The Ædui, who were ancient allies of Rome, then complained to Cæsar that their neighbours, the Arverni and Sequani, having in their disputes with them invited a German chief named Ariovistus (Heer-fürst, ‘Army-prince’?) to their aid, he had been joined by large bodies of his countrymen, and had occupied a great part of the land of the Sequani, and now menaced the freedom of all the surrounding peoples; their only hopes, they added, lay in the Romans. This invitation was, as they knew, precisely what Cæsar desired; he promised aid, and as in his consulate he had been the means of having Ariovistus acknowledged as a king and friend of the Roman people, and he now wished to put him in the wrong, he sent to require him to meet him at a certain place. The German haughtily replied, that if Cæsar wanted to speak with him he should come to him.[113] Cæsar, further to irritate him, desired him to give back the hostages of the allies of Rome, and not to enter their lands or to bring over any more auxiliaries from Germany. Ariovistus replied by seizing on the Sequanian town of Vesontio (Besançon). On learning that the powerful nation of the Suevi was sending troops to Ariovistus, Cæsar resolved to march against him at once. But his soldiers were daunted at what they heard of the strength and ferocity of the Germans, till he made a speech to reassure them, in which he declared that with the tenth legion alone he would prosecute the war. At the desire of Ariovistus a conference was held, at which however nothing could be arranged; and while it was going on, news (true or false) was brought to Cæsar that the Germans had attacked the Romans: this broke off the conference; Cæsar refused to renew it; and a battle taking place, Ariovistus was defeated and forced to recross the Rhine.
Cæsar then retired for the winter to Cisalpine Gaul under the pretext of regulating the province, but in reality to keep up his communication with Rome and acquire new friends there. As he had left his troops in the country of the Sequani, the Belgæ, a powerful people, who were a mixture of Germans and Gauls, and dwelt in the northeast of Gaul, fearing for their independence, resolved to take up arms. The Germans on this side of the Rhine joined them, and they invaded (57) the states in alliance with the Romans. Cæsar lost no time in repairing to the defence of his allies; and the Belgæ finding that the Ædui had invaded their country, and moreover being in want of supplies, returned home; but they were fallen on and defeated with great loss by a division of Cæsar’s troops, and he himself entering their country took the town of Noviodunum (Noyon), and obliged the Suessiones (Soissons), Bellovaci (Beauvais), and Ambiani (Amiens) to sue for peace. He then entered the territory of the Nervians (Hainault). This people, the bravest of the Belgæ, attacked him by surprise, routed his cavalry, and killed all the centurions of two legions; the camps on both sides were taken, and Cæsar himself was for some time surrounded with his guards on a hill; but victory was finally won by the Romans.[c]
THE BATTLE WITH THE NERVII
[57 B.C.]
Here is Cæsar’s own account of this famous battle; the narrator, as always, speaking of himself in the third person:
Upon the territories of the Ambiani bordered the Nervii, concerning whose character and customs when Cæsar inquired he received the following information: that “there was no access for merchants to them; that they suffered no wine and other things tending to luxury to be imported; because they thought that by their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired: that they were a savage people and of great bravery; that they upbraided and condemned the rest of the Belgæ who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people; that they openly declared they would neither send ambassadors, nor accept any condition of peace.”
After he had made three days’ march through their territories, he discovered from some prisoners that the river Sambre was not more than ten miles from his camp; that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other side of that river, and together with the Atrebates and the Veromandui, their neighbours, were there awaiting the arrival of the Romans—for they had persuaded both these nations to try the same fortune of war (as themselves); that the forces of the Aduatuci were also expected by them, and were on their march; that they had put their women, and those who through age appeared useless for war, in a place to which there was no approach for an army, on account of the marshes.
Having learned these things, he sent forward scouts and centurions to choose a convenient place for the camp. And as a great many of the surrounding Belgæ and other Gauls, following Cæsar, marched with him, some of these, as was afterwards learned from the prisoners, having accurately observed, during those days, the army’s method of marching, went by night to the Nervii, and informed them that a great number of baggage trains passed between the several legions, and that there would be no difficulty, when the first legion had come into the camp, and the other legions were at a great distance, to attack that legion while under baggage, which being routed, and the baggage train seized, it would come to pass that the other legions would not dare to stand their ground. It added weight also to the advice of those who reported that circumstance, that the Nervii, from early times, because they were weak in cavalry—for not even at this time do they attend to it, but accomplish by their infantry whatever they can—in order that they might the more easily obstruct the cavalry of their neighbours if they came upon them for the purpose of plundering, having cut young trees, and bent them, by means of their numerous branches (extending) on to the sides, and the quick-briers and thorns springing up between them, had made these hedges present a fortification like a wall, through which it was not only impossible to enter, but even to penetrate with the eye. Since (therefore) the march of our army would be obstructed by these things, the Nervii thought that the advice ought not to be neglected by them.
The nature of the ground which our men had chosen for the camp was this: a hill, declining evenly from the top, extended to the river Sambre, which we have mentioned above; from this river there arose a (second) hill of like ascent, on the other side and opposite to the former, and open for about two hundred paces at the lower part; but in the upper part woody (so much so) that it was not easy to see through it into the interior. Within those woods the enemy kept themselves in concealment; a few troops of horse-soldiers appeared on the open ground, along the river.