rent of foes; for no one would allow any of the men of noble birth
or wealthy families to offer themselves at the Comitia, and Marius, in
his absence from Rome, was declared consul. It happened that the
Romans had just received intelligence of the capture of Jugurtha when
the reports about the Cimbri[70] and Teutones surprised them, and
though the rumours as to the numbers and strength of the invaders were
at first disbelieved, it afterwards appeared that they fell short of
the truth. Three hundred thousand armed fighting men were advancing,
bringing with them a much larger number of women and children, in
quest of land to support so mighty a multitude and of cities to dwell
in, after the example of the Celtae[71] before them, who took the best
part of Italy from the Tyrrheni and kept it. As these invaders had no
intercourse with other nations, and had traversed an extensive tract
of country, it could not be ascertained who they were or where they
issued from to descend upon Gaul and Italy like a cloud. The most
probable conjecture was that they were Germanic nations belonging to
those who extended as far as the northern ocean; and this opinion was
founded on their great stature, their blue eyes, and on the fact that
the Germans designate robbers by the name of Cimbri. Others thought
that Celtica extended in a wide and extensive tract from the external
sea and the subarctic regions to the rising sun and the Lake
Maeotis,[72] where it bordered on Pontic Scythia; and it was from this
region, as they supposed, where the tribes are mingled, that these
invaders came, and that they did not advance in one expedition nor yet
uninterruptedly, but that every spring they moved forwards, fighting
their way, till in the course of time they traversed the whole
continent. Accordingly while the barbarians had several names
according to their respective tribes, they designated the whole body
by the name of Celtoscythians. But others say that the Cimmerians,
with whom the ancient Greeks were first acquainted, were no large
portion of the whole nation, but merely a tribe[73] or faction that
was driven out by the Scythians and passed into Asia from the Lake
Maeotis, under the command of Lygdamis: they further say that the chief
part of the Scythian nation and the most warlike part lived at the
very verge of the continent, on the coast of the external sea, in a
tract shaded, woody, and totally sunless, owing to the extent and
closeness of th