As to the camps of the army of succour, it is probable that the Gauls did not form any retrenchments on the hills where they established themselves.
CHAPTER XI.
(Year of Rome 703.)
(Book VIII.[540] of the “Commentaries.”)
Expedition against the Bituriges and Carnutes.
I. THE capture of Alesia and that of Vercingetorix, in spite of the united efforts of all Gaul, naturally gave Cæsar hopes of a general submission; and he therefore believed that he could leave his army, during the winter, to rest quietly in its quarters from the hard labours which had lasted, without interruption, during the whole of the past summer. But the spirit of insurrection was not extinct among the Gauls; and convinced by experience that, whatever might be their number, they could not, in a body, cope with troops inured to war, they resolved, by partial insurrections, raised on all points at once, to divide the attention and the forces of the Romans, as their only chance of resisting them with advantage.
Cæsar was unwilling to leave them time to realise this new plan, but gave the command of his winter quarters to his quæstor Mark Antony, quitted Bibracte on the day before the Calends of January (the 25th of December), with an escort of cavalry, joined the 13th legion, which was in winter quarters among the Bituriges, not far from the frontier of the Ædui, and called to him the 11th legion, which was the nearest at hand. Having left two cohorts of each legion to guard the baggage, he proceeded towards the fertile country of the Bituriges, a vast territory, where the presence of a single legion was insufficient to put a stop to the preparations for insurrection.
His sudden arrival in the midst of men without distrust, who were spread over the open country, produced the result which he expected. They were surprised before they could enter into their oppida, for Cæsar had strictly forbidden everything which might have raised their suspicion, especially the application of fire, which usually betrays the sudden presence of an enemy. Several thousands of captives were made; those who succeeded in escaping sought in vain a refuge among the neighbouring nations. Cæsar, by forced marches, came up with them everywhere, and obliged each tribe to think of its own safety before that of others. This activity held the populations in their fidelity, and, through fear, engaged the wavering to submit to the conditions of peace. Thus the Bituriges, seeing that Cæsar offered them an easy way to recover his protection, and that the neighbouring states had suffered no other chastisement than that of having to deliver hostages, did not hesitate in submitting.
The soldiers of the 11th and 13th legions had, during the winter, supported with rare constancy the fatigues of very difficult marches, in intolerable cold. To reward them, he promised to give, by way of prize-money, 200 sestertii to each soldier, and 2,000 to each centurion. He then sent them into their winter quarters, and returned to Bibracte, after an absence of forty days. Whilst he was there dispensing justice, the Bituriges came to implore his support against the attacks of the Carnutes. Although it was only eighteen days since he returned, he marched again, at the head of two legions, the 6th and the 14th, which had been placed on the Saône to ensure the supply of provisions.
On his approach, the Carnutes, taught by the fate of others, abandoned their miserable huts, which they had erected on the site of their burgs and oppida destroyed in the last campaign, and fled in every direction. Cæsar, unwilling to expose his soldiers to the rigour of the season, established his camp at Genabum (Gien), and lodged his soldiers partly in the huts which had remained undestroyed, partly in tents, under penthouses covered with straw. The cavalry and auxiliary infantry were sent in pursuit of the Carnutes, who, hunted down everywhere, and without shelter, took refuge in the neighbouring countries.[541]
Campaign against the Bellovaci.
II. After having dispersed some rebellious meetings and stifled the germs of an insurrection, Cæsar believed that the summer would pass without any serious war. He left, therefore, at Genabum, the two legions he had with him, and gave the command of them to C. Trebonius. Nevertheless, he learnt, by several intimations from the Remi, that the Bellovaci and neighbouring peoples, with Correus and Commius at their head, were collecting troops to make an inroad on the territory of the Suessiones, who had been placed, since the campaign of 697, under the dependence of the Remi.