women, not men, because he found by experience that the women were more
regarded than men, and of whom Strabo says, that so highly did the Germanic
races value the intellect of their women that they regarded them as
inspired, and entered into no war or great undertaking without their advice
and counsel; while among the Cimbrian women who accompanied their husbands
in the invasion of Italy were certain who marched barefooted in the midst
of the lines, distinguished by their white hair and milk-white robes, and
who were regarded as inspired, and of whom Florus, describing an early
Roman victory, says, "The conflict was not less fierce and obstinate with
the wives of the vanquished; in their carts and wagons they formed a line
of battle, and from their elevated situation, as from so many turrets,
annoyed the Romans with their poles and lances. (The South African Boer
woman after two thousand years appears not wholly to have forgotten the
ancestral tactics.) Their death was as glorious as their martial spirit.
Finding that all was lost, they strangled their children, and either
destroyed themselves in one scene of mutual slaughter, or with the sashes
that bound up their hair suspended themselves by the neck to the boughs of
trees or the tops of their wagons." It is of these women that Valerius
Maximus says, that, "If the gods on the day of battle had inspired the men
with equal fortitude, Marius would never have boasted of his Teutonic
victory;" and of whom Tacitus, speaking of those women who accompanied
their husbands to war, remarks, "These are the darling witnesses of his
conduct, the applauders of his valour, at once beloved and valued. The
wounded seek their mothers and their wives; undismayed at the sight, the
women count each honourable scar and suck the gushing blood. They are even
hardy enough to mix with the combatants, administering refreshment and
exhorting them to deeds of valour," and adds moreover, that "To be
contented with one wife was peculiar to the Germans; while the woman was
contented with one husband, as with one life, one mind, one body."