THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES.--The power of _Marius_ was augmented by his victories over the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_. These were hordes of barbarians who appeared in the Alpine regions, the _Cimbri_ being either _Celts_, or, like the _Teutones_, _Germans_. The _Cimbri_ crossed the Alps in 113, and defeated a Roman consul. They turned westward towards the Rhine, traversed Gaul in different directions, defeating through a series of years the Roman armies that were sent against them. These defeats the democratic leaders ascribed, not without reason, to the corrupt management of the aristocratic party. In 103 the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_ arranged for a combined attack on Italy. _Marius_ was made consul; and in order to meet this threatened invasion, which justly excited the greatest anxiety, he was chosen to this office five times in succession (104-100). Having repulsed the attack of the barbarians on his camp, he defeated them in two great battles, the first at _Aquce Sextice_ (Aix in Provence) in 102, and the second at _Vercellce_, in Upper Italy, in 101. These successes, which really saved Rome, made _Marius_ for the time the idol of the popular party. THE ARMY.--At about this time a great change took place in the constitution of the army. The occupation of a soldier had become a trade. Besides the levy of citizens, there was established a recruiting system, which drew into the ranks the idle and lazy, and a system of re-inforcements, by which cavalry and light-armed troops were taken from subject and vassal states. Thus there arose a military class, distinct, as it had not been of old, from the civil orders, and ready to act separately when its own interest or the ambition of favorite leaders might prompt. SATURNINUS.--_Marius_ lacked the judgment and the firmness required by a statesman, especially in troublous times. When _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_ brought forward a series of measures of a radical character in behalf of the democratic cause, and the consul _Metellus_, who opposed them, was obliged to go into voluntary exile, _Marius_, growing ashamed of the factious and violent proceedings of the popular party, was partially won over to the support of the Senate. When _C. Memmius_, candidate for consul, was killed with bludgeons by the mob of _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_, and there was fighting in the forum and the streets, he helped to put down these reckless innovators (99). But his want of hearty cooperation with either party made him hated by both. _Metellus_ was recalled from banishment. _Marius_ went to Asia, and visited the court of _Mithridates._