History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. 2 of 2

by Emperor of the French Napoleon III

VII. In the foregoing account, which is taken almost literally from the “Commentaries,” Cæsar skilfully disguises a defeat. It is evident that he hoped to take Gergovia by a sudden assault, before the Gauls, drawn by a false attack to the west of the town, had time to come back to its defence. Deceived in his expectation, he ordered the retreat to be sounded, but too late to be executed in good order. Cæsar does not appear to be sincere when he declares that he had attained his object the moment his soldiers reached the foot of the wall. This could not have been the case, for what use could it be to him to take camps almost without troops in them, if the consequence was not to be the surrender of the town itself? The defeat appears to have been complete, and, according to some, Cæsar was for a moment a prisoner in the hands of the Gauls; according to others, he had only lost his sword. Servius, indeed, relates the following rather incomprehensible anecdote: when Cæsar was taken away prisoner by the Gauls, one of them began to cry out Cæsar, which signifies in Gaulish let him go, and thus he escaped.[498] Plutarch gives another version: “The Arverni,” he says, “still show a sword hung up in one of their temples, which they pretend to be a spoil taken from Cæsar. He saw it there himself subsequently, and only laughed at it. His friends engaged him to take it away, but he refused, pretending that it had become a sacred object.”[499] This tradition proves that he was sufficiently great to bear the recollection of a defeat, in which he was very different from Cicero, whom we have seen stealthily taking away from the Capitol the brass plate on which was engraved the law of his banishment.

Cæsar leaves Gergovia in order to join Labienus.

VIII. Cæsar, after the check he had suffered before Gergovia, persisted all the more in his intentions of departure; but, not to have the appearance of flight, he drew out his legions, and placed them in order of battle on an advantageous ground. Vercingetorix did not allow himself to be drawn into the plain; the cavalry only fought, and the combat was favourable to the Romans, who afterwards returned to their camp. The next day the same manœvre was repeated with the same success. Thinking that he had done enough to abate the boasting of the Gauls, as well as to strengthen the courage of his men, Cæsar left Gergovia, and took his way towards the country of the Ædui.

His withdrawal did not draw out the enemies in pursuit; and he arrived on the third day (that is, his second day’s march, reckoning from the assault on Gergovia) on the banks of the Allier, rebuilt one of the bridges, no doubt that of Vichy, and crossed the river in haste, in order to place it between him and Vercingetorix.

There Viridomarus and Eporedorix urged upon him the necessity of their presence among the Ædui, in order to maintain the country in obedience, and to be beforehand with Litavicus, who had gone thither with all the cavalry to excite a revolt. Notwithstanding the numerous proofs of their perfidy, and the suspicion that the departure of those two chiefs would hasten the revolt, he did not think proper to detain them, as he wished to avoid even the appearance of violence or of fear. He confined himself to reminding them of the services which he had rendered to their country, and of the state of dependence and abasement from which he had drawn them, to raise them to a high degree of power and prosperity, and then dismissed them; and they proceeded to Noviodunum (Nevers). This town of the Ædui was situated on the banks of the Loire, in a favourable position. It contained all the hostages of Gaul, the stores, the public treasury, nearly all the baggage of the general and the army, and, lastly, a considerable number of horses bought in Italy and Spain. Eporedorix and Viridomarus heard there, on their arrival, of the revolt of the country, of the reception of Litavicus in the important town of Bibracte by Convictolitavis and a great part of the Senate, as well as of the steps taken to draw their fellow-citizens into the cause of Vercingetorix. The occasion appears favourable to them: they massacre the guards of the dépôt of Noviodunum and the Roman merchants, share amongst themselves the horses and the money, burn the town, send the hostages to Bibracte, load boats with all the grain they can take away, and destroy the rest by water and fire; then they collect troops in the neighbourhood, place posts along the Loire, spread their cavalry everywhere in order to intimidate the Romans, to cut off their supply of provisions, and to compel them through famine to retire into the Narbonnese—a hope which was so much the better founded, as the Loire, swollen by the melting of the snow, appeared to be nowhere fordable.

Cæsar was informed of these events during his march from the Allier towards the Loire. His position had never been more critical. Suffering under a severe defeat, separated from Labienus by a distance of more than eighty leagues, and by countries in revolt, he was surrounded on all sides by the insurrection: he had on his rear the Arverni, elated with their recent success at Gergovia; on his left the Bituriges, irritated by the sack of Avaricum; before him the Ædui, ready to dispute the passage of the Loire. Was he to persevere in his design, or retrograde towards the Province? He could not resolve on this latter course, for not only would this retreat have been disgraceful, and the passage of the Cévennes full of difficulties, but, above all, he felt the greatest anxiety for Labienus and the legions which he had entrusted to him. He therefore persevered in his first resolutions; and in order to be able, in case of need, to build a bridge across the Loire before the forces of the enemies were increased, he proceeded towards that river by forced marches day and night, and arrived unexpectedly at Bourbon-Lancy.[500] The cavalry soon discovered a ford which necessity made them consider practicable, although the soldiers had only above water their shoulders and their arms to carry their weapons. The cavalry was placed up the stream, in order to break the current, and the army passed without accident before the enemy had time to recover from his first surprise. Cæsar found the country covered with the harvest and with cattle, with which the army was largely provisioned, and he marched towards the land of the Senones.[501]

Expedition of Labienus against the Parisii.

IX. Whilst the centre of Gaul was the scene of these events, Labienus had marched with four legions towards Lutetia, a town situated on an island in the Seine, the oppidum of the Parisii. After leaving his baggage at Agedincum (Sens)[502] under the guard of the troops recently arrived from Italy to fill up the voids, he followed the left bank of the Yonne and of the Seine, wishing to avoid all important streams and considerable towns.[503] At the news of his approach, the enemy assembled in great numbers from the neighbouring countries. The command was entrusted to Aulercus Camulogenus, who was elevated to this honour, notwithstanding his great age, on account of his rare ability in the art of war. This chief, having remarked that a very extensive marsh sloped towards the Seine, and rendered impracticable all that part of the country which is watered by the Essonne, established his troops along the side of this marsh, in order to defend the passage. (See Plate 23.)

When Labienus arrived on the opposite bank, he ordered covered galleries to be pushed forward, and sought, by means of hurdles and earth, to establish a road across the marsh; but, meeting with too many difficulties, he formed the project of surprising the passage of the Seine at Melodunum (Melun), and, when once on the right bank, of advancing towards Lutetia by stealing a march upon the enemy. He therefore left his camp in silence, at the third watch (midnight), and, retracing his steps, arrived at Melun, an oppidum of the Senones, situated, like Lutetia, on an island in the Seine. He seized about fifty boats, joined them together, filled them with soldiers, and entered into the place without striking a blow. Terrified at this sudden attack, the inhabitants, a great part of whom had answered to the appeal of Camulogenus, offered no resistance. A few days before, they had cut the bridge which united the island with the right bank; Labienus restored it, led his troops over it, and proceeded towards Lutetia, where he arrived before Camulogenus. He took a position near the place where Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois now stands. Camulogenus, informed by those who had fled from Melun, quits his position on the Essonne, returns to Lutetia, gives orders to burn it and to cut the bridges, and establishes his camp on the left bank of the Seine, in front of the oppidum, that is, on the present site of the Hotel de Cluny.

It was already rumoured that Cæsar had raised the siege of Gergovia; the news of the defection of the Ædui, and of the progress of the insurrection, had begun already to spread. The Gauls repeated incessantly that Cæsar, arrested in his march by the Loire, had been compelled, by want of provisions, to retire towards the Roman province. The Bellovaci, whose fidelity was doubtful, had no sooner heard of the revolt of the Ædui, than they collected troops and prepared openly for war.