helmet. They were brave warriors, careless of danger, and willing to die.
They were accompanied by priestesses, whose warnings were regarded as
voices from heaven.

(M961) This homeless people of the Cimbri, prevented from advancing south
on the Danube by the barrier raised by the Celts, advanced to the passes
of the Carnian Alps, B.C. 113, protected by Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, not far
from Aquileia. An engagement took place not far from the modern Corinthia,
where Carbo was defeated. Some years after, they proceeded westward to the
left bank of the Rhine, and over the Jura, and again threatened the Roman
territory. Again was a Roman army defeated under Silanus in Southern Gaul,
and the Cimbri sent envoys to Rome, with the request that they might be
allowed peaceful settlements. The Helvetii, stimulated by the successes of
the Cimbri, also sought more fertile settlements in Western Gaul, and
formed an alliance with the Cimbri. They crossed the Jura, the western
barrier of Switzerland, succeeded in decoying the Roman army under
Longinus into an ambush, and gained a victory.

(M962) In the year B.C., 105 the Cimbrians, under their king Boiorix,
advanced to the invasion of Italy. They were opposed on the right bank of
the Rhone by the proconsul Caepio, and on the left by the consul Gnaeus
Mallius Maximus, and the consular Marcus Aurelius Scaurus. The first
attack fell on the latter general, who was taken prisoner and his corps
routed. Maximus then ordered his colleague to bring his army across the
Rhone, where the Roman force stood confronting the whole Cimbrian army,
but Caepio refused. The mutual jealousy of these generals, and refusal to
co-operate, led to one of the most disastrous defeats which the Romans
ever suffered. No less than eighty thousand soldiers, and half as many
more camp followers, perished. The battle of Aransio (Orange) filled Rome
with alarm and fear, and had the Cimbrians immediately advanced through
the passes of the Alps to Italy, overwhelming disasters might have ensued.

(M963) In this crisis, Marius was called to the supreme command, hated as
he was by the aristocracy, which still ruled, and in defiance of the law
which prohibited the holding of the consulship more than once. He was
accompanied by a still greater man, Lucius Sulla, destined to acquire
great distinction. Marius maintained a strictly defensive attitude within
the Roman territories, training and disciplining his troops for the
conte