Aquitaine to the Pyrenees. They swept across the mountains into Spain.
Thence, turning north, they passed up the Atlantic coast and round to the
Seine, the Gauls flying before them; thence on to the Rhine, where the
vast body of the Teutons joined them and fresh detachments of the
Helvetii. It was as if some vast tide-wave had surged over the country and
rolled through it, searching out the easiest passages. At length, in two
divisions, the invaders moved definitely toward Italy, the Cimbri
following their old tracks by the eastern Alps toward Aquileia and the
Adriatic, the Teutons passing down through Provence and making for the
road along the Mediterranean. Two years had been consumed in these
wanderings, and Marius was by this time ready for them. The Senate had
dropped the reins, and no longer governed or misgoverned; the popular
party, represented by the army, was supreme. Marius was continued in
office, and was a fourth time consul. He had completed his military
reforms, and the army was now a professional service, with regular pay.
Trained corps of engineers were attached to each legion. The campaigns of
the Romans were thenceforward to be conducted with spade and pickaxe as
much as with sword and javelin, and the soldiers learnt the use of tools
as well as arms. Moral discipline was not forgotten. The foulest of human
vices was growing fashionable in high society in the capital. It was not
allowed to make its way into the army. An officer in one of the legions, a
near relative of Marius, made filthy overtures to one of his men. The man
replied with a thrust of his sword, and Marius publicly thanked and
decorated him.

The effect of the change was like enchantment. The delay of the Germans
made it unnecessary to wait for them in Italy. Leaving Catulus, his
colleague in the consulship, to check the Cimbri in Venetia, Marius went
himself, taking Sylla with him, into the south of France. As the barbarian
host came on, he occupied a fortified camp near Aix. He allowed the