antry. [Sidenote: Circumstances of the
battle.] However this may be, Marius had shown his usual good
generalship. He had fed his men before the battle, and so manoeuvred
that sun, wind, and dust were in the enemy's faces. His own men were
in perfect training, and in the burning heat did not turn a hair. But
the Northmen were fresh from high living, and could not bear up long.
When they gave way, the same scenes as at Aquae Sextiae took place
among the women. One hundred and twenty thousand men, it is said, were
killed--among them the gallant Boiorix, their king--and 60,000 taken
prisoners. Disputes rose as to who had really won the day. Marius
generously insisted on Catulus sharing his triumph. But it was to him
that the popular voice ascribed the victory, and there can be little
doubt that the popular voice was right.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VI.

THE ROMAN ARMY.

While Rome was trembling for the issue of the war with the Cimbri, she
was forced to send an army elsewhere. [Sidenote: Slave revolts.] There
was at this time another general stir among the slave population.
There were risings at Nuceria, at Capua, in the silver mines of
Attica, and at Thurii, and the last was headed by a Roman eques, named
Minucius or Vettius. He wanted to buy a female slave; and, failing to
raise the money which was her price, armed his own slaves, was joined
by others, assumed the state and title of king, and fortified a camp,
being at the head of 3,500 men. Lucullus, the praetor, marched against
him with 4,400 men; but though superior in numbers, he preferred
Jugurthine tactics, and bribed a Greek to betray Vettius, who
anticipated a worse fate by suicide. [Sidenote: Second slave rebellion
in Sicily.] But, as before, the fiercest outbreak was in Sicily.
Marius had applied for men for his levies to Nicomedes, king of
Bithynia, who replied that he had none to send, because the Roman
publicani had carried off most of his subjects and sold them as
slaves. Thereupon the Senate issued orders that no free member of an
allied state should be kept as a slave in a Roman province. [Sidenote:
Weakness of Licinius Nerva.] P. Licinius Nerva, governor of Sicily, in
accordance with these orders, set free a number of Sicilian slaves;
but, worked on by the indignation of the proprietors, he backed out of
what he had begun to do, and, having raised the hopes of the slaves,
caused an insurrection by disappointing them.