quest for a new homeland. Following the ancient Amber Road and the great rivers of Europe, they traverse dark swamps, primordial forests, vast plains, and mountains that touch the sky; all in the hope that a dim memory of an ancient tribal connection with the Celtic Scordisci will help them in their quest. In return for a promise of land, the Cimbri join the Scordisci in their battle against the invading Romans, and it seems that finally, after years of hardship and loss, they have found their new home on the Pannonian plains. Borr, the son of the Cimbri chieftain Haistulf, has grown from a sickly young man into a warrior and leader of renown, and during this time of peace, he marries his childhood love and is blessed with a son. In time, their relationship with the Scordisci sours, and when a devastating plague takes his parents and many of his tribe, Borr is thrust into the leadership of his clan, something he does not know if he is ready for. When the Scordisci turn from allies into enemies, Borr becomes the leader his father knew he could be. Forced from their homes once again, the Cimbri cross the Danube River and attack the Celtic Taurisci people. As the Cimbri warriors overrun this new land, Borr struggles with his conscience as he questions the new path that his people are taking, but as one young clan leader among many, he does not have the influence to guide it. Guided by a mysterious prophecy and responding to a sign from Donar, the Germanic thunder god, the Cimbri select Borr as the chieftain of the entire Cimbri nation. Despite his reservations, Borr promises himself that he will never again let his people suffer. When the sea god Njoror's curse is revealed as the reason for their sufferings, Borr prepares his people to continue their journey in the coming spring. But their rampage in Noricum has attracted the attention of the Roman republic. "The Cimbrian War", the epic saga of the Cimbri people begins twenty years before the birth of Julius Caesar, while Rome is still a republic at the cusp of its expansion into Iberia, Gaul, Illyricum, Pannonia, Macedonia, Germania, and Britannia. It chronicles the life of Borr, a boy of the Germanic Cimbri tribe of Jutland, today's Denmark, who will grow into the warrior and tribal king Boiorix, the Cimbri leader that will defeat Rome's legions time and again. The Cimbri emerge onto Rome's borders suddenly from the dark and mysterious north and are among the first of the German tribes to begin the great barbarian migrations that will eventually lead to the fall of the Roman empire. Borr's story is paralleled by that of Gaius Marius, the Roman general who will one day bring the story of the Cimbri to a disastrous conclusion. This extraordinary man has the ultimate effect on the future of the Cimbri and much of the known world at the time.