[5] Local lore associates the name of the mountain, Mont St. Victoire, with the Roman victory at the battle of Aquae Sextiae, but Frédéric Mistral and other scholars have debunked this theory.

[6] According to ancient sources, sometime around 120–115 BC, the Germanic tribe of the Cimbri left their homeland around the North Sea due to climate changes.

[7] The Senate commissioned Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, one of the consuls, to lead a substantial Roman army to Noricum to force the barbarians out.

An engagement, later called the Battle of Noreia, took place, in which the invaders, to everyone's surprise, completely overwhelmed the Legions and inflicted a devastating loss on Carbo and his men.

He met the Cimbri approximately 100 miles north of Arausio, a battle was fought and the Romans suffered another humiliating defeat.

[10] In 106 the Romans sent their largest army yet; the senior consul of 106, Quintus Servilius Caepio, was authorized to use eight legions in an effort to end the Germanic threat once and for all.

Caepio's routed men crashed into Mallius's troops, which led to both armies being pinned against the River Rhône and annihilated by the numerically dominant Cimbrian warriors.

The Romans sent the senior consul of 104, Gaius Marius, a proven and capable general just returned in victory from the Jugurthine war, at the head of another large army.

The Germanic tribes never materialized, having marched west into Hispania,[12] so Marius subdued the Volcae Tectosages capturing their king Copillus.

Marius had used his time wisely; he had constructed a heavily fortified camp on a hill close to the river and stocked it with enough supplies to withstand a lengthy siege.

It took several days for their entire wagon train to clear the area but, once they were out of sight, Gaius Marius followed, dogging them and waiting for an opportune moment to strike.

[19][20] As the Romans trailed the tribal coalition, after each day's march Marius ordered his men to build a fortified camp with impressive defense works.

The bathing Ambrones, caught by surprise, called for their fellow tribesmen who were eating dinner and drinking in their camp on their side of the river.

[32] While waiting, Marius sent one of his legates, Claudius Marcellus, with 3,000 troops some distance away and ordered him to remain undetected until a determined time when he would appear at the enemy rear.

[33] Since the Teutones were waiting for him on the plain near Aquae Sextiae, Marius had the opportunity to reconnoiter the area and select a suitable site for the upcoming battle.

He instructed his legionaries to stand their ground on the hill, launch javelins, draw their swords, guard themselves with their shields and thrust the enemy back.

[35] The surviving Ambrones and the Teutones, bent on revenge, eagerly awaited the upcoming confrontation and, when the Romans finally showed themselves on the Aquae Sextiae plain, charged uphill.

The Romans unleashed a barrage of javelins, killing or maiming many tribesmen, then stood in close order, drew their swords and awaited the enemy at the top of the hill.

However, the well-conditioned and disciplined legionaries slowly and systematically forced the tribal horde down the hill until both the Romans and barbarians were on level ground.

Modern research suggests that "one important explanation for the one-sidedness of the slaughter was the sheer crowding together of the encircled troops, making them an easy target and preventing them from fighting [effectively]".

When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.

[45] The following year, in July 101 BC,[46] Marius and the proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus defeated the Cimbri at the battle of Vercellae, ending the German threat.

[47] The inhabitants of Massalia, some 23 Roman miles, 30 kilometres, distant, used the bones of the fallen tribesmen to erect fences to protect their crops.

The decaying corpses left the soil enriched, and for years thereafter the region experienced extraordinary harvests largely thanks to thousands of rotting bodies fertilizing the farmers' lands.