Page 166 "...the river valley made safe by the Roman general Marius..."

Left: a bust of Marius; Right: engraving of Marius in Carthage.

[Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman, noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate cohorts.]


From page 166 of the book:  "...He looked up to the clear, night sky which brought him to this ancient river valley made safe by the Roman general Marius, against the barbarians, two-hundred years before Christ.  He watched the stars hold forth as Marius might have done before he crushed the Teutons, and he asked the ungrateful night horizon to help him fight his trepidation."