in 107
B.C., and forced his lieutenant, Popillius Laenas, to go under the
yoke. Tolosa thereupon rose against the Romans, and put the troops
which garrisoned it in chains. By treachery Q. Servilius Caepio
recovered the town, and sent off its treasures to Marseilles.
[Sidenote: The gold of Tolosa.] The ill-gotten gold, however, was
seized on the way by robbers, whom Caepio himself was accused of
employing. His name was destined, however, to be linked with a great
disaster as well as a thievish trick. The Cimbri, who had hitherto
petitioned the Romans for lands to settle on, were now meditating a
raid into Italy. On the left bank of the Rhone, in 105, they overthrew
M. Aurelius Scaurus, whom they took prisoner and put to death. Cnaeus
Mallius Maximus commanded the main force on that side of the river,
and he told Caepio, who as consul was in command on the right bank, to
cross and effect a junction. But Caepio was as wilful as Minucius had
shown himself towards another Maximus in the Second Punic War. When
his superior began to negotiate with the Cimbri, he thought it was
a device to rob him of the honour of conquering them, and in his
irritation rashly provoked a battle, in which he was beaten and lost
his camp. [Sidenote: Defeat of Caepio and Maximus.] The place of his
defeat his camp is not known. Maximus was also defeated, and the
Romans were reported to have lost 80,000 men and 20,000 camp
followers. There was terrible dismay at Rome. The Gaul seemed again
to be at its gates. [Sidenote: Consternation at Rome. Marius elected
consul for 104.] The time of mourning for the dead was abridged. Every
man fit for service had to swear not to leave Italy, and the captains
in Italian ports took an oath not to receive any such man on board.
Marius also was elected consul for 104.

[Sidenote: The Cimbri move off towards Spain.] But fortune helped the
Romans more than all these precautions. The Cimbri, after wilfully
destroying every vestige of the spoils they had taken, in fulfilment,
probably, of some vow, wandered westward on a plundering raid towards
the Pyrenees, the road thither having been lately provided, as it
were, for them by Domitius. [Sidenote: Beaten back by Celtiberi, they
are joined by the Teutones in South Gaul.] In the Celtiberi they met
with foes who sold too dearly the little they had to lose, and again
they surged back into South Gaul, where they were joined by the
Teutones, and once more threatened Italy. [S