The Gallic Wars VI

BOOK SIX
53 BC J.-C.

1. Caesar, who had many reasons to expect a more serious uprising of the Gaul, orders his legates Marcus Silanus, Caius Antistius Réginus and Titus Sextius to raise troops; at the same time, he asks Cneus Pompey, proconsul, since in the interest of the State, he remained vested with the imperium, before Rome, to mobilize and send to him the recruits of Cisalpine Gaul to whom he had made take an oath during his consulates; he considered it very important, and even for the future, from the point of view of Gallic opinion, to show that the resources of Italy enabled him, in the event of a reverse, not only to remedy it promptly, but still to be better provided with troops than before. Pompey, out of patriotism and friendship, granted his request, and his legates having proceeded with rapidity to the operations of recruitment, before the winter was over three legions had been set up and brought to Gaul, which gave him two times more cohorts than nothing had perished with Quintus Titurius by such a prompt and considerable increase of his forces, he showed what the organization and resources of the Roman people could do.

2. Indutiomaros having been killed, as we have said, the Treveri give power to members of his family. They continue to seek germans neighborhood and promise them money. Unable to choose the closest peoples, they turn to more distant ones. A certain number consent: they bind themselves by oath, the subsidies are guaranteed by means of hostages; we bring Ambiorix into the league. Informed of these intrigues, and as he saw on all sides only preparations for war - the Nervians, the Atuatuci, the Menapes in arms with all the Cisrhenian Germans, the Senones abstaining from responding to his summons and consulting with the Carnutes and the neighboring cities, the Treveri constantly deputing to the Germans to try to win them over - Caesar thought he should start the campaign sooner than usual.

3. So, before the winter was over, he mustered the nearest four legions, and unexpectedly marched upon the country of the Nervii; without giving them time to assemble or flee, carrying off many cattle, taking many prisoners – booty which he left to the soldiers – devastating their countryside, he forced them to submit and provide him with hostages. The affair was quickly terminated; after which he turned back, and led the legions back to their winter quarters. In the first days of spring, he convoked, according to the rule which he had established, the assembly of Gaul; all came there except the Senones, the Carnutes, and the Treveri; he interpreted this abstention as the beginning of open revolt, and, to show that he subordinated everything to his repression, he transported the assembly to Lutetia, the city of Paris. This people was bordering on the Senones, and had formerly united with them in a single state; but he seemed to have remained a stranger to the plot. Caesar announces his resolution from the top of his court and the same day he leaves with his legions for the country of the Senons, which he wins by forced marches.

4. At the news of his approach, Acco, who was the instigator of the revolt, orders that the populations gather in the strongholds. The measure was running when it is announced that the Romans are there. The Senones had no choice but to give up their plan and send deputies to Caesar to try to persuade him; the Aedui, who had long been their protectors, introduce them. Willingly Caesar, at the request of the Aedui, forgives them and accepts their apologies, because he felt that the summer season was not made for carrying out investigations, but should be reserved for the war which was about to break out. He demands a hundred hostages, and entrusts their custody to the Aedui. The Carnutes also sent him deputies and hostages to the Sénones; they have their case pleaded by the Remi, whose clients they were, and obtain a similar response. Caesar is going to end the session of the assembly; he commands the cities to provide him with horsemen.

5. Having pacified this part of Gaul, he gives himself entirely to the war of the Treveri and Ambiorix. He invites Cavarinos to accompany him with the cavalry of the Senones, lest his violent character or the hatred he had attracted would cause trouble. These matters settled, as he took it for granted that Ambiorix would not give battle, he tried to guess what other course he might take. Near the country of the Eburones, behind a continuous line of swamps and forests, lived the Menapes, the only people of Gaul who had never sent an embassy to Caesar to treat for peace. He knew that Ambiorix was bound to them by bonds of hospitality; he also knew that through the intervention of the Treveri he had made an alliance with the Germans. Caesar thought that before attacking him it was necessary to remove these supports; otherwise it was to be feared that, seeing himself lost, he would hide among the Menapes or join the Transrhenians. He therefore adopts this plan; he sends the baggage of the whole army to Labienus, among the Treveri, and sends two legions to his camp; as for him, with five legions without baggage, he goes towards the territory of Menapes. These, without gathering troops, confident in the protection offered them by the country, take refuge in the forests and swamps, and transport their goods there.

6. Caesar divides his troops with his legate Caius Fabius and his quaestor Marcus Crassus, quickly has bridges thrown and enters the country in three places: he burns farms and villages, takes many cattle and takes many prisoners. The Menapes are forced to send him deputies to ask for peace. He receives their hostages and declares that he will hold them as enemies if they receive Ambiorix or his representatives on their territory. Having thus settled the affair, he left Commios the Atrebates with the cavalry to watch over the Menapes, and he marched against the Treveri.

7. During this campaign of Caesar, the Treveri having gathered large forces of infantry and cavalry, were preparing to attack Labienus, who, with a single legion, had spent the winter in their country; they were already only two days from his camp when they learned that he had received two other legions sent by Caesar. They then established themselves fifteen miles away and decided to wait there for reinforcement from the Germans. Labienus, informed of their intentions, thought that their imprudence would provide him with some happy opportunity to give battle, leaving five cohorts to guard the baggage, he marched to meet the enemies with twenty-five cohorts and a numerous cavalry, and entrenched himself a thousand miles away. not on their side. There was between them and Labienus a river difficult to cross, bordered by steep banks. He had no intention of crossing it, nor did he think the enemy wanted to. This one hoped more each day to see the arrival of the Germans. Labienus speaks in the council in such a way as to be heard by the soldiers: "Since it is said that the Germans are approaching, he does not want to risk the fate of the army and his own, and the next day, at daybreak, he will go. These remarks are not long in being reported to the enemy, because on so many horsemen Gallic more than one was naturally inclined to favor the Gallic cause. Labienus summons the tribunes and centurions of the first cohorts during the night, he explains his plan to them and, the better to make the enemy believe that he is afraid, he orders the breaking of the camp more noisily and more confusedly than theirs does. ordinary the armies of Rome. By this means, he gives his departure the appearance of an escape. The enemy is also informed before daybreak, given the proximity of the two camps, he is informed by his scouts.

8. No sooner had the rearguard passed the entrenchments than, urging each other not to let any desired prey slip from their hands—"It was too long," they said, "as long as the Romans were afraid to wait for the support of the Germans; their honor did not suffer if with such forces they did not have the audacity to attack a troop so small in number and, what is more, on the run, embarrassed with their baggage" - the Gauls did not hesitate to cross the river and engage in combat in an unfavorable position. Labienus had foreseen this and, to draw them all below the stream, he continued his feint and advanced slowly. Then, after sending the baggage a little forward and placing it on a mound, he addressed the troops with these words: "Here, soldiers, is the desired opportunity: you hold the enemy on ground where his movements are not not free and where we dominate it; show under our orders the same bravery that the general-in-chief has seen you so often display, and act as if he were there, if he saw what was going on. He immediately turned the ensigns against the enemy and formed the battle front; he sends a few squadrons to guard the baggage and places the rest of the cavalry on the wings. Ours promptly raise the clamor of attack and throw the javelin. When the astonished enemies saw those they believed to be fleeing marching against them, they could not withstand the shock and, routed at the first attack, they reached the neighboring forests. Labienus sent the cavalry in pursuit, killed a large number, took a multitude of prisoners and, a few days later, received the submission of the city. As for the Germans, who arrived as reinforcements, when they learned of the rout of the Treveri, they returned to their country. The parents of Indutiomaros, authors of the sedition, went into exile and left with them. Cingetorix, who, as we have said, had remained in duty from the beginning, was invested with civil and military authority.

9. Caesar, when he had come from the country of the Menapes into that of the Treveri, resolved, for two reasons, to cross the Rhine: first because the Germans had sent help to the Treveri against him, and secondly so that 'Ambiorix could not find refuge with them. Having decided on this expedition, he undertook to build a bridge a little upstream from the place where he had previously sent his army. The construction system was known, we had already practiced it; the soldiers work with ardor, and in a few days the work is completed. Leaving a strong guard at the bridge, among the Treveri, to prevent a revolt from suddenly breaking out on that side, he crossed the river with the rest of the legions and the cavalry. The Ubians, who had previously given hostages and made their submission, send him deputies to justify themselves. They declare that the relief sent to the Treveri did not come from their city, that it was not by them that the sworn faith was raped; they beg Caesar to spare them, not to confuse, in his resentment against the Germans in general, the innocent with the guilty; if he wants more hostages, we'll give him some. Caesar makes an investigation and discovers that it is the Suevi who have sent the reinforcements; he accepts the explanations of the Ubians, and carefully inquires about the access routes to the Suevi.

10. In the meantime, a few days later, he learns from the Ubians that the Suevi are concentrating all their forces and have the peoples who are under their dependence hold the order to send reinforcements of infantry and cavalry. At this news, he made provisions for wheat, chose a good position to establish his camp there, ordered the Ubians to leave the countryside and shut themselves up in the cities with the cattle and all that they possessed. He hoped that these barbarous and inexperienced men, when they saw themselves close to running out of provisions, might be led to fight under disadvantageous conditions; he gives mission to the Ubians to send many scouts into the country of the Suevi and to inquire about what is happening there. The order was carried out, and after a few days he received the following report: "When the Suevi had had certain information about the Roman army, all, with all their troops and those of their allies, that they had assembled, they withdrew very far, towards the extremity of their territory; there is an immense forest there, called Bacenis; it extends deeply towards the interior and forms between the Suevi and the Cheruscans a natural wall which opposes their incursions and their reciprocal ravages: it is at the entrance to this forest that the Suevi resolved to wait for the Romans.

11. Arrived at this right of the story, it does not seem out of place to describe the mores of the Gauls and the Germans and to expose the differences which distinguish these two nations. In Gaul, not only all the cities, all the cantons and fractions of cantons, but even, one can say, all the families are divided into rival parties; at the head of these parties are the men who are granted the most credit; it is up to them to judge in the last resort for all matters to be settled, for all decisions to be made. There is a very ancient institution here which seems to have as its object the protection of every man of the people against something more powerful than himself: for the chief of faction defends his people against attempts at violence or cunning, and if he he happens to act otherwise, he loses all credit. The same system governs Gaul considered as a whole, all the peoples there are grouped into two great parties.

12. When Caesar arrived in Gaul, one of these parties had at its head the Aedui, and the other the Sequani. The latter, who, reduced to their own forces, were the weakest, for the Aedui had long enjoyed a very great influence and their clientele was considerable, had joined Ariovistus and his Germans, and attached them to themselves at the cost of great sacrifices and great promises. After several successful combats, and in which all the Aedui nobility had perished, their preponderance had become such that a large part of the Aedui clients passed over to their side, that they had the sons of the Aedui chiefs given as hostages, demanded from this quoted the solemn engagement not to undertake anything against them and allotted part of its territory contiguous to theirs, which they had conquered; that at last they had supremacy over the whole of Gaul. Reduced to this extremity, Diviciacos had gone to Rome to ask help from the Senate, and had returned without having succeeded. The arrival of Caesar had changed the face of things; the Aedui had seen their hostages returned, had recovered their old clients, had acquired new ones thanks to Caesar, for those who had entered into their friendship found that they were more happy and more fairly governed; at last they had grown in power and dignity anyway, and the Sequani had lost their hegemony. The Remi had taken their place; and as these were also believed to be in favor with Caesar, the peoples to whom old enmities made union with the Aedui absolutely impossible, ranged themselves among the clientele of the Remes. These protected them with zeal, and thus succeeded in preserving an authority which was something new for them and which had come to them suddenly. The situation at that time was as follows: the Aedui had by far the first rank, the Remi occupied the second.

13. Everywhere in Gaul there are two classes of men who count and are considered. As for the common people, they are hardly treated otherwise than slaves, unable to allow themselves any initiative, being consulted on nothing. The majority, when they see themselves overwhelmed with debts, or crushed by taxes, or in the butt of the vexations of those more powerful than themselves, give themselves to nobles; these have over them all the rights that masters have over their slaves. Going back to the two classes we were talking about, one is druids, the other is knights. The former take care of matters of religion, they preside over public and private sacrifices, regulate religious practices; young people come in droves to learn from them, and they are greatly honored. It is the Druids, in fact, who decide almost all conflicts between States or between individuals and, if some crime has been committed, if there has been murder, if a dispute has arisen concerning inheritance or delimitation, they are the ones who judge, who fix the satisfactions to receive and to give; if an individual or a people has not complied with their decision, they forbid sacrifices to him. It is among the Gauls the most serious punishment. Those who have been struck by this prohibition, they are placed among the number of the impious and the criminals, they move away from them, they flee their access and their conversation, fearing some disastrous effect from their impure contact; they are not admitted to seek justice, nor to take their share of any honour. All these druids obey a single leader, who enjoys great authority among them. At his death, if one of them is distinguished by merit outside the line, he succeeds him if several have equal titles, the suffrage of the druids, sometimes even the arms decide. Each year, on a fixed date, they hold their meeting in a consecrated place, in the country of the Carnutes, which is said to occupy the center of Gaul. There, from all parts, come all those who have differences, and they submit to their decisions and their judgments. It is believed that their doctrine originated in Brittany, and was brought from this island into Gaul; even today those who want to study it in depth most often go there to learn.

14. It is customary that Druids do not go to war and do not pay taxes like the others; they are exempt from military service and exempt from any charge. Attracted by such great advantages, many come spontaneously to follow their lessons, many are sent to them by their families. It is said that from them they learned a considerable number of verses by heart. Also more than one there remains twenty years at the school. They believe that religion does not allow writing to be the subject of their education, whereas for everything else in general, for public and private accounts, they use the alphabet. Greek. They seem to me to have established this custom for two reasons: because they do not want their doctrine to be divulged, nor that, on the other hand, their pupils, relying on writing, neglect their memory; because it is a common thing when we are helped by written texts, we apply less to remember by heart and we let our memory rust. The essential point of their teaching is that souls do not perish, but that after death they pass from one body to another; they think that this belief is the best stimulant of courage, because one is no longer afraid of death. In addition, they indulge in numerous speculations on the stars and their movements, on the dimensions of the world and those of the earth, on the nature of things, on the power of the gods and their attributions, and they transmit these doctrines to the youth.

15. The other class is that of the knights. These, when necessary, when some war breaks out (and before Caesar's arrival this happened almost every year, whether they took the offensive or had to defend themselves), take all takes part in the war, and each, according to his birth and his fortune, has around him a greater or lesser number of ambats and clients. They know no other sign of credit and power.

16. All the Gallic people are very religious; also we see those who are afflicted with serious illnesses, those who risk their lives in combat or otherwise, immolate or make a vow to immolate human victims, and make use for these sacrifices of the ministry of the Druids; they think, indeed, that one cannot appease the immortal gods except by redeeming the life of a man by the life of another man, and there are sacrifices of this kind which are of public institution. Certain tribes have mannequins of colossal proportions, made of woven wicker, which are filled with living men: they set fire to them, and the men are prey to the flames. The torture of those who have been arrested in the act of theft or robbery or as the result of some crime is thought to please the gods more; but when we don't have enough victims of this kind, we go so far as to sacrifice innocent people.

16. The god they honor the most is Mercury: his statues are the most numerous, they consider him the inventor of all the arts, he is for them the god who indicates the road to follow, who guides the traveler, he is the one who is most capable of making money and protecting trade. After him they adore Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Minerva. They have more or less the same idea of these gods as other peoples: Apollo cures illnesses, Minerva teaches the principles of manual work, Jupiter is the master of the gods, Mars presides over wars. When they have resolved to give battle, they generally promise this god the booty they will make; victorious, they offer him the living spoils as a sacrifice and pile up the rest in one place. One can see in many cities, in consecrated places, mounds raised with these spoils; and it has not often happened that a man dared, in defiance of religious law, to hide his booty at home or touch the offerings: such a crime is punished with a terrible death in torment.

18. All the Gauls claim to be descended from Dis Pater: it is, they say, a tradition of the Druids. Because of this belief, they measure duration, not by the number of days, but by the number of nights; birthdays, beginnings of months and years are counted by starting the day with the night. In other uses of life, the main difference which separates them from other peoples is that their children, before they are old enough to bear arms, do not have the right to appear before them in public, and it is a shameful thing for them that a son who is still a child takes his place in a public place under the eyes of his father.

19. Men, when they marry, put into community a share of their property equal, according to an estimate, to the value of the dowry brought by the women. This capital is made into a single account, and the income from it is set aside; the surviving spouse receives both shares, together with the accrued income. Husbands have the right of life and death over their wives as over their children; every time a head of a family of high lineage dies, the relatives assemble, and, if the death is suspicious, the wives are questioned as slaves; if they are found guilty, they are delivered to the fire and to the most cruel torments. The funerals are, relative to the degree of civilization of the Gauls, magnificent and sumptuous; everything thought to be cherished by the dead is burned at the stake, even living beings, and not long ago it was the rule of a complete funeral ceremony that the slaves and patrons who had been dear ones were burned with him.

20. Cities which are said to be particularly well organized have laws which prescribe that whoever has received from a neighboring country any news of interest to the State must make it known to the magistrate without speaking of it to anyone else, because the experience has shown that men who are impulsive and ignorant, often, on false rumors, are frightened, go to excesses, take the most serious resolutions. The magistrates keep secret what they think they should hide, deliver to the masses what they believe useful to divulge. One has the right to speak of public affairs only by speaking in the council.

21. The customs of the Germans are very different. Indeed, they have no druids who preside over the worship of the gods and they make few sacrifices. They count as gods only those whom they see and whose benefits they manifestly experience, the Sun, Vulcan, the Moon; the others, they haven't even heard of it. Their whole life is spent in hunting and military exercises; from childhood they train themselves for a tiring and hard existence. The longer one has kept one's virginity, the more one is esteemed by those around them: some think that one becomes taller in this way, others stronger and more nervous. In fact, to know the woman before the age of twenty is in their eyes a shame of the greatest; these things are not, however, made a mystery of, for men and women bathe together in the rivers, and besides, they have no other clothing than skins or short kidneys which leave the greater part of the naked body.

22. Agriculture occupies them little, and their food consists mainly of milk, cheese and meat. No one owns a fixed stretch of land, a domain; but the magistrates and the chiefs of cantons allot for one year to the clans and the groups of relations living together a ground of which they fix at will the extent and the site; the following year, they force them to go elsewhere. They give several reasons for this use: fear that they will take a liking to the sedentary life, and neglect the war for agriculture; that they do not want to extend their possessions, and that one does not see the strongest driving out the weakest from their fields; that they are not too preoccupied with protecting themselves from cold and heat by building comfortable dwellings; let there be no love of money, the source of divisions and quarrels; finally, a desire to restrain the people by keeping them from envy, each seeing himself, for fortune, the equal of the most powerful.

23. There is no greater honor for the German peoples than to have created a vacuum around themselves and to be surrounded by desert spaces as vast as possible. It is in their eyes the very mark of warrior virtue, that their neighbors, driven from their fields, emigrate, and that no one dares to remain near them; they see there at the same time a guarantee of security, since they no longer have to fear a sudden invasion. When a State has to defend itself or attacks another, one chooses magistrates who will lead this war and will have the right of life and death. In times of peace, there is no commanding magistrate at all, but the chiefs of regions and cantons dispense justice and appease quarrels each among his own. There is nothing dishonoring in theft, when committed outside the frontiers of the State: they profess that it is a means of exercising young people and combating laziness at home. When a chief, in an assembly, proposes to direct an enterprise and invites volunteers to declare themselves, those who please both the proposal and the man promise their help, and they receive the congratulations of all the assistance; those who subsequently shirk are held to be deserters and traitors, and henceforth denied all confidence. Not to respect a guest is in their eyes to commit sacrilege: those who, for whatever reason, come to their home, they protect them, their person is sacred to them; all the houses are open to them and they have a place at all the tables.

24. There was a time when the Gauls surpassed the Germans in bravery, carried the war home, sent colonies beyond the Rhine because they were too numerous and did not have enough land. It is thus that the most fertile regions of Germany, in the vicinity of the Hercynian forest, a forest of which Eratosthenes and certain other authors greeks had, I see, heard of—they call it Orcynian—were occupied by the Volca Tectosages, who settled there; this people still inhabit the country, and they have the greatest reputation for justice and military valor. But today, while the Germans continue to lead a life of poverty and patiently endured deprivation, and have changed nothing in their diet or their clothing, the Gauls, on the contrary, thanks to the proximity of our provinces and maritime commerce, have learned to know the wide life and to enjoy it little by little, they have become accustomed to being the weakest and, many times defeated, they themselves renounce comparing themselves to the Germans for military value.

25. This Hercynian forest, which was mentioned above, has a width equivalent to eight days' walk of a lightly equipped traveler: it is the only way to determine its dimensions, the Germans not knowing the route measurements. . It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, the Nemetes, and the Rauraques, and, following the line of the Danube, goes as far as the countries of the Dacians and the Anartes; from there, it turns left away from the river, and, because of its extent, touches the territory of many peoples; there is no one in this part of Germany who can say that he has reached its end after sixty days' march, or that he knows where it ends; there are there, we are assured, many species of wild beasts that are not seen elsewhere; those which differ most from the others and seem most worthy of note are the following.

26. There is an ox resembling a deer, which bears in the middle of the forehead, between the ears, a single horn, higher and straighter than the horns known to us; at its summit it opens out into palms and branches. Male and female are of the same type, their horns have the same shape and size.

27. There are also animals called moose. They look like goats and have the same coat variety; their size is a little larger, their horns are truncated and they have legs without joints: they do not lie down for sleep, and, if some accident causes them to fall, they cannot stand up or even get up. The trees serve as their beds: they lean against them and it is thus, simply leaning a little, that they sleep. When, following their tracks, the hunters have discovered their habitual retreat, they uproot or cut down all the trees in the place, taking care, however, that they still stand upright and retain their ordinary appearance. When the moose come to lean there as usual, the trees fall under their weight, and they fall with them.

28. A third species is that of the urus. They are animals whose size is a little below that of the elephant, and which have the general appearance, color and form of the bull. They are very vigorous, very agile, and spare neither man nor animal they have seen. We try to catch them with pitfalls, and we kill them; this tiring hunt is for the young people a means of hardening themselves, and they train themselves in it: those who have killed the greatest number of these animals bring back the horns to produce them publicly as proof, and this is worth to them. great praise. As for accustoming the urus to man and taming it, this cannot be achieved, even by taking it very small. Its horns, by their size, their form, their aspect, are very different from those of our oxen. They are much sought after: the edges are lined with a circle of silver, and they are used as cups at great feasts.

29. When Caesar learned from the Ubian scouts that the Suevi had retired into the forests, fearing to lack wheat, for, as we have said, agriculture is very neglected by all the Germans, he resolved to do not go any further; however, so as not to deprive the Barbarians of all reason to fear his return and to delay the auxiliaries they might send to Gaul, once his troops had been brought back he had the part of the bridge which touched at the Ubian bank, and at its end he built a four-storey tower, installed a garrison of twelve cohorts to defend the bridge and fortified this place of great works. He gives command of the place to the young Caïus Volcacius Tullus. As for him, he leaves, as the wheat begins to ripen, to go and fight Ambiorix; through the forest of the Ardennes - it is the largest forest in all Gaul, it extends from the banks of the Rhine, in Trever country, to the Nerviens, for more than five hundred miles - he sends Lucius ahead Minucius Basilus and all the cavalry, with orders to take advantage of the rapidity of his march and every favorable opportunity; he recommends that he forbid fires in the camp, so as not to signal his approach by dormice; he assures her that he is following him closely.

30. Basilus complies with orders received. Arriving after a rapid march, which surprises everyone, he seizes many enemies who were working in the fields without suspicion; on their indications, he goes straight to Ambiorix, where, it was said, he was with some horsemen. The power of Fortune is great in all things, and especially in military events. It was a great chance, in fact, which enabled Basilus to fall on Ambiorix unexpectedly, without him even being on guard, and to appear in the eyes of the enemy before public rumor or messengers would have warned of his approach; but it was for Ambiorix a great chance to be able, while losing all of his military paraphernalia, his chariots and his horses, to escape death. Here is how it was done: his house being surrounded by woods according to the general custom of the Gauls who, to avoid the heat, most often seek the vicinity of forests and rivers, his companions and his friends were able to maintain for a few moments, in a narrow passage, the shock of our riders. While they were fighting, one of his people put him on horseback: the woods protected his flight. This is how he was successively endangered and saved by the omnipotence of Fortune.

31. Ambiorix did not assemble his troops: did he do so deliberately, because he considered that battle should not be fought, or else for lack of time and prevented by the sudden arrival of our cavalry, which he believed? followed by the rest of the army? We do not know ; in any case, he sent everywhere in the countryside to say that everyone had to provide for his safety. A part took refuge in the forest of the Ardennes, another in a region covered without interruption by marshes; those who dwelt near the ocean hid themselves in islands formed by the tides; many left their country to go and entrust themselves and all that they possessed to peoples they did not know at all. Catuvolcos, king of half of the Eburones, who had associated himself with the design of Ambiorix, weakened by age and unable to bear the fatigues of war or flight, after having charged Ambiorix with imprecations, author of the company, poisoned himself with the yew tree very common in Gaul and Germany.

32. The Segnes and the Condruses, pedigree peoples Germanic and counted among the Germans, who dwell between the Eburones and the Treveri, sent deputies to Caesar to beg him not to number them among his enemies and not to consider all the Germans on this side of the Rhine as cause commune: "They hadn't thought of the war, they hadn't sent any help to Ambiorix. Caesar, after ascertaining the fact by interrogating the prisoners, ordered them to bring him the Eburones who might have taken refuge with them: "if they obeyed, he would respect their territory." After which he divided his troops into three corps and collected the baggage of all the legions at Atuatuca. It is the name of a fortress. It is situated almost in the center of the country of the Eburons; it was there that Titurius and Aurunculéius had had their winter quarters. This place had seemed to him suitable for several reasons, but particularly because the fortifications of the previous year remained intact, which spared the pain of the soldiers. He left to guard the baggage the fourteenth legion, one of the three which had recently been raised in Italy and taken to Gaul. He entrusts the command of this legion and of the camp to Quintus Tullius Cicero, and gives him two hundred cavalry.

33. He had divided his army: Titus Labienus, with three legions, receives the order to leave for the ocean, in the part of the country which touches the Menapes; he sends Caius Trebonius, with the same number of legions, to ravage the country which is contiguous to the Atuatuci; as for him, taking the three remaining legions, he decides to march towards the Scheldt, which flows into the Meuse, and towards the extremity of the Ardennes, where he was told that Ambiorix had retired with some horsemen. On leaving, he assures us that he will be back in seven days: he knew that was the time when the legion that was left in the fortress was to receive its ration of wheat. Labienus and Trebonius are invited to return for the same date, if they can do so without inconvenience, so that, having held council and examined the intentions of the enemy according to new data, the war may be recommenced on other grounds. other planes.

34. There was in the country, as we said above, no regular troops, no stronghold, no garrison ready to defend itself, but a population which had been disseminated on all sides. Wherever a secret valley, a wooded place, a hard-to-reach swamp offered some hope of protection or salvation, asylum had been sought there. These retreats, the natives who lived in their vicinity knew them well, and it was necessary to observe great prudence, not for the safety of the troops as a whole (for, united, they could not run any danger from a population terrified and dispersed), but for the individual safety of the men, which, in a certain measure, mattered to the safety of the army. Indeed, many were lured long distances by the lure of booty, and as the paths in the woods were uncertain and inconspicuous, they could not march in herds. If they wanted to put an end to it and exterminate this race of brigands, it was necessary to divide the army into a large number of detachments and disperse the troops; if they wanted to keep the maniples grouped around their ensigns, according to the rule usually followed by the Roman armies, the very nature of the places where the Barbarians were standing was a protection for them, and they were not lacking in audacity to set up small ambushes and wrap the isolated. We acted with all the caution that it was possible to use in such delicate situations, preferring to sacrifice some opportunity to harm the enemy, despite the desire for revenge that everyone burned, rather than harming him by sacrificing a certain number of soldiers. Caesar sends messengers to neighboring peoples he excites the hope of booty among them and calls everyone to the plunder of the Eburones: he preferred to expose the dangers of this forest war to the Gauls rather than to the legionnaires, and he wanted at the same time that in punishment for such a crime this great invasion should annihilate the race of the Eburones and their very name. Numerous forces soon rushed from all directions.

35. While all parts of the Eburonian territory were thus given over to plunder, the seventh day was approaching, the date on which Caesar had decided that he would join the baggage and the legion. We then see what the power of Fortune is in war, and what serious incidents it produces. The enemy being dispersed and terrified, as we have said, there was no troops before us which could give us the slightest cause for fear. But beyond the Rhine the news reached the Germans that the Eburones were being plundered, and, moreover, that everyone was invited there. The Sugambres, who are neighbors of the river, muster two thousand horsemen: it is this people of whom we have reported above that they had collected the Tenctheres and the fugitive Usipetes. They cross the Rhine with the help of boats and rafts, thirty miles below the place where Caesar had built a bridge and left a guard; they cross the frontier of the Eburones, pick up many fugitives who had dispersed there, seize a large number of cattle, much sought after prey of the Barbarians. Lured by the loot, they push further. The marshes, the woods are no obstacle for these men who were born in war and robbery. They ask their prisoners where Caesar is: they reply that he is gone, that the whole army is gone. And one of them: “Why, he said to them, run after a wretched and feeble prey, when a magnificent opportunity presents itself to you? In three hours you can be at Atuatucal: the Roman army has piled up all its wealth there; to guard them, a troop so weak that it could not even furnish the wall and that no one would dare to come out of the intrenchments. Faced with the hope that was offered to them, the Germans hid the booty they had made and headed for Atuatuca, guided by the same man from whom they had learned this advice.

36. Cicero had, all the preceding days, following Caesar's recommendations, very carefully detained the soldiers in the camp without even allowing a valet to come out of the entrenchment; but on the seventh day, no longer hoping that Caesar would observe the time he had fixed, for he heard that he had gone far away and no sound reached him of his return, moved at the same time by the words of those who said that his so-called patience almost put them in the position of being besieged, since they could not leave the camp, just as he did not think, when the enemy had in front of him nine legions supported by a very important cavalry, and that his forces were scattered and nearly destroyed, having something to fear within a radius of three miles, he sent five cohorts to seek wheat in the nearest fields, which were separated from the camp only by a hill. The legions had weary many sick people; those who had recovered during the week – there were about three hundred – formed a detachment which left with the cohorts; besides, a large number of servants, with many beasts of burden, who had remained in camp, are allowed to follow them.

37. Chance would have it that just at this moment the German cavalry arrived immediately, without changing pace, they tried to enter the camp through the Decuman gate, and, as woods blocked the view from that side, they were not seen. not before it was so close that the merchants who had pitched their tents at the foot of the rampart could not get to safety. Surprise disturbs ours, and the cohort of guards barely sustains the first shock. The enemy is spreading all around the camp, looking for an access point. Our soldiers defend, not without difficulty, the gates; the rest have no other protection than that of the ground and entrenchment. The alarm is everywhere in the camp, and people wonder about the cause of the tumult. One announces that the camp is taken, the other claims that the Barbarians have come after a victory, that they have destroyed the army and killed the general; most are frightened by a superstitious idea that the places at that moment suggest to them: they imagine the catastrophe of Cotta and Titurius, who died in this same post. While these terrors paralyze everyone, the Barbarians persuade themselves that the prisoner had spoken the truth, that the interior of the camp is empty. They strive to break into it and urge each other not to let such a great opportunity slip away.

38. Among the sick left in the place state Publius Sextius Baculus, who had been primipile under the orders of Caesar, and of whom we have spoken in connexion with preceding battles: he had not taken food for five days. Worried about his fate and that of everyone, he walks unarmed out of his tent: he sees that the enemy is upon us, that the situation is most critical: he borrows arms from those who are closest from him and goes to stand in the doorway. The centurions of the guard cohort join him: together, they sustain the fight for a few moments. Sextius, seriously injured, loses consciousness; not without difficulty, by passing it from hand to hand, we save it. This delay had allowed the others to recover enough self-control to dare to take a position in the entrenchment and to provide the appearance of a defence.

39. In the meantime, our reapers, who had completed their task, hear cries: the horsemen go forward, realize the gravity of the danger. But here, a point of entrenchment where frightened soldiers can find shelter, our men, recent recruits and without military experience, turn their eyes towards the tribune and the centurions; they await their orders. The bravest are disturbed by such an unexpected situation. The Barbarians, perceiving the ensigns in the distance, ceased the attack; they believe first of all in the return of the legions whose prisoners had told them that they had gone far away; but soon, full of contempt for such a weak troop, they fell on it from all sides.

40. Jacks run to the nearest mound. They are promptly chased away and throw themselves into the midst of the signs and maniples, which increases the fear of soldiers who are easy to disturb. Some are of the opinion to form a corner and to open a passage quickly, since the camp is so close, admitting that some are enveloped and perish, at least one will be able, they think, to save the rest ; the others want us to stop on the hill and all share the same fate. This party is not approved of by the old soldiers who formed the detachment of which we have spoken. After mutual exhortations, led by Caius Trebonius, Roman knight, who commanded them, they broke through the enemy line and arrived at the camp without having lost a single man. The servants and the cavalry, who had thrown themselves in their wake, passed in the same charge and the valor of the legionnaires saved them. But those who had halted on the hill, not yet having any military experience, knew neither how to persevere in the plan they had adopted of defending themselves on the height, nor how to imitate the vigor and speed they had. saw their comrades succeed so well: they tried to return to the camp and entered a low and disadvantageous ground. The centurions, a certain number of whom had been promoted for their valor from the last cohorts of the other legions to the first of this one, not wishing to lose the reputation which they had acquired, were killed as brave men. As for the soldiers, the bravery of their officers having somewhat pushed aside the enemy, some of them were able, against all hope, to reach the camp without damage; the others were surrounded and massacred.

41. The Germans, despairing of taking the camp, because they saw that ours had now taken up a position in the entrenchment, retired beyond the Rhine, carrying off the booty which they had deposited in the woods. But even after the enemy's departure, the terror was such that Laius Volusenus, who had been sent with the cavalry and arrived at the camp that night, could not make believe that Caesar was going to be there with his army intact. Fear had taken hold of all so well that they almost lost their reason, saying that all the troops had been destroyed, that the cavalry had succeeded in escaping, and claiming that, if the army had been intact, the Germans would not have attacked the camp. Caesar's arrival put an end to this panic.

42. Once back, Caesar, who was not unaware of the hazards of war, only complained of one thing, that the cohorts had been made to leave their post to send them out of the camp: he would not have had to leave the slightest room for the unexpected; moreover, he considered that the role of Fortune had been great in the sudden arrival of the enemies, and that it had intervened even more powerfully in pushing the Barbarians out of the entrenchment and the gates when they were almost masters of them. The most astonishing part of the whole affair was that the Germans, whose object in crossing the Rhine was to ravage the territory of Ambiorix, had brought to the latter, because circumstances had led them to camp Roman, the most valuable assistance he could have wished for.

43. Caesar, resuming his campaign of devastation, scatters on all sides a strong contingent of cavalry which he had drawn from the neighboring cities. The villages were set on fire, all the isolated buildings one could see, the cattle were massacred; everywhere they made booty; all this multitude of beasts and men ate the cereals, not to mention that the advanced season and the rains had laid them down so that, even if some had been able to escape by hiding for the moment, it was clear that they should, once the army is gone, succumb to scarcity. Often, with a cavalry scouring the country in all directions in so many detachments, it happened that prisoners were taken who had just seen Ambiorix pass in flight, and looked for him with their eyes, assuring him that he was not yet ready. completely out of sight: we then hoped to reach it and we made infinite efforts; supported by the idea of getting into Caesar's good graces, we almost exceeded the limit of human strength, and we were always very close to reaching the goal so much desired: he, however, found hiding places or thick woods which concealed him, and under cover of the night he reached other countries, in a new direction, without any other escort than four horsemen, to whom alone he dared to entrust his life.

44. After thus devastating the country, Caesar led his army back, less the two lost cohorts, to Durocortorum of the Remi; having convened the assembly of Gaul in this city, he undertook to judge the affair of the conspiracy of the Senones and the Carnutes: Acco, who had been the instigator, was condemned to death and tortured according to the old Roman custom. A certain number, fearing that they would also be judged, fled. Caesar forbade them water and fire; then he divided his legions into winter quarters, two on the border of the Trevires, two among the Lingones, the six others in the Senon country, at Agedincum, and, after having supplied them with wheat, he left for Italy, as he usually did, to sit there.