As in the preceding years, Cæsar believed he might repair into Italy; but Gaul still chafed under the yoke of the foreigner, and, while the people of Orleans massacred Tasgetius, who had been given them for their king three years before, events of a more serious character were in preparation in the countries situate between the Rhine and the Meuse. The people of Liége, led by Ambiorix and Cativolcus, revolt and attack, at Tongres, the camp occupied by Sabinus and Cotta with fifteen cohorts. Unable to take it by assault, they have recourse to stratagem: they spread abroad the report of the departure of Cæsar, and of the revolt of the whole of Gaul; they offer the two lieutenants to let them go, without obstacle, to rejoin the nearest winter quarters. Sabinus assembles a council of war, in which Cotta, an old experienced soldier, refused all arrangement with the enemy; but, as often happens in such meetings, the majority rallies to the least energetic opinion; the fifteen cohorts, trusting in the promise of the Gauls, abandon their impregnable position, and begin their march. On arriving at the defile of Lowaige, they are attacked and massacred by the barbarians, who had placed themselves in an ambuscade in the woods. Ambiorix, emboldened by this success, raises all the peoples on his way, and hastens, at Charleroi, to attack the camp of Cicero. The legion, though taken unexpectedly, defends itself bravely, but the Gauls have learnt from deserters the art of besieging fortresses in the Roman manner; they raise towers, construct covered galleries, and surround the camp with a countervallation. Meanwhile Cicero has found the means of informing Cæsar of his critical position. The latter was at Amiens; the morrow of the day on which he receives this news, he starts with two legions, and sends a Gaul to announce his approach. The assailants, informed on their part of Cæsar’s march, abandon the siege, and go to meet him. The two armies encounter near the little stream of the Haine, at fourteen kilomètres from Charleroi. Shut up in his retrenchments on Mont Sainte-Aldegonde, Cæsar counterfeits fear, in order to provoke the Gauls to attack him; and when they rush upon the ramparts to storm them, he sallies out through all the gates, puts the enemies to the rout, and strews the ground with their dead. The same day he rejoins Cicero, congratulates the soldiers on their courage, and his lieutenant for having been faithful to the Roman principle of never entering into negotiation with an enemy in arms. For the moment this victory defeated at one blow the aggressive attempts of the populations on the banks of the Rhine against Labienus, and those of the maritime peoples on the coasts of the Straits against Roscius; but soon new disturbances arose: the inhabitants of the state of Sens expelled Cavarinus, whom Cæsar had given them for king; and, a little later, Labienus was forced to combat the inhabitants of the country of Trèves, whom he defeated in an engagement in which Indutiomarus was slain. With the exception of the peoples of Burgundy and Champagne, all Gaul was in fermentation, which obliged Cæsar to pass the winter in it.
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Appius Claudius Pulcher, Consuls.
III. During this time, the struggle of parties continued at Rome, and Pompey, charged with the supplying of provisions, having under his orders lieutenants and legions, posted himself at the gates of the town; his presence in Italy, a pledge of order and tranquillity, was accepted by all good citizens.[685] His influence was, as Cæsar thought, to paralyse that of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who had obtained the consulship. In fact, when on the preceding occasion Crassus and Pompey placed themselves on the ranks as candidates for the consulship, the opposite party, hopeless of defeating both, had sought the admission of at least one of their candidates. They tried again the manœuvre they had employed in 695, by which they succeeded in the nomination of Bibulus as the colleague of Cæsar. The attempt had failed; but, at the moment when the question of the election of consuls for the year 700 was agitated, the aristocratic party, having no longer to contend against persons of such eminence as Crassus and Pompey, obtained without difficulty the election of Ahenobarbus. This latter represented alone, in that high magistracy, the passions hostile to the triumvirs, since his colleague Appius Claudius Pulcher was still, at that epoch, favourable to Cæsar.
The authority of the consuls, whoever they might be, was powerless for remedying the demoralisation of the upper classes, which was revealed by numerous symptoms at Rome as well as in the provinces. Cicero himself, as the following event proves, treated legality with contempt when it interfered with his affections or political opinions.
Re-establishment of Ptolemy in Egypt.
IV. The Sibylline oracle, it will be remembered, had forbidden recourse to arms for the purpose of restoring Ptolemy, King of Egypt, to his states. In spite of this prohibition, Cicero, as early as the year 698, had engaged P. Lentulus, proconsul in Cilicia and in Cyprus, to re-establish him by force, and, to encourage this enterprise, he had suggested to him the prospect of impunity in success, without, however, concealing from him that, in case of reverse, the legal question, as well, as the religious question, would assume a threatening form.[686] Lentulus had thought it prudent to abstain; but Gabinius, proconsul in Syria in the following year, had not shown the same degree of scruple. Bribed by the king, some said, but, as others said, having received orders from Pompey, he had left his son in Syria with a few troops, and had marched with his legions towards Egypt.
After having, on his way, plundered Judæa, and sent prisoner to Rome its king Aristobulus, he crossed the desert, and arrived before Pelusium. A certain Archelaus, who was looked upon as a good general, and had served under Mithridates, was detained in Syria. Gabinius, informed that Queen Berenice wished to place him at the head of her army, and that she offered a large sum of money for his ransom, immediately set him at liberty, showing thereby as much avidity for riches as contempt for the Egyptians. He defeated them in several battles, slew Archelaus, and entered Alexandria, where he re-established Ptolemy on the throne, and the latter, it is said, gave him 10,000 talents.[687] In this expedition, Mark Antony, who was soon to be Cæsar’s quæstor, commanded the cavalry; he distinguished himself by his intrepidity and by his military talent.[688] This was the commencement of his fortune.
Gabinius, if we believe Dio Cassius, took good care not to send an account of his conduct, but it was not long in becoming known, and he was compelled to return to Rome, where serious accusations awaited him. Unfortunately for him, when the period of his trial came on, Pompey, his protector, was no longer consul.
Gabinius had to undergo in succession two accusations: he was acquitted of the first, on the double head of sacrilege and high treason, because he paid heavy bribes to his judges.[689] As to the second accusation, relating to acts of extortion, he experienced more difficulties. Pompey, who had been obliged to absent himself, in order to provide for the provisioning with which he was charged, hastened to the gates of Rome, which his office of proconsul did not allow him to enter, convoked an assembly of the people outside the Pomœrium, employed all his authority, and even read letters from Cæsar, in favour of the accused. Still more, he begged Cicero to undertake his defence, and Cicero accepted the task, forgetting the invectives with which he had overwhelmed Gabinius before the Senate. All these efforts failed: it was necessary to yield to the rage of the public opinion, skilfully excited by the enemies of Gabinius; and the latter, condemned, went into exile, where he remained until Cæsar’s dictatorship.[690]
Corruption of the Elections.