the people appearing equally divided, Catulus, as the more distinguished candidate, being more afraid of the uncertainty of the event, sent and offered Cæsar a large sum of money if he would retire from his canvass; but Cæsar replied that he would stand it out even if he had to borrow still more. On the day of the election, his mother, with tears, accompanied him to the door, when Cæsar embracing her, said, "Mother, to-day you shall see your son either Pontifex Maximus, or an exile." After the voting was over, which was conducted with great spirit, Cæsar prevailed, a circumstance which alarmed the senate and the nobles, who feared that he would lead on the people to the boldest measures. Accordingly, Piso and Catulus blamed Cicero for having spared Cæsar, who, in the matter of Catiline's[460] conspiracy, had given him a handle. Now Catiline designed not only to alter the form of government, but to subvert the whole Commonwealth, and throw all into confusion, but he was ejected from the city on being convicted of some minor charges, and before the extent of his designs was discovered. He left behind him in the city Lentulus and Cethegus, to carry his plans into execution. It is uncertain if Cæsar secretly lent them any countenance and aid, but when they were completely convicted in the senate, and Cicero the consul put it to each senator to give his opinion on their punishment, all who spoke declared for death till it came to Cæsar's turn to speak. Cæsar rose and delivered a studied oration, to the effect that it was not consistent with the constitution, nor was it just to put to death without a trial men distinguished for their high character and their family, unless there was the most urgent necessity; and he added that, if they were imprisoned in the Italian cities which Cicero himself might choose, until the war against Catiline was brought to an end, the senate might have time to deliberate on the case of each prisoner when peace was restored.
VIII. This proposal appeared so humane, and was supported by so powerful a speech, that not only those who rose after Cæsar sided with, him, but many of those who had already spoken changed their opinions and went over to that of Cæsar, till it came to the turn of Cato and Catulus to speak. After they had made a vigorous opposition, and Cato in his speech had also urged suspicious matter against Cæsar and strongly argued against him, the conspirators were handed over to the executioner, and as Cæsar was leaving the Senate many of the young men who then acted as a guard to Cicero, crowded together and threatened Cæsar with their naked swords.[461] But Curio[462] is said to have thrown his toga round Cæsar, and to have carried him off; and Cicero also, when the young men looked to him, is said to have checked them by a motion, either through fear of the people or because he thought that the death of Cæsar would be most unjust and a violation of law. If this is true, I cannot conceive why Cicero said nothing about it in the book on his Consulship;[463] but Cicero was blamed afterwards for not having taken advantage of so favourable an opportunity to get rid of Cæsar, and for having feared the people, who were extravagantly attached to Cæsar. And indeed a few days after, when Cæsar had gone to the Senate and defended himself in a speech against the imputations that had been cast on him, and his speech was received with loud marks of disapprobation and the sitting of the Senate was lasting longer than usual, the people came with loud cries and surrounded the Senate-house calling for Cæsar and bidding the Senate let him go. Accordingly, Cato apprehending danger mainly from some movement of the needy part of the people, who were like a firebrand among the rest of the citizens, as they had all their hopes in Cæsar, prevailed on the Senate to give them a monthly allowance of corn, which produced an addition to the rest of the expenditure of seven millions[464] five hundred thousands. However, the immediate alarm was manifestly quenched by this measure, which snapped off the best part of Cæsar's influence and scattered it, at a time when he was going to enter on his office of Prætor which made him more formidable.
IX. No tumults occurred in Cæsar's Prætorship,[465] but a disagreeable incident happened in his family. Publius Clodius,[466] a man of Patrician rank, was distinguished both by wealth and eloquence, but in arrogance and impudence he was not inferior to the most notorious scoundrels in Rome. Clodius was in love with Pompeia, Cæsar's wife, and Pompeia was in no way averse to him. But a strict watch was kept over the woman's apartment, and Aurelia, Cæsar's mother, who was a prudent woman, by always observing Pompeia, made it difficult and hazardous for the lovers to have an interview. Now the Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, as the Greeks have a Gynæceia. The Phrygians, who claim this goddess, say she was the mother of King Midas; the Romans say she was a Dryad and the wife of Faunus; but the Greeks say she is one of the mothers of Dionysus, whose name must not be uttered; and this is the reason why they cover the tents with vine-leaves during the celebration of her festival, and a sacred serpent sits by the goddess according to the mythus. No man is allowed to approach the festival, nor to be in the house during the celebration of the rites; but the women by themselves are said to perform many rites similar to the Orphic in the celebration.
Accordingly when the season of the festival is come, the husband, if he be consul or prætor, leaves the house and every male also quits it; and the wife taking possession of the house makes all arrangements, and the chief ceremonies are celebrated by night, the evening festival being accompanied with mirth and much music.
X. While Pompeia[467] was now celebrating this festival, Clodius, who was not yet bearded, and for this reason thought that he should not be discovered, assumed the dress and equipment of a female lute-player and went to the house looking just like a young woman. Finding the door open, he was safely let in by a female slave who was in the secret, and who forthwith ran off to tell Pompeia. As there was some delay and Clodius was too impatient to wait where the woman had left him, but was rambling about the house, which was large, and trying to avoid the lights, Aurelia's waiting-woman, as was natural for one woman with another, challenged him to a little mirthful sport, and as he declined the invitations, she pulled him forward and asked who he was and where he came from. Clodius replied that he was waiting for Abra the maid of Pompeia, for that was the woman's name, but his voice betrayed him, and the waiting-woman ran with a loud cry to the lights and the rest of the company, calling out that she had discovered a man. All the women were in the greatest alarm, and Aurelia stopped the celebration of the rites and covered up the sacred things: she also ordered the doors to be closed and went about the house with the lights to look for Clodius. He was discovered lurking in the chamber of the girl who had let him in, and on being recognised by the women was turned out of doors. The women went straightway, though it was night, to their husbands to tell them what had happened; and as soon as it was day, the talk went through Rome of the desecration of the sacred rites by Clodius, and how he ought to be punished for his behaviour, not only to the persons whom he had insulted, but to the city and the gods. Accordingly one of the tribunes instituted a prosecution against Clodius for an offence against religion, and the most powerful of the senators combined against him, charging him, among other abominations, with adultery with his sister, who was the wife of Lucullus. The people set themselves in opposition to their exertions and supported Clodius, and were of great service to him with the judices, who were terror-struck and afraid of the people.
Cæsar immediately divorced Pompeia, and when he was summoned as a witness on the trial, he said he knew nothing about the matters that Clodius was charged with. This answer appearing strange, the accuser asked him, "Why have you put away your wife?" to which Cæsar replied, "Because I considered that my wife ought not even to be suspected."
Some say that this was the real expression of Cæsar's opinion, but others affirm that it was done to please the people who were bent on saving Clodius. However this may be, Clodius was acquitted, for the majority of the judices gave in their votes[468] written confusedly, that they might run no risk from the populace by convicting Clodius nor lose the good opinion of the better sort by acquitting him.
XI. On the expiration of his Prætorship, Cæsar received Iberia[469] for his province, but as he had a difficulty about arranging matters with his creditors, who put obstructions in the way of his leaving Rome, and were clamorous, he applied to Crassus, then the richest man in Rome, who stood in need of the vigour and impetuosity of Cæsar to support him in his political hostility to Pompeius. Crassus undertook to satisfy the most importunate and unrelenting of the creditors, and having become security for Cæsar to the amount of eight hundred and thirty talents, thus enabled him to set out for his province. There is a story that as Cæsar was crossing the Alps, he passed by a small barbarian town which had very few inhabitants and was a miserable place, on which his companions jocosely observed, "They did not suppose there were any contests for honors in such a place as that, and struggles for the first rank and mutual jealousy of the chief persons:" on which Cæsar earnestly remarked, "I would rather be the first man here than the second at Rome." Again in Spain, when he had some leisure and was reading the history of Alexander,[470] he was for a long time in deep thought, and at last burst into tears; and on his friends asking the reason of this, he said, "Don't you think it is a matter for sorrow, that Alexander was king of so many nations at such an early age, and I have as yet done nothing of note?"
XII. However, as soon as he entered Iberia, he commenced active operations and in a few days raised ten cohorts in addition to the twenty which were already there, and with this force marching against the Calaici[471] and Lusitani he defeated them, and advanced to the shores of the external sea, subduing the nations which hitherto had paid no obedience to Rome. After his military success, he was equally fortunate in settling the civil administration by establishing friendly relations among the different states, and particularly by healing the differences between debtors and creditors;[472] for which purpose he determined that the creditor should annually take two-thirds of the debtor's income, and that the owner should take the other third, which arrangement was to continue till the debt was paid.
By these measures he gained a good reputation, and he retired from the province with the acquisition of a large fortune, having enriched his soldiers also by his campaigns and been saluted by them Imperator.
XIII. As it was the law at Rome that those who were soliciting a triumph should stay outside the city, and that those who were candidates for the consulship should be present in the city, Cæsar finding himself in this difficulty, and having reached Rome just at the time of the consular elections, sent to the senate to request permission to offer himself to the consulship in his absence through the intervention of his friends. Cato at first urged the law in opposition to Cæsar's request, but seeing that many of the senators had been gained over by Cæsar, he attempted to elude the question by taking advantage of time and wasting the day in talking, till at last Cæsar determined to give up the triumph and to secure the consulship.
As soon as he entered the city, he adopted a policy which deceived everybody except Cato; and this was the bringing about of a reconciliation between Pompeius and Crassus, the two most powerful men in Rone, whom Cæsar reconciled from their differences, and centering in himself the united strength of the two by an act that had a friendly appearance, changed the form of government without its being observed. For it was not, as most people suppose, the enmity of Cæsar and Pompeius which produced the civil wars, but their friendship rather, inasmuch as they first combined to depress the nobility and then quarrelled with one another. Cato, who often predicted what would happen, at the time only got by it the character of being a morose, meddling fellow, though afterwards he was considered to be a wise, but not a fortunate adviser.
XIV. Cæsar,[473] however, supported on both sides by the friendship of Crassus and Pompeius, was raised to the consulship and proclaimed triumphantly with Calpurnius Bibulus for his colleague. Immediately upon entering on his office he proposed enactments more suitable to the most turbulent tribune than a consul, for in order to please the populace he introduced measures for certain allotments and divisions of land.[474] But he met with opposition in the Senate from the good and honourable among them, and as he had long been looking for a pretext, he exclaimed with solemn adjurations, that he was driven against his will to court the favour of the people by the arrogance and obstinacy of the Senate, and accordingly he hurried to the popular assembly and placing Crassus on one side of him and Pompeius on the other, he asked them if they approved of his legislative measures.
Upon their expressing their approbation, he entreated them to give him their aid against those who threatened to oppose him with their swords. Pompeius and Crassus promised their assistance, and Pompeius added, that he would oppose swords with sword and shield. The nobility were annoyed at hearing such mad, inconsiderate words drop from Pompeius, which were unbecoming his own character and the respect that he owed to the Senate; but the people were delighted. Cæsar, whose secret design it was to secure the influence of Pompeius still more, gave him to wife his daughter Julia,[475] who was already betrothed to Servilius Cæpio; and he promised Cæpio that he should have the daughter of Pompeius, though she also was not disengaged, being betrothed to Faustus, the son of Sulla. Shortly after Cæsar married Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, and got Piso named consul for the next year, though Cato in this matter also strongly protested and exclaimed that it was an intolerable thing for the chief power to be prostituted by marriage bargains and that they should help one another by means of women, to provinces and armies and political power.
Bibulus, Cæsar's colleague, found it useless to oppose Cæsar's measures, and he and Cato several times narrowly escaped with their lives in the Forum, whereupon Bibulus shut himself up at home for the remainder of his consulship. Immediately after his marriage Pompeius filled the Forum with armed men, and supported the people in passing Cæsar's laws and in giving him for five years Gaul on both sides of the Alps with the addition of Illyricum and four legions. Upon Cato's venturing to speak against these measures, Cæsar ordered him to be carried off to prison, thinking that he would appeal to the tribunes.
But Cato went off without speaking a word; and Cæsar observing that the nobles were much annoyed at this, and the people also through respect for Cato's virtue were following him in silence and with downcast eyes, secretly asked one of the tribunes to release Cato.
Very few of the senators used to accompany Cæsar to the Senate, but the majority not liking his measures stayed away. Considius,[476] who was a very old man, observed that the senators did not come because they were afraid of the arms and the soldiers. "Why don't you then stay at home for the same reason?" replied Cæsar, to which Considius rejoined, "My age makes me fearless, for the little of life that remains for me is not worth much thought." The most scandalous public measure in Cæsar's consulship was the election as tribune of that[477] Clodius who had dishonoured Cæsar's wife and violated the mysterious nocturnal rites. But he was elected in order to ruin Cicero, and Cæsar did not set out for his province till with the aid of Clodius he had put down Cicero by his cabals and driven him out of Italy.
XV. Such is said to have been the course of Cæsar's life before his Gallic campaigns.[478] But the period of his wars which he afterwards fought and his expedition by which he subdued Gaul, is just like a new beginning in his career and the commencement of a new course of life and action, in which he showed himself as a soldier and a general inferior to none who have gained admiration as leaders and been the greatest men: for whether we compare Cæsar's exploits with those of the Fabii, Scipios, and Metelli, or with those of his contemporaries or immediate predecessors, Sulla and Marius and both the Luculli or even Pompeius himself, whose fame, high as the heavens, was blossoming at that time in every kind of military virtue, Cæsar will be found to surpass them all--his superiority over one appearing in the difficulties of the country in which he carried on his campaigns, over another in the extent of country subdued, over a third in the number and courage of the enemy whom he defeated, over another again in the savage manners and treacherous character of the nations that he brought to civility, over a fourth in his clemency and mildness to the conquered, over another again in his donations and liberality to his soldiers; and in fine his superiority over all other generals appears by the numbers of battles that he fought and of enemies that he slew.
For in somewhat less than ten years during which he carried on his campaign in Gaul he took by storm above eight hundred cities, and subdued three hundred nations, and fought with three millions of men at different times, of whom he destroyed one million in battle and took as many prisoners.
XVI.[479] So great were the good-will and devotion of Cæsar's soldiers to him, that those who under other generals were in no way superior to ordinary soldiers, were invincible and irresistible and ready to meet any danger for Cæsar's glory. An instance of this is Acilius, who in the sea-fight of Massalia[480] boarded one of the enemy's ships and had his right hand cut off with a sword, but he still kept hold of his shield with the left hand and striking at the faces of the enemy drove all to flight and got possession of the vessel. Another instance was Cassius Scæva,[481] who in the fight at Dyrrachium had one eye destroyed by an arrow, his shoulder transfixed with one javelin and his thigh with another, and on his shield he had received the blows of one hundred and thirty missiles. In this plight he called to the enemy as if he designed to surrender himself, and two of them accordingly approached him, but with his sword he lopped off one man's shoulder and wounding the other in the face, put him to flight, and finally he escaped himself with the aid of his friends. In Britannia on one occasion the natives had attacked the foremost centurions who had got into a marshy spot full of water, upon which, in the presence of Cæsar who was viewing the contest, a soldier rushed into the midst of the enemy, and after performing many conspicuous acts of valour, rescued the centurions from the barbarians, who took to flight. The soldier, with difficulty attempting to cross after all the rest, plunged into the muddy stream, and with great trouble and the loss of his shield, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking, he got safe over. While those who were about Cæsar were admiring his conduct and coming to receive him with congratulations and shouts, the soldier, with the greatest marks of dejection and tears in his eyes, fell down at Cæsar's feet and begged pardon for the loss of his shield. Again, in Libya, Scipio's party having taken one of Cæsar's ships in which was Granius Petro, who had been appointed quæstor, made booty of all the rest, but offered to give the quæstor his life; but he replying that it was the fashion with Cæsar's soldiers to give and not to accept mercy, killed himself with his own sword.
XVII. This courage and emulation Cæsar cherished and created, in the first place by distributing rewards and honours without stint, and thus showing that he did not get wealth from the enemy for his own enjoyment and pleasure, but that it was treasured up with him as the common reward of courage, and that he was rich only in proportion as he rewarded deserving soldiers; and in the next place by readily undergoing every danger and never shrinking from any toil. Now they did not so much admire Cæsar's courage, knowing his love of glory; but his endurance of labour beyond his body's apparent power of sustaining it, was a matter of astonishment, for he was of a spare habit, and had a white and soft skin, and was subject to complaints in the head and to epileptic fits, which, as it is said, first attacked him at Corduba;[482] notwithstanding all this, he did not make his feeble health an excuse for indulgence, but he made military service the means of his cure, by unwearied journeying, frugal diet, and by constantly keeping in the open air and enduring fatigue, struggling with his malady and keeping his body proof against its attacks. He generally slept in chariots or in litters, making even his repose a kind of action; and in the daytime he used to ride in a vehicle to the garrisons, cities and camps, with a slave by his side, one of those who were expert at taking down what was dictated on a journey, and a single soldier behind him armed with a sword. He used to travel so quick that on his first journey from Rome he reached the Rhodanus[483] in eight days. From his boyhood he was a good horseman, for he had been accustomed to place his hands behind him and, holding them close together on his back, to put the horse to his full speed. In that campaign he also practised himself in dictating letters as he was riding and thus giving employment to two scribes, and as Oppius[484] says, to more. He is said also to have introduced the practice of communicating with his friends by letters, as there was no time for personal interviews on urgent affairs, owing to the amount of business and the size of the city. This anecdote also is cited as a proof of his indifference as to diet. On one occasion when he was entertained at supper by his host Valerius Leo[485] in Mediolanum, asparagus was served up with myrum poured on it instead of oil, which Cæsar ate without taking any notice of it, and reproved his friends who were out of humour on the occasion. "You should be content," he said, "not to eat what you don't like; but to find fault with your host's ill-breeding is to be as ill-bred as himself." Once upon a journey he was compelled by a storm to take shelter in a poor man's hut, which contained only a single chamber and that hardly large enough for one person, on which he observed to his friends that the post of honour must be given to the worthiest and the place of safety to the weakest; and he bade Oppius lie down while he and the rest slept in the porch.
XVIII. Cæsar's first Gallic campaign was against the Helvetii[486] and Tigurini, who had burnt their cities, twelve in number, and their villages, of which there were four hundred, and were advancing through that part of Gaul which was subject to the Romans, like the Cimbri and Teutones of old, to whom they were considered to be not inferior in courage and in numbers equal, being in all three hundred thousand, of whom one hundred and ninety thousand were fighting men. The Tigurini were not opposed by Cæsar in person, but by Labienus, who was sent against them by Cæsar and totally defeated them near the Arar. The Helvetii fell on Cæsar unexpectedly as he was leading his forces to a friendly city, but he succeeded in making his way to a strong position, where he rallied his army and prepared for battle. A horse being brought to him, he said, "I shall want this for the pursuit after I have defeated the enemy; but let us now move on against them;" and accordingly he made the charge on foot. After a long and difficult contest, the Helvetian warriors were driven back, but the hardest struggle was about the chariots and the camp, for the Helvetians made a stand there and a desperate resistance, and also their wives and children, who fought till they were cut to pieces, and the battle was hardly over at midnight. This glorious deed of victory Cæsar followed up by one still better, for he brought together those who had escaped from the battle and compelled them to re-occupy the tract which they had left and to rebuild the cities which they had destroyed; and the number of these was above one hundred thousand. His object in this measure was to prevent the Germans from crossing the Rhenus and occupying the vacant country.
XIX. His next contest was with the Germans and for the immediate defence of the Gauls, although he had before this made an alliance with their king Ariovistus[487] in Rome. But the Germans were intolerable neighbours to Cæsar's subjects, and if opportunity offered, it was supposed that they would not remain satisfied with what they had, but would invade and occupy Gaul. Cæsar observing his officers afraid of the approaching contest, and particularly the men of rank and the youths who had joined him in the expectation of finding a campaign with Cæsar a matter of pleasure and profit, called them to a public assembly and bade them leave him and not fight against their inclination since they were so cowardly and effeminate: as for himself he said he would take the tenth legion by itself and lead it against the enemy, knowing that he should not have to deal with a braver enemy than the Cimbri, and that he was not a worse general than Marius. Upon this the tenth legion sent a deputation of their body to thank him, but the rest of the legions abused their own officers, and the whole army, full of impetuosity and eagerness, all followed Cæsar, marching for many days, till they encamped within two hundred stadia of the enemy. The courage of Ariovistus was somewhat broken by the bare approach of the Romans; for as he had supposed that the Romans would not stand the attack of the Germans, and he never expected that they would turn assailants, he was amazed at Cæsar's daring and he also saw that his own army was disturbed. The spirit of the Germans was still more blunted by the predictions of their wise women, who observing the eddies in the rivers and drawing signs from the whirlings and noise of the waters, foreboded the future and declared that the army ought not to fight before it was new moon.
Cæsar hearing of this and perceiving that the Germans were inactive, thought it a good opportunity for engaging with them, while they were out of spirits instead of sitting still and waiting for their time. By attacking their fortifications and the hills on which they were encamped, he irritated the Germans and provoked them to come down in passion and fight. The Germans were completely routed and pursued to the Rhenus a distance of four hundred stadia, and the whole of this space was strewed with dead bodies and arms. Ariovistus with a few escaped across the river. The dead are said to have been eighty thousand in number.
XX. After these exploits he left his forces among the Sequani[488] to winter, and with the view of attending to what was going on at Rome, came down to Gaul about the Padus, which was a part of his province; for the river Rubico separates the rest of Italy from Gaul beneath the Alps. Fixing his residence there, he carried on his political intrigues, and many persons came to visit him to whom he gave what they asked for; and he dismissed all either with their wishes satisfied, or with hopes. During the whole period of his government in Gaul, he conducted his operations without attracting any attention from Pompeius, though at one time he was subduing the enemy by the arms of the citizens, and at another capturing and subjecting the citizens by the money which he got from the enemy. Hearing that the Belgæ[489] had risen in arms, who were the most powerful nation of the Gauls and in possession of a third part of all Gaul, and that they had assembled many ten thousands of armed men, he immediately turned about and went against them with all possible expedition; and falling upon the enemy while they were plundering the Gauls who were in alliance with the Romans, he put to flight and destroyed those who were collected in greatest numbers and the chief part of them after an unsuccessful resistance, and such was the slaughter that the Romans crossed the lakes and deep rivers over the dead bodies. Of the rebels all who dwelt near the ocean surrendered without resistance; but against the fiercest and most warlike of those in these parts, the Nervii,[490] Cæsar led his forces. The Nervii, who inhabited the dense thickets and had placed their families and property in a deep recess of the forest as far as possible from the enemy, suddenly, to the number of sixty thousand, attacked Cæsar while he was fortifying his camp and not expecting a battle, and they put the Roman cavalry to flight, and surrounding the twelfth and seventh legions, killed all the centurions. If Cæsar had not seized a shield and, making his way through the first ranks, charged the barbarians, and if the tenth legion had not run down from the heights to support him when he was in danger of being overpowered, and broken the ranks of the enemy, it is supposed that not a single Roman would have escaped. Encouraged by Cæsar's intrepidity, the Romans fought, as the saying is, beyond their strength, but yet they could not put the Nervii to flight, who defended themselves till they were cut to pieces. Out of sixty thousand only five hundred are said to have escaped; and three senators out of four hundred.
XXI. The Senate on receiving intelligence of this victory, decreed that for fifteen days[491] there should be sacrifices to the gods and cessation from all business, with feasting, which had never been done before, for so long a time. For the danger was considered to have been great, so many nations having broken out at once; and because Cæsar was the conqueror, the good will of the many towards him made the victory more splendid. And accordingly, having settled affairs in Gaul, he again spent the winter in the plain of the Padus, and employed himself in intriguing at Rome. Not only the candidates for the offices of the State carried their election by Cæsar supplying them with money which they spent in bribing the people, and directed all their measures to the increase of Cæsar's power, but the greater part of the Romans most distinguished for rank and political power, came to see him at Luca,[492] Pompeius and Crassus, and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos, proconsul of Iberia, so that there were a hundred and twenty lictors there, and more than two hundred senators. Their deliberations resulted in this: it was agreed that Pompeius and Crassus should be made consuls, and that Cæsar should have an allowance of money and five additional years in his province, which to all reflecting people seemed the most extravagant thing of all. For those who were receiving so much from Cæsar, urged the Senate to grant him money as if he had none, or rather compelled the Senate to do it, groaning as it were over its own decrees. Cato, indeed, was not present, for he had been purposely sent out of the way on a mission to Cyprus; and Favonius, who affected to imitate Cato, finding he could do nothing by his opposition, hastily left the Senate and began to clamour to the people. But nobody attended to him, some from fear of displeasing Pompeius and Crassus, but the greater part kept quiet to please Cæsar, living on hopes from him.
XXII. Cæsar again returned to his troops in Gaul where he found much war in the country, for two great German nations had just crossed the Rhenus for the purpose of getting land; the one nation was called Usipes,[493] and the other Tenteritæ. Respecting the battle with them, Cæsar says in his Commentaries,[494] that the barbarians, while they were treating with him during a truce, attacked on their march and so put to flight his own cavalry to the number of five thousand with eight hundred of their own, for his men were not expecting an attack; that they then sent other ambassadors to him intending to deceive him again, whom he detained, and then led his army against the barbarians, considering all faith towards such faithless men and violators of truces to be folly. But Tanusius[495] says that while the senate were decreeing festivals and sacrifices for the victory, Cato delivered it as his opinion, that they ought to give up Cæsar to the barbarians, and so purge themselves of the violation of the truce on behalf of the city, and turn the curse on the guilty man. Of those who had crossed the river there were slaughtered to the number of four hundred thousand, and the few who recrossed the river were received by the Sugambri[496] a German tribe. Cæsar laying hold of this ground of complaint against the Germans, and being also greedy of glory and desirous to be the first man to cross the Rhenus with an army, began to build a bridge over the river, which was very broad, and in this part of the bed spread out widest, and was rough, and ran with a strong current so as to drive the trunks of trees that were carried down and logs of wood against the supports of the bridge,[497] and tear them asunder. But Cæsar planted large timbers across the bed of the river above the bridge to receive the trees that floated down, and thus bridling the descending current, beyond all expectation he accomplished the completion of the bridge in ten days.
XXIII. Cæsar now led his troops over the river, no one venturing to oppose him, and even the Suevi, the most valiant of the Germans, retired with their property into deep woody valleys. After devastating with fire the enemy's country and encouraging all those who favoured the Romans, he returned into Gaul after spending eighteen days in Germany. His expedition against the Britanni[498] was notorious for its daring: for he was the first who entered the western Ocean with an armament and sailed through the Atlantic sea, leading an army to war; and by attempting to occupy an island of incredible magnitude, which furnished matter for much dispute to numerous writers, who affirmed that the name and the accounts about it were pure inventions, for it never had existed and did not then exist, he extended the Roman