nguided movements of some wild force of
nature, they swerved away through Aquitaine to the Pyrenees. They
swept across the mountains into Spain. Thence, turning north, they
passed up the Atlantic coast and round to the Seine, the Gauls flying
before them; thence on to the Rhine, where the vast body of the
Teutons joined them, and fresh detachments of the Helvetii. It was as
if some vast tide-wave had surged over the country and rolled through
it, searching out the easiest passages. At length, in two divisions,
the invaders moved definitely toward Italy, the Cimbri following their
old tracks by the Eastern Alps toward Aquileia and the Adriatic, the
Teutons passing down through Provence, and making for the road along
the Mediterranean. Two years had been consumed in these wanderings,
and Marius was by this time ready for them. The Senate had dropped the
reins, and no longer governed or misgoverned; the popular party,
represented by the army, was supreme. Marius was continued in office,
and was a fourth time consul. He had completed his military reforms,
and the army was now a professional service, with regular pay. Trained
corps of engineers were attached to each legion. The campaigns of the
Romans were thenceforward to be conducted with spade and pickaxe as
much as with sword and javelin, and the soldiers learnt the use of
tools as well as arms.

The effect of the change was like enchantment. The delay of the
Germans made it unnecessary to wait for them in Italy. Leaving
Catulus, his colleague in the consulship, to check the Cimbri in
Venetia, Marius went himself, taking Sulla with him, into the south of
France. As the barbarian host came on, he occupied a fortified camp
near Aix. He allowed the enormous procession to roll past him in their
wagons toward the Alps. Then, following cautiously, he watched his
opportunity to fall on them. The Teutons were brave, but they had no
longer mere legionaries to fight with, but a powerful machine, and the
entire mass of them, men, women, and children, in numbers which,
however uncertain, were rather those of a nation than an army, were
swept out of existence. The Teutons were destroyed on the 20th of
July, 102. In the year following, the same fate overtook their
comrades. The Cimbri had forced the passes through the mountains. They
had beaten the unscientific patrician Catulus, and had driven him back
on the Po. But Marius came to his rescue. The Cimbri were cut to
pieces near Mant