Jugurtha, and wrote to say that he would not surrender him and assumed a high tone, he secretly entertained treacherous designs against Jugurtha, and sent for Lucius Sulla, who was the Quaestor of Marius, and had done some service to Bocchus during the campaign.  Sulla confidently went to Bocchus, but the barbarian, who had changed his intentions and repented of his design, for several days wavered in his plan, hesitating whether he should deliver up Jugurtha or keep Sulla a prisoner:  at last, however, he determined to carry into effect his original design, and surrendered Jugurtha into the hands of Sulla.  Thus was sown the seed of that irreconcilable and violent animosity between Marius and Sulla which nearly destroyed Rome:  many claimed the credit of this transaction for Sulla on account of their dislike of Marius, and Sulla himself had a seal-ring made, which he used to on which there was a representation of the surrender of Jugurtha by Bocchus.  By constantly wearing this ring Sulla irritated Marius, who was an ambitious and quarrelsome man, and could endure no partner in his glory.  But the enemies of Marius gave Sulla most encouragement by attributing to Metellus the credit of the first and best part of the war, and that of the latter part and the conclusion to Sulla, their object being to lower Marius in public estimation and to withdraw the people from their exclusive attachment to him.

XI.  But this envy and hatred and these calumnies against Marius were dissipated and removed by the danger which threatened Italy from the west, as soon as the State saw that she needed a great commander and had to look about for a pilot whose skill should save her from such a torrent of foes; for no one would allow any of the men of noble birth or wealthy families to offer themselves at the Comitia, and Marius, in his absence from Rome, was declared consul.  It happened that the Romans had just received intelligence of the capture of Jugurtha when the reports about the Cimbri[70] and Teutones surprised them, and though the rumours as to the numbers and strength of the invaders were at first disbelieved, it afterwards appeared that they fell short of the truth.  Three hundred thousand armed fighting men were advancing, bringing with them a much larger number of women and children, in quest of land to support so mighty a multitude and of cities to dwell in, after the example of the Celtae[71] before them, who took the best part of Italy from the Tyrrheni and kept it.  As these invaders had no intercourse with other nations, and had traversed an extensive tract of country, it could not be ascertained who they were or where they issued from to descend upon Gaul and Italy like a cloud.  The most probable conjecture was that they were Germanic nations belonging to those who extended as far as the northern ocean; and this opinion was founded on their great stature, their blue eyes, and on the fact that the Germans designate robbers by the name of Cimbri.  Others thought that Celtica extended