Although the season was far advanced, Cæsar still resolved to subjugate the peoples of Brabant and the Boulonnais, and marched against them. The Gauls retired into their forests; he was then obliged to clear a road in the woods by cutting down the trees, which, placed to the right and left, formed on each side a rampart against the enemy. The bad state of the weather obliged him to retire before he had completed his task.
In this campaign of 698, most of the countries which extend from the mouth of the Adour to that of the Scheldt had felt the weight of the Roman arms. The sea was free; Cæsar was at liberty to attempt a descent upon England.
CHAPTER IV.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 699.
Campaign against the Usipetes and the Tencteri.
I. THE successes of the preceding campaign, and the existence of a Roman fleet in the waters of the Morbihan, must have given Cæsar the hope that nothing henceforth would prevent an expedition against Great Britain; yet new events came to delay his projects.
In the winter between 698 and 699, the Usipetes and the Tencteri, peoples of German origin, to escape the oppression of the Suevi, passed the Rhine not far from its mouth, towards Xanten and Clèves. They numbered 400,000, of all ages and both sexes; they sought new lands to settle in, and, in the spring of 699, the head of the emigration had already reached the country where now stand Aix-la-Chapelle and Liége. Cæsar, alarmed at this event, starts for the army sooner than usual, proceeds to Amiens, there assembles his troops, and finds the Gaulish chiefs profoundly shaken in their fidelity by the approach of these new barbarians, whose co-operation they hope to obtain. He confirms their feeling of duty, obtains a contingent of cavalry, marches to encounter the Usipetes and the Tencteri, and arrives on the Meuse, which he crosses at Maëstricht. These latter, on hearing of the approach of the Roman army, had concentrated in Southern Gueldres. Established on the river Niers, in the plains of Goch, they send a deputation to Cæsar, who had arrived near Venloo, to ask him not to attack them, but to allow them to keep the lands they had conquered. The Roman general refuses, and continues his march. After new conferences, the object of which, on the part of the Germans, was to give their cavalry, sent beyond the Meuse, time to return, a truce of one day is accepted. Cæsar declares, nevertheless, that he will advance to Niers. Suddenly, however, his vanguard is treacherously attacked in its march and routed by the German cavalry; he then believes himself freed from his engagements; and when next day the deputies come to excuse this perfidious aggression, he has them arrested, falls unexpectedly on the camp of the Germans, and pursues them without remission to the confluence of the Rhine and the Meuse (towards the place occupied now by Fort Saint-André), where these unfortunate people nearly all perish.
In the sequel of this exploit, which brought him little glory, and in which doubt has been thrown on his good faith, Cæsar resolved to cross the Rhine, on the pretence of claiming from the Sicambri the cavalry of the Usipetes and the Tencteri, who had taken refuge among them, but, in reality, to intimidate the Germans, and make them abandon the practice of seconding the insurrections in Gaul. He therefore proceeded up the valley of the Rhine, and arrived at Bonn, opposite the territory of the Ubii, a people which had already solicited his alliance and support against the Suevi. He caused to be built in ten days a bridge of piles, which he crossed with his troops, but he did not penetrate far into Germany: unable to come up with either the Sicambri or the Suevi, who had withdrawn into the interior of their country, he re-crossed to the left bank, and caused the bridge to be broken.
First Descent in England.
II. Though the summer was already advanced, Cæsar determined to take advantage of the time which still remained to pass into England and visit that island, concerning which people had but confused notions, and which was only known to the Romans by the intervention of the islanders in all the wars in Gaul. He therefore started from Bonn, travelled towards Boulogne, marking out, as we might say, the road which subsequently Augustus ordered to be constructed between those two towns, and collected in that port the ships of the neighbouring coasts and the fleet which, the year before, had vanquished that of the Morbihan. After sending one of his officers to assure himself of the point of landing, he started from Boulogne, in the night of the 24th to the 25th of August, with two legions, reconnoitred in his turn the coast of Dover, and landed at Deal. The shore was covered with armed men, who offered a vigorous opposition to the landing of the Roman army, which, having repulsed them, established itself on land near the sea. The Britons, astonished at such boldness, came from all sides to implore peace and make their submission. But the elements conspired against the invaders, and a dreadful tempest destroyed the transport ships and galleys. At the news of this disaster, the Britons raised their heads again; on their side the Roman soldiers, far from desponding, hastened to repair their ships with so much zeal that, out of eighty, sixty-eight were made fit for sea again. Not far from Cæsar’s camp, the Britons one day drew a legion into an ambuscade; this led to a general battle, in which the Romans were victorious. Then Cæsar, hurried by the approach of the equinox, treated with the chiefs of some tribes, received hostages, and crossed again to the continent on the 12th of September, having remained eighteen days only in England. On the day after his arrival at Boulogne, the two legions he brought with him were dispatched against the people of the territory of Boulogne, who had taken refuge, since the preceding year, in the marshes of their country; other troops were sent to chastise the inhabitants of Brabant. After these expeditions, Cæsar placed his legions in winter quarters among the Belgæ, and then departed to visit the opposite part of his vast command, namely, Illyria, where also he had to protect the Roman frontiers against the incursion of the barbarians.
Cæsar’s Habits when in Campaign.