[87] Statements of numbers killed are not worth much, even in any modern engagements. Velleius (ii. 12) makes the number of barbarians who fell in both battles above 150,000.
[88] The Romans called it Massilia; now Marseilles. It was an old Greek colony of the Phokæans. Strabo (p. 183) says that the people of Massilia aided the Romans in these battles and that Marius made them a present of the cut which he had formed from the Rhone to the sea, which the Massilians turned to profit by levying a toll on those who used it.
[89] A Greek lyric poet who lived in the seventh century B.C. His fragments have often been collected.
[90] This was an old Roman fashion. (Livius, 1, c. 37; 41, c. 16.)
[91] Plutarch often uses the word Fortune τύcη, the meaning of which may be collected from the passages in which it occurs. Nemesis Νέμεσις is a Greek goddess, first mentioned by Hesiod, and often mentioned by the Greek Tragoedians. She is the enemy of excessive prosperity and its attendant excessive pride and arrogance; she humbles those who have been elevated too high, tames their pride and checks their prosperous career. Nemesis had a temple and statue at Rhamnus in Attica.
[92] The Roman Athesis, the Italian Adige, the German Etsch. The extravagance of this chapter of Plutarch is remarkable.
[93] The Eagle, Aquila, was the Roman standard in use at this time. Formerly the Romans had five symbols for their standards, the eagle, wolf, minotaur, horse, and wild boar, all of which were appropriated to respective divisions of the army. Marius in this Cimbrian war did away with all of them except the eagle. (Plinius, N.H. x. 4.)
[94] The Sequani were a Gallic people who were separated from the Helvetii by the range of the Jura, on the west side of which their territory extended from the Rhine to the Rhone and the Saone. (Florus iii. 3) mentions Teutobocus as the name of a king who was taken by the Romans and appeared in the triumph of Marius; he was a man of such prodigious stature that he towered above his own trophies which were carried in the procession.
[95] The object of this contrivance is explained by Plutarch, and it is clear enough. There is no reason then to imagine another purpose in the design, as some do, which moreover involves an absurdity.
[96] Near Vercelli in Piemont on the Sesia, a branch of the Po, which the Greeks generally call Eridanus, and the Romans, Padus. The plain of Vercelli, in which the battle was fought, is called by Velleius (ii. 12) Raudii campi. The situation of the Raudii campi can only be inferred from Plutarch. Some geographers place them north of Milan.