Cæsar sailed at sunset, that is, towards eight o’clock (solis occasu naves solvit, leni Africo provectus). The wind having ceased at midnight, he was drawn by the currents towards the north; and when day broke, at four o’clock in the morning, he saw on his left the cliffs of the South Foreland; but then, the current changing with the tide, by force of rowing he made land towards midday, as in the preceding summer, near Deal.
To determine the day on which Cæsar landed, it is necessary, in the first place, to know to what part the Roman fleet was carried during the night. It is evident, first, that it was borne towards the north-east by the current of the rising tide or flux, for otherwise we could not understand how Cæsar, at sunrise, could have perceived Britain on his left. We may add that it wandered from its way till it came to the latitude of the Northern Sea, which is situated to the east of Deal, and at about ten maritime miles from the coast. (See Plate 14.) In fact, according to the text, the fleet took advantage of the current contrary to that which had carried it away, and consequently of the reflux or current of the ebbing tide, to reach the coast. Now, we are obliged by this fact to conclude that it had been carried northward at least to the latitude of Deal; for, if it had only arrived to the south of that latitude, the reflux would necessarily have thrown it back into the Straits. Lastly, to cause the fleet by force of rowing and aided by the reflux to require eight hours to effect the last part of its passage to Deal, it must, according to the best information obtained from sailors, have been, at sunrise, ten miles from the coast.
This being granted, it is evidently sufficient, for determining the day of landing, to resolve this question: on what day of the month of July in the year 700 the current of the descending tide began to be perceived at sunrise, that is, towards four o’clock in the morning, in the part of the sea at ten miles to the east of Deal? or otherwise, if we consider that the reflux begins there about four hours and a half after the hour of high tide at Dover,[417] what day of the month of July in the year 700 it was high tide at Dover towards half-past eleven o’clock at night?
By following a train of reasoning similar to that which we applied to determine the day of Cæsar’s first landing in Britain, and remarking that the tides of the days preceding the full moon of the month of July, 700, which fell on the 21st, correspond to those of the days which preceded the full moon of the 26th of July, 1858, we find that it was either fifteen days or one day before the 21st of July of the year 700, that is, the 6th or the 20th of July, that it was high tide at Dover towards half-past eleven at night. Cæsar, therefore, landed on the 7th or on the 21st of July. We adopt the second date, because, according to Cicero’s letter cited above, he received, before the 26th of July, at Rome news of his brother, which must have been of the 6th of the same month, as the couriers were twenty days on the road. In this letter Quintus announced his approaching departure for Britain.
This date, according to which the Roman army would have landed on the eve of the day of the full moon, is the more probable, as Cæsar, immediately on his arrival in Britain, made a night march, which would have been impossible in complete darkness. The passage of the sea had taken fifteen hours. In the return, it only took nine hours, since Cæsar started at nine o’clock in the evening (secunda inita cum solvisset vigilia), and arrived at Boulogne at daybreak (prima luce), which, in the middle of September, is at six o’clock in the morning.[418]
The date of his return is nearly fixed by a letter of Cicero, who expresses himself thus: “On the 11th of the Calends of November (17th of October), I received letters from my brother Quintus, and from Cæsar; the expedition was finished, and the hostages delivered. They had made no booty. They had only imposed contributions. The letters, written from the shores of Britain, are dated on the 6th of the Calends of October (21st of September), at the moment of embarking the army, which they are bringing back.”[419] This information accords with the date of the equinox, which fell on the 26th of September, and which, according to the “Commentaries,” was close at hand (quod equinoctium suberat). Cæsar had, then, remained in Britain about sixty days.
Presumed Dates of the Second Campaign in Britain.
| X. Departure of Cæsar from Lodi[420] | May 22. |
| Arrival at the army, in the country of the Belgæ (in 12 days) | June 2. |
| Inspection of the fleet and of the winter quarters; junction of the four legions in the country of the Remi, on the Meuse, towards Sedan. | From June 2 to June 7. |
| Passage from Sedan to the country of the Treviri (80 kilometres, 3 days), | From June 8 to June 10. |
| Occurrences among the Treviri, | From June 10 to June 15. |
| Passage from Treviri to Boulogne (330 kil., 12 days) | From June 15 to June 26. |
| Delay of 25 days at Boulogne, | From June 26 to July 20. |
| Embarkment | July 20. |
| Landing | July 21. |
| Combat | July 22. |
| Cæsar returns to his fleet | July 23. |
| Ten days of reparations, | From July 24 to August 2. |
| New march against the Britons | August 3. |
| Combat | August 4. |
| March towards the Thames (from the Little Stour to Sunbury, 140 kilomètres) | From August 5 to August 11. |
| March from the Thames to the oppidum of Cassivellaunus, | From August 12 to August 15. |
| Time employed in negotiations and receiving hostages (8 days), | From August 16 to August 23. |
| Return of Cæsar (in person) towards the sea-coast. The 28th of August, on his arrival at the fleet, he writes to Cicero.—(Epist. ad Quintum, III. 1.) | August 28. |
| March of his army to the coast, | From August 24 to Sept. 10. |
| Embarkation of the last convoy | Sept. 21. |
Distribution of the Legions in their Winter Quarters.
XI. Cæsar had no sooner arrived on the continent than he caused his ships to be brought on ground, and then held at Samarobriva, (Amiens) the assembly of Gaul. The defective harvest, caused by the dryness of the season, obliged him to distribute his winter quarters differently from the preceding years, by spreading them over a greater extent.[421] The number of his legions was eight and a half, because, independent of the eight legions brought together at Boulogne before the departure for Britain, he had no doubt formed five cohorts of soldiers and sailors employed on his fleet. The troops were distributed in the following manner: he sent one legion into the country of the Morini (to Saint Pol), under the orders of C. Fabius; another to the Nervii (at Charleroy), with Quintus Cicero;[422] a third to the Essuvii (at Sées, in Normandy), under the command of L. Roscius; a fourth, under T. Labienus, to the country of the Remi, near the frontier of the Treviri (at Lavacherie, on the Ourthe).[423] He placed three in Belgium,[424] one at Samarobriva itself (Amiens), under the orders of Trebonius; the second in the country of the Bellovaci, under M. Crassus, his questor, at twenty-five miles from Amiens (Montdidier); the third under L. Munatius Plancus, near the confluence of the Oise and the Aisne (at Champlieu). The legion last raised[425] among the Transpadans repaired with five cohorts, under the orders of Titurius Sabinus and Aurunculeius Cotta, to the Eburones, whose country, situated in great part between the Meuse and the Rhine, was governed by Ambiorix and Catuvolcus. It occupied a fortress named Aduatuca (Tongres).[426] This distribution of the army appeared to Cæsar a more easy manner to supply it with provisions. Moreover, these different winter quarters, with the exception of that of M. Roscius, who occupied the most peaceable part of Gaul, were all included within a circle of a hundred miles radius (148 kil.). It was Cæsar’s intention not to leave them until he knew that the legions were firmly established and their quarters fortified. (See Plate 14, the sites of the winter quarters.)