These events accomplished, he visited Aquitaine for the first time, with two legions, and saw his authority accepted everywhere. He subsequently proceeded to Narbonne, and from thence to Arras, where he established his head-quarters for the winter. Labienus, on his side, had obtained the complete submission of the country of Trèves.
Cæsar’s Policy in Gaul and at Rome.
II. After eight years of sanguinary struggles, Gaul was subdued, and thenceforward, far from meeting enemies in it, Cæsar was destined to find only auxiliaries.
His policy had contributed as much as his arms to this result. Instead of seeking to reduce Gaul into a Roman province, the great captain had applied himself to founding the supremacy of the Republic on powerful alliances, making the conquered countries subject to the states of which he was sure, and leaving to each people its chiefs and its institutions, and to Gaul entire its general assemblies.
It may have been remarked with what consideration Cæsar, in all his wars, deals with the countries which offer him their co-operation, and with what generous ability he treats them. Thus, in his first campaign, he raises the Burgundians from the state of inferiority in which they were held by the people of Franche-Comté, and re-establishes them in possession of their hostages and of their rights of patronage over the states which were their clients;[773] yielding to their prayer, in the second campaign, he pardons the people of Beauvais;[774] in the sixth, the inhabitants of Sens.[775] In 702, the auxiliary troops furnished by the Burgundians revolt; yet he takes no vengeance upon them; the same year these people massacre the Roman merchants: they expect terrible reprisals, and send to implore pardon; Cæsar replies to their deputies that he is far from wishing to throw on the whole country the fault of a few; lastly, when, under the influence of the national feeling, their contingents have taken part in the general insurrection, and are defeated before Alise, instead of reducing them to captivity, Cæsar gives them their liberty. He behaves in the same manner towards the people of Rheims, whose influence he augments by granting their petitions in favour, at one time of the people of Soissons,[776] at another of the inhabitants of Orléanais.[777] He restores similarly to the inhabitants of Auvergne their contingent vanquished at Alise; to the people of Artois, he remits all tribute, restores their laws, and places the territory of the Boulonnaise in subjection to them.[778] In each of his campaigns he follows an equally generous policy towards his allies.
The chiefs whom Cæsar places over the governments of the different states are not chosen arbitrarily; he takes them from the ancient families who have reigned over the country; often even he does no more than confirm the result of a free election. He maintains Ambiorix at the head of the people of Liége, restores to him his son and nephew, prisoners of the people of Namur, and frees him from the tribute which he paid to that people.[779] He gives to the people of Orleans for their chief Tasgetius, and to the inhabitants of Sens, Cavarinus, both issued from families which had possessed the sovereignty.[780] He appoints, as King of Artois, Commius,[781] who, nevertheless, as well as Ambiorix, subsequently revolted against him. In presence of the principal personages of the country of the Treviri, he decides between rival ambitions, and pronounces for Cingetorix,[782] whom he calls to the power. Again, he recognises Convictolitavis as chief of the Burgundians.[783] We can pardon Cæsar some acts of cruel vengeance, when we consider how far his age was still a stranger to the sentiments of humanity, and how far a victorious general must have been provoked to see those whose oath of fidelity he had received, and whom he had loaded with honours, incessantly revolting against his authority.
Almost every year he convokes the assembly of Gaul,[784] either at Lutetia, or at Rheims, or at Bibracte, and he only imposes on the people the rights of the conqueror after having called them to discuss in his presence their several interests; he presides over them more as a protector than as a conqueror. Finally, when the last remains of the insurrection have been annihilated at Uxellodunum (Puy d’Issolu), he proceeds to pass the winter in Belgium; there he strives to render obedience more easy to the vanquished, brings into the exercise of power more of leniency and justice, and introduces among these races, still savages, the benefits of civilisation. Such was the efficacy of these measures that, when, finally abandoning Gaul, he was obliged to withdraw his legions from it, the country, formerly so agitated, remained calm and tranquil; the transformation was complete, and, instead of enemies, he left on the other side of the Alps a people always ready to furnish him with numerous soldiers for his new wars.[785]
When we see a man of eminence devote himself, during nine years, with so much perseverance and skill, to the greatness of his country, we ask how so many animosities and rancours could rise against him in Rome. But this angry feeling is explained by the regret and vexation, very excusable indeed, which the privileged castes feel when a system which has, during several centuries, been the cause of their power and of the glory of the country, has just given way under the irresistible action of new ideas; this hatred fell upon Cæsar as the most dangerous promoter of these ideas. It is true that people accused his ambition; in reality, it was his convictions openly pronounced which had long provoked hostility.
Cæsar began his political career with a trial which is always honourable, persecution supported for a good cause. The popular party then rested for support on the memory of Marius; Cæsar did not hesitate in reviving it with glory. Hence the prestige which surrounded him, in his youth, and which ceased not to grow with him. The constancy of his principles gained him all the honours and all the dignities which were conferred upon him; named successively military tribune, quæstor, grand pontiff, guardian of the Appian Way, ædile, urban prætor, proprætor in Spain, and lastly consul, he might consider these different testimonies of public favour as so many victories gained under the same flag against the same enemies. This was the motive of the violent passions of the aristocracy: it made a single man responsible for the decay of an order of things which was falling into the abyss of corruption and anarchy.
When, during his ædileship, Cæsar causes the trophies of Marius, glorious symbols of the war against the Cimbri and Teutones, to be replaced in the Capitol, the opposite party already cries out that he intends to overthrow the Republic; when he returns from Spain, after having led his victorious legions as far as Portugal, his passage across the Transpadane colonies inspires the Senate with so many fears, that two legions, destined for Asia, are retained in Italy; when he believes that he has a claim to a triumph and the consulate at the same time—a double favour accorded to many others—he is obliged to renounce the triumph. As consul he encounters, during the whole period of his magistracy, the most active and the most spiteful opposition. Hardly have his functions expired, when an accusation is sought to be brought against him, which he only escapes by the privilege attached to the imperium. In his interview, not far from the Rhine, with Ariovistus, he learns that the nobles of Rome have promised their friendship to the German king, if, by his death, he delivers them from their enemy. His victories, which transport the people with enthusiasm, excite jealousy and detraction among the Roman aristocracy. They seek to undervalue his expeditions beyond the sea, as well as beyond the Rhine. In 701 the news reached Rome of the defeat of the German tribes who again threatened Gaul with invasion. Cato, under the pretence that Cæsar had not observed the truce, proposed that they should deliver up to the barbarians the glorious chief of the legions of the Republic.