THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES, B.C. 113-101.--SECOND SERVILE WAR IN SICILY,
B.C. 103-101.
A greater danger than Rome had experienced since the time of Hannibal
now threatened the state. Vast numbers of barbarians, such as spread
over the south of Europe in the later times of the Roman Empire, had
collected together on the northern side of the Alps, and were ready to
pour down upon Italy. The two leading nations of which they consisted
are called Cimbri and Teutones, of whom the former were probably Celts
and the latter Germans, but the exact parts of Europe from which they
came can not be ascertained. The whole host is said to have contained
300,000 fighting men, besides a much larger number of women and
children. The alarm at Rome was still farther increased by the ill
success which had hitherto attended the arms of the Republic against
these barbarians. Army after army had fallen before them. The Cimbri
were first heard of in B.C. 113, in Noricum, whence they descended into
Illyricum, and defeated a Roman army under the command of Cn. Papirius
Carbo. They then marched westward into Switzerland, where they were
joined by the Tigurini and the Ambrones. They next poured over Gaul,
which they plundered and ravaged in every direction. The Romans sent
army after army to defend the southwestern part of the country, which
was now a Roman province; but all in vain. In B.C. 109 the Consul M.
Junius Silanus was defeated by the Cimbri; in B.C. 107 the Tigurini cut
in pieces, near the Lake of Geneva, the army of the Consul L. Cassius
Longinus, the colleague of Marias, who lost his life in the battle; and
shortly afterward M. Aurelius Scaurus was also defeated and taken
prisoner. But the most dreadful loss was still to come. In B.C. 105 two
consular armies, commanded by the Consul Cn. Mallius Maximus and the
Proconsul Cn. Servilius Cæpio, consisting of 80,000 men, were completely
annihilated by the barbarians: only two men are said to have escaped the
slaughter.
These repeated disasters hushed all party quarrels. Every one at Rome
felt that Marius was the only man capable of saving the state, and he
was accordingly elected Consul by the unanimous votes of all parties
while he was still absent in Africa. He entered Rome in triumph, as we
have already said, on the 1st of January, B.C. 104, which was the first
day of his second Consulship. Meantime the threatened danger was for a
while averted. Instead of crossing the Alps and pouring down upon Italy,
as had been expected, the Cimbri marched into Spain, which they ravaged
for the next two or three years. This interval was advantageously
employed by Marius in training the new troops, and accustoming them to
hardships and toil. It was probably during this time that he introduced
the various changes into the organization of the Roman army which are
usually attributed to him. Notwithstanding the sternness and severity
with which he punished the least breach of discipline, he was a favorite
with his new soldiers, who learned to place implicit confidence in their
general, and were delighted with the strict impartiality with which he
visited the offenses of the officers as well as of the privates. As the
enemy still continued in Spain, Marius was elected Consul a third time
for the year B.C. 103, and also a fourth time for the following year,
with Q. Lutatius Catulus as his colleague. It was in this year (B.C.
102) that the long-expected barbarians arrived. The Cimbri, who had
returned from Spain, united their forces with the Teutones. Marius first
took up his position in a fortified camp upon the Rhone, probably in the
vicinity of the modern Arles; and as the entrance of the river was
nearly blocked up by mud and sand, he employed his soldiers in digging a
canal from the Rhone to the Mediterranean, that he might the more easily
obtain his supplies from the sea.[65] Meantime the barbarians had
divided their forces. The Cimbri marched round the northern foot of the
Alps, in order to enter Italy by the northeast, crossing the Tyrolese
Alps by the defiles of Tridentum (_Trent_). The Teutones and Ambrones,
on the other hand, marched against Marius, intending, as it seems, to
penetrate into Italy by Nice and the Riviera of Genoa. Marius, anxious
to accustom his soldiers to the savage and strange appearance of the
barbarians, would not give them battle at first. The latter resolved to
attack the Roman camp; but as they were repulsed in this attempt, they
pressed on at once for Italy. So great were their numbers, that they are
said to have been six days in marching by the Roman camp. As soon as
they had advanced a little way, Marius followed them; and thus the
armies continued to march for a few days, the barbarians in the front
and Marius behind, till they came to the neighborhood of Aquæ Sextiæ
(_Aix_). Here the decisive battle was fought. An ambush of 3000
soldiers, which Marius had stationed in the rear of the barbarians, and
which fell upon them when they were already retreating, decided the
fortune of the day. Attacked both in front and rear, and also dreadfully
exhausted by the excessive heat of the weather, they at length broke
their ranks and fled. The carnage was dreadful; the whole nation was
annihilated, for those who escaped put an end to their lives, and their
wives followed their example. Immediately after the battle, as Marius
was in the act of setting fire to the vast heap of broken arms which was
intended as an offering to the gods, horsemen rode up to him, and
greeted him with the news of his being elected Consul for the fifth
time.
The Cimbri, in the mean time, had forced their way into Italy. The
colleague of Marius, Q. Lutatius Catulus, despairing of defending the
passes of the Tyrol, had taken up a strong position on the Athesis
(Adige); but, in consequence of the terror of his soldiers at the
approach of the barbarians, he was obliged to retreat even beyond the
Po, thus leaving the whole of the rich plain of Lombardy exposed to
their ravages. Marius was therefore recalled to Rome. The Senate offered
him a triumph for his victory over the Teutones, which he declined while
the Cimbri were in Italy, and proceeded to join Catulus, who now
commanded as Proconsul (B.C. 101). The united armies of the Consul and
Proconsul crossed the Po, and hastened in search of the Cimbri, whom
they found to the westward of Milan, near Vercellæ, searching for the
Teutones, of whose destruction they had not yet heard. The Cimbri met
with the same fate as the Teutones; the whole nation was annihilated;
and the women, like those of the Tentones, put an end to their lives.
Marius was hailed as the savior of the state; his name was coupled with
the gods in the libations and at banquets; and he received the title of
third founder of Rome. He celebrated his victories by a brilliant
triumph, in which, however, he allowed Catulus to share.
During the brilliant campaigns of Marius, Sicily had been exposed to the
horrors of a second Servile War. The insurrection broke out in the east
of the island, where the slaves elected as their king one Salvius, a
soothsayer. He displayed considerable abilities, and in a short time
collected a force of 20,000 foot and 2000 horse. After defeating a Roman
army he assumed all the pomp of royalty, and took the surname of
Tryphon, which had been borne by a usurper to the Syrian throne. The
success of Salvius led to an insurrection in the western part of the
island, where the slaves chose as their leader a Cilician named Athenio,
who joined Tryphon, and acknowledged his sovereignty. Upon the death of
Tryphon, Athenio became king. The insurrection had now assumed such a
formidable aspect that, in B.C. 101, the Senate sent the Consul M.
Aquillius into Sicily. He succeeded in subduing the insurgents, and
killed Athenio with his own hand. The survivors were sent to Rome, and
condemned to fight with wild beasts; but they disdained to minister to
the pleasures of their oppressors, and slew each other with their own
hands in the amphitheatre.
[Illustration: Fasces. (From the original in the Capitol at Rome.)]
[Footnote 65: This canal continued to exist long afterward, and bore the
name of _Fossa Mariana_.]
[Illustration: Tomb of Metella Cæcilia.]