[68] The Latin word which Plutarch has translated is Imagines. These Imagines were busts of wax, marble, or metal, which the Romans of family placed in the entrance of their houses. They corresponded to a set of family portraits, but they were the portraits of men who had enjoyed the high offices of the State. These Imagines were carried in procession at funerals. Polybius (vi. 53) has a discourse on this subject, which is worth reading. Marius, who was a Novus Homo, a new man, had no family busts to show.
[69] Lucius Calpurnius Bestia was consul B.C. 111, and Spurius Postumius Albinus B.C. 110. They successively conducted the war against Jugurtha without success. Sallustius (Jugurth. War, c. 85) has put a long speech in the mouth of Marius on this occasion, which Plutarch appears to have used.
[70] Though much has been said on the subject, there is nothing worth adding to what Plutarch tells. He gives the various opinions that he had collected.
[71] This passage of the Celtic Galli into Italy is mentioned by Livius (5, c. 34) and referred by him to the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. This is the first invasion of Italy from the French side of the Alps that is recorded, and it has often been repeated.
[72] The modern Sea of Azoff.
[73] The Greek is φυγη, which hardly admits of explanation, though Coræs has explained it. I have followed Kaltwasser in adopting Reiske's conjecture of φύλη.
[74] It is stated by Mannert (Geographie der Griechen und Römer, Pt. iii. 410), that the term Hercynian forest was not always used by the ancients to denote the same wooded tract. At this time a great part of Germany was probably covered with forest. Cæsar (Gallic War, vi. 24) describes it as extending from the country of the Helvetii (who lived near the lake of Geneva) apparently in a general east or north-east direction, but his description is not clear. He says that the forest had been traversed in its length for sixty days without an end being come to.
[75] Plutarch's description is literally translated; it shows that there was a confused notion of the long days and nights in the arctic regions. Herodotus (iv. 25) and Tacitus in his Agricola have some vague talk of the like kind.
[76] The passage in Homer is in the 11th Book, v. 14, &c. This Book is entitled Necyia νέκυια, which is the word that Plutarch uses; it literally signifies an offering or sacrifice by which the shades of the dead are called up from the lower world to answer questions that are put to them.
[77] In B.C. 113 the Romans first heard of the approach of the Cimbri and Teutones. Cn. Papirius Carbo, one of the consuls of this year, was defeated by them in Illyricum (part of Stiria), but they did not cross the Alps. In B.C. 109 the consul M. Junius Silanus was defeated by the Cimbri, who demanded of the Roman Senate lands to settle in: the demand was refused. In B.C. 107 the consul L. Cassius Longinus fell in battle against the Galli Tigurini, who inhabited a part of Switzerland, and his army was sent under the yoke. This was while his colleague Marius was carrying on the campaign against Jugurtha in Africa. In B.C. 105 Cn. Manlius Maximus, the consul, and Q. Servilius Cæpio, proconsul, who had been consul in B.C. 106, were defeated by the Cimbri with immense slaughter, and lost both their camps. The name of Manlius is written Mallius in the Fasti Consulares, ed. Baiter.