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History of Julius Caesar by Jacob Abbott CHAPTER IV.
THE CONQUEST OF GAUL.
In attaining to the consulship, Caesar had reached the highest point of elevation
which it was possible to reach as a mere citizen of Rome.
His ambition was, however, of course, not satisfied.
The only way to acquire higher distinction and to rise to higher power was to enter
upon a career of foreign conquest.
Caesar therefore aspired now to be a soldier.
He accordingly obtained the command of an army, and entered upon a course of military
campaigns in the heart of Europe, which he continued for eight years.
These eight years constitute one of the most important and strongly-marked periods
of his life.
He was triumphantly successful in his military career, and he made, accordingly,
a vast accession to his celebrity and power, in his own day, by the results of
his campaigns.
He also wrote, himself, an account of his adventures during this period, in which the
events are recorded in so lucid and in so eloquent a manner, that the narrations have
continued to be read by every successive
generation of scholars down to the present day, and they have had a great influence in
extending and perpetuating his fame.
The principal scenes of the exploits which Caesar performed during the period of this
his first great military career, were the north of Italy, Switzerland, France,
Germany, and England, a great tract of
country, nearly all of which he overran and conquered.
A large portion of this territory was called Gaul in those days; the part on the
Italian side of the Alps being named Cisalpine Gaul, while that which lay beyond
was designated as Transalpine.
Transalpine Gaul was substantially what is now France.
There was a part of Transalpine Gaul which had been already conquered and reduced to a
Roman province.
It was called The Province then, and has retained the name, with a slight change in
orthography, to the present day. It is now known as Provence.
The countries which Caesar went to invade were occupied by various nations and
tribes, many of which were well organized and war-like, and some of them were
considerably civilized and wealthy.
They had extended tracts of cultivated land, the slopes of the hills and the
mountain sides being formed into green pasturages, which were covered with flocks
of goats, and sheep, and herds of cattle,
while the smoother and more level tracts were adorned with smiling vineyards and
broadly-extended fields of waving grain. They had cities, forts, ships, and armies.
Their manners and customs would be considered somewhat rude by modern nations,
and some of their usages of war were half barbarian.
For example, in one of the nations which Caesar encountered, he found, as he says in
his narrative, a corps of cavalry, as a constituent part of the army, in which, to
every horse, there were two men, one the
rider, and the other a sort of foot soldier and attendant.
If the battle went against them, and the squadron were put to their speed in a
retreat, these footmen would cling to the manes-of the horses, and then, half
running, half flying, they would be borne
along over the field, thus keeping always at the side of their comrades, and escaping
with them to a place of safety.
But, although the Romans were inclined to consider these nations as only half
civilized, still there would be great glory, as Caesar thought, in subduing them,
and probably great treasure would be
secured in the conquest, both by the plunder and confiscation of governmental
property, and by the tribute which would be collected in taxes from the people of the
countries subdued.
Caesar accordingly placed himself at the head of an army of three Roman legions,
which he contrived, by means of a great deal of political maneuvering and
management, to have raised and placed under his command.
One of these legions, which was called the tenth legion, was his favorite corps, on
account of the bravery and hardihood which they often displayed.
At the head of these legions, Caesar set out for Gaul.
He was at this time not far from forty years of age.
Caesar had no difficulty in finding pretexts for making war upon any of these
various nations that he might desire to subdue.
They were, of course, frequently at war with each other, and there were at all
times standing topics of controversy and unsettled disputes among them.
Caesar had, therefore, only to draw near to the scene of contention, and then to take
sides with one party or the other, it mattered little with which, for the affair
almost always resulted, in the end, in his making himself master of both.
The manner, however, in which this sort of operation was performed, can best be
illustrated by an example, and we will take for the purpose the case of Ariovistus.
Ariovistus was a German king.
He had been nominally a sort of ally of the Romans.
He had extended his conquests across the Rhine into Gaul, and he held some nations
there as his tributaries.
Among these, the Aeduans were a prominent party, and, to simplify the account, we
will take their name as the representative of all who were concerned.
When Caesar came into the region of the Aeduans, he entered into some negotiations
with them, in which they, as he alleges, asked his assistance to enable them to
throw off the dominion of their German enemy.
It is probable, in fact, that there was some proposition of this kind from them,
for Caesar had abundant means of inducing them to make it, if he was disposed, and
the receiving of such a communication
furnished the most obvious and plausible pretext to authorize and justify his
interposition.
Caesar accordingly sent a messenger across the Rhine to Ariovistus, saying that he
wished to have an interview with him on business of importance, and asking him to
name a time which would be convenient to
him for the interview, and also to appoint some place in Gaul where he would attend.
To this Ariovistus replied, that if he had, himself, any business with Caesar, he would
have waited upon him to propose it; and, in the same manner, if Caesar wished to see
him, he must come into his own dominions.
He said that it would not be safe for him to come into Gaul without an army, and that
it was not convenient for him to raise and equip an army for such a purpose at that
time.
Caesar sent again to Ariovistus to say, that since he was so unmindful of his
obligations to the Roman people as to refuse an interview with him on business of
common interest, he would state the particulars that he required of him.
The Aeduans, he said, were now his allies, and under his protection; and Ariovistus
must send back the hostages which he held from them, and bind himself henceforth not
to send any more troops across the Rhine,
nor make war upon the Aeduans, or injure them in any way.
If he complied with these terms, all would be well.
If he did not, Caesar said that he should not himself disregard the just complaints
of his allies. Ariovistus had no fear of Caesar.
Caesar had, in fact, thus far, not begun to acquire the military renown to which he
afterward attained Ariovistus had, therefore, no particular cause to dread his
power.
He sent him back word that he did not understand why Caesar should interfere
between him and his conquered province.
"The Aeduans," said he, "tried the fortune of war with me, and were overcome; and they
must abide the issue.
The Romans manage their conquered provinces as they judge proper, without holding
themselves accountable to any one. I shall do the same with mine.
All that I can say is, that so long as the Aeduans submit peaceably to my authority,
and pay their tribute, I shall not *** them; as to your threat that you shall not
disregard their complaints, you must know
that no one has ever made war upon me but to his own destruction, and, if you wish to
see how it will turn out in your case, you may make the experiment whenever you
please."
Both parties immediately prepared for war.
Ariovistus, instead of waiting to be attacked, assembled his army, crossed the
Rhine, and advanced into the territories from which Caesar had undertaken to exclude
him.
As Caesar, however, began to make his arrangements for putting his army in motion
to meet his approaching enemy, there began to circulate throughout the camp such
extraordinary stories of the terrible
strength and courage of the German soldiery as to produce a very general panic.
So great, at length, became the anxiety and alarm, that even the officers were wholly
dejected and discouraged; and as for the men, they were on the very eve of mutiny.
When Caesar understood this state of things, he called an assembly of the
troops, and made an address to them.
He told them that he was astonished to learn to what an extent an unworthy
despondency and fear had taken possession of their minds, and how little confidence
they reposed in him, their general.
And then, after some further remarks about the duty of a soldier to be ready to go
wherever his commander leads him, and presenting also some considerations in
respect to the German troops with which
they were going to contend, in order to show them that they had no cause to fear,
he ended by saying that he had not been fully decided as to the time of marching,
but that now he had concluded to give
orders for setting out the next morning at three o'clock, that he might learn, as soon
as possible, who were too cowardly to follow him.
He would go himself, he said, if he was attended by the tenth legion alone He was
sure that they would not shrink from any undertaking in which he led the way.
The soldiers, moved partly by shame, partly by the decisive and commanding tone which
their general assumed, and partly reassured by the courage and confidence which he
seemed to feel, laid aside their fears, and
vied with each other henceforth in energy and ardor.
The armies approached each other.
Ariovistus sent to Caesar, saying that now, if he wished it, he was ready for an
interview.
Caesar acceded to the suggestion, and the arrangements for a conference were made,
each party, as usual in such cases, taking every precaution to guard against the
treachery of the other.
Between the two camps there was a rising ground, in the middle of an open plain,
where it was decided that the conference should be held.
Ariovistus proposed that neither party should bring any foot soldiers to the place
of meeting, but cavalry alone; and that these bodies of cavalry, brought by the
respective generals, should remain at the
foot of the eminence on either side, while Caesar and Ariovistus themselves, attended
each by only ten followers on horseback, should ascend it.
This plan was acceded to by Caesar, and a long conference was held in this way
between the two generals, as they sat upon their horses, on the summit of the hill.
The two generals, in their discussion, only repeated in substance what they had said in
their embassages before, and made no progress toward coming to an understanding.
At length Caesar closed the conference and withdrew.
Some days afterward Ariovistus sent a request to Caesar, asking that he would
appoint another interview, or else that he would depute one of his officers to proceed
to Ariovistus's camp and receive a
communication which he wished to make to him.
Caesar concluded not to grant another interview, and he did not think it prudent
to send any one of his principal officers as an embassador, for fear that he might be
treacherously seized and held as a hostage.
He accordingly sent an ordinary messenger, accompanied by one or two men.
These men were all seized and put in irons as soon as they reached the camp of
Ariovistus, and Caesar now prepared in earnest for giving his enemy battle.
He proved himself as skillful and efficient in arranging and managing the combat as he
had been sagacious and adroit in the negotiations which preceded it.
Several days were spent in maneuvers and movements, by which each party endeavored
to gain some advantage over the other in respect to their position in the
approaching struggle.
When at length the combat came, Caesar and his legions were entirely and triumphantly
successful. The Germans were put totally to flight.
Their baggage and stores were all seized, and the troops themselves fled in dismay by
all the roads which led back to the Rhine; and there those who succeeded in escaping
death from the Romans, who pursued them all
the way, embarked in boats and upon rafts, and returned to their homes.
Ariovistus himself found a small boat, in which, with one or two followers, he
succeeded in getting across the stream.
As Caesar, at the head of a body of his troops, was pursuing the enemy in this
their flight, he overtook one party who had a prisoner with them confined by iron
chains fastened to his limbs, and whom they were hurrying rapidly along.
This prisoner proved to be the messenger that Caesar had sent to Ariovistus's camp,
and whom he had, as Caesar alleges, treacherously detained.
Of course, he was overjoyed to be recaptured and set at liberty.
The man said that three times they had drawn lots to see whether they should burn
him alive then, or reserve the pleasure for a future occasion, and that every time the
lot had resulted in his favor.
The consequence of this victory was, that Caesar's authority was established
triumphantly over all that part of Gaul which he had thus freed from Ariovistus's
sway.
Other parts of the country, too, were pervaded by the fame of his exploits, and
the people every where began to consider what action it would be incumbent on them
to take, in respect to the new military
power which had appeared so suddenly among them.
Some nations determined to submit without resistance, and to seek the conqueror's
alliance and protection.
Others, more bold, or more confident of their strength, began to form combinations
and to arrange plans for resisting him. But, whatever they did, the result in the
end was the same.
Caesar's ascendency was every where and always gaining ground.
Of course, it is impossible in the compass of a single chapter, which is all that can
be devoted to the subject in this volume, to give any regular narrative of the events
of the eight years of Caesar's military career in Gaul.
Marches, negotiations, battles, and victories mingled with and followed each
other in a long succession, the particulars of which it would require a volume to
detail, every thing resulting most
successfully for the increase of Caesar's power and the extension of his fame.
Caesar gives, in his narrative, very extraordinary accounts of the customs and
modes of life of some of the people that he encountered.
There was one country, for example, in which all the lands were common, and the
whole structure of society was based on the plan of forming the community into one
great martial band.
The nation was divided into a hundred cantons, each containing two thousand men
capable of bearing arms.
If these were all mustered into service together, they would form, of course, an
army of two hundred thousand men.
It was customary, however, to organize only one half of them into an army, while the
rest remained at home to till the ground and tend the flocks and herds.
These two great divisions interchanged their work every year, the soldiers
becoming husbandmen, and the husbandmen soldiers.
Thus they all became equally inured to the hardships and dangers of the camp, and to
the more continuous but safer labors of agricultural toil.
Their fields were devoted to pasturage more than to tillage, for flocks and herds could
be driven from place to place, and thus more easily preserved from the depredations
of enemies than fields of grain.
The children grew up almost perfectly wild from infancy, and hardened themselves by
bathing in cold streams, wearing very little clothing, and making long hunting
excursions among the mountains.
The people had abundance of excellent horses, which the young men were
accustomed, from their earliest years, to ride without saddle or bridle, the horses
being trained to obey implicitly every command.
So admirably disciplined were they, that sometimes, in battle, the mounted men would
leap from their horses and advance as foot soldiers to aid the other infantry, leaving
the horses to stand until they returned.
The horses would not move from the spot; the men, when the object for which they had
dismounted was accomplished, would come back, spring to their seats again, and once
more become a squadron of cavalry.
Although Caesar was very energetic and decided in the government of his army, he
was extremely popular with his soldiers in all these campaigns.
He exposed his men, of course, to a great many privations and hardships, but then he
evinced, in many cases, such a willingness to bear his share of them, that the men
were very little inclined to complain.
He moved at the head of the column when his troops were advancing on a march, generally
on horseback, but often on foot; and Suetonius says that he used to go
bareheaded on such occasions, whatever was
the state of the weather, though it is difficult to see what the motive of this
apparently needless exposure could be, unless it was for effect, on some special
or unusual occasion.
Caesar would ford or swim rivers with his men whenever there was no other mode of
transit, sometimes supported, it was said, by bags inflated with air, and placed under
his arms.
At one time he built a bridge across the Rhine, to enable his army to cross that
river.
This bridge was built with piles driven down into the sand, which supported a
flooring of timbers.
Caesar, considering it quite an exploit thus to bridge the Rhine, wrote a minute
account of the manner in which the work was constructed, and the description is almost
exactly in accordance with the principles and usages of modern carpentry.
After the countries which were the scene of these conquests were pretty well subdued,
Caesar established on some of the great routes of travel a system of posts, that
is, he stationed supplies of horses at
intervals of from ten to twenty miles along the way, so that he himself, or the
officers of his army, or any couriers *** he might have occasion to send with
dispatches could travel with great speed by finding a fresh horse ready at every stage.
By this means he sometimes traveled himself a hundred miles in a day.
This system, thus adopted for military purposes in Caesar's time, has been
continued in almost all countries of Europe to the present age, and is applied to
traveling in carriages as well as on horseback.
A family party purchase a carriage, and arranging within it all the comforts and
conveniences which they will require on the journey, they set out, taking these post
horses, fresh at each village, to draw them to the next.
Thus they can go at any rate of speed which they desire, instead of being limited in
their movements by the powers of endurance of one set of animals, as they would be
compelled to be if they were to travel with their own.
This plan has, for some reason, never been introduced into America, and it is now
probable that it never will be, as the railway system will doubtless supersede it.
One of the most remarkable of the enterprises which Caesar undertook during
the period of these campaigns was his excursion into Great Britain.
The real motive of this expedition was probably a love of romantic adventure, and
a desire to secure for himself at Rome the glory of having penetrated into remote
regions which Roman armies had never reached before.
The pretext, however, which he made to justify his invading the territories of the
Britons was, that the people of the island were accustomed to come across the Channel
and aid the Gauls in their wars.
In forming his arrangements for going into England, the first thing was, to obtain all
the information which was accessible in Gaul in respect to the country.
There were, in those days, great numbers of traveling merchants, who went from one
nation to another to purchase and sell, taking with them such goods as were most
easy of transportation.
These merchants, of course, were generally possessed of a great deal of information in
respect to the countries which they had visited, and Caesar called together as many
of them as he could find, when he had
reached the northern shores of France, to inquire about the modes of crossing the
Channel, the harbors on the English side, the geographical conformation of the
country, and the military resources of the people.
He found, however, that the merchants could give him very little information.
They knew that Britain was an island, but they did not know its extent or its
boundaries; and they could tell him very little of the character or customs of the
people.
They said that they had only been accustomed to land upon the southern shore,
and to transact all their business there, without penetrating at all into the
interior of the country.
Caesar then, who, though undaunted and bold in emergencies requiring prompt and
decisive action, was extremely cautious and wary at all other times, fitted up a single
ship, and, putting one of his officers on
board with a proper crew, directed him to cross the Channel to the English coast, and
then to cruise along the land for some miles in each direction, to observe where
were the best harbors and places for
landing, and to examine generally the appearance of the shore.
This vessel was a galley, manned with numerous oarsmen, well selected and strong,
so that it could retreat with great speed from any sudden appearance of danger The
name of the officer who had the command of it was Volusenus.
Volusenus set sail, the army watching his vessel with great interest as it moved
slowly away from the shore.
He was gone five days, and then returned, bringing Caesar an account of his
discoveries.
In the mean time, Caesar had collected a large number of sailing vessels from the
whole line of the French shore, by means of which he proposed to transport his army
across the Channel.
He had two legions to take into Britain, the remainder of his forces having been
stationed as garrisons in various parts of Gaul.
It was necessary, too, to leave a considerable force at his post of
debarkation, in order to secure a safe retreat in case of any disaster on the
British side.
The number of transport ships provided for the foot soldiers which were to be taken
over was eighty.
There were, besides these, eighteen more, which were appointed to convey a squadron
of horse.
This cavalry force was to embark at a separate port, about eighty miles distant
from the one from which the infantry were to sail.
At length a suitable day for the embarkation arrived; the troops were put on
board the ships, and orders were given to sail.
The day could not be fixed beforehand, as the time for attempting to make the passage
must necessarily depend upon the state of the wind and weather.
Accordingly, when the favorable opportunity arrived, and the main body of the army
began to embark it took some time to send the orders to the port where the cavalry
had rendezvoused; and there were, besides,
other causes of delay which occurred to detain this corps, so that it turned out,
as we shall presently see, that the foot soldiers had to act alone in the first
attempt at landing on the British shore.
It was one o'clock in the morning when the fleet set sail.
The Britons had, in the mean time, obtained intelligence of Caesar's threatened
invasion, and they had assembled in great force, with troops, and horsemen, and
carriages of war, and were all ready to guard the shore.
The coast, at the point where Caesar was approaching, consists of a line of chalky
cliffs, with valley-like openings here and there between them, communicating with the
shore, and sometimes narrow beaches below.
When the Roman fleet approached the land, Caesar found the cliffs every where lined
with troops of Britons, and every accessible point below carefully guarded.
It was now about ten o'clock in the morning, and Caesar, finding the prospect
so unfavorable in respect to the practicability of effecting a landing here,
brought his fleet to anchor near the shore,
but far enough from it to be safe from the missiles of the enemy.
Here he remained for several hours, to give time for all the vessels to join him.
Some of them had been delayed in the embarkation, or had made slower progress
than the rest in crossing the Channel.
He called a council, too, of the superior officers of the army on board his own
galley, and explained to them the plan which he now adopted for the landing.
About three o'clock in the afternoon he sent these officers back to their
respective ships, and gave orders to make sail along the shore.
The anchors were raised and the fleet moved on, borne by the united impulse of the wind
and the tide.
The Britons, perceiving this movement, put themselves in motion on the land, following
the motions of the fleet so as to be ready to meet their enemy wherever they might
ultimately undertake to land.
Their horsemen and carriages went on in advance, and the foot soldiers followed,
all pressing eagerly forward to keep up with the motion of the fleet, and to
prevent Caesar's army from having time to
land before they should arrive at the spot and be ready to oppose them.
The fleet moved on until, at length, after sailing about eight miles, they came to a
part of the coast where there was a tract of comparatively level ground, which seemed
to be easily accessible from the shore.
Here Caesar determined to attempt to land; and drawing up his vessel, accordingly, as
near as possible to the beach, he ordered the men to leap over into the water, with
their weapons in their hands.
The Britons were all here to oppose them, and a dreadful struggle ensued, the
combatants dyeing the waters with their blood as they fought, half submerged in the
surf which rolled in upon the sand.
Some galleys rowed up at the same time near to the shore, and the men on board of them
attacked the Britons from the decks, by the darts and arrows which they shot to the
land.
Caesar at last prevailed; the Britons were driven away, and the Roman army established
themselves in quiet possession of the shore.
Caesar had afterward a great variety of adventures, and many narrow escapes from
imminent dangers in Britain, and, though he gained considerable glory by thus
penetrating into such remote and unknown
regions, there was very little else to be acquired.
The glory, however, was itself of great value to Caesar.
During the whole period of his campaigns in Gaul, Rome and all Italy in fact, had been
filled with the fame of his exploits, and the expedition into Britain added not a
little to his renown.
The populace of the city were greatly gratified to hear of the continued success
of their former favorite.
They decreed to him triumph after triumph, and were prepared to welcome him, whenever
he should return, with greater honors and more extended and higher powers than he had
ever enjoyed before.
Caesar's exploits in these campaigns were, in fact, in a military point of view, of
the most magnificent character.
Plutarch, in summing up the results of them, says that he took eight hundred
cities, conquered three hundred nations, fought pitched battles at separate times
with three millions of men, took one
million of prisoners, and killed another million on the field.
What a vast work of destruction was this for a man to spend eight years of his life
in performing upon his fellow-creatures, merely to gratify his insane love of
dominion.