[Footnote 92:  The Roman Athesis, the Italian Adige, the German Etsch.  The extravagance of this chapter of Plutarch is remarkable.]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 97:  Plutarch pays no attention to the movements of an army, and his battles are confused.  He had perhaps no great turn for studying military movements, and their minute details did not come within his plans.]

[Footnote 98:  Plutarch alludes to Sulla’s memoirs in twenty-two books, which, he frequently refers to.  Catulus wrote a history of the war and of his consulship, which Cicero (Brutus, c. 35) compares as to style with Xenophon.  It appears from Plutarch’s remark that he had not seen the work of Catulus.]

[Footnote 99:  [Greek:  Dibolia] is the reading that I have followed.  I have given the meaning here and in the first part of the next chapter as well as I can.]

[Footnote 100:  This was the Roman expression for dedicating something to a sacred purpose.  After the victory Catulus consecrated a temple at Rome “To the Fortune of this Day.”]

[Footnote 101:  Sextilis, the sixth month of the Roman year when the year began in March, was called Augustus in honour of Augustus Caesar, as Quintilis or the fifth month was called Julius in honour of the Dictator Caesar.]

[Footnote 102:  Reiske would make the ambassadors to be from Panormus (Palermo) in Sicily.]

[Footnote 103:  Marius was now Consul.  Catulus was only Proconsul.  He was consul the year before.]

[Footnote 104:  The allusion is to Romulus, and M. Furius Camillus, who saved Rome in the Gallic invasion B.C. 300.]