History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. 2 of 2

by Emperor of the French Napoleon III

During the execution of these works, Britons came backwards and forwards to the camp freely, and nothing predicted the approach of hostilities; but one day, when the seventh legion, according to custom, had proceeded to no great distance from the camp to cut wheat, the soldiers on guard before the gates suddenly came to announce that a thick cloud of dust arose in the direction taken by the legion. Cæsar, suspecting some attack from the barbarians, assembles the cohorts on guard, orders two others to replace them, and the rest of the troops to arm and follow him without delay, and hurries forward in the direction indicated. What had happened was this. The Britons, foreseeing that the Romans would repair to the only spot which remained to reap (pars una erat reliqua), had concealed themselves the previous night in the forests. After waiting till the soldiers of the 7th legion had laid aside their arms and begun to cut the grain, they had fallen upon them unexpectedly, and, while the legionaries in disorder were forming, they had surrounded them with their cavalry and chariots.

This strange manner of combating had thrown the soldiers of the 7th legion into disorder. Closely surrounded, and resisting with difficulty under a shower of missiles, they would perhaps have succumbed, when Cæsar appeared at the head of his cohorts; his presence restored confidence to his own men and checked the enemy. Nevertheless, he did not judge it prudent to risk a battle, and, after remaining a certain length of time in position, he withdrew his troops. The 7th legion had experienced considerable loss.[359] Continual rains, during some days, rendered all operations impossible; but eventually the barbarians, believing that the moment had arrived to recover their liberty, assembled from all parts, and marched against the camp.

Deprived of cavalry, Cæsar foresaw well that it would go the same with this combat as with the preceding, and that the enemy, when repulsed, would escape easily by flight; nevertheless, as he had at his disposal thirty horses brought into Britain by Commius, he believed that he could use them with advantage;[360] he drew up his legions in battle at the head of the camp, and ordered them to march forward. The enemy did not sustain the shock long, and dispersed; the legionaries pursued them as quickly and as far as their arms permitted; they returned to the camp, after having made a great slaughter, and ravaged everything within a vast circuit.

The same day, the barbarians sent deputies to ask for peace. Cæsar doubled the number of hostages he had required before, and ordered them to be brought to him on the continent. In all Britain, two states only obeyed this order.

As the equinox approached, he was unwilling to expose vessels ill repaired to a navigation in winter. He took advantage of favourable weather, set sail a little after midnight, and regained Gaul with all his ships without the least loss. Two transport vessels only were unable to enter the port of Boulogne with the fleet, and were carried a little lower towards the south. They had on board about 300 soldiers, who, once landed, marched to rejoin the army. In their way, the Morini, seduced by the prospect of plunder, attacked them by surprise, and soon, increasing to the number of 6,000, succeeded in surrounding them. The Romans formed in a circle; in vain their assailants offered them their lives if they would surrender. They defended themselves valiantly during more than four hours, until the arrival of all the cavalry, which Cæsar sent to their succour. Seized with terror, the Morini threw down their arms, and were nearly all massacred.[361]

Chastisement of the Morini and Menapii.

VI. On the day after the return of the army to the continent, Labienus received orders to reduce, with the two legions brought back from Britain, the revolted Morini, whom the marshes, dried up by the summer heats, no longer sheltered from attack, as they had done the year before. On another side, Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Cotta rejoined Cæsar, after laying waste and burning the territory of the Menapii, who had taken refuge in the depths of their forests. The army was established in winter quarters among the Belgæ. The Senate, when it received the news of these successes, decreed twenty days of thanksgiving.[362]

Order for Rebuilding the Fleet. Departure for Illyria.

VII. Before he left for Italy, Cæsar ordered his lieutenants to repair the old ships, and to construct during the winter a greater number, of which he fixed the form and dimensions. That it might be easier to load them and draw them on land, he recommended them to be made a little lower than those which were in use in Italy; this disposition presented no inconvenience, for he had remarked that the waves of the channel rose to a less elevation than those of the Mediterranean, which he attributed wrongly to the frequency of the motions of the tide and ebb. He desired also to have greater breadth in the vessels on account of the baggage and beasts of burden he had to transport, and ordered them to be arranged so as to be able to employ oars, the use of which was facilitated by the small elevation of the side-planks. According to Dio Cassius, these ships held the mean between the light vessels of the Romans and the transport ships of the Gauls.[363] He procured from Spain all the rigging necessary for the equipment of these vessels.

Having given these instructions, Cæsar went into Italy to hold the assembly of Citerior Gaul, and afterwards started for Illyria, on the news that the Pirustes (peoples of the Carnic Alps) were laying the frontier waste. Immediately on his arrival, by prompt and energetic measures, he put a stop to these disorders, and re-established tranquillity.[364]