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CaesarCaesar, Part II.
Caesar, Part II.
His second war was in defence of the Gauls against the Germans, though
some time before he had made Ariovistus, their king, recognized at Rome as an
ally. But they were very insufferable neighbours to those under his
government; and it was probable, when occasion offered, they would renounce
the present arrangements, and march on to occupy Gaul. But finding his
officers timorous, and especially those of the young nobility who came along
with him in hopes of turning their campaigns with him into a means for their
own pleasure or profit, he called them together, and advised them to march
off, and not run the hazard of a battle against their inclinations, since they
had such weak and unmanly feelings; telling them that he would take only the
tenth legion, and march against the barbarians, whom he did not expect to find
an enemy more formidable than the Cimbri, nor, he added, should they find him
a general inferior to Marius. Upon this, the tenth legion deputed some of
their body to pay him their acknowledgments and thanks, and the other legions
blamed their officers, and all, with great vigor and zeal, followed him many
days` journey till they encamped within two hundred furlongs of the enemy.
Ariovistus` courage to some extent was cooled upon their very approach; for
never expecting the Romans would attack the Germans, whom he had thought it
more likely they would not venture to withstand even in defence of their own
subjects, he was the more surprised at Caesar`s conduct, and saw his army to
be in consternation. They were still more discouraged by the prophecies of
their holy women, who foretell the future by observing the eddies of rivers,
and taking signs from the windings and noise of streams, and who now warned
them not to engage before the next new moon appeared. Caesar having had
intimation of this, and seeing the Germans lie still, thought it expedient to
attack them whilst they were under these apprehensions, rather than sit still
and wait their time. Accordingly he made his approaches to the strongholds and
hills on which they lay encamped, and so galled and fretted them, that at last
they came down with great fury to engage. But he gained a signal victory, and
pursued them for four hundred furlongs, as far as the Rhine; all which space
was covered with spoils and bodies of the slain. Ariovistus made shift to pass
the Rhine with the small remains of an army, for it is said the number of the
slain amounted to eighty thousand.
After this action, Caesar left his army at their winter - quarters in the
country of the Sequani, and in order to attend to affairs at Rome, went into
that part of Gaul which lies on the Po, and was part of his province; for the
river Rubicon divides Gaul, which is on this side the Alps, from the rest of
Italy. There he sat down and employed himself in courting people`s favor;
great numbers coming to him continually, and always finding their requests
answered; for he never failed to dismiss all with present pledges of his
kindness in hand, and further hopes for the future. And during all this time
of the war in Gaul, Pompey never observed how Caesar was on the one hand using
the arms of Rome to effect his conquests, and on the other was gaining over
and securing to himself the favor of the Romans, with the wealth which those
conquests obtained him. But when he heard that the Belgae, who were the most
powerful of all the Gauls, and inhabited a third part of the country, were
revolted, and had got together a great many thousand men in arms, he
immediately set out and took his way thither with great expedition, and
falling upon the enemy as they were ravaging the Gauls, his allies, he soon
defeated and put to flight the largest and least scattered division of them.
For though their numbers were great, yet they made but a slender defence, and
the marshes and deep rivers were made passable to the Roman foot by the vast
quantity of dead bodies. Of those who revolted, all the tribes that lived near
the ocean came over without fighting, and he, therefore, led his army against
the Nervii, the fiercest and most warlike people of all in those parts. These
live in a country covered with continuous woods, and having lodged their
children and property out of the way in the depth of the forest, fell upon
Caesar with a body of sixty thousand men, before he was prepared for them,
while he was making his encampment. They soon routed his cavalry, and having
surrounded the twelfth and seventh legions, killed all the officers, and had
not Caesar himself snatched up a buckler, and forced his way through his own
men to come up to the barbarians, or had not the tenth legion, when they saw
him in danger, run in from the tops of the hills, where they lay, and broken
through the enemy`s ranks to rescue him, in all probability not a Roman would
have been saved. But now, under the influence of Caesar`s bold example, they
fought a battle, as the phrase is, of more than human courage, and yet with
their utmost efforts they were not able to drive the enemy out of the field,
but cut them down fighting in their defence. For out of sixty thousand men, it
is stated that not above five hundred survived the battle, and of four hundred
of their senators not above three.
When the Roman senate had received news of this, they voted sacrifices
and festivals to the gods, to be strictly observed for the space of fifteen
days, a longer space than ever was observed for any victory before. The danger
to which they had been exposed by the joint outbreak of such a number of
nations was felt to have been great; and the people`s fondness for Caesar gave
additional lustre to successes achieved by him. He now, after settling
everything in Gaul, came back again, and spent the winter by the Po, in order
to carry on the designs he had in hand at Rome. All who were candidates for
offices used his assistance, and were supplied with money from him to corrupt
the people and buy their votes, in return of which, when they were chosen,
they did all things to advance his power. But what was more considerable, the
most eminent and powerful men in Rome in great numbers came to visit him at
Lucca, Pompey, and Crassus, and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos,
the proconsul of Spain, so that there were in the place at one time one
hundred and twenty lictors, and more than two hundred senators. In
deliberation here held, it was determined that Pompey and Crassus should be
consuls again for the following year; that Caesar should have a fresh supply
of money, and that his command should be renewed to him for five years more.
It seemed very extravagant to all thinking men, that those very persons who
had received so much money from Caesar should persuade the senate to grant him
more, as if he were in want. Though in truth it was not so much upon
persuasion as compulsion, that, with sorrow and groans for their own acts,
they passed the measure. Cato was not present, for they had sent him
seasonably out of the way into Cyprus; but Favonius, who was a zealous
imitator of Cato, when he found he could do no good by opposing it, broke out
of the house, and loudly declaimed against these proceedings to the people,
but none gave him any hearing; some slighting him out of respect to Crassus
and Pompey, and the greater part to gratify Caesar, on whom depended their
hopes.
After this, Caesar returned again to his forces in Gaul, where he found
that country involved in a dangerous war, two strong nations of the Germans
having lately passed the Rhine, to conquer it; one of them called the Usipes,
the other Tenteritae.^2 Of the war with this people, Caesar himself has given
this account in his commentaries, that the barbarians, having sent ambassadors
to treat with him, did, during the treaty, set upon him in his march, by which
means with eight hundred men they routed five thousand of his horse, who did
not suspect their coming; that afterwards they sent other ambassadors to renew
the same fraudulent practices, whom he kept in custody, and led on his army
against the barbarians, as judging it mere simplicity to keep faith with those
who had so faithlessly broken the terms they had agreed to. But Tanusius
states, that when the senate decreed festivals and sacrifices for this
victory, Cato declared it to be his opinion that Caesar ought to be given into
the hands of the barbarians, that so the guilt which this breach of faith
might otherwise bring upon the state, might be expiated by transferring the
curse on him, who was the occasion of it. Of those who passed the Rhine, there
were four hundred thousand cut off; those few who escaped were sheltered by
the Sugambri, a people of Germany. Caesar took hold of this pretence to invade
the Germans, being at the same time ambitious of the honor of being the first
man that should pass the Rhine with an army. He carried a bridge across it,
though it was very wide, and the current at that particular point very full,
strong, and violent, bringing down with its waters trunks of trees, and other
lumber, which much shook and weakened the foundations of his bridge. But he
drove great piles of wood into the bottom of the river above the passage, to
catch and stop these as they floated down, and thus fixing his bridle upon the
stream, successfully finished his bridge, which no one who saw could believe
to be the work but of ten days.
[Footnote 2: The Usipetes and Tencteri of Caesar`s own narrative. The Sugambri
below are the same as the Sigambri or Sicambri in the neighborhood of the
river Sieg. Tanusius was an historical writer, and is quoted by Suetonius. The
bridge was probably a little below Coblenz.]
In the passage of his army over it, he met with no opposition; the Suevi
themselves, who are the most warlike people of all Germany, flying with their
effects into the deepest and most densely wooded valleys. When he had burnt
all the enemy`s country, and encouraged those who embraced the Roman interest,
he went back into Gaul, after eighteen days` stay in Germany. But his
expedition into Britain was the most famous testimony of his courage. For he
was the first who brought a navy into the western ocean, or who sailed into
the Atlantic with an army to make war; and by invading an island, the reported
extent of which had made its existence a matter of controversy among
historians, many of whom questioned whether it were not a mere name and
fiction, not a real place, he might be said to have carried the Roman empire
beyond the limits of the known world. He passed thither twice from that part
of Gaul which lies over against it, and in several battles which he fought,
did more hurt to the enemy than service to himself, for the islanders were so
miserably poor, that they had nothing worth being plundered of. When he found
himself unable to put such an end to the war as he wished, he was content to
take hostages from the king, and to impose a tribute, and then quitted the
island. At his arrival in Gaul, he found letters which lay ready to be
conveyed over the water to him from his friends at Rome, announcing his
daughter`s death, who died in labor of a child by Pompey. Caesar and Pompey
both were much afflicted with her death, nor were their friends less
disturbed, believing that the alliance was now broken, which had hitherto kept
the sickly commonwealth in peace, for the child also died within a few days
after the mother. The people took the body of Julia, in spite of the
opposition of the tribunes, and carried it into the field of Mars, and there
her funeral rites were performed, and her remains are laid.
Caesar`s army was now grown very numerous, so that he was forced to
disperse them into various camps for their winter - quarters, and he having
gone himself to Italy, as he used to do, in his absence a general outbreak
throughout the whole of Gaul commenced, and large armies marched about the
country, and attacked the Roman quarters, and attempted to make themselves
masters of the forts where they lay. The greatest and strongest party of the
rebels, under the command of Abriorix, cut off Cotta and Titurius with all
their men, while a force of sixty thousand strong besieged the legion under
the command of Cicero,^3 and had almost taken it by storm, the Roman soldiers
being all wounded, and having quite spent themselves by a defence beyond their
natural strength. But Caesar, who was at a great distance, having received the
news, quickly got together seven thousand men, and hastened to relieve Cicero.
The besiegers were aware of it, and went to meet him, with great confidence
that they should easily overpower such an handful of men. Caesar, to increase
their presumption, seemed to avoid fighting, and still marched off, till he
found a place conveniently situated for a few to engage against many, where he
encamped. He kept his soldiers from making any attack upon the enemy, and
commanded them to raise the ramparts higher, and barricade the gates, that by
show of fear, they might heighten the enemy`s contempt of them. Till at last
they came without any order in great security to make an assault, when he
issued forth, and put them to flight with the loss of many men.
[Footnote 3: Quintus Cicero, the orator`s brother. Abriorix is Ambiorix of the
Commentaries.]
This quieted the greater part of the commotions in these parts of Gaul
and Caesar, in the course of the winter, visited every part of the country,
and with great vigilance took precautions against all innovations. For there
were three legions now come to him to supply the place of the men he had lost,
of which Pompey furnished him with two, out of those under his command; the
other was newly raised in the part of Gaul by the Po. But in a while the seeds
of war, which had long since been secretly sown and scattered by the most
powerful men in those warlike nations, broke forth into the greatest and most
dangerous war that ever was in those parts, both as regards the number of men
in the vigor of their youth who were gathered and armed from all quarters, the
vast funds of money collected to maintain it, the strength of the towns, and
the difficulty of the country where it was carried on. It being winter, the
rivers were frozen, the woods covered with snow, and the level country
flooded, so that in some places the ways were lost through the depth of the
snow; in others, the overflowing of marshes and streams made every kind of
passage uncertain. All which difficulties made it seem impracticable for
Caesar to make any attempt upon the insurgents. Many tribes had revolted
together, the chief of them being the Arverni and Carnutini;^4 the general who
had the supreme command in war was Vergentorix, whose father the Gauls had put
to death on suspicion of his aiming at absolute government.
[Footnote 4: The Arverni, the same people whom he presently calls the Aruveni,
of the mountains of Auvergne, and the Carnutes of the country around Orleans.
Vergentorix appears to be a Greek abbreviation of Vercingetorix, the full name
given by Caesar, which is itself conceived to have been not a proper name, but
a title.]
He having disposed his army in several bodies, and set officers over
them, drew over to him all the country round about as far as those that lie
upon the Arar, and having intelligence of the opposition which Caesar now
experienced at Rome, thought to engage all Gaul in the war. Which if he had
done a little later, when Caesar was taken up with the civil wars, Italy had
been put into as great a terror as before it was by the Cimbri. But Caesar,
who above all men was gifted with the faculty of making the right use of every
thing in war, and most especially of seizing the right moment, as soon as he
heard of the revolt, returned immediately the same way he went, and showed the
barbarians, by the quickness of his march in such a severe season, that an
army was advancing against them which was invincible. For in the time that one
would have thought it scarce credible that a courier or express should have
come with a message from him, he himself appeared with all his army, ravaging
the country, reducing their posts, subduing their towns, receiving into his
protection those who declared for him. Till at last the Edui, who hitherto had
styled themselves brethren to the Romans, and had been much honored by them,
declared against him, and joined the rebels, to the great discouragement of
his army. Accordingly he removed thence, and passed the country of the
Lingones, desiring to reach the territories of the Sequani, who were his
friends, and who lay like a bulwark in front of Italy against the other tribes
of Gaul. There the enemy came upon him, and surrounded him with many myriads,
whom he also was eager to engage; and at last, after some time and with much
slaughter, gained on the whole a complete victory; though at first he appears
to have met with some reverse, and the Aruveni show you a small sword hanging
up in a temple, which they say was taken from Caesar. Caesar saw this
afterwards himself, and smiled, and when his friends advised it should be
taken down, would not permit it, because he looked upon it as consecrated.
After the defeat, a great part of those who had escaped, fled with their
king into a town called Alesia, which Caesar besieged, though the height of
the walls, and number of those who defended them, made it appear impregnable;
and meantime, from without the walls, he was assailed by a greater danger than
can be expressed. For the choice men of Gaul, picked out of each nation, and
well armed, came to relieve Alesia, to the number of three hundred thousand;
nor were there in the town less than one hundred and seventy thousand. So that
Caesar being shut betwixt two such forces, was compelled to protect himself by
two walls, one towards the town, the other against the relieving army, as
knowing if these forces should join, his affairs would be entirely ruined. The
danger that he underwent before Alesia,^5 justly gained him great honor on
many accounts, and gave him an opportunity of showing greater instances of his
valor and conduct than any other contest had done. One wonders much how he
should be able to engage and defeat so many thousands of men without the town,
and not be perceived by those within, but yet more, that the Romans
themselves, who guarded their wall which was next the town, should be
strangers to it. For even they knew nothing of the victory, till they heard
the cries of the men and lamentations of the women who were in the town, and
had from thence seen the Romans at a distance carrying into their camp a great
quantity of bucklers, adorned with gold and silver, many breastplates stained
with blood, besides cups and tents made in the Gallic fashion. So soon did so
vast an army dissolve and vanish like a ghost or dream, the greatest part of
them being killed upon the spot. Those who were in Alesia, having given
themselves and Caesar much trouble, surrendered at last; and Vergentorix, who
was the chief spring of all the war, putting his best armor on, and adorning
his horse, rode out of the gates, and made a turn about Caesar as he was
sitting, then quitted his horse, threw off his armor, and remained seated
quietly at Caesar`s feet until he was led away to be reserved for the triumph.
[Footnote 5: Alesia is identified with Alise, or with the summit of Mount
Auxois, near Flavigny, not far from Dijon. The course of Roman occupation,
interposing between Central Gaul and the German competitors for its
possession, seems to follow the line of the Rhone and Saone upwards, and the
Meuse and Moselle downwards, from Marseilles and Lyons to Treves and the
Rhine. Alesia is near the head waters of the Saone.]
Caesar had long ago resolved upon the overthrow of Pompey, as had Pompey,
for that matter, upon his. For Crassus, the fear of whom had hitherto kept
them in peace, having now been killed in Parthia, if the one of them wished to
make himself the greatest man in Rome, he had only to overthrow the other; and
if he again wished to prevent his own fall, he had nothing for it but to be
beforehand with him whom he feared. Pompey had not been long under any such
apprehensions, having till lately despised Caesar, as thinking it no difficult
matter to put down him whom he himself had advanced. But Caesar had
entertained this design from the beginning against his rivals, and had
retired, like an expert wrestler, to prepare himself apart for the combat.
Making the Gallic wars his exercise - ground, he had at once improved the
strength of his soldiery, and had heightened his own glory by his great
actions, so that he was looked on as one who might challenge comparison with
Pompey. Nor did he let go any of those advantages which were now given him
both by Pompey himself and the times, and the ill government of Rome, where
all who were candidates for offices publicly gave money, and without any shame
bribed the people, who having received their pay, did not contend for their
benefactors with their bare suffrages, but with bows, swords, and slings. So
that after having many times stained the place of election with the blood of
men killed upon the spot, they left the city at last without a government at
all, to be carried about like a ship without a pilot to steer her; while all
who had any wisdom could only be thankful if a course of such wild and stormy
disorder and madness might end no worse than in a monarchy. Some were so bold
as to declare openly, that the government was incurable but by a monarchy, and
that they ought to take that remedy from the hands of the gentlest physician,
meaning Pompey, who, though in words he pretended to decline it, yet in
reality made his utmost efforts to be declared dictator. Cato perceiving his
design, prevailed with the senate to make him sole consul, that with the offer
of a more legal sort of monarchy he might be withheld from demanding the
dictatorship. They over and above voted him the continuance of his provinces,
for he had two, Spain and all Africa, which he governed by his lieutenants,
and maintained armies under him, at the yearly charge of a thousand talents
out of the public treasury.
Upon this Caesar also sent and petitioned for the consulship, and the
continuance of his provinces. Pompey at first did not stir in it, but
Marcellus and Lentulus opposed it, who had always hated Caesar, and now did
every thing, whether fit or unfit, which might disgrace and affront him. For
they took away the privilege of Roman citizens from the people of New Comum,
who were a colony that Caesar had lately planted in Gaul; and Marcellus, who
was then consul, ordered one of the senators of that town, then at Rome, to be
whipped, and told him he laid that mark upon him to signify he was no citizen
of Rome, bidding him, when he went back again, to show it to Caesar. After
Marcellus` consulship, Caesar began to lavish gifts upon all the public men
out of the riches he had taken from the Gauls; discharged Curio, the tribune,
from his great debts; gave Paulus, then consul, fifteen hundred talents, with
which he built the noble court of justice^6 adjoining the forum, to supply the
place of that called the Fulvian. Pompey, alarmed at these preparations, now
openly took steps, both by himself and his friends, to have a successor
appointed in Caesar`s room, and sent to demand back the soldiers whom he had
lent him to carry on the wars in Gaul. Caesar returned them, and made each
soldier a present of two hundred and fifty drachmas. The officer who brought
them home to Pompey, spread amongst the people no very fair or favorable
report of Caesar, and flattered Pompey himself with false suggestions that he
was wished for by Caesar`s army; and though his affairs here were in some
embarrassment through the envy of some, and the ill state of the government,
yet there the army was at his command, and if they once crossed into Italy,
would presently declare for him; so weary were they of Caesar`s endless
expeditions, and so suspicious of his designs for a monarchy. Upon this Pompey
grew presumptuous, and neglected all warlike preparations, as fearing no
danger, and used no other means against him than mere speeches and votes, for
which Caesar cared nothing. And one of his captains, it is said, who was sent
by him to Rome, standing before the senate - house one day, and being told
that the senate would not give Caesar a longer time in his government, clapped
his hand on the hilt of his sword, and said, "But this shall."
[Footnote 6: Or basilica.]
Yet the demands which Caesar made had the fairest colors of equity
imaginable. For he proposed to lay down his arms, and that Pompey should do
the same, and both together should become private men, and each expect a
reward of his services from the public. For that those who proposed to disarm
him, and at the same time to confirm Pompey in all the power he held, were
simply establishing the one in the tyranny which they accused the other of
aiming at. When Curio made these proposals to the people in Caesar`s name, he
was loudly applauded, and some threw garlands towards him, and dismissed him
as they do successful wrestlers, crowned with flowers. Antony, being tribune,
produced a letter sent from Caesar on this occasion, and read it, though the
consuls did what they could to oppose it. But Scipio, Pompey`s father - in -
law, proposed in the senate, that if Caesar did not lay down his arms within
such a time, he should be voted an enemy; and the consuls putting it to the
question, whether Pompey should dismiss his soldiers, and again, whether
Caesar should disband his, very few assented to the first, but almost all to
the latter. But Antony proposing again, that both should lay down their
commissions, all but a very few agreed to it. Scipio was upon this very
violent, and Lentulus the consul cried aloud, that they had need of arms, and
not of suffrages, against a robber; so that the senators for the present
adjourned, and appeared in mourning as a mark of their grief for the
dissension.
Afterwards there came other letters from Caesar, which seemed yet more
moderate, for he proposed to quit every thing else, and only to retain Gaul
within the Alps, Illyricum, and two legions, till he should stand a second
time for consul. Cicero, the orator, who was lately returned from Cilicia,
endeavored to reconcile differences, and softened Pompey, who was willing to
comply in other things, but not to allow him the soldiers. At last Cicero used
his persuasions with Caesar`s friends to accept of the provinces, and six
thousand soldiers only, and so to make up the quarrel. And Pompey was inclined
to give way to this, but Lentulus, the consul, would not hearken to it, but
drove Antony and Curio out of the senate - house with insults, by which he
afforded Caesar the most plausible pretence that could be, and one which he
could readily use to inflame the soldiers, by showing them two persons of such
repute and authority, who were forced to escape in a hired carriage in the
dress of slaves. For so they were glad to disguise themselves, when they fled
out of Rome.
There were not about him at that time above three hundred horse, and five
thousand foot; for the rest of his army, which was left behind the Alps, was
to be brought after him by officers who had received orders for that purpose.
But he thought the first motion towards the design which he had on foot did
not require large forces at present, and that what was wanted was to make this
first step suddenly, and so as to astound his enemies with the boldness of it;
as it would be easier, he thought, to throw them into consternation by doing
what they never anticipated, than fairly to conquer them, if he had alarmed
them by his preparations. And therefore, he commanded his captains and other
officers to go only with their swords in their hands, without any other arms,
and make themselves masters of Ariminum, a large city of Gaul, with as little
disturbance and bloodshed as possible. He committed the care of these forces
to Hortensius, and himself spent the day in public as a stander - by and
spectator of the gladiators, who exercised before him. A little before night
he attended to his person, and then went into the hall, and conversed for some
time with those he had invited to supper, till it began to grow dusk, when he
rose from table, and made his excuses to the company, begging them to stay
till he came back, having already given private directions to a few immediate
friends, that they should follow him, not all the same way, but some one way,
some another. He himself got into one of the hired carriages, and drove at
first another way, but presently turned towards Ariminum. When he came to the
river Rubicon, which parts Gaul within the Alps from the rest of Italy, his
thoughts began to work, now he was just entering upon the danger, and he
wavered much in his mind, when he considered the greatness of the enterprise
into which he was throwing himself. He checked his course, and ordered a halt,
while he revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion one way and the
other, without speaking a word. This was when his purposes fluctuated most;
presently he also discussed the matter with his friends who were about him,
(of which number Asinius Pollio was one), computing how many calamities his
passing that river would bring upon mankind, and what a relation of it would
be transmitted to posterity. At last, in a sort of passion, casting aside
calculation, and abandoning himself to what might come, and using the proverb
frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The
die is cast," with these words he took the river. Once over, he used all
expedition possible, and before it was day reached Ariminum, and took it. It
is said that the night before he passed the river, he had an impious dream,
that he was unnaturally familiar with his own mother.
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