[439] Polyænus, Strateg., VIII. xxiii. 6.
[440] We admit that Cicero encamped at Charleroi: all circumstances concur in justifying this opinion. Charleroi is situated on the Sambre, near the Roman road from Amiens to Tongres (Aduatuca), and, as the Latin text requires, at fifty miles from this latter town. On the high part of Charleroi, where the camp was, no doubt, established, we command the valley of the Sambre, and we can see, in the distance towards the west, the country through which Cæsar arrived. Moreover, the valley of the Haine and mount Sainte-Aldegonde, above the village of Carnières, agree perfectly with the details of the combat in which the Gauls were defeated.
[441] From Amiens to Charleroi it is 170 kilomètres. Cæsar must have arrived on the territory of the Nervii, towards Cambrai, the morning of the third day, counting from his departure from Amiens, after marching ninety kilomètres. He immediately sends the Gaulish horseman to Cicero. This horseman has to perform eighty kilomètres. He can only take eight to nine hours, and arrive at the camp in the afternoon of the third day. He throws his javelin, which remains where it was fixed the third and the fourth day. The fifth day it was discovered, and the smoke of the fires is then seen. Cæsar, then, arrived on the fifth day (reckoning thirty kilomètres for a day’s march) at Binche, twenty kilomètres from Charleroi. That town is on a sufficiently elevated knoll to allow the smoke to be seen. The siege lasted about fifteen days.
[442] De Bello Gallico, V. 53.
[443] “I have read with a lively joy what you tell me of the courage and strength of mind of Cæsar in this cruel trial.” (Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, III. viii. 166.)
[444] Suetonius, Cæsar, 67.—Polyænus, Strateg., VIII. xxiii.
[445] One is on the site of the citadel of Amiens; the second is near Tirancourt; the third is the camp of l’Etoile. (See the Dissertation sur les Camps Romains de la Somme, by the Comte L. d’Allonville.)
[446] De Bello Gallico, V. 58.
[447] Précis des Guerres de César, by Napoleon, Chapter V. 5.
[448] De Bello Gallico, VI. 4.