"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
the ambassadors return to him, as had been arranged; who meeting him on
the march, earnestly entreated him not to advance any farther. When they
could not obtain this, they begged him to send on a despatch to those
who had marched in advance of the main army, and forbid them to engage;
and grant them permission to send ambassadors to the Ubii, and if the
princes and senate of the latter would give them security by oath, they
assured Caesar that they would accept such conditions as might be
proposed by him; and requested that he would give them the space of
three days for negotiating these affairs. Caesar thought that these
things tended to the self-same point [as their other proposal]; [namely]
that, in consequence of a delay of three days intervening, their horse
which were at a distance might return; however, he said, that he would
not that day advance farther than four miles for the purpose of
procuring water; he ordered that they should assemble at that place in
as large a number as possible the following day, that he might inquire
into their demands. In the meantime he sends messengers to the officers
who had marched in advance with all the cavalry to order them not to
provoke the enemy to an engagement, and if they themselves were
assailed, to sustain the attack until he came up with the army.
XII.--But the enemy, as soon as they saw our horse, the number of which
was 5000, whereas they themselves had not more than 800 horse, because
those which had gone over the Meuse for the purpose of foraging had not
returned, while our men had no apprehensions, because their ambassadors
had gone away from Caesar a little before, and that day had been
requested by them as a period of truce, made an onset on our men, and
soon threw them into disorder. When our men, in their turn, made a
stand, they, according to their practice, leaped from their horses to
their feet, and stabbing our horses in the belly and overthrowing a
great many of our men, put the rest to flight, and drove them forward so
much alarmed that they did not desist from their retreat till they had
come in sight of our army. In that encounter seventy-four of our horse
were slain; among them, Piso, an Aquitanian, a most valiant man, and
descended from a very illustrious family; whose grandfather had held the
sovereignty of his state, and had been styled friend by our senate. He,
while he was endeavouring to render assistance to his brother who was
surrounded by the enemy, and whom he rescued from danger, was himself
thrown from his horse, which was wounded under him, but still opposed
[his antagonists] with the greatest intrepidity, as long as he was able
to maintain the conflict. When at length he fell, surrounded on all
sides and after receiving many wounds, and his brother, who had then
retired from the fight, observed it from a distance, he spurred on his
horse, threw himself upon the enemy, and was killed.
XIII.--After this engagement, Caesar considered that neither ought
ambassadors to be received to audience, nor conditions be accepted by
him from those who, after having sued for peace by way of stratagem and
treachery, had made war without provocation. And to wait till the
enemy's forces were augmented and their cavalry had returned, he
concluded, would be the greatest madness; and knowing the fickleness of
the Gauls, he felt how much influence the enemy had already acquired
among them by this one skirmish. He [therefore] deemed that no time for
converting measures ought to be afforded them. After having resolved on
these things and communicated his plans to his lieutenants and quaestor
in order that he might not suffer any opportunity for engaging to escape
him, a very seasonable event occurred, namely, that on the morning of
the next day, a large body of Germans, consisting of their princes and
old men, came to the camp to him to practise the same treachery and
dissimulation; but, as they asserted, for the purpose of acquitting
themselves for having engaged in a skirmish the day before, contrary to
what had been agreed and to what, indeed, they themselves had requested;
and also if they could by any means obtain a truce by deceiving him.
Caesar, rejoicing that they had fallen into his power, ordered them to
be detained. He then drew all his forces out of the camp, and commanded
the cavalry, because he thought they were intimidated by the late
skirmish, to follow in the rear.
XIV.--Having marshalled his army in three lines, and in a short time
performed a march of eight miles, he arrived at the camp of the enemy
before the Germans could perceive what was going on; who being suddenly
alarmed by all the circumstances, both by the speediness of our arrival
and the absence of their own officers, as time was afforded neither for
concerting measures nor for seizing their arms, are perplexed as to
whether it would be better to lead out their forces against the enemy,
or to defend their camp, or seek their safety by flight. Their
consternation being made apparent by their noise and tumult, our
soldiers, excited by the treachery of the preceding day, rushed into the
camp: such of them as could readily get their arms for a short time
withstood our men, and gave battle among their carts and baggage-waggons;
but the rest of the people, [consisting] of boys and women (for they had
left their country and crossed the Rhine with all their families), began
to fly in all directions; in pursuit of whom Caesar sent the cavalry.
XV.--The Germans when, upon hearing a noise behind them, [they looked
and] saw that their families were being slain, throwing away their arms
and abandoning their standards, fled out of the camp, and when they had
arrived at the confluence of the Meuse and the Rhine, the survivors
despairing of farther escape, as a great number of their countrymen had
been killed, threw themselves into the river and there perished,
overcome by fear, fatigue, and the violence of the stream. Our soldiers,
after the alarm of so great a war, for the number of the enemy amounted
to 430,000, returned to their camp, all safe to a man, very few being
even wounded. Caesar granted those whom he had detained in the camp
liberty of departing. They however, dreading revenge and torture from
the Gauls, whose lands they had harassed, said that they desired to
remain with him. Caesar granted them permission.
XVI.--The German war being finished, Caesar thought it expedient for him
to cross the Rhine, for many reasons; of which this was the most
weighty, that, since he saw the Germans were so easily urged to go into
Gaul, he desired they should have their fears for their own territories
when they discovered that the army of the Roman people both could and
dared pass the Rhine. There was added also, that that portion of the
cavalry of the Usipetes and the Tenchtheri, which I have above related
to have crossed the Meuse for the purpose of plundering and procuring
forage, and was not present at the engagement, had betaken themselves,
after the retreat of their countrymen, across the Rhine into the
territories of the Sigambri, and united themselves to them. When Caesar
sent ambassadors to them, to demand that they should give up to him
those who had made war against him and against Gaul, they replied, "That
the Rhine bounded the empire of the Roman people; if he did not think it
just for the Germans to pass over into Gaul against his consent, why did
he claim that anything beyond the Rhine should be subject to his
dominion or power?" The Ubii also, who alone, out of all the nations
lying beyond the Rhine, had sent ambassadors to Caesar, and formed an
alliance and given hostages, earnestly entreated "that he would bring
them assistance, because they were grievously oppressed by the Suevi;
or, if he was prevented from doing so by the business of the
commonwealth, he would at least transport his army over the Rhine; that
that would be sufficient for their present assistance and their hope for
the future; that so great was the name and the reputation of his army,
even among the most remote nations of the Germans, arising from the
defeat of Ariovistus and this last battle which was fought, that they
might be safe under the fame and friendship of the Roman people." They
promised a large number of ships for transporting the army.
XVII.--Caesar, for those reasons which I have mentioned, had resolved to
cross the Rhine; but to cross by ships he neither deemed to be
sufficiently safe, nor considered consistent with his own dignity or
that of the Roman people. Therefore, although the greatest difficulty in
forming a bridge was presented to him, on account of the breadth,
rapidity, and depth of the river, he nevertheless considered that it
ought to be attempted by him, or that his army ought not otherwise to be
led over. He devised this plan of a bridge. He joined together at the
distance of two feet, two piles, each a foot and a half thick, sharpened
a little at the lower end, and proportioned in length to the depth of
the river. After he had, by means of engines, sunk these into the river,
and fixed them at the bottom, and then driven them in with rammers, not
quite perpendicularly, like a stake, but bending forward and sloping, so
as to incline in the direction of the current of the river; he also
placed two [other piles] opposite to these, at the distance of forty
feet lower down, fastened together in the same manner, but directed
against the force and current of the river. Both these, moreover, were
kept firmly apart by beams two feet thick (the space which the binding
of the piles occupied), laid in at their extremities between two braces
on each side; and in consequence of these being in different directions
and fastened on sides the one opposite to the other, so great was the
strength of the work, and such the arrangement of the materials, that in
proportion as the greater body of water dashed against the bridge, so
much the closer were its parts held fastened together. These beams were
bound together by timber laid over them in the direction of the length
of the bridge, and were [then] covered over with laths and hurdles; and
in addition to this, piles were driven into the water obliquely, at the
lower side of the bridge, and these serving as buttresses, and being
connected with every portion of the work, sustained the force of the
stream: and there were others also above the bridge, at a moderate
distance; that if trunks of trees or vessels were floated down the river
by the barbarians for the purpose of destroying the work, the violence
of such things might be diminished by these defences, and might not
injure the bridge.
XVIII.--Within ten days after the timber began to be collected, the
whole work was completed, and the whole army led over. Caesar, leaving a
strong guard at each end of the bridge, hastens into the territories of
the Sigambri. In the meantime ambassadors from several nations come to
him, whom, on their suing for peace and alliance, he answers in a
courteous manner, and orders hostages to be brought to him. But the
Sigambri, at the very time the bridge was begun to be built, made
preparations for a flight (by the advice of such of the Tenchtheri and
Usipetes as they had amongst them), and quitted their territories and
conveyed away all their possessions, and concealed themselves in deserts
and woods.
XIX.--Caesar, having remained in their territories a few days, and burnt
all their villages and houses, and cut down their corn, proceeded into
the territories of the Ubii; and having promised them his assistance, if
they were ever harassed by the Suevi, he learned from them these
particulars: that the Suevi, after they had by means of their scouts
found that the bridge was being built, had called a council, according