History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

After a few days they collected, by good-will or by force, a great quantity of provisions. During this time the garrison of the oppidum attacked the redoubts of Rebilus several times, which obliged him to interrupt the work of the countervallation, which, indeed, he would not have had sufficient forces to defend.

Drappes and Lucterius established themselves at a distance of ten miles from the oppidum, with the intention of introducing the provisions gradually. They shared the duties between them. Drappes remained with part of the troops to protect the camp. Lucterius, during the night-time, endeavoured to introduce beasts of burden into the town, by a narrow and woody path. The noise of their march gave warning to the sentries. Rebilus, informed of what was going on, ordered the cohorts to sally from the neighbouring redoubts, and at daybreak fell upon the convoy, the escort of which was slaughtered. Lucterius, having escaped with a small number of his followers, was unable to rejoin Drappes.

Rebilus soon learnt from prisoners that the rest of the troops which had left the oppidum were with Drappes at a distance of twelve miles, and that, by a fortunate chance, not one fugitive had taken that direction to carry him news of the last combat. The Roman general sent in advance all the cavalry and the light German infantry; he followed them with one legion without baggage, leaving the other as a guard to the three camps. When he came near the enemy, he learnt by his scouts that the barbarians, according to their custom, neglecting the heights, had placed their camp on the banks of a river (probably the Dordogne); that the Germans and the cavalry had surprised them, and that they were already fighting. Rebilus then advanced rapidly at the head of the legion, drawn up in order of battle, and took possession of the heights. As soon as the ensigns appeared, the cavalry redoubled their ardour, the cohorts rush forward from all sides, the Gauls were taken or killed, the booty was immense, and Drappes fell into the hands of the Romans.

Rebilus, after this successful exploit, which cost him but a few wounded, returned under the walls of Uxellodunum. Fearing no longer any attack from without, he set resolutely to work to continue his circumvallation. The day after, C. Fabius arrived, followed by his troops, and shared with him the labours of the siege.

While the south of Gaul was the scene of serious troubles, Cæsar left the quæstor Mark Antony, with fifteen cohorts, in the country of the Bellovaci. To deprive the Belgæ of all idea of revolt, he had proceeded to the neighbouring countries with two legions, had exacted hostages, and restored confidence by his conciliating speeches. When he arrived among the Carnutes, who, the year before, had been the first to revolt, he saw that the remembrance of their conduct kept them in great alarm, and he resolved to put an end to it by causing his vengeance to fall only upon Gutruatus, the instigator of the war. This man was brought and delivered up; and although Cæsar was naturally inclined to indulgence, he could not resist the tumultuous entreaties of his soldiers, who made that chief responsible for all the dangers they had run, and for all the misery they had suffered. Gutruatus died under the stripes, and was afterwards beheaded.

It was in the land of the Carnutes that Cæsar received news, by the letters of Rebilus, of the events which had taken place at Uxellodunum, and of the resistance of the besieged. Although a handful of men shut up in a fortress was not very formidable, he judged it necessary to punish their obstinacy, for fear that the Gauls should acquire the conviction that it was not strength, but constancy, which had failed them in resisting the Romans; and lest this example might encourage the other states, which possessed fortresses advantageously situated, to recover their independence.

Moreover, it was known everywhere amongst the Gauls that Cæsar had only one summer more to hold his command, and that after that they would have nothing more to fear. He left, therefore, the lieutenant Quintus Calenus[551 - See his biography in Appendix D.] at the head of his two legions, with orders to follow him by ordinary marches, and with his cavalry he hastened by long marches towards Uxellodunum.

Cæsar, arriving unexpectedly before that town, found it completely invested on all accessible points. He judged that it could not be taken by assault (neque ab oppugnatione recedi videret ulla conditione posse), and, as it was abundantly provided with provisions, he conceived the project of depriving the inhabitants of water. The mountain was surrounded nearly on every side by very low ground; but on one side there existed a valley through which a river (the Tourmente) ran. As it flowed at the foot of two precipitous mountains, the disposition of the localities did not admit of turning it aside and conducting it into lower channels. It was difficult for the besieged to come down to it, and the Romans rendered the approaches to it still more dangerous. They placed posts of archers and slingers, and brought engines which commanded all the slopes which gave access to the river. The besieged had thenceforth no other means of procuring water but by fetching it from an abundant spring which arose at the foot of the wall, 300 feet from the channel of the Tourmente. (See Plate 31.) Cæsar resolved to drain this spring, and for this purpose he did not hesitate to attempt a laborious undertaking: opposite the point where it rose, he ordered covered galleries to be pushed forwards against the mountain, and, under protection of these, a terrace to be raised, labours which were carried on in the middle of continual fights and incessant fatigues. Although the besieged, from their elevated position, fought without danger, and wounded many Romans, yet the latter did not yield to discouragement, but continued their task. At the same time they made a subterranean gallery, which, running from the covered galleries, was intended to lead up to the spring. This work, carried on free from all danger, was executed without being perceived by the enemy; the terrace attained a height of sixty feet, and was surmounted by a tower of ten stories, which, without equalling the elevation of the wall, a result it was impossible to obtain, still commanded the fountain. (See Plate 32.) Its approaches, battered by engines from the top of this tower, became inaccessible; in consequence of this, many men and animals in the place died of thirst. The besieged, terrified at this mortality, filled barrels with pitch, grease, and shavings, and rolled them in flames upon the Roman works, making at the same time a sally, so as to prevent them from extinguishing the fire; soon it spread to the covered galleries and the terrace, which stopped the progress of the inflammable materials. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the ground and the increasing danger, the Romans still persevered in their struggle. The battle took place on a height, within sight of the army; loud cries were raised on both sides; each individual sought to rival his fellows in zeal, and the more he was exposed to view, the more courageously he faced the missiles and the fire.

Cæsar, as he was sustaining great loss, determined to feign an assault, in order to create a diversion: he ordered some cohorts to climb the hill on all sides, uttering loud cries. This movement terrified the besieged, who, fearing to be attacked on other points, called back to the defence of the wall those who were setting fire to the works. Then the Romans were able to extinguish the fire. Nevertheless, the siege span out in length; the Gauls, although exhausted by thirst and reduced to a small number, did not cease to defend themselves vigorously. At length, the subterranean gallery having reached the veins of the spring, they were taken and turned aside. The besieged, seeing the fountain all at once dried up, believed, in their despair, that it was an intervention of the gods, submitted to necessity, and surrendered.

Cæsar considered that the pacification of Gaul would never be completed if the same resistance was encountered in many other towns. He thought it indispensable to spread terror by a severe example, so much the more as “the well-known mildness of his temper,” says Hirtius, “would not allow this necessary rigour to be ascribed to cruelty.” He ordered all those who had carried arms to have their hands cut off, and sent them away, as living witnesses of the chastisement reserved for rebels. Drappes, who had been taken prisoner, starved himself to death; Lucterius, who had been arrested by the Arvernan Epasnactus, a friend of the Romans, was delivered up to Cæsar.[552 - De Bello Gallico, VIII. 44.]

Excavations made at Puy-d’Issolu.

VII. The excavations made at Puy-d’Issolu in 1865 leave no further doubt as to the site of Uxellodunum. (See Plates 31 and 32.)

The Puy d’Issolu is a lofty mountain, situated not far from the right bank of the Dordogne, between Vayrac and Martel; it is isolated on all sides except towards the north, where it is joined by a defile of 400 mètres wide (the Col de Roujon) to heights named the Pech-Demont. Its plateau, crowned by a circle of perpendicular rocks, commands, almost in every direction, the low ground which surrounds it. This is what the author of the VIIIth book De Bello Gallico expresses by these words: Infima vallis totum pæne montem cingebat in quo positum erat præruptum undique oppidum Uxellodunum. This plateau, with a surface of eighty hectares in extent, presents strongly-marked undulations: its general incline lies from the north to the south, in the direction of the length of the mountain mass; its highest point is 317 mètres above the level of the sea, and it rises 200 mètres above the valleys which surround it.

The whole eastern slope of the mountain, that which looks towards Vayrac and the Dordogne, is surmounted with rocks, which have a height of as much as forty mètres; consequently, no operation took place on this side during the time of the siege. The western slope alone was the theatre of the different combats. Its declivities are not inaccessible, especially between the village of Loulié and the hamlet of Leguillat, but they are sufficiently abrupt to make the Latin author say: Quo, defendente nullo, tamen armatis ascendere esset difficile. At the very foot of this declivity, and at 200 mètres beneath the culminating point of the plateau, the Tourmente flows, a little river ten mètres broad, embanked between this declivity and that of the opposite heights: Flumen infimam vallem dividebat, &c. Such a disposition of the localities, as well as the slight descent of the Tourmente (one mètre in 1,000), rendered it impossible to turn off that river. (Hoc flumem averti loci natura prohibebat, &c.)

There is no spring on the plateau of Puy-d’Issolu; but several issue from the sides of the mountain, one of which, that of Loulié, is sufficiently abundant to provide for the necessities of a numerous population. This was the spring which the Romans succeeded in turning off. At the time of the siege, it issued from the side of the mountain at S (see Plate 31), at twenty-five mètres from the wall of the oppidum, and at a distance of about 300 mètres from the Tourmente. These 300 mètres make about 200 Roman paces. We see, therefore, that in the Latin text the word pedum must be replaced by passuum. We also see that the word circuitus (VIII. 4) must be taken in the sense of the course of the river.

The “Commentaries” say (VIII. 33) that Rebilus established three camps in very elevated positions. Their sites are indicated by the nature of the localities: the first, A, was on the heights of Montbuisson; the second, B, on those of the Château de Termes; the third, C, opposite the defile of Roujon, on the Pech-Demont. It appears from the excavations that the Romans had not retrenched the two first, which is easily explained, for the heights to the west of the Puy-d’Issolu are impregnable. Moreover, the Romans at Uxellodunum were not in the same situation as at Alesia. There they had before them 80,000 men, and in their rear a very numerous army of succour; here, on the contrary, it was only a question of reducing a few thousand men. The camp C required to be protected, because it was possible for troops to descend from the tableau of the Puy-d’Issolu towards the defile of Roujon, which, being situated fifty mètres lower down, gives an easy access to the heights of Pech-Demont. The excavations have, in fact, brought to light a double line of parallel fosses, which barred the defile behind, and formed at the same time a countervallation.

The Gauls could only quit the town by this defile, and by the western slope of the mountain. It became, consequently, interesting to ascertain if the Romans made a countervallation along the Tourmente, on the slopes of the heights of the castle of Termes and of Montbuisson. Unfortunately, the railway from Perigueux to Capdenac, which passes over the very site where the countervallation might have been made, has destroyed all traces of the Roman works: the excavations made above this line have produced no result.

The most interesting discovery was that of the subterranean gallery.[553 - It is due to the persevering research of M. J. B. Cessac, assisted subsquently by the departmental commission of the Lot.] Until the moment when the excavations were commenced, a part of the rain-water absorbed by the plateau of the Puy-d’Issolu issued near the village of Loulié by two springs, A and A´. (See Plate 32.) The spring A´ flows from a ravine, and corresponds to the thalweg of the slope; as to the source A, it is easily seen by the appearance of the ground that it has been turned from its natural course. The excavations, in fact, have proved that it is produced by the waters which run in the Roman gallery. This gallery has been opened over an extent of forty mètres. It was dug in a solid mass of tufa nearly ten mètres thick, which had been formed in the centuries anterior to Cæsar. Its form is that of a semicircular vault, supported by two perpendicular sides; its average dimensions are 1·80m. in height, by a width of 1·50 mètres. The mud carried along by the waters, and accumulated since the time of the siege of Uxellodunum, had almost filled the gallery, leaving only at the top of the intrados an empty space in the form of a segment of a circle, with 0·50m. chord by 0·15m. for the absciss of its curve. Through this empty space the water ran at the time of the excavations.

Before reaching the tufa, the first subterranean works of the Romans had been made in the pure soil, which had to be propped: fragments of blindage have been found, some of them fixed in silicious mud, corroded or reduced to the state of ligneous paste, others petrified by their long contact with the waters charged with calcareous sediments. A considerable number of these petrified blocks, and remains of wood, collected in the interior of the gallery, are deposited in the museum of Saint-Germain.

The gallery does not lead directly to the spring which existed in the time of the Gauls. The Roman miners, after having made their way straightforward for a length of six mètres, came upon a thick bed of blue marl of the lias: they turned to their left to avoid digging through it, and advanced four mètres farther, following the marl, which they left to the right. When they reached the end of the marls, a horizontal layer of hard rock, one mètre thick, obliged them to bring the gallery back to its former direction, and to raise it, in order to avoid this new obstacle without going out of the tufas, which, formed by the waters, would necessarily lead towards the spring. (See Plate 32.) From this second turning, the gallery continued close to the line of separation of the marls and the tufas. It rose rapidly, until it reached the limit of the deposits of tufa. At this point blindage had again been necessary. It was there chiefly that the blocks of petrification presented a peculiar character: some lay thrown down in the gallery, pierced by sockets with a rectangular section, which show the dimensions and the way in which it had been worked; others, with a rounded base, are veritable uprights, still standing on the rock.

Independently of the excavations made to find the Roman fosses and the subterranean gallery, others have been made on the slope of Loulié, in the soil which is near the spring. They have brought to light numerous fragments of Gaulish pottery and of amphoræ, and, which is a further confirmation of the identity of the Puy d’Issolu with Uxellodunum, remains of arms similar in all respects to those found in the fosses of Alesia.[554 - List of the objects found at Puy-d’Issolu: one blade of a dolabrum, thirty-six arrow-heads, six heads of darts for throwing by catapults, fragments of bracelets, bear’s tooth (an amulet), necklace beads, rings, a blade of a knife, and nails.] Under the earthfalls which during nineteen centuries have taken place on the slope of Loulié, all the traces of the fire described in the “Commentaries” have been also found. The site of the terrace and the covered galleries which were fired were also traced on the ground. Plate 32 represents the slope which was the scene of the struggle: the terrace, the tower, and the covered galleries are represented on it, as well as the subterranean gallery, according to a very exact survey made on the spot.

Complete Submission of Gaul.

VIII. Whilst these events were taking place on the banks of the Dordogne, Labienus, in a cavalry engagement, had gained a decisive advantage over a part of the Treviri and Germans, had taken prisoner their chief, and thus subjected that people, who were always ready to support any insurrection against the Romans. The Æduan Surus fell also into his hands: he was a chief distinguished for his courage and his birth, and the only one of that nation who had not yet laid down his arms.

From that moment Cæsar considered Gaul to be completely pacified; he resolved, however, to go himself to Aquitaine, which he had not yet visited, and which Publius Crassus had partly conquered. Arriving there at the head of two legions, he obtained the complete submission of that country without difficulty: all the tribes sent him hostages. He proceeded next to Narbonne with a detachment of cavalry, and charged his lieutenants to put the army into winter quarters. Four legions, under the orders of Mark Antony, Caius Trebonius, Publius Vatinius, and Q. Tullius, were quartered in Belgium; two among the Ædui, and two among the Turones, on the frontier of the Carnutes, to hold in check all the countries bordering on the ocean. These two last legions took up their winter quarters on the territory of the Lemovices, not far from the Arverni, so that no part of Gaul should be without troops. Cæsar remained but a short time in the province, presiding hastily over the assemblies, determining cases of public contestation, and rewarding those who had served him well. He had had occasion, more than any one, to know their sentiments individually, because, during the general revolt of Gaul, the fidelity and succour of the province had aided him in triumphing over it. When these affairs were settled, he returned to his legions in Belgium, and took up his winter quarters at Nemetocenna (Arras).

There he was informed of the last attempts of Commius, who, continuing a partisan war at the head of a small number of cavalry, intercepted the Roman convoys. Mark Antony had charged C. Volusenus Quadratus, prefect of the cavalry, to pursue him; he had accepted the task eagerly, in the hope of succeeding this time better than the first; but Commius, taking advantage of the rash ardour with which his enemy had rushed upon him, had wounded him seriously, and escaped; he was discouraged, however, and had promised Mark Antony to retire to any spot which should be appointed him, on condition that he should never be compelled to appear before a Roman.[555 - According to Frontinus (Stratag., II. 11), Commius sought an asylum in Great Britain.] This condition having been accepted, he had given hostages.[556 - De Bello Gallico, VIII. 48.]

Gaul was henceforth subjugated; death or slavery had carried off its principal citizens. Of all the chiefs who had fought for its independence, only two survived, Commius and Ambiorix. Banished far from their country, they died unknown.

BOOK IV.

RECAPITULATION OF THE WAR IN GAUL, AND RELATION OF EVENTS AT ROME FROM 696 TO 705

CHAPTER I.

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 696

Difficulties of Cæsar’s Task.

I. IN the preceding book we have given, from the “Commentaries,” the relation of the war in Gaul, and endeavoured to elucidate doubtful questions, and to discover the localities which were the scenes of so many combats. It will now be not uninteresting to recapitulate the principal events of the eight campaigns of the Roman proconsul, separated from all their technical details. We will at the same time examine what was passing, during this period, on the banks of the Tiber, and the events which led to the Civil War.

Writers who dislike glory take pleasure in undervaluing it. They seem to wish thus to invalidate the judgment of past ages: we seek in preference to confirm it, by explaining why the renown of certain men has filled the world. To bring to light the heroic examples of the past, to show that glory is the legitimate reward of great actions, is to pay homage to the public opinion of all times. Man struggling with difficulties which seem insurmountable, and conquering them by his genius, offers a spectacle always worthy of our admiration; and this admiration will be the more justified, according to the greater disproportion between the end and the means.

Cæsar is going to quit Rome, to go far from the debates of the Forum, the agitation of the comitia, and the intrigues of a corrupt town, in order to take the command of his troops. Let us, then, for a moment lay aside the statesman, and consider only the warrior, the great captain. The Roman proconsul is not one of those barbarian chieftains who, at the head of innumerable hordes, throw themselves upon a foreign country to ravage it with fire and sword. His mission is not to destroy, but to extend to a distance the influence of the Republic, by protecting the peoples of Gaul, either against their own dissensions, or against the encroachments of their dangerous neighbours. The dangers from which Italy had been saved by the victories of Marius are not forgotten. Men’s memory still recalls the savage bravery, and, still more, the multitude of those barbarians who, before the battle of Aix, had employed six entire days in defiling in front of the camp of Marius;[557 - Plutarch, Marius, 19.] they still fear a renewal of these inundations of peoples, and Cæsar’s first duty is to avert similar perils. Already the Helvetii and their allies, to the number of 368,000, are on the road towards the Rhine; 120,000 Germans have established themselves in Gaul; 24,000 Harudes, their countrymen, have just followed the same example; others are marching after them, and more than 100,000 Suevi are preparing to cross the Rhine.

The Narbonnese forms the proconsul’s basis of operation, but it is partly composed of populations recently subjugated, whose fidelity is as yet doubtful. Rome has in Gaul allied peoples, but they have lost their preponderance. The different states, divided among themselves by intestine rivalries, offer an easy prey to the enemy; but let the Roman army come to occupy their territory in a permanent manner, and thus wound their feelings of independence, and all the warlike youth will unite, eager to begin a struggle full of perils for the invaders. Cæsar is obliged, therefore, to act with extreme prudence, to favour the ambition of some, repress the encroachments of others, and spare the susceptibility of all, taking care not to wound their religion, their laws, or their manners; he is obliged at the same time to draw a part of his forces from the country he occupies, and obtain thence men, subsidies, and provisions. The greatest difficulty experienced by the commander of an army operating in a country the good-will of which he seeks to conciliate, is to enable his troops to live without exhausting it, and to assure the welfare of his soldiers without exciting the discontent of the inhabitants. “To seek to call,” says the Emperor Napoleon I. in his Mémoires, “a nation to liberty and independence; to desire that a public spirit should form in the midst of it, and that it should furnish troops; and at the same time to take from it its principal resources, are two contradictory ideas, and to conciliate them is the province of talent.”[558 - Mémoires de Napoléon I., Revolt of Pavia, VII. 4.]

Thus, to fight between two and three hundred thousand Helvetii and Germans, to hold in dominion eight millions of Gauls, and to maintain the Roman province – such is the task which Cæsar has undertaken, and, to carry it out, he has as yet only at hand a single legion. What means will he have to overcome all these obstacles? His genius and the ascendency of civilisation over barbarism.

Campaign against the Helvetii.

II. Cæsar starts from Rome towards the middle of March, 696, and arrives in eight days at Geneva. Immediately the Helvetii, who had appointed their rendezvous on the banks of the Rhine towards the 24th of March, the day of the equinox, ask his permission to cross Savoy, with the intention of going to establish themselves in Saintonge. He adjourns his answer to the 8th of April, and employs the fifteen days thus gained in fortifying the left bank of the Rhone, from Geneva to the Pas-de-l’Ecluse, in raising troops in the Roman province, and in renewing the old bonds of friendship with the Burgundians,[559 - For the clearer intelligence of the recapitulation, we have adopted the modern names of the different people of Gaul, although these names are far from answering to their ancient boundaries.] who will soon furnish him with men, horses, and provisions.

By rendering the passage of the Rhone impossible, and by binding to his cause the peoples who occupied the whole course of the Saône, from Pontailler to near Trévoux, he had cut off from the Helvetii the road to the south, and thrown difficulties in their way towards the west. Still, these persisted none the less in their design; they made an arrangement with the people of Franche-Comté, to whom the passage of the Pas-de-l’Ecluse belonged, to debouch by that defile into the plains of Ambérieux and on the plateau of the Dombes. They could thus arrive at the Saône, pass it peaceably or by force, proceed into the valley of the Loire by crossing the mountains of Charolais, and penetrate thence into Saintonge.

As soon as Cæsar was aware of this project, he immediately decided on his course of action: he foresaw that a long time would elapse before the Helvetii effected a passage across the unquiet countries of so many hosts; he reckons that an agglomeration of 368,000 individuals, men, women, and children, carrying three months’ provisions in wagons, would be slow to move; he repairs to the Cisalpine, raises two legions there, sends to Aquileia for the three who were in winter quarters there, and, crossing the Alps again, arrives, two months afterwards, at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saône, on the heights of Sathonay. He learns that the Helvetii have been employed during twenty days in crossing the Saône between Trévoux and Villefranche, but that a part of them still remain on the left bank; seizes the opportunity, attacks the latter, defeats them, and thus diminishes the number of his adversaries by one-fourth; then, crossing the Saône, he follows during fifteen days the mass of the Helvetian emigration, which was advancing towards the sources of the Bourbince. As he finds himself in want of provisions, he turns off from his road, and marches towards Bibracte (Mont Beuvray), the citadel and principal town of the Burgundians. This march to the right leads the Helvetii to believe that he is afraid of encountering them; they then march back, and attack him unexpectedly; a great battle is fought, and, with his four old legions only, Cæsar gains the victory. The immigration, already considerably diminished by the battle of the Saône, no longer counts more than 130,000 individuals, who make their retreat towards the country of Langres. The Roman general does not pursue them; he remains three days burying the dead and attending to the wounded. But his influence is already so great, that, to deprive the wreck of the vanquished army of provisions, he has only to give orders to the peoples whose territory they cross. Deprived of all resources, the fugitives discontinue their march, and make their submission. He hastens to overtake them towards Tonnerre. When he arrives in the midst of them, he adopts a generous policy, and gains, by his generous behaviour, those whom he had subjugated by his arms.

There was in the Helvetic conglomeration a people renowned for their valor, the Boii; Cæsar permits the Burgundians to receive them into the number of their fellow-citizens, and give them lands at the confluence of the Allier and the Loire. As to the other barbarians, with the exception of 6,000 who had attempted to withdraw from the capitulation by flight, he obliges them to return to their country, dismisses them without ransom, instead of selling them as slaves, and thus drawing from them a considerable profit, according to the general usage of that period.[560 - Cicero, when proconsul in Cilicia, obtained the sum of twelve millions of sesterii (2,280,000 francs) from the sale of prisoners made at the siege of Pindenissus. (Cicero, Epistolæ ad Atticum, V. 20.)] By preventing the Germans from establishing themselves in the countries abandoned by the immigration, he made a calculation of interest secondary to a high political sentiment, and foresaw that Helvetia, by its geographical position, was destined to be a bulwark against invasion from the north, and that, then as now, it was important for the power seated on the Rhone and the Alps to have on its eastern frontiers a friendly and independent people.[561 - Julian (Cæsares, p. 72, edit. Lasius) makes Cæsar say that he had treated the Helvetii like a philanthropist, and rebuilt their burnt towns.]

Campaign against Ariovistus.

III. The victory gained near Bibracte has, at one blow, restored the prestige of the Roman arms. Cæsar has become the arbitrator of the destinies of a part of Gaul: all the peoples comprised between the Marne, the Rhone, and the mountains of Auvergne, obey him.[562 - It was probably at this time that the chiefs of Auvergne, and perhaps Vercingetorix himself, as Dio Cassius tells us, came to render homage to the Roman proconsul. (See above, p. 80.)] The Helvetii have returned into their country; the Burgundians have re-conquered their ancient preponderance. The assembly of Celtic Gaul, held with his permission at Bibracte, invokes his protection against Ariovistus, and, to the far north, the people of Trèves hasten to denounce to him a threatened invasion of Germans. It had always been a part of the policy of the Republic to extend its influence by going to the succour of oppressed peoples. Cæsar could not fail to regulate his conduct upon this principle. Not only did it concern him to deliver the Gauls from a foreign yoke, but he sought to deprive the Germans of the possibility of settling on the banks of the Saône, and thus threatening the Roman province, and perhaps Italy itself.

Before having recourse to arms, Cæsar, who, during his consulship, had caused Ariovistus to be declared the ally and friend of the Roman republic, undertook to try upon him the means of persuasion. He sent to demand an interview, and received only a haughty reply. Soon, informed that, three days before, the German king has crossed his frontiers at the head of a numerous army, and that, on another side, the hundred cantons of the Suevi are threatening to cross the Rhine towards Mayence, he starts from Tonnerre in haste to go forward to meet him. When he arrives near Arc-en-Barrois, he learns that Ariovistus is marching with all his troops upon Besançon. He then turns to the right, anticipates him, and takes possession of that important place. No doubt, at the news of the march of the Roman army, Ariovistus slackened his own, and halted in the neighbourhood of Colmar.

After remaining a few days at Besançon, Cæsar takes the way to the Rhine, avoids the mountainous spurs of the Jura, proceeds by Pennesières, Arcey, and Belfort, and debouches towards Cernay in the fertile plains of Alsace. The two armies are only twenty-four miles apart. Cæsar and Ariovistus have an interview; its only result is to increase their mutual resentment. The latter conceives the project of cutting the line of operation of the Romans, and, passing near the site of the modern Mulhouse, he proceeds, by a circuitous movement, to establish himself on the stream of the little Doller, to the south of the Roman army, which, encamped on the Thur, supports its rear on the last spurs of the Vosges, near Cernay. In this position, Ariovistus intercepts Cæsar’s communications with Franche-Comté and Burgundy. The latter, to restore them, distributes his troops into two camps, and causes a second camp to be made, less considerable than the first, on his right, near the little Doller. During several days, he seeks in vain to draw Ariovistus to a battle; then, learning that the matrons have advised the Germans not to tempt fortune before the new moon, he unites his legions, places all the auxiliaries on his right, marches resolutely to assault the camp of the Germans, forces them to accept battle, and defeats them after an obstinate resistance. In their flight, they take the same road by which they had advanced, and, pursued for a distance of fifty miles, they re-pass the Rhine towards Rhinau. As to the Suevi, who had assembled near Mayence, when they are informed of the disaster of their allies, they hasten to regain their country.

Thus, in his first campaign, Cæsar, by two great battles, had delivered Gaul from the invasion of the Helvetii and the Germans; all the Gauls looked upon him as a liberator. But services rendered are very soon forgotten when people owe their liberty and independence to a foreign army.

Cæsar places his troops in winter quarters in Franche-Comté, leaves the command to Labienus, and starts for Cisalpine Gaul, where he is obliged, as proconsul, to preside over the provincial assemblies. Nearer Rome during the winter, he could follow more easily the political events of the metropolis.

Sequel of the Consulship of L. Calpurnius Piso and Aulus Galbinus.

IV. While the armies were augmenting the power of the Republic without, at Rome the intestine struggles continued with new fury. It could hardly be otherwise among the elements of discord and anarchy which were at work, and which, since the departure of Cæsar, were no longer held under control by a lofty intelligence and a firm will. Moral force, so necessary to every government, no longer existed anywhere, or rather, it did not exist where the institutions willed it to be, in the Senate; and, according to the remark of a celebrated German historian, this assembly which ruled the world, was incapable of ruling the town.[563 - Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, III., p. 291. Berlin, 1861.] For a long time the prestige of one man in visible power was master over that of the Senate; Pompey, by his military renown, and by his alliance with Cæsar and Crassus, continued dominant, although he had not then any legal power. Cæsar had reckoned upon him to continue his work, and curb the bad passions which were in agitation in the highest regions as well as in the lowest depths of society: but Pompey had neither the mind nor energy necessary to master at the same time the arrogance of the nobles and the turbulence of certain partisans of the demagogy; he was soon exposed to the censure of both parties.[564 - Plutarch, Pompey, 51, 52.] Moreover entirely under the influence of the charms of his young wife, he appeared indifferent to what was passing around him.[565 - “He soon allowed himself to be enervated by his love for his young wife. Entirely occupied in pleasing her, he passed whole days with her in his country house or in his gardens, and ceased to think of public affairs. Thus even Clodius, then tribune of the people, regarding him no longer with anything but contempt, dared to embark in the rashest enterprises.” (Plutarch, Pompey, 50.)]

The relation of the events at Rome during the eight years of Cæsar’s abode in Gaul will only offer us an uninterrupted series of vengeances, murders, and acts of violence of every description. How, indeed, could order be maintained in so vast a city without a permanent military force; when each man of importance took with him, for his escort, his clients or slaves in arms, and thus, within it, everybody had an army except the Republic? From this moment, as we shall see, the quarrels which are about to spring up among the parties will result always in riots; the slaves and gladiators will be enrolled as the ordinary actors.