nd dangers. It is a curious circumstance that Marius gave
to his future enemy and the destroyer of his family and party the first
opportunity of distinguishing himself. The enemies of Marius claimed for
Sulla the glory of the betrayal of Jugurtha, and Sulla himself took the
credit of it by always wearing a signet ring representing the scene of
the surrender.

Marius continued more than a year in Africa after the capture of
Jugurtha. He entered Rome on the first of January, B.C. 104, leading
Jugurtha in triumph. The Numidian king was then thrown into a dungeon,
and there starved to death. Marius, during his absence, had been elected
Consul a second time, and he entered upon his office on the day of his
triumph. The reason of this unprecedented honor will be related in the
following chapter.

[Illustration: Soldiers blowing Tubae and Cornua. (From Column of
Trajan.)]

[Footnote 64: On this important change in the Roman army, see p. 124.
(The end of Chapter XVII.--Transcriber)]

[Illustration: Caius Marius.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

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.
Juniu