"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
himself, though the matter was one of great difficulty and labour, yet
thought it to be most expedient for all the ships to be brought up on
shore and joined with the camp by one fortification. In these matters he
employed about ten days, the labour of the soldiers being unremitting
even during the hours of night. The ships having been brought up on
shore and the camp strongly fortified, he left the same forces which he
did before as a guard for the ships; he sets out in person for the same
place that he had returned from. When he had come thither, greater
forces of the Britons had already assembled at that place, the chief
command and management of the war having been entrusted to
Cassivellaunus, whose territories a river, which is called the Thames,
separates from the maritime states at about eighty miles from the sea.
At an earlier period perpetual wars had taken place between him and the
other states; but, greatly alarmed by our arrival, the Britons had
placed him over the whole war and the conduct of it.
XII.--The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they
say that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the
island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over from
the country of the Belgae for the purpose of plunder and making war;
almost all of whom are called by the names of those states from which
being sprung they went thither, and having waged war, continued there
and began to cultivate the lands. The number of the people is countless,
and their buildings exceedingly numerous, for the most part very like
those of the Gauls: the number of cattle is great. They use either brass
or iron rings, determined at a certain weight, as their money. Tin is
produced in the midland regions; in the maritime, iron; but the quantity
of it is small: they employ brass, which is imported. There, as in Gaul,
is timber of every description, except beech and fir. They do not regard
it lawful to eat the hare, and the cock, and the goose; they, however,
breed them for amusement and pleasure. The climate is more temperate
than in Gaul, the colds being less severe.
XIII.--The island is triangular in its form, and one of its sides is
opposite to Gaul. One angle of this side, which is in Kent, whither
almost all ships from Gaul are directed, [looks] to the east; the lower
looks to the south. This side extends about 500 miles. Another side lies
towards Spain and the west, on which part is Ireland, less, as is
reckoned, than Britain by one-half; but the passage [from it] into
Britain is of equal distance with that from Gaul. In the middle of this
voyage is an island, which is called Mona; many smaller islands besides
are supposed to lie [there], of which islands some have written that at
the time of the winter solstice it is night there for thirty consecutive
days. We, in our inquiries about that matter, ascertained nothing,
except that, by accurate measurements with water, we perceived the
nights to be shorter there than on the continent. The length of this
side, as their account states, is 700 miles. The third side is towards
the north, to which portion of the island no land is opposite; but an
angle of that side looks principally towards Germany. This side is
considered to be 800 miles in length. Thus the whole island is [about]
2000 miles in circumference.
XIV.--The most civilised of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent,
which is entirely a maritime district, nor do they differ much from the
Gallic customs. Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but live
on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the Britons, indeed, dye
themselves with wood, which occasions a bluish colour, and thereby have
a more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair long, and have
every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip. Ten and
even twelve have wives common to them, and particularly brothers among
brothers, and parents among their children; but if there be any issue by
these wives, they are reputed to be the children of those by whom
respectively each was first espoused when a virgin.
XV.--The horse and charioteers of the enemy contended vigorously in a
skirmish with our cavalry on the march; yet so that our men were
conquerors in all parts, and drove them to their woods and hills; but,
having slain a great many, they pursued too eagerly, and lost some of
their men. But the enemy, after some time had elapsed, when our men were
off their guard, and occupied in the fortification of the camp, rushed
out of the woods, and making an attack upon those who were placed on
duty before the camp, fought in a determined manner; and two cohorts
being sent by Caesar to their relief, and these severally the first of
two legions, when these had taken up their position at a very small
distance from each other, as our men were disconcerted by the unusual
mode of battle, the enemy broke through the middle of them most
courageously, and retreated thence in safety. That day, Q. Laberius
Durus, a tribune of the soldiers, was slain. The enemy, since more
cohorts were sent against them, were repulsed.
XVI.--In the whole of this method of fighting since the engagement took
place under the eyes of all and before the camp, it was perceived that
our men, on account of the weight of their arms, inasmuch as they could
neither pursue [the enemy when] retreating, nor dare quit their
standards, were little suited to this kind of enemy; that the horse also
fought with great danger, because they [the Britons] generally retreated
even designedly, and, when they had drawn off our men a short distance
from the legions, leaped from their chariots and fought on foot in
unequal [and to them advantageous] battle. But the system of cavalry
engagement is wont to produce equal danger, and indeed the same, both to
those who retreat and those who pursue. To this was added, that they
never fought in close order, but in small parties and at great
distances, and had detachments placed [in different parts], and then the
one relieved the other, and the vigorous and fresh succeeded the
wearied.
XVII.--The following day the enemy halted on the hills, a distance from
our camp, and presented themselves in small parties, and began to
challenge our horse to battle with less spirit than the day before. But
at noon, when Caesar had sent three legions, and all the cavalry with C.
Trebonius, the lieutenant, for the purpose of foraging, they flew upon
the foragers suddenly from all quarters, so that they did not keep off
[even] from the standards and the legions. Our men making an attack on
them vigorously, repulsed them; nor did they cease to pursue them until
the horse, relying on relief, as they saw the legions behind them, drove
the enemy precipitately before them, and, slaying a great number of
them, did not give them the opportunity either of rallying or halting,
or leaping from their chariots. Immediately after this retreat, the
auxiliaries who had assembled from all sides, departed; nor after that
time did the enemy ever engage with us in very large numbers.
XVIII.--Caesar, discovering their design, leads his army into the
territories of Cassivellaunus to the river Thames; which river can be
forded in one place only, and that with difficulty. When he had arrived
there, he perceives that numerous forces of the enemy were marshalled on
the other bank of the river; the bank also was defended by sharp stakes
fixed in front, and stakes of the same kind fixed under the water were
covered by the river. These things being discovered from [some]
prisoners and deserters, Caesar, sending forward the cavalry, ordered
the legions to follow them immediately. But the soldiers advanced with
such speed and such ardour, though they stood above the water by their
heads only, that the enemy could not sustain the attack of the legions
and of the horse, and quitted the banks, and committed themselves to
flight.
XIX.--Cassivellaunus, as we have stated above, all hope [rising out] of
battle being laid aside, the greater part of his forces being dismissed,
and about 4000 charioteers only being left, used to observe our marches
and retire a little from the road, and conceal himself in intricate and
woody places, and in those neighbourhoods in which he had discovered we
were about to march, he used to drive the cattle and the inhabitants
from the fields into the woods; and, when our cavalry, for the sake of
plundering and ravaging the more freely, scattered themselves among the
fields, he used to send out charioteers from the woods by all the
well-known roads and paths, and, to the great danger of our horse, engage
with them; and this source of fear hindered them from straggling very
extensively. The result was that Caesar did not allow excursions to be
made to a great distance from the main body of the legions, and ordered
that damage should be done to the enemy in ravaging their lands and
kindling fires only so far as the legionary soldiers could, by their own
exertion and marching, accomplish it.
XX.--In the meantime, the Trinobantes, almost the most powerful state of
those parts, from which the young man Mandubratius embracing the
protection of Caesar had come to the continent of Gaul to [meet] him
(whose father, Imanuentius, had possessed the sovereignty in that state,
and had been killed by Cassivellaunus; he himself had escaped death by
flight), send ambassadors to Caesar, and promise that they will
surrender themselves to him and perform his commands; they entreat him
to protect Mandubratius from the violence of Cassivellaunus, and send to
their state some one to preside over it, and possess the government.
Caesar demands forty hostages from them, and corn for his army, and
sends Mandubratius to them. They speedily performed the things demanded,
and sent hostages to the number appointed, and the corn.
XXI.--The Trinobantes being protected and secured from any violence of
the soldiers, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci,
and the Cassi, sending embassies, surrender themselves to Caesar. From
them he learns that the capital town of Cassivellaunus was not far from
that place, and was defended by woods and morasses, and a very large
number of men and of cattle had been collected in it. (Now the Britons,
when they have fortified the intricate woods, in which they are wont to
assemble for the purpose of avoiding the incursion of an enemy, with an
entrenchment and a rampart, call them a town.) Thither he proceeds with
his legions: he finds the place admirably fortified by nature and art;
he, however, undertakes to attack it in two directions. The enemy,
having remained only a short time, did not sustain the attack of our
soldiers, and hurried away on the other side of the town. A great amount
of cattle was found there, and many of the enemy were taken and slain in
their flight.
XXII.--While these things are going forward in those places,
Cassivellaunus sends messengers into Kent, which, we have observed
above, is on the sea, over which districts four several kings reigned,
Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax, and commands them to
collect all their forces, and unexpectedly assail and storm the naval
camp. When they had come to the camp, our men, after making a sally,
slaying many of their men, and also capturing a distinguished leader
named Lugotorix, brought back their own men in safety. Cassivellaunus,
when this battle was reported to him, as so many losses had been
sustained, and his territories laid waste, being alarmed most of all by
the desertion of the states, sends ambassadors to Caesar [to treat]
about a surrender through the mediation of Commius the Atrebatian.
Caesar, since he had determined to pass the winter on the continent, on