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These, they
say, live in a dark and woody country hardly penetrable by the
sunbeams, the trees are so close and thick, extending into the
interior as far as the Hercynian forest; and their position on the
earth is under that part of heaven, where the pole is so elevated,
that by the declination of the parallels, the zenith of the
inhabitants seems to be but little distant from it; and that their
days and nights being almost of an equal length, they divide their
year into one of each. This was Homer's occasion for the story of
Ulysses calling up the dead, and from this region the people,
anciently called Cimmerii, and afterwards, by an easy change, Cimbri,
came into Italy. All this, however, is rather conjecture than an
authentic history.
Their numbers, most writers agree, were not less, but rather greater
than was reported. They were of invincible strength and fierceness
in their wars, and hurried into battle with the violence of a
devouring flame; none could withstand them; all they assaulted became
their prey.


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