It has been supposed wrongly that the Bièvre was the marsh where Labienus, in his march on the left bank of the Seine, had been arrested by the Gaulish army. Leaving out of consideration the fact that the Bièvre, which flows through a calcareous soil, can at no epoch have formed a marsh capable of arresting an army, how can we suppose that Labienus, if he had arrived at this stream, that is, close to Lutetia, would have retraced his steps as far back as Melun, to march from thence towards the oppidum of the Parisii by the right bank of the Seine, which would have obliged him to make a journey of twenty-four leagues? The manœuvre of Labienus can only be explained by his desire to turn the strong position of Camulogenus, and arrive at Paris before him. The text of the “Commentaries” says clearly that Labienus, stopped by the marsh which shelves towards the Seine, stole away by night, surprised the passage of the Seine at Melun, and marched upon Lutetia, where he arrived before Camulogenus. To allow of the success of this manœuvre, the marsh in question must necessarily not have been far from Melun. The Essonne alone fulfils that condition. The ground on the banks of this little river offers, even at present, by its nature, a very serious obstacle to an army. It is cut up by innumerable peat mosses; and it was behind this line of Essonne that, in 1814, the Emperor Napoleon I. established his army, whilst the enemy occupied Paris.
[504] We have not translated these words, fugam parare, because this passage has always appeared unintelligible to us. How, indeed, could the Gauls, seeing that the Romans were ready to pass the Seine by force, believe that this was a flight?
[505] Some manuscripts have Metiosedum, a version which, in our opinion, is utterly incorrect.
[506] De Bello Gallico, VII. 62.
[507] See Appendix D.
[508] De Bello Gallico, VII. 65.—Evocati was the name given to the old soldiers who, after having served, returned voluntarily to the ranks of the army.
[509] Let us here recapitulate the numbers of the legions employed during the war in Gaul. Cæsar’s army, as we have seen, was composed in 696 of six legions, the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. In 697, two new legions were raised in Italy, the 13th and 14th. Probably, in the winter between 699 and 700, Cæsar brought several cohorts composed of soldiers and sailors who were to serve in the fleet; for, on his return from the second expedition into England, notwithstanding the losses he had sustained, he was at the head of eight legions and five cohorts (V. 24). He lost at Aduatuca one legion and a half, that is, the 14th legion, besides five cohorts; but in 701 three new legions replaced the cohorts lost, and even doubled their number. These legions were the 1st, lent by Pompey (De Bello Gallico, VIII. 54, and Lucan, Pharsalia, VII., 1. 218); the 14th, which took the number of the legion destroyed at Aduatuca (De Bello Gallico, VI. 32; VIII. 4); and the 15th; this last legion was afterwards, with the 1st, given to Pompey for the war of the Parthians; it figured in the Civil War, and took, in Pompey’s army, the number 3. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, III. 88.)
The 6th legion, judging from its number, must have been one of the oldest, for Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 47) informs us that the legions were designated according to their order of inscription on the rolls of the army; but, as it only appears for the first time in 702, it is probable that it had remained in garrison among the Allobroges or in Italy. A proof that this legion assisted in the siege of Alesia is found in the fact that, after the surrender of the place, it was sent to winter quarters on the Saône, where Cæsar found it a few months afterwards (De Bello Gallico, VIII. 4). The distribution of the troops in their winter quarters after the taking of Alesia confirms the number of legions given above. The re-distribution after the siege of Uxellodunum gives also the same result, for in book VII. c. 46 the “Commentaries” give the positions of ten legions, without reckoning the 15th, which, according to book VIII. c. 24, had been sent to Cisalpine Gaul. These facts are repeated again, book VIII. c. 54.
[510] It is evident that an army could not remain in the wars for eight years without receiving frequent re-enforcements in order to keep it up to its effective number. Thus, when, after the murder of Clodius, all the youth of Italy had been called to arms, Cæsar made new levies, which were used probably to swell the ranks of his legions, for no new numbers appear (De Bello Gallico, VII. 1).—In the same manner, when he arrived, in 702, in the south of Gaul, and crossed the Cévennes, he placed himself at the head of the troops which had been recruited in the Roman province and of the re-enforcements which he had brought from Italy (partem copiarum ex provincia supplementumque quod ex Italia adduxerat in Helvois, qui fines Arvernorum contingunt, convenire jubet). (De Bello Gallico, VII. 7.)—Labienus, on the other hand, during his expedition to Paris, left his recruits in dépôt at Sens (Labienus eo supplemento quod nuper ex Italia venerat relicto). (De Bello Gallico, VII. 57.)
[511] Plutarch, Cato, 53.