THE JULIAN CALENDAR AND THE CHRONOLOGY OF CAESAR’S INVASIONS OF BRITAIN
I. The chronology of Caesar’s first invasion of Britain is simple enough, so far as it can be ascertained, and requires no knowledge of the intricacies of the Roman calendar. I have shown in an earlier article that the disembarkation took place on the 26th or 27th of August, 55 B.C.[3550] After describing the storm which occurred on the night of August 30-31, and the consequent loss of many of his ships, Caesar goes on to say that the Britons endeavoured to protract the war by cutting off his supplies, and that he had corn brought in daily from the open country into his camp, and ordered the materials necessary for the repair of those ships which were only partially damaged to be fetched from the Continent. While the ships were being repaired an attack was made upon the 7th legion, which was engaged in cutting corn. This attack evidently took place several days after the 31st of August; for the field in which the legion was reaping was the only one accessible from the camp in which the corn had not been cut. The day on which the legion was attacked was followed by several days of stormy weather, during which all military operations were suspended. At the end of this time the Britons attacked the camp unsuccessfully, and on the same day sued for peace, which Caesar granted on condition of their giving hostages. Instead of waiting for the arrival of the hostages he ordered the British chiefs to send them over to the Continent, ‘because the equinox was at hand, and he did not think it wise to expose his unseaworthy ships to a voyage in stormy weather.’[3551] The equinox occurred on the 26th of September.[3552] Our data, then, are as follows:—the attack on the 7th legion occurred several days after the 31st of August; and Caesar returned to Gaul several days after the attack on the 7th legion, but before—probably several days before—the 26th of September.[3553] Let us say that he returned about the middle of the month. Napoleon, to whom indefiniteness was an abomination, fixed the 12th of September as the date.[3554]
II. If we were to believe certain writers of high reputation, we should be deterred from attempting to fix any dates for the second of Caesar’s expeditions; for our principal sources of information are dates mentioned by Cicero in his letters; and, as everybody knows, the Roman calendar, before Caesar’s reform, was often in disagreement with the Julian calendar. The writers of the article CALENDARIUM in Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities[3555] affirm that ‘it is very difficult or rather quite impossible to determine the actual dates which correspond to the nominal dates of any events before the Julian reform of the calendar’. But for the period comprised between the beginning of the year 696 (58 B.C.), just after Caesar became Governor of Gaul, and his reform of the calendar, which took effect in 709 (45 B.C.), this view is quite incorrect. Every date in Cicero’s correspondence which relates to the subject of this essay can be reduced, if not with absolute precision, at all events with a possible error of not more than one day, to its corresponding date in the Julian calendar. First of all, however, we must find out the nature of the reform which Caesar initiated, and understand the chronological disturbances which made reform necessary.
Every scholar knows that, after the period of the Decemvirate, the Roman year consisted of 355 days only, and that every other year an additional month, consisting alternately of 22 and 23 days, was, or rather ought to have been, intercalated after the 23rd of February. January, April, June, August, September, November, and December each contained 29 days; February 28; and March, May, July, and October 31. If I may remind the general reader of what he learned at school, the first day of every month was called the Kalends; the fifth day of January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December was called the Nones; and the thirteenth day of each of those months was called the Ides. But in March, May, July, and October the Nones were on the seventh, and the Ides on the fifteenth day. In mentioning dates the Romans described any given day as occurring so many days before the Kalends, Nones, or Ides, as the case might be; and in so doing they adopted the inclusive method of reckoning. Thus the last day of December was called ‘the day before the Kalends of January’, pridie Kalendas Ianuarias, or shortly prid. Kal. Ian. But the 27th of December was called, not the third, but the fourth day before the Kalends of January, ante diem quartum Kalendas Ianuarias, or shortly a. d. IV Kal. Ian.
To return to the month which was or ought to have been intercalated every other year. As the ordinary year contained 355 days, and the solar year was believed to contain 365¼ days, it is obvious that to intercalate a month of 22 and 23 days alternately every other year was to make an excessive correction, the excess amounting to 4 days in every period of 4 years. Macrobius[3556] tells us that in order to remedy this error, 24 days were omitted from every twenty-fourth year. For various reasons, however, this regulation, if indeed it ever really took effect,[3557] was not always properly carried out; and accordingly in the year of the city 563, or 191 B.C., a reform was introduced, the college of pontiffs being authorized to intercalate or to omit intercalations at their discretion.[3558] But this innovation, as we learn from Cicero, Censorinus, and other writers, only made matters worse. Speaking of the pontiffs, Censorinus complains that ‘most of them, either from hatred or from favour, to cut short or to extend the tenure of office, or that a farmer of the public revenue might gain or lose more by the length of the year, by intercalating more or less at their pleasure, deliberately made worse what had been entrusted to them to set right’.[3559]
III. In 708 (46 B.C.), which is generally called ‘the year of confusion’, Caesar intercalated a certain number of days, in order to bring the calendar into harmony with the solar year before inaugurating the reformed calendar in 709. It is expressly stated by Asconius, whose testimony is unanimously accepted, that there was an intercalary month in 702;[3560] and it is admitted by all chronologists that there was no other intercalary month in the seven years between 700 and 708.[3561] There is no doubt that the Kalends of January, 709, corresponded either with the 1st or the 2nd of January, 45 B.C. It is clear, therefore, that when we have ascertained how many days were intercalated in 708, we shall be able, by reckoning backwards, to ascertain the correspondence of any given date in the summer of 700, the year of Caesar’s second expedition, with the Julian calendar,—with a possible error of one day only. This error will be removed if we can ascertain whether the Kalends of January, 709, corresponded with the 1st or the 2nd of January, 45 B.C.
All German scholars who have written upon Roman chronology are agreed that ‘the year of confusion’ contained 445 days, in other words, that 90 days, amounting to four ordinary intercalary months, were intercalated; and they hold that these 90 days were actually composed of three months, namely the Mercedonius, which, in the ordinary course, should in that year have been intercalated immediately after the 23rd of February, and two extraordinary months, amounting to 67 days, which were intercalated between the last day of November and the 1st of December. This view is supported in every detail by Censorinus,[3562] who wrote about 240 A.D. The principal dissentients are De La Nauze, Napoleon the Third and his collaborator, the famous astronomer, Le Verrier, who held that 67 days only were intercalated in 708, and Colonel Stoffel, who, in his Histoire de Jules César—Guerre civile, published in 1887, reaffirmed the same view, but who does not appear to have informed himself of what any of the Germans, except Ideler, had written on the subject. Moreover, the theory of Napoleon, Le Verrier, and Colonel Stoffel is frequently referred to by scholars in terms which imply that they regard the question as still open. The reason which Le Verrier[3563] gives is that in 700 Caesar re-embarked his troops for the return voyage from Britain to Gaul ‘because the equinox was at hand’ (quod aequinoctium suberat[3564]); that the equinox actually took place on the 26th of September of the Julian calendar; and that Caesar informed Cicero on the sixth day before the Kalends of October (which corresponded, on Le Verrier’s theory, with the 21st of September) that he was on the point of bringing back the army.[3565] He remarks that, on the theory of Ideler (who, like all other German scholars, held that 90 days were intercalated in 708), the sixth day before the Kalends of October, 700, would have corresponded with the 30th of August, 54 B.C.;[3566] and he argues that this theory must be wrong because Caesar would not have troubled himself about the approach of the equinox 27 days before it occurred. He also remarks that, although the view that 90 days were intercalated in 708 is supported by Suetonius[3567] and Censorinus,[3568] Dion Cassius[3569] affirmed that 67 days were intercalated, and that Dion expressly added that other writers had asserted that a greater number had been intercalated, but that his own statement was true; and he insists that Dion derived his information from authentic sources.[3570]
It will be shown presently that if Le Verrier was right in his interpretation of Dion’s words, Dion made a mistake. G. F. Unger[3571] holds that he misunderstood the authority from whom he borrowed his statement, and ‘who, like Suetonius, unquestionably regarded the month intercalated in February as an ordinary intercalary month’. Von Göler,[3572] on the other hand, holds that Dion was quite right; that he was referring, not to the ordinary intercalary month, but only to the two extraordinary months intercalated between November and December, which amounted to 67 days; and therefore that his statement tallies with that of Censorinus. Be this, however, as it may, it is absolutely certain that more than 67 days were intercalated in 708. For on the 16th of May, 705, Cicero wrote from Cumae, ‘At present the equinox is delaying us, which has been very stormy’ (Nunc quidem aequinoctium nos moratur, quod valde perturbatum erat[3573]). Now, on Le Verrier’s theory, the 16th of May, 705, corresponded with the 16th of April, 49 B.C. of the Julian calendar; but the equinox occurred on the 24th of March. In order to dispose of this difficulty, Le Verrier is obliged to have recourse to flagrant special pleading: ‘l’équinoxe,’ he says, ‘était passé depuis 21 jours,[3574] et les troubles atmosphériques pouvaient durer encore. Était-ce d’ailleurs autre chose qu’un prétexte pour Cicéron’?[3575] A very thin pretext, one would say,—a pretext which a man of Cicero’s intelligence was hardly likely to resort to.[3576]
But this is not the only proof of the unsoundness of Le Verrier’s theory. The argument which he bases upon Caesar’s words, quod aequinoctium suberat, shows that he completely misunderstands both Caesar’s narrative and the letter of Cicero to which he appeals. Cicero writes, ‘On the 24th of October I received letters from my brother Quintus and from Caesar, dated from the nearest coasts of Britain on the 25th[3577] of September ... they were on the point of bringing back the army’ (a Quinto fratre et a Caesare accept a. d. IX Kal. Nov. litteras, datas a litoribus Britanniae proximis a. d. VI Kal. Octobr. ... exercitum [e] Britannia reportabant[3578]). The letters to which Cicero refers were written, according to Napoleon and Le Verrier, on the 21st of September of the Julian calendar; and, they triumphantly remark, this tallies with Caesar’s statement, that he hurried on his departure from Britain ‘because the equinox was at hand’.[3579] But there is one fact which they overlook. Caesar had a large number of hostages and prisoners, and some of his ships had been lost. He was therefore obliged to transport the hostages, prisoners, and troops to Gaul in two successive trips. Only a few of the ships which made the first trip ever returned to Britain, almost all the rest having been driven back to Gaul by adverse winds. Caesar tells us that he waited for these ships ‘a considerable time (aliquamdiu) in vain’. Then, and not till then, he made the second trip, being obliged to crowd the soldiers into the few ships that he had, and not daring to wait any longer, ‘because the equinox was at hand.’[3580] The letters to which Cicero refers were evidently written before the first trip; for neither Caesar nor Quintus had written to Cicero for a long time;[3581] and they would naturally have dispatched their letters by one of the ships which made the first voyage. It is clear, therefore, that the letters in question were written, not on the 21st of September of the reformed calendar, but ‘a considerable time’ before that day. In fine, if Le Verrier and Napoleon were right, the letters would have been written not from Britain but from Gaul, and Cicero would have written not reportabant (‘they were on the point of bringing back’) but reportaverant (‘they had brought back’[3582]).
Another fact, which Napoleon, Le Verrier, and Colonel Stoffel appear to have overlooked, alone proves that not 67 days only but 90 days were intercalated in that year. The word nundinae is familiar to many readers of Cicero’s letters. To quote the authors of the article NUNDINAE in Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,[3583] ‘the Romans had a system of eight-day weeks, which, like our seven-day weeks, ran on from one month to another and from one year to another without breaking.’ Every eighth day was a market-day, and was called nundinae. Thus, if the 1st of January was a market-day, the next was the 9th, the next the 17th, and so on. We learn from Dion Cassius[3584] that the Kalends of January, 702, was a market-day; the same writer says that, in order to prevent the Kalends of January, 714, from falling on a market-day—a coincidence which was regarded as ill-omened—a day was intercalated extraordinarily in 713;[3585] and it follows that, if there had been no intercalation in 713, the number of days that elapsed from the Kalends of January, 702, to the last day of December, 713, would have been a multiple of 8. Now, on the theory of Napoleon the Third, Le Verrier, and Colonel Stoffel this number would have been 4,401; on the theory that the year 708 contained 445 days, 4,424. The latter number is divisible by 8; the former is not.
There has never been any question but that the number of days intercalated in 708 was either 67 or 90; and the former number has been proved to be wrong.
IV. In order to obtain an absolutely firm foundation for the chronology of Caesar’s second expedition, one more question remains to be answered. In this country it is generally taken for granted that the Kalends of January, 709, the year in which Caesar’s reform of the calendar came into operation, corresponded with the 1st of January, 45 B.C. Various German scholars have, however, attempted to prove that the Kalends of January, 709, fell on the 2nd of January of the Julian calendar.
Let us first see what there is to be learned from the ancient writers.
Pliny[3586] says that when the error in the execution of Caesar’s reform was discovered, it was corrected by the omission of intercalary days during twelve successive years.
Solinus[3587] tells us that Caesar’s reform was vitiated by the pontiffs; for, whereas it had been enjoined that a day should be intercalated on the completion of the fourth year, they made the intercalation at the beginning of the fourth year, not at the end. Thus, Solinus continues, twelve days were intercalated in thirty-six years, whereas only nine ought to have been intercalated.
Suetonius[3588] says that the calendar, as reformed by Caesar, was thrown into confusion by ‘negligence’, and rectified by Augustus; also that Caesar made the calendar year consist of 365 days, so as to bring it into harmony with the solar year, and, abolishing the intercalary month, ordered that one day should be intercalated every fourth year.[3589]
According to Censorinus,[3590] Caesar directed that, in order to compensate for the quarter of a day by which the solar exceeded the calendar year, one day should be intercalated at the end of every quadriennial cycle, after the Terminalia [that is to say, after the 23rd of February].
According to Macrobius,[3591] Caesar directed that one day should be intercalated every fourth year. Macrobius then makes substantially the same charge against the pontiffs as Solinus, and goes on to say that, after the error for which they were responsible had continued for thirty-six years, Augustus corrected it by ordering that twelve years should pass without any intercalation.
Now it is absolutely certain that of the first five years during which the reformed calendar was in force, namely 709, 710, 711, 712, and 713, not one only but two contained an intercalary day.[3592] For, as we have already seen,[3593] Dion Cassius[3594] states that the Kalends of January, 702, was a market-day, and also that, in order to prevent the Kalends of January, 714, from falling on a market-day, a day was intercalated extraordinarily (παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα[3595]) in 713;[3596] and, as I had occasion to remark before, it follows that, if there had been no intercalation in 713, the number of days that elapsed from the Kalends of January, 702, to the last day of December, 713, would have been a multiple of 8. This would have been the case if one of the four years 709, 710, 711, and 712 had contained an intercalary day, but not otherwise.[3597] Which was it?
The year 711 may be set aside at once: nobody has ever argued that it was a Leap Year; and no reason can be given to show that it was.
1. Wilhelm Soltau,[3598] the author of a valuable work on Roman chronology, maintains that 709 was the first Leap Year of the reformed calendar. He argues that Matzat’s theory, according to which an intercalation occurred in 710, must be wrong, because it is inconceivable that Caesar, who was then alive, should have allowed an intercalation to take place in the second year of his calendar, in defiance of his own edict, that the intercalation should be made every fourth year (quarto quoque anno intercalandum esse). The theory that the first intercalation was in 712 is, Soltau continues, based only upon the statements, derived from the same source, of Solinus and Macrobius. If, says Soltau, they are right, the Leap Years, before Augustus rectified the error which had been made in carrying out Caesar’s intentions, would have been 712, 715, 718, 721, 724, 727, 730, 733, 736, 739, 742, and 745. But Dion’s statement, that 713 was an intercalary year, proves that this cannot have been the case. The series must, therefore, have been 709, 713, 716, 719 ... 743. Soltau holds that the twelve years during which intercalation was, by the order of Augustus, suspended, lasted from 745 to 756; that Augustus disapproved of Caesar’s (assumed) anticipatory method of reckoning, that is to say, of his having intercalated a day in the first year of his calendar instead of after the conclusion of the fourth; that accordingly the next intercalation, which would naturally have taken place in 757, was omitted; and that the first intercalation after the reform of Augustus occurred in 761. Thus, like other writers[3599] who differ from him on points of detail, Soltau identifies the Kalends of January, 709, with the 2nd of January, 45 B.C.
It will presently be shown that the statements of Macrobius and Solinus do not necessarily lead to the conclusion which Soltau condemns. Meanwhile I may remark that Soltau’s theory is irreconcilable with the very passage in Dion Cassius to which he refers.[3600] Dion says that a day was intercalated extraordinarily (παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα) in 713, in order to prevent New Year’s Day in 714 from falling on a market-day,[3601] and that subsequently an intercalary day was struck out.[3602] It is therefore obvious that the intercalation of 713 took place earlier than had been contemplated; and consequently that the previous intercalation must have occurred later than 709; for if, as Soltau maintains, the previous intercalation had taken place in 709, the intercalation of 713 took place at the proper time. If, on the other hand, Dion’s words, παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα, mean ‘contrary to the regulations erroneously attributed to Caesar by the pontiffs’, that is to say, contrary to the triennial cycle which they themselves followed, the intercalation, on Soltau’s theory, took place a year too late; for, if the first intercalation had occurred in 709, the object which Dion mentions could have been attained by intercalating in 712.
2. Let us now examine the theory of Matzat,[3603] namely, that the first intercalation took place in 710. This writer believes that Caesar’s reason for intercalating in 710 was to prevent the Kalends of January in the following year from falling on a market-day.[3604] He holds that Dion’s words, παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα, mean ‘contrary to the actual regulations of Caesar’; and accordingly he believes that those regulations were at the time understood. He maintains, however, that, after 713, the pontiffs intercalated every three years,—namely in 716, 719, 722 ... 743; but he insists that they did this simply for the same reason which had prompted the intercalation in 713, namely to prevent the Kalends of January in each following year from falling on a market-day. The statement of Dion, that, in order to compensate for the day extraordinarily intercalated in 713, another intercalary day was omitted, he takes to mean that the next intercalation, which, on his theory, ought to have occurred in 714, was left out. Finally, he believes that the three superfluous days which had accumulated during the twelve triennial cycles were compensated for by the omission of all intercalations in the years 745-756; and that the first intercalation under the reform of Augustus occurred in 757. On this theory the Kalends of January, 709, corresponded with the 1st of January, 45 B. C.
I have already mentioned the objection which Soltau has brought against Matzat’s theory;[3605] but that objection is inconclusive. It is not true that if Caesar had allowed an intercalation to take place in 710, he would have done so ‘in defiance of his own edict, that the intercalation should be made every fourth year (quarto quoque anno intercalaretur)’. If, according to his scheme, the next intercalation was to take place in 714, the next in 718, and so on, the intercalation would still be made every fourth year. Provided it took place every four years, what difference would it make whether it took place first in 709, 710, 711, 712, or 713? Holzapfel[3606] blames Matzat for disregarding the testimony of Solinus and Macrobius. But Matzat does not disregard their testimony: he simply refuses to admit that they make any definite statement as to the year in which the first intercalation of the Julian calendar occurred. The only statement which would appear to support Holzapfel’s criticism is contained in the words of Solinus, that, ‘whereas it had been enjoined that they [the pontiffs] should intercalate one day in the fourth year, and this ordinance ought to have been carried out on the completion of the fourth year ... they intercalated at the beginning of the fourth year, not at the end’ (nam cum praeceptum esset, anno quarto ut intercalarent unum diem, et oporteret confecto quarto anno id observari ... illi incipiente quarto intercalarunt, non desinente). If by ‘the beginning of the fourth year’ Solinus meant the fourth year of the Julian calendar, that is to say, 712, and if he had original authority for his statement, then Holzapfel is right. But observe the looseness with which Solinus expresses himself. Immediately after saying that the intercalation ought to have taken place ‘in the fourth year’, he says that it ought to have taken place ‘on the completion of the fourth year’. To state the facts correctly required extraordinary precision and nicety of expression; and this requirement he failed to satisfy. His meaning may have been that, in whatever year of the Julian calendar the first intercalation took place, the next ought, by Caesar’s ordinance, to have taken place four years later, and so on. If it be objected that I have suggested an arbitrary interpretation of his meaning, I reply that this interpretation is dictated by the passage in which Dion Cassius states that the intercalation of 713 was ‘contrary to the regulations’ (παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα). Holzapfel[3607] says that these words, taken by themselves, may mean one of two things. They may mean that the intercalation of 713 was contrary to the actual regulations of Caesar; or they may mean that it was contrary to the regulations adopted by the pontiffs in misunderstanding or in contravention of Caesar’s regulations. The question, says Holzapfel, can only be settled by other evidence; and the only other evidence is that of Solinus and Macrobius, which shows that the pontiffs misunderstood Caesar’s regulations. As a matter of fact, their evidence does not show this, unless misunderstanding is connoted by the words vitium and error. Matzat[3608] contends that such a misunderstanding would have been impossible, for Caesar must have made his intentions clear. Holzapfel replies that Caesar would no doubt have done so if he had foreseen his own imminent death; but, as he certainly intended, in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus, to superintend the execution of his own arrangements, and thus establish the rule of intercalation which he contemplated, the regulation ut quarto quoque anno intercalaretur might seem sufficient. But Dion Cassius, if his testimony may be accepted, settles the question. Immediately after saying that a day was extraordinarily intercalated in 713, he adds that ‘of course an intercalary day was in turn omitted, in order that the calendar might be brought into harmony with Caesar’s intentions’ (καὶ δῆλον ὅτι [ἡμέρα ἐμβόλιμος] ἀνθυφῃρέθη αὖθις, ὅπως ὁ χρόνος κατὰ τὰ τῷ Καίσαρι τῷ προτέρῳ δόξαντα συμβῇ). Now these words, as Matzat[3609] unanswerably argues, prove that by παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα, Dion meant ‘contrary to the regulations’ actually made by Caesar.[3610] Holzapfel,[3611] however, tries to explain away Dion’s remark by the argument that the authority whom he followed may have been a contemporary who shared the misconception of the pontiffs; and this I cannot gainsay. Moreover, although I have argued that the words of Solinus may be interpreted in a sense different from that which Holzapfel ascribes to them, I admit that the conclusion which they suggest is that Caesar intended to make his first intercalation in 713, and that the pontiffs made it in 712.
Secondly, it is expressly stated by Macrobius[3612] that the Kalends of January in the year of the Lepidianus tumultus fell on a market-day; and if, as Holzapfel maintains, this statement refers to the Lepidus who, as one of the Triumvirs, revived Sulla’s policy of proscription in 711, it proves that no intercalation occurred either in 710 or in 709.[3613] Matzat, however, maintains that the words Lepidianus tumultus designate the outburst of Lepidus in 676 (78 B. C.).[3614] Unger,[3615] who agrees with Holzapfel, maintains that the official recognition of the superstitious dread with which the Roman populace contemplated the coincidence of the Kalends of January with a market-day, was due to the acts of Lepidus in 711. But, replies Matzat,[3616] for this ‘official recognition’ the approbation of the Pontifex Maximus was necessary. Now in 713, as in 711, the Pontifex Maximus was Lepidus himself; and, according to Macrobius, it was the Lepidianus tumultus which strengthened the popular belief that whenever the Kalends of January fell upon a market-day, the whole year would be darkened by ill-omened events. If, then, says Matzat, we are to believe Unger, Lepidus described the deeds which he had himself done in 711, and by which the joint supremacy of himself and the other two Triumvirs had been established, as a tumultus,—the most horrible events of a year full of horrors! This argument is clever, but I think that it is hardly fair. Lepidus was not obliged to describe anything. Assuming that the Kalends of January, 711, had fallen on a market-day, it is surely intelligible that he should have recognized the wisdom of allaying superstitious fears, even though they had been roused by his own acts, when he could do so by the simple expedient of intercalating a day in 713. I agree with Unger that there does not appear to have been anything very alarming in the affair of 677, even though Lucan[3617] describes it as truces Lepidi motus; and, judging the question without bias on its own merits, I can only conclude that the tumultus Lepidianus was most probably the outbreak of 711. If so, the first intercalary year of the Julian calendar cannot have been either 709 or 710, but must have been 712.
Thirdly, Holzapfel[3618] points out that, if Matzat is right, the intercalary cycle introduced by Augustus did not correspond with that of Caesar. For after the reform of Augustus the intercalary years were odd years, 761, 765, 769, and so on; while Caesar’s first intercalary year is supposed by Matzat to have been 710. Or, if we reckon the quadriennial cycles contemplated by Caesar from the year 709, the intercalations, according to his regulation, would, on Matzat’s theory, occur in the second, those made by Augustus in the first year of each successive cycle.
All this is perfectly true: but what does it matter? The one really important point, namely, that the intercalation should take place every four years, was duly secured by Augustus. Whether it took place in the first, the second, the third, or the fourth year of the cycle, mattered not a jot. Holzapfel’s objection is purely academic.
Fourthly, says Holzapfel, if, as Matzat maintains, Caesar’s only reason for intercalating in 710 was to prevent the Kalends of January in the following year from falling on a market-day, it is difficult to believe that Caesar should not have foreseen that for the same reason it would be necessary to intercalate in 713, 716, and so on, that is to say, every three years; in other words, that it would be impossible to carry out the arrangement which he had himself made.[3619]
This is certainly a reasonable objection, and Matzat has not, so far as I know, attempted to remove it: but it is perhaps conceivable that a man so busy as Caesar should have failed to look far ahead.
Holzapfel[3620] argues, further, that Matzat’s theory, according to which the calendar, as reformed by Augustus, was inaugurated on the 1st of January, 757 (A.D. 4), rests upon the assumption that the first day of the intercalary cycle coincided with the first day of the civil year, whereas it was really the day after the Terminalia, that is to say, the sixth day before the Kalends of March. This, he maintains, is proved (a) by the place which Caesar gave to his intercalary day; (b) by the fact that the two months intercalated between November and December of 708 were called respectively mensis intercalaris prior and mensis intercalaris posterior, and also by the fact that, according to Dion Cassius, the number of days intercalated in that year was only 67, whereas the number of days intercalated in the civil year 708 was 90; (c) by the fact that, according to Macrobius and Solinus, Caesar ordained that the intercalary day [which followed the 23rd of February] should be inserted at the end of the fourth and before the fifth year of the Julian calendar.[3621]
Matzat[3622] summarily replies to these arguments. Referring to Macrobius,[3623] he observes (a) that the place which Caesar gave to the intercalary day was identical with the place which the intercalary day, whenever it occurred, had occupied before his reform; and (b) that the two intercalary months known as mensis intercalaris prior and mensis intercalaris posterior were added to the year 708 in order that the calendar year 709 might begin on the Kalends of January, and thus coincide with the consular year. If it be asked why they were called prior and posterior although another intercalary month had preceded them, the answer is easy: the other month ought in any case to have been intercalated in that year, whereas the prior and posterior were extraordinarily intercalated. The passages in Macrobius and Solinus on which Holzapfel relies have been already explained; and it has been shown that they do not necessarily bear the meaning which he ascribes to them. One fact alone appears to me to dispose of his contention, that the Julian calendar did not come into operation until the sixth day before the Kalends of March, 709: if it did not, why did January in that year contain 31 days, whereas in every previous year it had contained only 29?
Holzapfel also invokes the support of Böckh,[3624] who remarked that it would have been unnatural for a reformer to correct the error caused by the difference of a quarter of a day between the civil and the solar year until the error required correction. The conclusion appears to Holzapfel inevitable that Caesar intended to make his first intercalation as soon as, and not before, the error should have amounted to one day, that is to say, in 713. Matzat,[3625] on the contrary, maintains that logically the proper place for the intercalary day would have been immediately after the second year of the quadriennial cycle. But he does not believe that Caesar cared for such academic considerations. He undoubtedly fixed the place of the intercalary day in the year not on astronomical grounds, but according to usage. Why, then, asks Matzat, should it be considered improbable that he fixed the place of the intercalary year in the quadriennial cycle on the same principle?
3. Holzapfel[3626] holds, as we have just seen, that the Caesarian cycle began on the day after the Terminalia of 709, that is to say, on the sixth day before the Kalends of March; that Caesar intended that the first intercalation should take place in 713; that the pontiffs, misunderstanding his directions, made the first intercalation at the beginning of the fourth year, that is to say, in 712; that, as Dion says, a day was extraordinarily intercalated in 713; that, to compensate for this extraordinary intercalation, a day was omitted in 714, which accordingly comprised 364 days only; that the pontiffs thenceforth intercalated every three years, namely in 715, 718, 721 ... 745; that, to compensate for the three superfluous days which had been intercalated in consequence of the misunderstanding of Caesar’s regulations, the intercalations which ought to have occurred in 749, 753, and 757, were omitted; and that the first intercalation after the reform of Augustus took place in 761.
This theory, as the reader will have already seen, cannot stand unless the evidence of Dion Cassius is to be rejected. Indeed it cannot stand even then. Holzapfel is not justified in assuming that in order to compensate for the extraordinary intercalation of 713, a day was omitted in 714; for, on his own theory, 714 was an ordinary year. Matzat[3627] points out that, in the passage in which Dion[3628] describes the omission of a day to compensate for the extraordinary intercalation—καὶ δῆλον ὅτι ἀνθυφῃρέθη αὖθις, ὅπως ὁ χρόνος κατὰ τὰ τῷ Καίσαρι τῷ προτέρῳ δόξαντα συμβῇ—the words ἡμέρα ἐμβόλιμος (an intercalary day) must necessarily be supplied, as the subject of the verb ἀνθυφῃρέθη, from the preceding sentence. Holzapfel retorts that his view does not involve the assumption of a change of subject. ‘One can very well translate,’ he says, ‘“an intercalary day was inserted, and self-evidently in turn omitted”’ (Man kann sehr wohl übersetzen: ‘es wurde ein Schalttag eingelegt und selbstverständlich wiederum in Abzug gebracht’[3629]). This is not a satisfactory answer; for, on Holzapfel’s own showing, the omitted day was not an intercalary day. There is no evidence that a day was ever withdrawn from an ordinary year in the Roman calendar; and, as Matzat[3630] points out, the best proof that such a proceeding would have been regarded as out of the question is supplied by the procedure of Augustus. Instead of correcting the error of the pontiffs by withdrawing three days from one ordinary year, he omitted three intercalary days in three intercalary years, thus taking twelve years to accomplish a reform which, according to modern notions, might have been accomplished in one. If Dion’s words are interpreted in their natural sense, they evidently mean that the next intercalary day which would have occurred, according to Caesar’s regulations, was omitted. Thenceforth, accordingly, if the first intercalation occurred in 710, the intercalary years were 716, 719, 722 ... 743. Or if, as Holzapfel insists, Dion’s words, παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα, mean ‘contrary to the regulations as erroneously interpreted by the pontiffs’, and if, as he also insists, the year in which they first intercalated was 712, then the next year in which they would naturally have intercalated was 715: the extraordinary intercalation of 713 must have been compensated for by the omission of an intercalary day in 715; and the following series of intercalary years must have been 718, 721, 724 ... 745.
Again, Holzapfel’s theory compels him to disregard silently the testimony of Solinus, on whose authority he lays such stress. Solinus[3631] says that twelve days were intercalated in the first thirty-six years of the Julian calendar: according to Holzapfel, thirteen were intercalated.
Lastly, if we accept Holzapfel’s view, that the first day of the Julian calendar was the sixth day before the Kalends of March, 709, we find that a day was intercalated immediately after the end of the fourth year of the cycle, namely, after the Terminalia of 713. But Holzapfel assures us that, according to Macrobius and Solinus, this was not the case.
But I am not arguing against Holzapfel’s theory as regards the first intercalary year of the Julian calendar; and what appears to tell most strongly in favour of it, besides the probability that the Lepidianus tumultus occurred in 711,[3632] is the statement of Macrobius,[3633] that Augustus enacted that the intercalation should take place ‘every fifth year’ (quinto quoque anno), that is to say, according to our reckoning, every four years. These words seem to imply that the pontiffs had actually misunderstood Caesar’s regulation. On Matzat’s theory, however, the pontiffs who intercalated παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα in 713 deliberately set that regulation aside in order to avoid the dreaded coincidence of the Kalends of January with a market-day. But, says Matzat, every three years this troublesome necessity recurred; and thus ultimately, as he suggests, the erroneous view might prevail that Caesar had himself intended to intercalate every three years ([anno] quarto non peracto sed incipiente[3634]). But what right have we to assume that after 713 the pontiffs took any account of the nundinal superstition? At all events, if Holzapfel is right in maintaining that the first intercalary year of the reformed calendar was 712, there can be no doubt that the subsequent intercalary years were 713, 718 ... 745; and it is therefore impossible for him to reconcile his view, that the first intercalation under the reform of Augustus occurred in 761, with the statement that Augustus allowed twelve years to pass without any intercalation. Augustus’s first intercalation undoubtedly took place in 757; for in that year, if Caesar’s regulation had been observed, the twelfth intercalation would have occurred.
Opinions may differ as to whether Matzat’s theory or the modification of Holzapfel’s which I have just suggested is the more probable. As, according to the latter, the series of intercalary years must have been 712, 713, 718, 721, 724, 727, 730, 733, 736, 739, 742, 745, it implies that after 713 the pontiffs thought it safe to disregard the nundinal superstition. So far my suggestion may be objectionable. On the other hand, it fits in with all the statements of the ancient writers, except that one remark of Dion Cassius which, as Holzapfel suggests, he may have made on erroneous information;[3635] and particularly it fits in, as no other series which has been suggested does, with the statements that twelve days were intercalated in the first thirty-six years of the Julian calendar,[3636] and that Augustus allowed the next twelve years to pass without any intercalation. However, the difference between Matzat’s theory and mine (which is purely tentative) is unimportant; for they agree in the main point,—that the Kalends of January, 709, corresponded with the 1st of January, 45 B.C.
V. We have now gained the knowledge which will enable us to investigate the chronology of Caesar’s second invasion of Britain. We have ascertained that the Kalends of January, 709, fell on the 1st of January, 45 B.C.; that 90 days were intercalated in 708, which accordingly consisted of 445 days; that a month of 23 days was intercalated in 702, which accordingly comprised 378 days; and that 701, 703, 704, 705, 706, and 707 were ordinary years, each comprising 355 days. It follows that the last day of 700, the year in which Caesar made his second expedition to Britain, corresponded with the 30th of November, 54 B.C., and that the sixth day before the Kalends of October, the day on which he wrote to tell Cicero that he was on the point of bringing back his army from Britain to Gaul, corresponded with the 29th of August. From these data it will be easy to ascertain the correspondence of any date in the year 700 which we find in our authorities with the Julian calendar.
After quitting Cisalpine Gaul, Caesar returned to his army, which had wintered in the country of the Belgae. He made a tour of inspection, visiting the various camps, which were of course in the immediate neighbourhood of the yards where the legionaries had been building the ships for his intended expedition, that is to say, at the Portus Itius (Boulogne), and probably on the estuaries of the Canche, the Authie, the Somme, and the Seine.[3637] After ordering all the ships to assemble at the Portus Itius, he started with four legions in light marching order and 800 cavalry for the country of the Treveri, which, roughly speaking, comprised the greater part of the province of Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the southern part of Rhenish Prussia.[3638] Two chiefs of this people, named Cingetorix and Indutiomarus, were struggling for supremacy. Cingetorix at once presented himself before Caesar, and promised fidelity. Indutiomarus collected levies, and prepared to fight. Many of the leading men, however, came into Caesar’s camp and made terms for themselves. Indutiomarus found that he had miscalculated his strength, and hastened to excuse himself. Caesar, who had no time to spare, contented himself with taking hostages for his good behaviour and returned to the Portus Itius. About 25 days after his arrival, having meantime been detained by contrary winds, he sailed for Britain.[3639]
The exact date of Caesar’s departure from Cisalpine Gaul is uncertain. On the 2nd of June, that is to say, the 9th of May of the Julian calendar, Cicero received at Rome a letter from his brother, written at Placentia;[3640] and on the following day he received another letter from his brother, written at Blandeno, a town near Placentia, the exact site of which is not known,[3641] and also a letter from Caesar, written apparently at the same place.[3642] Napoleon, erroneously maintaining that the second and the third of these letters were received by Cicero on the 5th, instead of the 3rd, of June, and assuming (‘pour trouver le temps voulu’, as he naïvely remarks) that, in consequence of accidental delays, they took 13 days to reach Rome, concludes that Caesar quitted Blandeno on the 23rd of May, which he identifies with the 22nd[3643] of the same month, but which really corresponded with the 29th of April of the Julian calendar. T. Bergk, on the contrary, maintains that if there had been any delay in the transmission of the letters, Cicero would have mentioned it in his reply; and he supposes that Caesar and Quintus Cicero started on their journey for Transalpine Gaul on the 2nd of June, that is to say, on the 9th of May of the Julian calendar.[3644] All that can be safely said is that, if the letter-carrier travelled at the usual rate, namely between 40 and 50 Roman miles a day,[3645] the two letters were written about the 30th of April or the 1st of May of the Julian calendar; and therefore we have no right to assume that Caesar quitted Blandeno before the former day.
It is possible, as we shall presently see, to fix the date of Caesar’s arrival at the Portus Itius and of his voyage to Britain within a day or two; but it is plainly impossible to make any satisfactory calculation of the dates of his movements from the time when he left Blandeno to the time when he left the country of the Treveri and marched for the Portus Itius; and the minute computations of Napoleon and others are simply elaborate trifling.[3646] For, although Caesar’s average rate of travelling may be estimated approximately, we do not know how far he penetrated into the extensive country of the Treveri; and it is waste of time to guess how long he stayed there. This much only can be said with certainty:—he did not let the grass grow under his feet.[3647] For he left Blandeno about the 30th of April: he arrived, as we shall presently see,[3648] finally at the Portus Itius about the 11th of June; and in those 43 days he travelled from Blandeno across the Alps and across Gaul to the English Channel; moved along the coast to various points between Boulogne and the mouth of the Seine; and marched from Boulogne to the neighbourhood of Sedan, or further—at least 180 miles—and back again.
On the 27th of July, that is to say, on the 2nd of July of the Julian calendar, Cicero wrote to Atticus, ‘Judging from my brother Quintus’s letters, I imagine that by this time he is in Britain’ (ex Q. fratris litteris suspicor iam eum esse in Britannia[3649]). It would be very rash, however, to infer from this that Caesar landed in Britain before, or even as early as, the 2nd of July; for, as we have seen, his embarkation was delayed by the long continuance of adverse winds. The first letter which announced the arrival of the expeditionary force in Britain was referred to by Cicero in a letter to Quintus, in which he says, ‘How I rejoiced at your letter from Britain! I was nervous about the sea and the coast of that island’ (O iucundas mihi tuas de Britannia literas! Timebam Oceanum, timebam litus insulae[3650]). This letter is undated; but it must have been written some time after the one which Cicero wrote to Atticus on the 27th of July; for in the letter to Atticus we find the words, ‘I have undertaken to defend Messius.... After that I have to prepare myself for Drusus, and then for Scaurus’ (Messius defendebatur a nobis ... Deinde me expedio ad Drusum, inde ad Scaurum[3651]); while in the letter to Quintus Cicero wrote, ‘The day I write this Drusus has been acquitted.... The comitia have been put off to September. Scaurus’s trial will take place immediately’ (Quo die haec scripsi, Drusus erat ... absolutus ... Comitia in mensem Septembrem reiecta sunt. Scauri indicium statim exercebitur[3652]). Asconius[3653] tells us that the last day of Scaurus’s trial was the 2nd of September; and Cicero’s remark that ‘the comitia have been put off to September’ makes it evident that he wrote in August; while from his saying that ‘Scaurus’s trial will take place immediately’ we should naturally infer that when he wrote the 2nd of September was not far off. Letters from Britain generally reached Rome in about 27 days;[3654] and accordingly we may conclude that the letter in which Quintus Cicero announced his arrival in Britain was written about the end of July; that is to say, about the 6th of July of the Julian calendar.[3655] Now Caesar says that the tide [in the Straits of Dover] turned westward soon after daybreak on the morning of his arrival in Britain;[3656] and this statement proves that he landed either about the time of full moon or about the time of new moon. There was a full moon on the 21st of July, 54 B.C.; and the previous new moon occurred on the 7th of July. Napoleon[3657] insists that the landing must have taken place on the day of full moon, arguing that without moonlight Caesar could not have undertaken the march which he made on the night following his arrival. But, as we have already seen, Napoleon argues on the erroneous assumption that Caesar intercalated only 67 days in the year 708, and accordingly he fixes all the dates of the unreformed calendar which occur in Cicero’s letters of 700 twenty-three days too late. His argument that Caesar could not have made a night march except by the light of the moon is worthless. It must be remembered that, in the first half of July, there is no real night over any part of the British Isles; and no one familiar with the records of night marches would deny that Caesar could have marched on a clear night at that time of the year. Long[3658] says that ‘of course he had also the moon on the night on which he sailed from the Gallic coast’. There is no ‘of course’ in the matter. Caesar sailed from Gaul to Britain in 55 B.C. after midnight, on the 26th or 27th of August, that is to say either five or four days before the full moon;[3659] and the moon set soon after midnight both of August 25-26 and of August 26-27. Moreover, according to Napoleon himself, Caesar sailed from Britain to Gaul in 55 B.C. on the 12th of September,[3660] that is to say, on a moonless night: as new moon occurred on the 14th, and he did not sail until after midnight, he could not have had the benefit of moonlight unless he had deferred his voyage until the date of the equinox; and I am assured by Captain Iron, the harbour-master of Dover, that on a fine night, especially in July, there would not have been the least difficulty in sailing without a moon. As a matter of fact, William the Conqueror sailed to England on a dark night. ‘The moon,’ says Mr Freeman,[3661] ‘was hidden and the heavens were clouded over. The Duke therefore ordered every ship to bear a light.... The ships were to keep as near together as might be, and to follow closely after the beacon-light of his own ship.’ If, then, we decide that Caesar landed in Britain on the day of new moon, the 7th of July, 54 B.C., we shall not be more than one day wrong; but to fix the date with absolute precision is impossible.[3662]
As Caesar landed about the 7th of July, it follows that he had reached the Portus Itius, where he was delayed about 25 days, about the 11th of June.
On the day after he landed Caesar encountered a British force 12 miles from his camp on the coast. On the following day, while his troops were pursuing the fugitives, he was recalled to the coast by the news that a large number of his ships had been damaged by a storm. He then proceeded to construct a naval camp, and, as soon as it was finished, returned to the point from which he had started.[3663] As the construction of the camp occupied ‘about ten days’ (circiter dies X), we shall not be far wrong if we say that it was finished 12 days after the landing, that is to say, about the 19th of July of the Julian calendar.
We now come to a date the significance of which has hardly been appreciated. At the close of one of his letters to Quintus, Cicero writes, ‘Caesar wrote me a letter from Britain on the 1st of September... in which, to prevent my wondering at not getting one from you, he tells me that you were not with him when he reached the coast’ (Ex Britannia Caesar ad me K. Septembr. dedit litteras ... quibus, ne admirer, quod a te nullas acceperim, scribit se sine te fuisse, cum ad mare accesserit[3664]). This passage proves that Caesar had returned from the interior of Britain to the coast on or before the 1st of September, that is to say, the 5th of August of the Julian calendar. But we have already seen that he did not quit the coast after the construction of his naval camp until about the 19th of July, and that on the 29th of August he was still in Britain, ‘on the point of bringing back the army,’ and did not sail for Gaul till several days later.[3665] We have to decide, then, between two alternatives. Either Caesar had finished the campaign against Cassivellaunus by the 5th of August of the Julian calendar, and thereafter remained on the coast until the 29th of August, when he was able to announce that he was ‘on the point of bringing back the army’; or he made a hurried temporary visit to the coast, the object of which remains unexplained. The latter view is not supported by the Commentaries. Caesar’s narrative certainly leaves the impression that, immediately after the completion of his naval camp, he resumed the military operations which had been interrupted by the shipwreck, and did not again return to the coast until the time came for him to prepare for his voyage to Gaul. He tells us that Cassivellaunus, after the failure of the attack which had been made by his orders upon the naval camp, and in consequence of the reverses which he had suffered, sued for peace; that he ordered Cassivellaunus to furnish hostages;[3666] and that, ‘on receiving the hostages, he led back the army to the sea, where he found the ships repaired’ (Obsidibus acceptis exercitum reducit ad mare, naves invenit refectas[3667]). ‘When they were launched,’ he continues, ‘he determined to take the army back in two trips’ (his deductis ... duobus commeatibus exercitum reportare instituit[3668]). Certainly there is not a word in this to support the view, which is advocated by Vogel, that the visit to the coast which Caesar made on the 1st of September (the 5th of August of the Julian calendar) was purely temporary, and took place before he began to march towards the country of Cassivellaunus; and the motive which Vogel[3669] suggests for the visit—that Caesar wished to inspect the camp once more and to give the necessary instructions before marching against Cassivellaunus—is hardly adequate, unless we grant Vogel’s assumption, that when Caesar returned to the sea the campaign had advanced no further than the stage which he describes in the 17th chapter of his Fifth Book, where three legions under Trebonius inflicted a decisive defeat on the enemy; in other words, that Caesar returned from a point within a day’s march of the sea. But this affair, according to the Commentaries, took place on the very day after Caesar quitted his naval camp in order to resume the campaign; whereas he returned to the sea, on Vogel’s own showing, about 17 days after he quitted the camp. If, on the other hand, we adopt Napoleon’s view[3670]—that Caesar, after he returned to the sea on the 1st of September, remained there until he sailed for Gaul—how are we to account for the 24 days which elapsed before he wrote to tell Cicero that he was on the point of bringing back the army? What was he doing all that time? Napoleon,[3671] indeed, maintains that, on the day on which he wrote this last letter, he actually sailed for Gaul, and Bergk that he had already arrived in Gaul; but it has already been shown that both these assumptions are untenable. Moreover, in order to account for Caesar’s having arrived at the sea so early, Napoleon and Bergk are forced to strain the words of the Commentaries (exercitum reducit ad mare),—to assume that Caesar hurried on in advance of his army, and that it did not reach the coast until several days later.[3672]
Although the problem cannot be definitively solved, I have no doubt but that Vogel’s solution is wrong. Not only does it give the lie to Caesar’s narrative, but it requires us to believe that Caesar had failed for about 17 days to make any headway against the Britons, and had been held in check by them within a dozen miles of the sea. Yet Caesar states that, in consequence of the defeat which Cassivellaunus suffered at the hands of Trebonius on the day after he left the newly-constructed naval camp, the British infantry levies dispersed; and in the same breath he goes on to say that he forthwith marched for the country of Cassivellaunus.[3673] If, as Vogel implies, this statement had been false, surely Quintus Cicero would have informed his brother, in one of the five letters which he wrote before the 1st of September, of the real state of affairs! On the other hand, I find it difficult to believe that Caesar used the words exercitum reducit ad mare loosely, and that he remained on the coast from the 1st to the 25th of September, without once writing to Cicero between those two dates,[3674] and then remained several days longer before embarking. This view, indeed, would compel us to assume that he left Trebonius or one of his other generals to carry on the negotiations with Cassivellaunus which are described in the 22nd chapter of his Fifth Book.
Napoleon, it is true, believes that Caesar did not leave his army and hurry on in advance of it to his naval camp until the negotiations were completed and he had received his hostages from Cassivellaunus.[3675] But on this assumption what motive could he have had, first, for hurrying on in advance of his army, and, secondly, for delaying its re-embarkation until after the lapse of several weeks? I am inclined, therefore, to believe that he made a hurried temporary visit to his naval camp, escorted probably by a small column, and then, having accomplished his purpose, returned to the main army in order to conduct or to complete the negotiations with Cassivellaunus. The motive of his visit may have been connected with the attack which the Kentish chieftains made upon the naval camp.[3676]
The date of Caesar’s return to Gaul can only be given approximately. We have seen that on the 25th of September (the 29th of August of the Julian calendar) he wrote to Cicero, saying that he was on the point of bringing back the army.[3677] Vogel[3678], remarking that, after he reached the coast, his ships had to be launched and loaded, and that he did not sail with the second detachment of troops until he had waited a long time in vain for the return of the ships which had carried the first, concludes that he did not return to Gaul until about 20 days after he wrote to Cicero, that is to say, not until the 15th of October. This date corresponds with the 17th of September of the Julian calendar; and Vogel maintains that it agrees with Caesar’s statement of the reason which led him to hurry on his return, namely, that the equinox was at hand. But it is impossible to estimate, from Caesar’s statement, how many days he waited for the return of his ships. Let us examine the attempts which have been made to gain a clue from Cicero’s correspondence.
Vogel[3679] points out that Cicero,[3680] in a letter written just after the 23rd of November—the 26th of October of the Julian calendar—referred to two letters which he had received from Quintus, and also to a third, which Quintus had handed to Labienus for transmission the day before he dispatched the earlier of the other two, but which had not yet arrived. Now Labienus had remained in Gaul during the invasion of Britain.[3681] It is clear, therefore, that these three letters were not written until after Quintus had returned to Gaul. On the other hand, they would seem to have been the first letters which Quintus wrote to his brother after his return. For Cicero, in the letter in which he referred to them, said, ‘where your Nervii dwell and how far off, I have no idea’ (Ubi enim isti sint Nervii et quam longe absint, nescio[3682]). The Nervii were the tribe in whose country Quintus, with his legion, was to pass the winter.[3683] Evidently Quintus, when he wrote the two letters which Cicero received, had not yet reached the country of the Nervii; for otherwise he could not, on the previous day, have been with Labienus, who was to winter in the country of another tribe. Probably, as Vogel concludes, he wrote from Samarobriva, or Amiens, where Caesar had his head quarters and where the arrangements for the distribution of the legions were made.[3684] Again, in the letter which has been already quoted, Cicero wrote to Quintus, ‘Pray be careful to let me know to whom I am to give the letter which I shall then send you,—to Caesar’s letter-carriers, for him to forward it direct to you, or to those of Labienus?’ (Tu velim cures ut sciam quibus nos dare oporteat eas quas ad te deinde litteras mittemus, Caesarisne tabellariis, ut is ad te protinus mittat, an Labieni[3685]). Vogel remarks that ‘this question is only intelligible on the hypothesis that Quintus was only just beginning to take up his quarters in Gaul’ at the time when he wrote the two letters which Cicero had just received. Now a letter would have required about 25 days for transmission from Samarobriva to Rome;[3686] and accordingly the letters to which Cicero referred, assuming that he replied to them promptly, would have been written about the end of October. Vogel, who thinks that they must have been written within a fortnight after Quintus and Caesar returned to Gaul, infers that they cannot have returned earlier than the 15th of October, the 17th of September of the Julian calendar. His reasoning is ingenious; but unfortunately we do not know exactly how soon after the receipt of his brother’s second letter Cicero wrote, or how many days intervened between the arrival of the first and of the second.
On the whole, it appears to me that all we can say for certain regarding the date of Caesar’s return is this. It cannot be fixed earlier than several days after the 29th of August of the Julian calendar,—the date of the letter in which he informed Cicero that he was on the point of bringing back the army. Bearing in mind that it occurred when ‘the equinox was at hand’, we may place it about the middle of September.