"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
deities even by report. Their whole life is occupied in hunting and in
the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they devote themselves
to fatigue and hardships. Those who have remained chaste for the longest
time, receive the greatest commendation among their people: they think
that by this the growth is promoted, by this the physical powers are
increased and the sinews are strengthened. And to have had knowledge of
a woman before the twentieth year they reckon among the most disgraceful
acts; of which matter there is no concealment, because they bathe
promiscuously in the rivers and [only] use skins or small cloaks of
deers' hides, a large portion of the body being in consequence naked.
XXII.--They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large
portion of their food consists in milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any
one a fixed quantity of land or his own individual limits; but the
magistrates and the leading men each year apportion to the tribes and
families, who have united together, as much land as, and in the place in
which, they think proper, and the year after compel them to remove
elsewhere. For this enactment they advance many reasons--lest seduced by
long-continued custom, they may exchange their ardour in the waging of
war for agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive
estates, and the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions;
lest they construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold
and heat; lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause
divisions and discords arise; and that they may keep the common people
in a contented state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an
equality with [those of] the most powerful.
XXIII.--It is the greatest glory to the several states to have as wide
deserts as possible around them, their frontiers having been laid waste.
They consider this the real evidence of their prowess, that their
neighbours shall be driven out of their lands and abandon them, and that
no one dare settle near them; at the same time they think that they
shall be on that account the more secure, because they have removed the
apprehension of a sudden incursion. When a state either repels war waged
against it, or wages it against another, magistrates are chosen to
preside over that war with such authority, that they have power of life
and death. In peace there is no common magistrate, but the chiefs of
provinces and cantons administer justice and determine controversies
among their own people. Robberies which are committed beyond the
boundaries of each state bear no infamy, and they avow that these are
committed for the purpose of disciplining their youth and of preventing
sloth. And when any of their chiefs has said in an assembly "that he
will be their leader, let those who are willing to follow, give in their
names"; they who approve of both the enterprise and the man arise and
promise their assistance and are applauded by the people; such of them
as have not followed him are accounted in the number of deserters and
traitors, and confidence in all matters is afterwards refused them. To
injure guests they regard as impious; they defend from wrong those who
have come to them for any purpose whatever, and esteem them inviolable;
to them the houses of all are open and maintenance is freely supplied.
XXIV.--And there was formerly a time when the Gauls excelled the Germans
in prowess, and waged war on them offensively, and, on account of the
great number of their people and the insufficiency of their land, sent
colonies over the Rhine. Accordingly, the Volcae Tectosages seized on
those parts of Germany which are the most fruitful [and lie] around the
Hercynian forest (which, I perceive, was known by report to Eratosthenes
and some other Greeks, and which they call Orcynia) and settled there.
Which nation to this time retains its position in those settlements, and
has a very high character for justice and military merit: now also they
continue in the same scarcity, indigence, hardihood, as the Germans, and
use the same food and dress; but their proximity to the Province and
knowledge of commodities from countries beyond the sea supplies to the
Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as civilization. Accustomed
by degrees to be overmatched and worsted in many engagements, they do
not even compare themselves to the Germans in prowess.
XXV.--The breadth of this Hercynian forest, which has been referred to
above, is to a quick traveller, a journey of nine days. For it cannot be
otherwise computed, nor are they acquainted with the measures of roads.
It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, Nemetes, and Rauraci, and
extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of the
Daci and the Anartes: it bends thence to the left in a different
direction from the river, and owing to its extent touches the confines
of many nations; nor is there any person belonging to this part of
Germany who says that he either has gone to the extremity of that
forest, though he had advanced a journey of sixty days, or has heard in
what place it begins. It is certain that many kinds of wild beasts are
produced in it which have not been seen in other parts; of which the
following are such as differ principally from other animals, and appear
worthy of being committed to record.
XXVI.--There is an ox of the shape of a stag, between whose ears a horn
rises from the middle of the forehead, higher and straighter than those
horns which are known to us. From the top of this, branches, like palms;
stretch out a considerable distance. The shape of the female and of the
male is the same; the appearance and the size of the horns is the same.
XXVII.--There are also [animals] which are called elks. The shape of
these, and the varied colour of their skins, is much like roes, but in
size they surpass them a little and are destitute of horns, and have
legs without joints and ligatures; nor do they lie down for the purpose
of rest, nor, if they have been thrown down by any accident, can they
raise or lift themselves up. Trees serve as beds to them; they lean
themselves against them, and thus reclining only slightly, they take
their rest; when the huntsmen have discovered from the footsteps of
these animals whither they are accustomed to betake themselves, they
either undermine all the trees at the roots, or cut into them so far
that the upper part of the trees may appear to be left standing. When
they have leant upon them, according to their habit, they knock down by
their weight the unsupported trees, and fall down themselves along with
them.
XXVIII.-There is a third kind, consisting of those animals which are
called uri. These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the
appearance, colour, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are
extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have
espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them.
The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice
themselves in this kind of hunting, and those who have slain the
greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve
as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young
can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and
appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These
they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as
cups at their most sumptuous entertainments.
XXIX.--Caesar, after he discovered through the Ubian scouts that the
Suevi had retired into their woods, apprehending a scarcity of corn,
because, as we have observed above, all the Germans pay very little
attention to agriculture, resolved not to proceed any farther; but, that
he might not altogether relieve the barbarians from the fear of his
return, and that he might delay their succours, having led back his
army, he breaks down, to the length of 200 feet, the farther end of the
bridge, which joined the banks of the Ubii, and, at the extremity of the
bridge raises towers of four stories, and stations a guard of twelve
cohorts for the purpose of defending the bridge, and strengthens the
place with considerable fortifications. Over that fort and guard he
appointed C. Volcatius Tullus, a young man; he himself, when the corn
began to ripen, having set forth for the war with 40 Ambiorix (through
the forest Arduenna, which is the largest of all Gaul, and reaches from
the banks of the Rhine and the frontiers of the Treviri to those of the
Nervii, and extends over more than 500 miles), he sends forward L.
Minucius Basilus with all the cavalry, to try if he might gain any
advantage by rapid marches and the advantage of time, he warns him to
forbid fires being made in the camp, lest any indication of his approach
be given at a distance: he tells him that he will follow immediately.
XXX.--Basilus does as he was commanded; having performed his march
rapidly, and even surpassed the expectations of all, he surprises in the
fields many not expecting him; through their information he advances
towards Ambiorix himself, to the place in which he was said to be with a
few horse. Fortune accomplishes much, not only in other matters, but
also in the art of war. For as it happened by a remarkable chance, that
he fell upon [Ambiorix] himself unguarded and unprepared, and that his
arrival was seen by the people before the report or information of his
arrival was carried thither; so it was an incident of extraordinary
fortune that, although every implement of war which he was accustomed to
have about him was seized, and his chariots and horses surprised, yet he
himself escaped death. But it was effected owing to this circumstance,
that his house being surrounded by a wood, (as are generally the
dwellings of the Gauls, who, for the purpose of avoiding heat, mostly
seek the neighbourhood of woods and rivers) his attendants and friends
in a narrow spot sustained for a short time the attack of our horse.
While they were fighting, one of his followers mounted him on a horse:
the woods sheltered him as he fled. Thus fortune tended much both
towards his encountering and his escaping danger.
XXXI.--Whether Ambiorix did not collect his forces from cool
deliberation, because he considered he ought not to engage in a battle,
or [whether] he was debarred by time and prevented by the sudden arrival
of our horse, when he supposed the rest of the army was closely
following, is doubtful; but certainly, despatching messengers through
the country, he ordered every one to provide for himself; and a part of
them fled into the forest Arduenna, a part into the extensive morasses;
those who were nearest the ocean, concealed themselves in the islands
which the tides usually form; many, departing from their territories,
committed themselves and all their possessions to perfect strangers.
Cativolcus, king of one-half of the Eburones, who had entered into the
design together with Ambiorix, since, being now worn out by age, he was
unable to endure the fatigue either of war or flight, having cursed
Ambiorix with every imprecation, as the person who had been the
contriver of that measure, destroyed himself with the juice of the yew
tree, of which there is a great abundance in Gaul and Germany.
XXXII.--The Segui and Condrusi, of the nation and number of the Germans,
and who are between the Eburones and the Treviri, sent ambassadors to
Caesar to entreat that he would not regard them in the number of his
enemies, nor consider that the cause of all the Germans on this side the
Rhine was one and the same; that they had formed no plans of war, and
had sent no auxiliaries to Ambiorix. Caesar, having ascertained this
fact by an examination of his prisoners commanded that if any of the