Cimbri, a barbarian tribe, either Celtic or Germanic, that attacked the Roman Empire in the second century B.C. In their first clash with the Romans, in 113 B.C., the Cimbri were victorious, but they turned back. They defeated the Romans three more times between 109 and 105 B.C., sometimes in alliance with the Teutons. Then, in 101 B.C., the Roman general Gaius Marius defeated them at Vercellae, near Turin, ending the threat of invasion from the north for nearly 500 years.