THE question of the origin of the German tribes and their relations to other branches of the human race pertains rather to the science of ethnology and antiquities than to the province of history. It is, however, an established fact that the dialects of the Celtic, German and Sclavonian tribes display their intimate connections with the language of Persia, India, Greece and Italy. This shows that they all sprung from a common language, spoken by a people which preceded them. The plainest indications of tradition all point to the conclusion that they once occupied the mountainous regions of Central Asia. There There are philological reasons for believing that they were shepherds and herdsmen fond of the chase

and cultivated rudely enough the few grains that grew wild about them. More than this the organization of the family with one pair, the patriarchal form of government, and the simplicity of their religious notions all bespeak their Eastern origin. They regarded as divine the forces in the grand recurring phenomena of nature, and therefore referred their manifestations to superior beings.

The first traces of history find the Arian race but little removed from the cradle of their birth. They had formed each a distinct nationality or race characteristic for itself and exhibited a different phase of civilization. It was not long before the Christian era that the Romans first began to hear and know of the Germans. The Greek historian Herodotus mentions a Persian tribe whom he calls Germanii, but there is nothing to connect them with the Germans of Europe. Two branches of the Arian family settled in Greece and Italy, and from these arose all the wonderful achievements which have made the histories of Greece and Rome. Much later than these, the Celts began their movement westward, and from the time of the fifth century before Christ they were engaged in active plundering upon the lands of Italy. There was nothing like national organization among them, and two hundred years before Christ they were crushed by the Romans. The last remnants of this migration still cling to the coast of Brittany, Wales and Ireland.

The Germans doubtless were the last of the Arian tribes to come to Europe, and pushing the other migrations before them came to possess. the central part of Europe. They traversed the vast plains of what is now known as Russia, and took possession of Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic. They then came into Germany from the north-east, driving the Celts before them. These Celts had held the land during all the time that Greece was dominant in Central Europe. The first knowledge the ancients had of the Germans was through Pythias of Massilia in the time of Alexander the Great. He came in contact with the Teutons and Guthrons on the Baltic coast. It was therefore in the last half of the fourth century before Christ that the Germans made their first appearance in Central Europe; yet within a few centuries they had not only overrun all of Germany, but had forgotten the source from which they had sprung. When the Romans first came in contact with them, the Germans claimed that they had sprung from their deities on the land which they then held. There were then no less than forty different tribes, with no bond to unite them in one political compact. There were the same features, language, forms of justice and religion; and they all held a vague tradition of a common descent from one ancestor. The three sons of one Mannus had bestowed their names upon the three principal divisions of the race. These were termed the Istaevones, the Ingaevones and the Hermiones. These roughly correspond to the modern Franks, Saxons, and Lombards.

The national distinctive was given first by Julius Cæsar. The name "Germans" signifies "shouters in battle;" is equivalent to Homer's favorite

ephithet to Menelaus, "good at the war cry." The term "Deutche" is generally applied to the language and laws of the whole people, to distinguish it from the separate local and tribal distinctions, and signifies "popular" or "general." This has come to be applied to the people.

The close of the Punic wars found Rome the mistress of the then known world. As her armies climbed the Alps which shut out Europe like a solid wall, they looked upon a vast domain that still remained unconquered by the proud eagle of the republic. They soon came in contact with the Celts, whom they were determined to overcome, and not long after they fell in with the Germans, engaged in the same enterprise with themselves. The first detachment of this nation whom they met they styled Cimbrians, or warriors, champions; or, as the Romans put it, robbers. It could not be ascertained whence they came, but they were pressing hard upon the territory of one of the Celtic tribes.

Here was for Rome the first sight of a whole tribe who had taken up its goods and left its possessions to go in search of other and better homes. The first appearance of a migratory people on the wing.

In their extremity the Celts called upon the Roman consul to aid them. Papirius Carbo, at this time holding that office, at first pretended to be friendly to this tribe, and then one night unexpectedly attacked them. They rallied after this act of treachery, and in full vigor and self-possession overwhelmingly defeated his army at Norija.

The Cimbrians then moved westward, and came into Gaul by the way of the Alps. They overcame four large consular armies in as many years and devastated the whole region from the river Rhone to the Pyrenees Mountains, and at last they invaded Spain, where for a time they were successfully opposed. The very name of Cimbrian caused a panic and the people were terror-stricken at their coming, even the Romans trembled before it as before they had trembled at the names of Brennus and Hannibal.

The men had strong active bodies of great size with fair hair-" the locks of old men on the heads of boys"—with bold blue eyes, and were a cause of annoyance to the Romans. Their armor was brazen mail, with shining white shields and a curiously shaped helmet, like the head of some unknown beast of prey. They carried a double-pointed spear, and for close battle long, heavy swords. Their women accompanied them, and if they did not fight they at least encouraged the men with shouts. Some of them acted as priestesses and offered the prisoners taken in battle to their deities. For this purpose they cut their throats with a knife and caught the blood in a brazen vessel.

Resisted in their advance into Spain these Cimbrians turned back along the Pyrenees and went to the northward, where they joined the Teutons, another German tribe. The two now united and increased their demand for land, but the Romans had none to bestow. Gaul was already devastated and they could no longer remain there, and since they were too many to march together they again divided, and prepared to make a simultaneous

invasion of Italy. The Teutons marched along the coast and came into Italy by the way of the Maritime Alps, while the Cimbrians chose the passes of the Eastern Alps. They were in search of a country where they could settle, and had not come for robbery alone. They killed the horses and destroyed the armor of those whom they slew in battle.

Rome was now aroused to a sense of her danger. She could present but one man who was able to cope with this threatened invasion. Caius Marius, the son of a common day-laborer, had just been elected consul for the fourth time after he had conquered Jugartha (B.C. 109). He had taken his residence at Arles, the better to guard the approaches from Gaul. Under his generalship the discipline of his troops had been perfected to a most wonderful degree; they had become inured to hardship like the Roman soldiers of other ages, and were freed from panic at the sight of the barbarians. The Teutons passed by his well-fortified camp on their way to Rome. Marius marched out his army and gave them battle at the warm springs called Aquæ Sextiæ (now Aix), and so completely routed them that their entire host of two hundred thousand was annihilated (December, 102 B.C.). In the fifth year of his consulship he hastened to Italy, where he found that the Cimbrians had defeated the other consul, Marcellus, and had been dwelling a whole year in the fertile lands north of the Po. After Marius. arrived with his army a bloody battle was fought at Vercillae, and the entire Cimbrian forces were drawn up in a square one side of which extended three and a half miles. This was on the 30th day of July, 101 B.C. In the last desperate struggle the women exhibited the same fierce determination as the men. They offered to become slaves to the vestal virgins, but this being refused they contended to the bitter end, and at last slew their children and themselves rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. The Romans with much truth regarded Marius as the "third founder of Rome."

The Romans claim that during the twelve years of this struggle they had slain half a million of these German barbarians, yet these Cimbrians and Teutons were but the meager vanguard that preceded the main body of the Germanic races that were pressing westward, the few bold pioneers sent forward by the immense herds that were to follow. In Rome, after this, more than two score years were passed in party intrigue and civil strife before the two forces should again meet in contest on the plains of Gaul, claimed by each as its territory. In this time the Germans had crossed the Rhine and were pushing heavily upon the Helvetian in the region of the Alps. They had also pushed across the Lower Rhine, and mixing with the Celts were occupying the fruitful lands as far as the Seine and the Marne. The Suevi, or wanderers, had forced their way into Gaul in successive bands, until in 54 B.C. they numbered one hundred and twenty thousand men.

King Ariovistus was at their head; he had come into Gaul at first to settle the war between the factions there, but now he was strong enough to aim at nothing less than the entire conquest of the country. This was the