the impression the sky was on fire, unnerving them. Sensing their anxiety, the Romans attacked. Marius led his wing against the Cimbri right. He marched into a huge dust cloud created by thousands of men on the move across dry fields. When he emerged, he did not find the enemy, the battle was taking place somewhere else. The Cimbri had launched themselves in a huge wedge towards Catulus's centre, their cavalry to the front. The Cimbri cavalry then suddenly turned right hoping to draw the Romans out of their ordered ranks or trying to outflank them. Some of the legionaries fell for the ruse and pursued the Cimbri cavalry. While these legionaries were in pursuit, another segment of the Cimbri advanced and attacked the vulnerable and disorderly Romans. Unfortunately for the Cimbri, their horsemen were taken completely by surprise by the superior Roman cavalry under the command of Sulla. The Cimbri horses were forced back into the main body of their infantry, causing chaos. Seeing an opportunity, Catulus ordered his legions to advance and attack. When they reached the Cimbri they threw their pila into their disorganized ranks, the legionaries drew their swords and were soon in hand-to-hand combat. The other wings of the Roman army moved in on the Cimbri flanks, hemming them in. The Roman forces were smaller but more highly trained and disciplined. Furthermore, Roman legionaries excelled at close-quarters combat and, being so tightly packed, were in their element. The summer heat also worked against the barbarians who were not accustomed to fighting in these temperatures, unlike the Romans. The battle became a rout, stopped by the wagons drawn up (as was customary among Germanic and Celtic peoples) at the rear of the battlefield. At this point, the rout became a massacre that stopped only when the Cimbri began to surrender en masse. Boiorix and his noblemen made a last stand in which they were all killed. The Romans had won a complete and stunning victory. Aftermath The victory of Vercellae, following close on the heels of Marius' destruction of the Teutones at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae the previous year, put an end to the Germanic threat to Rome's northern frontiers. The Cimbri were virtually wiped out, with Marius claiming to have killed 100,000 warriors and capturing and enslaving many thousands, including large numbers of women and children. Children of the surviving captives may have been