During these combats, the defenders of the camp had recovered from their first alarm. When they saw them stationed on the rampart, the Germans despaired of being able to force the retrenchments; they withdrew, and repassed the Rhine with their booty. The terror they had spread was such that, even after their retreat, when, the following night, C. Volusenus arrived at Aduatuca with the cavalry which preceded the legions, the return of Cæsar and the safety of the army seemed hardly credible. Men’s minds were affected to such a degree that they supposed the cavalry alone had escaped from the disaster; for, they said, the Germans would never have attacked the camp if the legions had not been defeated. The arrival of Cæsar alone dissipated all their fears.
Accustomed to the various chances of war, and to events which must be supported without complaining, he uttered no reproach;[458] he merely reminded them that they should not have run the least risk by letting the troops go out of the camp; that, moreover, if they might blame fortune for the sudden attack of the enemy, they might, on the other hand, congratulate themselves on having driven them back from the gates of the camp. He was astonished, nevertheless, that the Germans, having crossed the Rhine for the purpose of ravaging the territory of the Eburones, should have acted so as to render the most signal service to Ambiorix, by coming to attack the Romans.
Cæsar, to complete the ruin of the Eburones, marched again, collected a great number of pillagers from the neighbouring states, and sent them in different directions in pursuit of the enemy, to plunder and burn everything. Their villages and habitations became, without exception, a prey to the flames. The cavalry scoured the country in all directions, in the hope of overtaking Ambiorix; the prospect of seizing him, and gaining thereby the gratitude of the general, made them support infinite fatigues, almost beyond human endurance. At every moment they believed they were on the point of seizing the fugitive, and continually the thick forests or deep retreats hid him from their pursuit. At last, under protection of night, he reached other regions, escorted by four horsemen, the only friends left to whom he dared trust his life. Ambiorix escaped, but the massacre of the legion of Sabinus was cruelly avenged by the devastation of the country of the Eburones!
After this expedition, Cæsar led back to Durocortorum (Rheims), the chief town of the Remi, the army diminished by the two cohorts lost at Aduatuca. He there convoked the assembly of Gaul, and caused judgment to be passed on the conspiracy of the Senones and Carnutes. Acco, the chief of the revolt, was condemned to death, and executed according to the old Roman custom. Some others, fearing the same fate, took flight. They were forbidden fire and water (that is, they were condemned to exile). Cæsar sent two legions to winter quarters on the frontier of the Treviri, two among the Lingones, and the six others among the Senones, at Agedincum (Sens). After providing for the provisionment of the army, he proceeded into Italy.[459]
CHAPTER X.
(Year of Rome 702.)
(Book VII. of the “Commentaries.”)
REVOLT OF GAUL—CAPTURE OF VELLAUNODUNUM, GENABUM, AND NOVIODUNUM—SIEGES OF AVARICUM AND GERGOVIA—CAMPAIGN OF LABIENUS AGAINST THE PARISII—SIEGE OF ALESIA.
Revolt of Gaul.
I. THE Roman arms had in six years subjugated, one after another, the principal states of Gaul. Belgium, Aquitaine, and the countries on the sea-coast, had been the theatre of the most desperate struggles. The inhabitants of the isle of Britain, like the Germans, had become prudent by the defeats they had suffered. Cæsar had just taken a signal vengeance upon the revolted Eburones, and thought that he might without danger leave his army and proceed into Italy, to hold the assemblies. During his abode in this part of his command, the murder of P. Clodius took place (the 13th of the Calends of February, 30th of December, 701), which caused a great agitation, and gave rise to the Senatus-consultus, which ordered all the youths of Italy to take the military oath; Cæsar took advantage of it to make levies also in the Province. The rumours of what was taking place at Rome soon passed the Alps, to revive the resentments and hopes of the Gauls; they believed that the domestic troubles would detain Cæsar in Italy, and would give rise to a favourable opportunity for a new insurrection.
The principal chiefs meet in secluded spots; mutually excite each other by the recital of their grievances, and by the remembrance of the death of Acco; promise great rewards to those who, at the peril of their lives, will commence the war; but decide that, before all, the return of Cæsar to his army must be rendered impossible, a project the execution of which was so much the easier, since the legions would not dare to leave their winter quarters in the absence of their general, and since the general himself could not join them without a sufficient escort.
The Carnutes are the first to offer to take arms: as the necessity of acting secretly did not allow them to exchange hostages, they exact as security an oath of alliance. This oath is taken by all the ensigns in a meeting in which the moment for the rising is fixed.
On the day appointed, the Carnutes, led by two resolute men, Cotuatus and Conetodunus, rush to Genabum (Gien), plunder and slaughter the Roman merchants, amongst others the knight C. Fusius Cita, charged by Cæsar with the victualling department. These news reached every state in Gaul with an extreme celerity, according to the custom of the Gauls of communicating remarkable events by cries transmitted from neighbour to neighbour across the country.[460] Thus what had happened at Genabum at sunrise, was known by the Arverni before the end of the first watch (towards eight o’clock at night), at a distance of 160 miles.