[110] One of the tribunes of this year was Sallust the historian. As Milo had some time before caught him in adultery with his wife Fausta, and had cudgelled him and made him pay a sum of money, he now took his revenge.
[111] Pompey was now married to Scipio’s daughter Cornelia, the widow of the younger Crassus, a young lady of the highest mental endowments and of great beauty and virtue.
[112] [As Florus[e] says: “When Asia was subdued by the efforts of Pompey, Fortune conferred what remained to be done in Europe upon Cæsar.”]
[113] [And how great was the haughtiness of Ariovistus! When our ambassadors said to him, “Come to Cæsar,” “And who is Cæsar?” he retorted; “let him come to me, if he will. What is it to him what our Germany does? Do I meddle with the Romans?” In consequence of this reply, so great was the dread of the unknown people in the Roman camp, that wills were publicly made even in the principia. But the greater the vast bodies of the enemy were, the more were they exposed to swords and other weapons. The ardour of the Roman soldiers in the battle cannot be better shown than by the circumstance that when the barbarians, having raised their shields above their heads, protected themselves with a testudo, the Romans leaped upon their very bucklers, and then came down upon their throats with their swords.[e]]
[114] [Florus[e] calls him “that prince so formidable for his stature, martial skill, and courage; his very name, Vercingetorix, being apparently intended to excite terror.”]
