Context. The year 55 B.C. appears to have been marked by a general movement in the migration of the German tribes. An advance, consisting of two tribes, the Usipetes and Tenctri, crowded forward by the more powerful Suevi, crossed the Lower Rhine into N. Gaul. Caesar drove them back across the Rhine, bridged the river, followed them up into their own territories, and fully established the supremacy of the Roman arms.—Allen and Greenough.
5 fistucisque adegerat = and had driven them home (ad-) with rammers. For Plan of Bridge see Allen’s Caesar, p. 103.
11-14 Haec . . . distinebantur = these two sets were held apart by two-feet timbers laid on above, equal (in thickness) to the interval left by the fastening of the piles (quantum . . . distabat), with a pair of ties (fibulis) at each end.—A. & G.
17-18 Haec . . . contexebantur = these (i.e. the framework of timber) were covered over by boards (materia) laid lengthwise.
longuriis = with long poles.
The Bridge (prob. near Bonn). ‘With extraordinary speed (in ten days) the bridge was completed. It was a triumph of engineering and industry.’—W. F.
THE GALLIC WAR, 58-50 B.C. (4)
Cassivellaunus.
Second Invasion of Britain, 54 B.C.
Cassivellaunus, omni deposita spe contentionis, dimissis amplioribus copiis, milibus circiter quattuor essedariorum relictis itinera nostra servabat: paulumque ex via excedebat locisque impeditis ac silvestribus sese occultabat, atque eis regionibus quibus 5 nos iter facturos cognoverat pecora atque homines ex agris in silvas compellebat; et cum equitatus noster liberius praedandi vastandique causa se in agros eiecerat, omnibus viis semitisque essedarios ex silvis emittebat; et magno cum periculo nostrorum 10 equitum cum eis confligebat atque hoc metu latius vagari prohibebat. Relinquebatur ut neque longius ab agmine legionum discedi Caesar pateretur, et tantum in agris vastandis incendiisque faciendis hostibus noceretur quantum in labore atque itinere 15 legionarii milites efficere poterant. . . . Cassivellaunus hoc proelio nuntiato, tot detrimentis acceptis, vastatis finibus, maxime etiam permotus defectione civitatum, legatos per Atrebatem Commium de deditione ad Caesarem mittit. 20