c
characteristics. We may therefore set them down as Teutonic by race.
The name Cimbri is probably derived from some word of their own,
Kaemper, meaning champions or spoilers, and their last emigration was
from the country between the Rhine, the Danube, and the Baltic. They
were a tall, fierce race, who fought with great swords and narrow
shields, and wore copper helmets and mail. [Sidenote: Their mode
of fighting, etc.] The men in their front ranks were often linked
together so as to make retreat impossible. Their priestesses cheered
them on in battle, and, when prisoners were taken, cut their throats
over a great bowl, and then, ripping them up, drew auguries from their
entrails.

[Sidenote: Plan of the invaders.] The plan of the invaders was that
one body, consisting of the Teutones, Ambrones, and Tugeni, should
descend into Italy on the west, the Cimbri on the east. Whence the
Teutones had come to join the Cimbri we do not know. They joined them
in South Gaul. [Sidenote: The Ambrones.] The Ambrones may have been a
clan of the Helvetii, as the Tugeni were. [Sidenote: Plan of Marius.]
Marius waited for the western division at the confluence of the Isara
and the Rhone, near the spot where Fabius had defeated the Arverni,
his object being to command the two main roads into Italy, over the
Little St. Bernard and along the coast. He did not follow the example
of his old commander Scipio Aemilianus, in expelling soothsayers
from his camp; for he had a Syrian woman, named Martha, with him to
foretell the future. The soldiers had their own pet superstitions.
They had caught two vultures, put rings on their necks and let them
go, and so knew them again as they hovered over the army. When the
barbarians reached the camp they tried to storm it. But they were
beaten back, and then for six days they filed past with taunting
questions, whether the Romans had any messages to send their wives.
Marius cautiously followed, fortifying his camp nightly. They were
making for the coast-road; and as they could not have taken their
wagons along it, they were marching, as Marius had seen, to their own
destruction. His strategy was masterly, for he was winning without
fighting; but accident brought on an engagement. [Sidenote: Scene of
the battle of Aquae Sextiae.] East of Aquae Sextiae (the modern Aix)
Marius had occupied a range of hills, one of which is to this day
called Sainte Victoire. The Arc flowed below. The soldiers wanted
water,