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
enormous procession to roll past him in their wagons toward the Alps.
Then, following cautiously, he watched his opportunity to fall on them.
The Teutons were brave, but they had no longer mere legionaries to fight
with, but a powerful machine, and the entire mass of them, men, women, and
children, in numbers which however uncertain were rather those of a nation
than an army, were swept out of existence.
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