"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
were passed along to him, was pierced with a dart on the right side and
fell dead. One of those next him stepped over him as he lay, and
discharged the same office: when the second man was slain in the same
manner by a wound from a cross-bow, a third succeeded him, and a fourth
succeeded the third: nor was this post left vacant by the besieged,
until, the fire of the mound having been extinguished, and the enemy
repulsed in every direction, an end was put to the fighting.
XXVI.--The Gauls having tried every expedient, as nothing had succeeded,
adopted the design of fleeing from the town the next day, by the advice
and order of Vercingetorix. They hoped that, by attempting it at the
dead of night, they would effect it without any great loss of men,
because the camp of Vercingetorix was not far distant from the town, and
the extensive marsh which intervened was likely to retard the Romans in
the pursuit. And they were now preparing to execute this by night, when
the matrons suddenly ran out into the streets, and weeping cast
themselves at the feet of their husbands, and requested of them, with
every entreaty, that they should not abandon themselves and their common
children to the enemy for punishment, because the weakness of their
nature and physical powers prevented them from taking to flight. When
they saw that they (as fear does not generally admit of mercy in extreme
danger) persisted in their resolution, they began to shout aloud, and
give intelligence of their flight to the Romans. The Gauls being
intimidated by fear of this, lest the passes should be pre-occupied by
the Roman cavalry, desisted from their design.
XXVII.--The next day Caesar, the tower being advanced, and the works
which he had determined to raise being arranged, a violent storm
arising, thought this no bad time for executing his designs, because he
observed the guards arranged on the walls a little too negligently, and
therefore ordered his own men to engage in their work more remissly, and
pointed out what he wished to be done. He drew up his soldiers in a
secret position within the vineae, and exhorts them to reap, at least,
the harvest of victory proportionate to their exertions. He proposed a
reward for those who should first scale the walls, and gave the signal
to the soldiers. They suddenly flew out from all quarters and quickly
filled the wall.
XXVIII.--The enemy being alarmed by the suddenness of the attack, were
dislodged from the wall and towers, and drew up, in form of a wedge, in
the market-place and the open streets, with this intention that, if an
attack should be made on any side, they should fight with their line
drawn up to receive it. When they saw no one descending to the level
ground, and the enemy extending themselves along the entire wall in
every direction, fearing lest every hope of flight should be cut off,
they cast away their arms, and sought, without stopping, the most remote
parts of the town. A part was then slain by the infantry when they were
crowding upon one another in the narrow passage of the gates; and a part
having got without the gates, were cut to pieces by the cavalry: nor was
there one who was anxious for the plunder. Thus, being excited by the
massacre at Genabum and the fatigue of the siege, they spared neither
those worn out with years, women, or children. Finally, out of all that
number, which amounted to about forty thousand, scarcely eight hundred,
who fled from the town when they heard the first alarm, reached
Vercingetorix in safety: and he, the night being now far spent, received
them in silence after their flight (fearing that any sedition should
arise in the camp from their entrance in a body and the compassion of
the soldiers), so that, having arranged his friends and the chiefs of
the states at a distance on the road, he took precautions that they
should be separated and conducted to their fellow countrymen, to
whatever part of the camp had been assigned to each state from the
beginning.
XXIX.--Vercingetorix having convened an assembly on the following day,
consoled and encouraged his soldiers in the following words:--"That they
should not be too much depressed in spirit, nor alarmed at their loss;
that the Romans did not conquer by valour nor in the field, but by a
kind of art and skill in assault, with which they themselves were
unacquainted; that whoever expected every event in the war to be
favourable, erred; that it never was his opinion that Avaricum should be
defended, of the truth of which statement he had themselves as
witnesses, but that it was owing to the imprudence of the Bituriges, and
the too ready compliance of the rest, that this loss was sustained;
that, however, he would soon compensate it by superior advantages; for
that he would, by his exertions, bring over those states which severed
themselves from the rest of the Gauls, and would create a general
unanimity throughout the whole of Gaul, the union of which not even the
whole earth could withstand, and that he had it already almost effected;
that in the meantime it was reasonable that he should prevail on them,
for the sake of the general safety, to begin to fortify their camp, in
order that they might the more easily sustain the sudden attacks of the
enemy."
XXX.--This speech was not disagreeable to the Gauls, principally,
because he himself was not disheartened by receiving so severe a loss,
and had not concealed himself, nor shunned the eyes of the people: and
he was believed to possess greater foresight and sounder judgment than
the rest, because, when the affair was undecided, he had at first been
of opinion that Avaricum should be burnt, and afterwards that it should
be abandoned. Accordingly, as ill success weakens the authority of other
generals, so, on the contrary, his dignity increased daily, although a
loss was sustained: at the same time they began to entertain hopes, on
his assertion, of uniting the rest of the states to themselves, and on
this occasion, for the first time, the Gauls began to fortify their
camps, and were so alarmed that although they were men unaccustomed to
toil, yet they were of opinion that they ought to endure and suffer
everything which should be imposed upon them.
XXXI.--Nor did Vercingetorix use less efforts than he had promised, to
gain over the other states, and [in consequence] endeavoured to entice
their leaders by gifts and promises. For this object he selected fitting
emissaries by whose subtle pleading or private friendship each of the
nobles could be most easily influenced. He takes care that those who
fled to him on the storming of Avaricum should be provided with arms and
clothes. At the same time, that his diminished forces should be
recruited, he levies a fixed quota of soldiers from each state, and
defines the number and day before which he should wish them brought to
the camp, and orders all the archers, of whom there was a very great
number in Gaul, to be collected and sent to him. By these means, the
troops which were lost at Avaricum are speedily replaced. In the
meantime, Teutomarus, the son of Ollovicon, the king of the Nitiobriges,
whose father had received the appellation of friend from our senate,
came to him with a great number of his own horse and those whom he had
hired from Aquitania.
XXXII.--Caesar, after delaying several days at Avaricum, and finding
there the greatest plenty of corn and other provisions, refreshed his
army after their fatigue and privation. The winter being almost ended,
when he was invited by the favourable season of the year to prosecute
the war and march against the enemy, [and try] whether he could draw
them from the marshes and woods, or else press them by a blockade; some
noblemen of the Aedui came to him as ambassadors to entreat "that in an
extreme emergency he should succour their state; that their affairs were
in the utmost danger, because, whereas single magistrates had been
usually appointed in ancient times and held the power of king for a
single year, two persons now exercised this office, and each asserted
that he was appointed according to their laws. That one of them was
Convictolitanis, a powerful and illustrious youth; the other Cotus,
sprung from a most ancient family, and personally a man of very great
influence and extensive connections. His brother Valetiacus had borne
the same office during the last year: that the whole state was up in
arms; the senate divided, the people divided; that each of them had his
own adherents; and that, if the animosity would be fomented any longer
the result would be that one part of the state would come to a collision
with the other; that it rested with his activity and influence to
prevent it."
XXXIII.--Although Caesar considered it ruinous to leave the war and the
enemy, yet, being well aware what great evils generally arise from
internal dissensions, lest a state so powerful and so closely connected
with the Roman people, which he himself had always fostered and honoured
in every respect, should have recourse to violence and arms, and that
the party which had less confidence in its own power should summon aid
from Vercingetorix, he determined to anticipate this movement; and
because, by the laws of the Aedui, it was not permitted those who held
the supreme authority to leave the country, he determined to go in
person to the Aedui, lest he should appear to infringe upon their
government and laws, and summoned all the senate, and those between whom
the dispute was, to meet him at Decetia. When almost all the state had
assembled there, and he was informed that one brother had been declared
magistrate by the other, when only a few persons were privately summoned
for the purpose, at a different time and place from what he ought,
whereas the laws not only forbade two belonging to one family to be
elected magistrates while each was alive, but even deterred them from
being in the senate, he compelled Cotus to resign his office; he ordered
Convictolitanis, who had been elected by the priests, according to the
usage of the state, in the presence of the magistrates, to hold the
supreme authority.
XXXIV.--Having pronounced this decree between [the contending parties],
he exhorted the Aedui to bury in oblivion their disputes and
dissensions, and, laying aside all these things, devote themselves to
the war, and expect from him, on the conquest of Gaul, those rewards
which they should have earned, and send speedily to him all their
cavalry and ten thousand infantry, which he might place in different
garrisons to protect his convoys of provisions, and then divided his
army into two parts: he gave Labienus four legions to lead into the
country of the Senones and Parisii; and led in person six into the
country of the Arverni, in the direction of the town of Gergovia, along
the banks of the Allier. He gave part of the cavalry to Labienus, and
kept part to himself. Vercingetorix, on learning this circumstance,
broke down all the bridges over the river and began to march on the
other bank of the Allier.
XXXV.--When each army was in sight of the other, and was pitching their
camp almost opposite that of the enemy, scouts being distributed in
every quarter, lest the Romans should build a bridge and bring over
their troops; it was to Caesar a matter attended with great
difficulties, lest he should be hindered from passing the river during
the greater part of the summer, as the Allier cannot generally be forded
before the autumn. Therefore, that this might not happen, having pitched
his camp in a woody place opposite to one of those bridges which
Vercingetorix had taken care should be broken down, the next day he
stopped behind with two legions in a secret place: he sent on the rest
of the forces as usual, with all the baggage, after having selected some