Teutoni

Teutoni, or Teutones, a tribe of northern Europe, who became known to the Romans in the year 103 B.C., when, according to the Epitome of Livy, together with the Ambrones they reinforced the Cimbri after their repulse from Spain by the Celtiberi. In 102 the Teutoni and Ambrones were totally defeated by Marius at Aquae Sextiae (see Marius, GAlus). The racial affinities of the Teutoni have formed a matter of dispute amongst historians. Their name is Celtic in form, and many writers suppose that the Teutoni were really a Celtic tribe, a branch of the Helvetii. But a people of this name seems to have been mentioned by the early traveller Pytheas as inhabiting the coasts of the northern ocean in his time. Strabo and Velleius, moreover, classify them as Germani, and this is perhaps the more probable view, although apparently the distinction between Celt and Teuton was not clearly realized by some of the earlier historians. If the Teutoni really came from the same quarter as the Cimbri, it is possible that their name may have been preserved in that of the district called until recently Thyland or Thythsyssel in the extreme north-west of Jutland.

For authorities see Cimbri; also Pliny, xxxvii. 35.

(F. G. M. B.)