ror, and Marius himself was filled with astonishment at the apprehensions of a tumultuous night engagement. However, the barbarians did not attack them either that night or next day, but spent the time in consulting how to dispose and draw themselves up to the best advantage.

In the mean time, Marius observing the sloping hills and woody hollows, that hung over the enemy's camp, despatched Claudius Marcellus, with three thousand men, to lie in ambush there till the fight was begun, and then to fall upon the enemy's rear. The rest of his troops he ordered to sup and go to rest in good time. Next morning, as soon as it was light, he drew up before the camp, and commanded the cavalry to march into the plain. The Teutones seeing this, could not contain themselves, nor stay till all the Romans were come down into the plain, where they might fight them upon equal terms; but arming hastily, through thirst of vengeance, advanced up to the hill. Marius despatched his officers through the whole army, with orders that they should stand still and wait for the enemy. When the barbarians were within reach, the Romans were to throw their javelins, then come to sword in hand, and pressing upon them with their shields, push them with all their force; for he knew the place was so slippery, that the enemy's blows could have no great weight, nor could they preserve any close order, where the declivity of the ground continually changed their poise. At the same time that he gave these directions, he was the first that set the example; for he was inferior to none in personal agility, and in resolution he far exceeded them all.

The Romans, by their firmness and united charge, kept the barbarians from ascending the hill, and by little and little forced them down into the plain. There the foremost battalions were beginning to form again, when the utmost confusion discovered itself in the rear; for Marcellus, who had watched his opportunity, as soon as he found, by the noise which reached the hills where he lay, that the battle was begun, with great impetuosity and loud shouts fell upon the enemy's rear, and destroyed a considerable number of them. The hindmost being pushed upon those before, the whole army was soon put in disorder. Thus attacked both in front and rear, they could not stand the double shock, but forsook their ranks and fled.* The Romans pursuing, either killed or took prisoners above a hundred thousand, and having made themselves masters of their tents, carriages, and baggage, voted as many of them as were not plundered a present to Marius. This indeed was a noble recompense; yet it was thought very

This victory was gained the second year of the hundred and sixty-ninth Olympiad, before Christ one hundred. L 1

VOL. II.

inadequate to the generalship he had shown in that great and imminent danger.*

Other historians give a different account, both of the disposition of the spoils, and the number of the slain. From these writers we learn, that the Massilians walled in their vineyards with the bones they found in the field; and that the rain which fell the winter following, soaking in the moisture of the putrefied bodies, the ground was so enriched by it, that it produced the next season a prodigious crop. Thus the opinion of Archilochus is confirmed, that fields are fattened with blood. It is observed, indeed, that extraordinary rains generally fall after great battles; whether it be, that some deity chooses to wash and purify the earth with water from above, or whether the blood and corruption, by the moist and heavy vapours they emit, thicken the air, which is liable to be altered by the smallest cause.

After the battle, Marius selected from among the arms and other spoils, such as were elegant and entire, and likely to make the greatest show in his triumph. The rest he piled together, and offered them as a splendid sacrifice to the gods. The army stood round the pile crowned with laurel; and himself arrayed in his purple robe, and girt after the manner of the Romans, took a lighted torch. He had just lifted it up with both hands towards heaven, and was going to set fire to the pile, when some friends were seen galloping towards him. Great silence and expectation followed. When they were come near, they leaped from their horses, and saluted Marius consul the fifth time, delivering him letters to the same purpose. This added great joy to the solemnity, which the soldiers expressed by acclamations, and by clanking their arms; and while the officers were presenting Marius with new crowns of laurel, he set fire to the pile, and finished the sacrifice.

But whatever it is that will not permit us to enjoy any great prosperity pure and unmixed, but chequers human life with a variety of good and evil; whether it be fortune, or some chastising deity, or necessity and the nature of things; a few days after this joyful solemnity, the sad news was brought to Marius of what had befallen his colleague Catulus. An event, which, like a cloud in the midst of a calm, brought fresh alarms upon Rome, and threatend her with another tempest. Catulus, who had the Cimbri to oppose, came to a resolution

And yet there does not appear any thing very extraordinary in the generalship of Marius on this occasion; the ignorance and rashness of the barbarians did every thing in his favour. The Teutones lost the battle, as Haw ley lost it at Falkirk, by attempting the hills.

tIpse Quirinali trabeâ, cinctuque Gabino
Insignis.-

Virg. Æneid vii.

to give up the defence of the heights, lest he should weaken himself by being obliged to divide his forces into many parts. He, therefore, descended quickly from the Alps into Italy, and posted his army behind the river Athesis, where he blocked up the fords with strong fortifications on both sides, and threw a bridge over it; that so he might be in a condition to succour the garrisons beyond it, if the barbarians should make their way through the narrow passes of the mountains, and attempt to storm them. The barbarians held their enemies in such contempt, and came on with so much insolence, that, rather to show their strength and courage, than out of any necessity, they exposed themselves naked to the showers of snow; and, having pushed through the ice and deep drifts of snow to the tops of the mountains, they put their broad shields under them, and so slid down, in spite of the broken rocks and vast slippery descents.

When they had encamped near the river, and taken a view of the channel, they determined to fill it up. Then they tore up the neighbouring hills, like the giants of old; they pulled up trees by the roots; they broke off massy rocks, and rolled in huge heaps of earth. These were to dam the current. Other bulky materials besides these, were thrown in, to force away the bridge; which being carried down the stream with great violence, beat against the timber, and shook the foundation. At the sight of this the Roman soldiers were struck with terror, and great part of them quitted the camp and drew back. On this occasion Catulus, like an able and excellent general, showed that he preferred the glory of his country to his own; for when he found that he could not persuade his men to keep their post, and that they were deserting it in a very dastardly manner, he ordered his standard to be taken up, and running to the foremost of the fugitives, led them on himself; choosing rather that the disgrace should fall upon him than upon his country, and that his soldiers should not seem to fly, but to follow their general.

The barbarians now assaulted and took the fortress on the other side of the Athesis; but admiring the bravery of the garrison, who had behaved in a manner suitable to the glory of Rome, they dismissed them upon certain conditions, having first made them to swear to them upon a brazen bull. In the battle that followed, this bull was taken among the spoils, and is said to have been carried to Catulus' house, as the firstfruits of the victory. The country at present being without defence, the Cimbri spread themselves over it, and committed great depredations.

Hereupon Marius was called home. When he arrived, every

* Now the Adige.

one expected that he would triumph, and the senate readily passed a decree for that purpose. However, he declined it; whether it was, that he was unwilling to deprive his men, who had shared in the danger, of their part of the honour, or that, to encourage the people in the present extremity, he chose to entrust the glory of his former achievements with the fortune of Rome, in order to have it restored to him with interest upon his next success. Having made an oration suitable to the time, he went to join Catulus, who was much encouraged by his coming. He then sent for his army out of Gaul; and when it was arrived, he crossed the Po, with a design to keep the barbarians from penetrating into the interior parts of Italy. But they deferred the combat, on pretence that they expected the Teutones, and that they wondered at their delay; either being really ignorant of their fate, or choosing to seem so. For they punished those who brought them that account with stripes; and sent to ask Marius for lands and cities, sufficient both for them and their brethren. When Marius inquired of the ambassadors who their brethren were, they told him the Teutones. The assembly laughed, and Marius replied in a taunting manner,-"Do not trouble yourselves about your brethren; for they have land enough, which we have already given them, and they shall have it for ever." The ambassa dors perceiving the irony, answered in sharp and scurrilous terms, assuring him,-" That the Cimbri would chastise him immediately, and the Teutones when they came."-" And they are not far off," said Marius; "it will be very unkind, therefore, in you to go away without saluting your brethren." At the same time he ordered the kings of the Teutones to be brought out, loaded as they were with chains; for they had been taken by the Sequani, as they were endeavouring to escape over the Alps.

As soon as the ambassadors had acquainted the Cimbri with what had passed, they marched directly against Marius, who at that time lay still, and kept within his trenches. It is reported, that on this occasion he contrived a new form for the javelins. Till then they used to fasten the shaft to the iron head with two iron pins. But Marius now letting one of them remain as it was, had the other taken out, and a weak wooden peg put in its place. By this contrivance he intended, that when the javelin stuck in the enemy's shield, it should not stand right out; but that, the wooden peg breaking, and the iron pin bending, the shaft of the weapon should be dragged upon the ground, while the point stuck fast in the shield.

Boiorix, king of the Cimbri, came now with a small party of horse to the Roman camp, and challenged Marius to appoint the time and place where they should meet and decide it by arms, to whom the country should belong. Marius answered,

"That the Romans never consulted their enemies when to fight; however, he would indulge the Cimbri in this point." Accordingly, they agreed to fight the third day after, and that the plain of Vercellæ should be the field of battle, which was fit for the Roman cavalry to act in, and convenient for the barbarians to display their numbers.

Both parties kept their day, and drew up their forces over against each other. Catulus had under his command twenty thousand and three hundred men; Marius had thirty-two thousand. The latter were drawn up in the two wings, and Catulus was in the centre. Sylla, who was present in the battle, gives us this account; and it is reported, that Marius made this disposition, in hopes of breaking the Cimbrian battalions with the wings only, and securing to himself and his soldiers the honour of the victory, before Catulus could have an opportunity to come up to the charge; it being usual, in a large front, for the wings to advance before the main body. This is confirmed by the defence which Catulus made of his own behaviour, in which he insisted much on the malignant designs of Marius against him.

The Cimbrian infantry marched out of their trenches without noise, and formed so as to have their flanks equal to their front; each side of the square extending to thirty furlongs. Their cavalry, to the number of fifteen thousand, issued forth in great splendour. Their helmets represented the heads and open jaws of strange and frightful wild beasts;* on these were fixed high plumes,† which made the men appear taller. Their breast-plates were of polished iron, and their shields were white and glittering. Each man had two-edged darts to fight with at a distance, and when they came hand to hand, they used broad and heavy swords. In this engagement they did not fall directly upon the front of the Romans, but wheeling to the right, they endeavoured, by little and little, to enclose the enemy between them and their infantry, who were posted on the left. The Roman generals perceived their artful design, but were not able to restrain their own men; one happened to cry out that the enemy fled, and they all set off upon the pursuit. In the mean time, the barbarian foot came on like a vast sea. Marius having purified, lifted his hands towards heaven, and vowed a hecatomb to the gods; and Catulus in the same posture, promised to consecrate a temple to the fortune of that day. As Marius sacrificed on this occasion, it is said that the entrails were no sooner shown him than he cried out with a loud voice," The victory is mine."

However, when the battle was joined, an accident happened,

Пgoroun signifies the bust or head either of man or animal.

Aogos riguros, or a tuft in the form of a wing, is literally a plume of feathers