Book 2

CHAPTER 2.1

SECTION 2.1.1While Caesar was in Cisalpine Gaul [in winter quarters], as we have shown above, frequent reports were brought to him, and he was also informed by letters from Labienus, that all the Belgae, whom we have said constitute the third part of Gaul, were conspiring against the Roman people and exchanging hostages among themselves.

SECTION 2.1.2The reasons for the conspiracy were these: first, they feared that, once all Gaul had been pacified, our army would be led against them;

SECTION 2.1.3second, they were being incited by certain Gauls—some who, just as they had been unwilling for the Germans to remain longer in Gaul, likewise resented the Roman people’s army wintering and becoming permanently established there; others who, from fickleness and instability of mind, were eager for new governments;

SECTION 2.1.4and still others because in Gaul royal power was commonly seized by the more powerful men and by those who had the means to hire retainers, whereas under our dominion they could accomplish this less easily.

CHAPTER 2.2

SECTION 2.2.1Moved by these reports and letters, Caesar enrolled two new legions in Cisalpine Gaul and, at the opening of summer, sent the legate Quintus Pedius to lead them into Transalpine Gaul.

SECTION 2.2.2He himself came to the army as soon as forage began to be plentiful.

SECTION 2.2.3He charged the Senones and the other Gauls who bordered on the Belgae to learn what was taking place among them and keep him informed of these matters.

SECTION 2.2.4They all reported consistently that bands of men were being gathered and an army concentrated in one place. Caesar then judged that he must no longer hesitate to march against them. After arranging the grain supply, he broke camp and in about fifteen days reached the borders of the Belgae.

CHAPTER 2.3

SECTION 2.3.1When he arrived there unexpectedly and sooner than anyone had anticipated, the Remi, the Belgic people nearest to Gaul, sent to him as envoys Iccius and Andebrogius, the foremost men of their state,

SECTION 2.3.2to declare that they entrusted themselves and all they possessed to the protection and authority of the Roman people; that they had neither joined the other Belgae nor conspired against the Roman people;

SECTION 2.3.3and that they were ready to give hostages, obey his commands, receive him into their towns, and assist him with grain and other supplies;

SECTION 2.3.4that all the other Belgae were under arms, and that the Germans who lived on this side of the Rhine had joined them;

SECTION 2.3.5and that the frenzy of them all was so great that they had been unable to deter even the Suessiones—their own brothers and kinsmen, who enjoyed the same rights and laws and shared with them one government and one magistracy—from joining the conspiracy.

CHAPTER 2.4

SECTION 2.4.1When Caesar asked them which states were under arms, how large they were, and what military strength they possessed, he learned the following: most of the Belgae were descended from the Germans and had crossed the Rhine in ancient times; attracted by the fertility of the country, they had settled there and driven out the Gauls who inhabited the region; and they alone,

SECTION 2.4.2within the memory of our fathers, when all Gaul was being ravaged, had prevented the Teutones and Cimbri from entering their territories;

SECTION 2.4.3and consequently the memory of those deeds gave them great prestige and great confidence in military affairs.

SECTION 2.4.4The Remi said that they possessed exact information about all their numbers, because, being connected with them by ties of blood and marriage, they had learned how large a force each people had promised for that war in the common council of the Belgae.

SECTION 2.4.5The Bellovaci were the most powerful among them in courage, influence, and numbers. They could muster one hundred thousand armed men, had promised sixty thousand picked troops from that number, and demanded for themselves the supreme command of the entire war.

SECTION 2.4.6The Suessiones were their own neighbors and possessed very extensive territories and exceptionally fertile fields.

SECTION 2.4.7Within our own memory their king had been Diviciacus, the most powerful man in all Gaul, who had held dominion over a great part of these regions and even over Britain. Their king now was Galba, upon whom, because of his justice and exceptional wisdom, the supreme command of the entire war was being conferred by unanimous consent. They had twelve towns and promised fifty thousand armed men; the Nervii promised the same number,

SECTION 2.4.8and were considered the fiercest among the Belgae themselves and lived farthest away;

SECTION 2.4.9the Atrebates promised fifteen thousand, the Ambiani ten thousand, the Morini twenty-five thousand, the Menapii seven thousand, the Caleti ten thousand, the Veliocasses and Viromandui the same number, and the Atuatuci nineteen thousand;

SECTION 2.4.10the Condrusi, Eburones, Caerosi, and Paemani, who are collectively called Germans, were estimated at about forty thousand.

CHAPTER 2.5

SECTION 2.5.1After encouraging the Remi and addressing them with generous praise, Caesar ordered their entire senate to assemble before him and the children of their leading men to be brought to him as hostages. All these requirements were punctually fulfilled by them on the appointed day.

SECTION 2.5.2He himself earnestly urged Diviciacus the Aeduan to action, explaining how greatly it concerned the republic and their common safety that the enemy’s forces should be kept apart, so that it would not be necessary to engage so great a multitude at one time.

SECTION 2.5.3This could be accomplished, he said, if the Aedui led their forces into the territory of the Bellovaci and began to ravage their lands.

SECTION 2.5.4After giving him these instructions, Caesar dismissed him. When he saw that all the forces of the Belgae, concentrated in one place, were advancing against him, and learned from the scouts he had sent out and from the Remi that they were now not far away, he hastened to lead his army across the river Axona, which lies at the extreme frontier of the Remi, and there pitched camp.

SECTION 2.5.5This position protected one side of the camp by the riverbanks, secured the country behind him from the enemy, and made it possible for supplies from the Remi and the other states to be carried to him without danger.

SECTION 2.5.6There was a bridge over the river. Caesar stationed a guard there and left the legate Quintus Titurius Sabinus with six cohorts on the other side of the river. He ordered the camp to be fortified with a rampart twelve feet high and a ditch eighteen feet wide.

CHAPTER 2.6

SECTION 2.6.1Eight miles from this camp stood a town of the Remi named Bibrax. The Belgae attacked it directly from their line of march with great violence. It was held only with difficulty that day.

SECTION 2.6.2The Gauls and Belgae employ the same method of attacking a town. After surrounding the entire circuit of the walls with a mass of men, they begin hurling stones against the wall from every direction; and when the wall has been stripped of defenders, they form a tortoise, advance to the gates, and undermine the wall. On that occasion this was easily done.

SECTION 2.6.3For when so great a multitude was hurling stones and missiles, no one had any possibility of maintaining his position on the wall.

SECTION 2.6.4When night put an end to the assault, Iccius the Remian—a man of the highest birth and influence among his people, who then commanded the town and had been one of the envoys who came to Caesar to sue for peace—sent him a messenger to say that unless reinforcements were dispatched to him, he could hold out no longer.

CHAPTER 2.7

SECTION 2.7.1At midnight Caesar sent Numidians, Cretan archers, and Balearic slingers to reinforce the townspeople, using as guides the same men who had come as messengers from Iccius;

SECTION 2.7.2their arrival gave the Remi, together with hope of defense, a stronger determination to resist, while for the same reason the enemy lost hope of taking the town.

SECTION 2.7.3Accordingly, after lingering near the town for a short time and laying waste the fields of the Remi, they burned every village and building they could reach, then marched with all their forces toward Caesar’s camp and pitched their own camp less than two miles away;

SECTION 2.7.4that camp, as the smoke and fires indicated, extended more than eight miles in breadth.

CHAPTER 2.8

SECTION 2.8.1At first Caesar resolved to refrain from battle, both because of the enemy’s numbers and because of their extraordinary reputation for courage;

SECTION 2.8.2nevertheless, by daily cavalry engagements he tested what the enemy could accomplish by their valor and what our men would dare.

SECTION 2.8.3When he realized that our men were not inferior, he found the ground before the camp naturally favorable and well suited for drawing up a battle line. The hill on which the camp stood rose slightly from the plain and extended across its forward face only as widely as a deployed army could occupy; it had steep descents on either flank, while in front it sloped gently and gradually returned to the level of the plain. From each side of this hill he drew a transverse ditch about four hundred paces long

SECTION 2.8.4and built redoubts at the ends of the ditches, where he placed artillery, so that, once he had drawn up his line, the enemy, because they were so powerful in numbers, might not fight around the flanks and envelop his men.

SECTION 2.8.5This done, he left in camp the two legions he had most recently enrolled, so that they could be brought up as reinforcements wherever there might be need, and drew up the other six legions in battle order before the camp. The enemy likewise led their forces out of camp and deployed them.

CHAPTER 2.9

SECTION 2.9.1Between our army and the enemy’s lay a marsh of no great extent. The enemy waited to see whether our men would cross it; our men, meanwhile, stood ready under arms to attack them while encumbered if they should begin to cross.

SECTION 2.9.2Meanwhile, a cavalry engagement was fought between the two battle lines. When neither side began to cross, Caesar, after the cavalry engagement had gone more favorably for our men, led his forces back into camp.

SECTION 2.9.3The enemy immediately hastened from that place to the river Axona, which, as has been stated, lay behind our camp.

SECTION 2.9.4There, finding fords, they attempted to lead part of their forces across, intending, if they could, to storm the fort commanded by the lieutenant Quintus Titurius and destroy the bridge;

SECTION 2.9.5or, if they could not, to ravage the lands of the Remi, who were of great service to us in conducting the war, and cut our men off from supplies.

CHAPTER 2.10

SECTION 2.10.1When Titurius informed Caesar of this, he led all the cavalry, the lightly armed Numidians, the slingers, and the archers across the bridge and hastened against them. A fierce battle was fought at that place.

SECTION 2.10.2Our men attacked the enemy while they were encumbered in the river and killed a great number of them;

SECTION 2.10.3the rest, who most boldly attempted to cross over the bodies of their comrades, they drove back with a hail of missiles, while those who had crossed first were surrounded by the cavalry and slain.

SECTION 2.10.4When the enemy realized that their hopes had failed both of storming the town and of crossing the river, and saw that our men would not advance onto less favorable ground for the sake of battle, while their own supply of grain began to run short, they called a council and decided that it was best for each man to return home, and that all should assemble from every quarter to defend whichever people’s territory the Romans first invaded with their army. Thus they would fight on their own soil rather than another’s and make use of their stores of provisions at home.

SECTION 2.10.5Among the other reasons that brought them to this decision was their discovery that Diviciacus and the Haedui were approaching the borders of the Bellovaci. The Bellovaci could not be persuaded to remain any longer and refrain from carrying aid to their own people.

CHAPTER 2.11

SECTION 2.11.1Having reached this decision, they left camp during the second watch with great noise and confusion, without any fixed order or command, each man seeking the foremost place on the road for himself and hastening to reach home, so that their departure looked very much like a rout.

SECTION 2.11.2Caesar learned of this immediately through his scouts, but, fearing an ambush because he had not yet discovered why they were withdrawing, kept the army and cavalry within the camp.

SECTION 2.11.3At daybreak, when the scouts had confirmed the report, he sent all the cavalry ahead to delay the enemy’s rear guard. He placed the lieutenants Quintus Pedius and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta in command of them and ordered the lieutenant Titus Labienus to follow with three legions.

SECTION 2.11.4They attacked the rear and, pursuing it for many miles, cut down a great multitude of the fugitives. Those at the end of the column whom they overtook would halt and stoutly withstand the attack of our soldiers,

SECTION 2.11.5but those in front, because they seemed far removed from danger and were held together by neither necessity nor command, would hear the shouting, break ranks in panic, and seek safety one and all in flight.

SECTION 2.11.6Thus, without any danger to themselves, our men killed as great a number of them as the hours of daylight allowed. At sunset they ceased their pursuit and withdrew to camp, as they had been ordered.

CHAPTER 2.12

SECTION 2.12.1On the following day, before the enemy could recover from their terror and flight, Caesar led his army into the territory of the Suessiones, who were nearest to the Remi, and, after completing a long march, hastened to the town of Noviodunum.

SECTION 2.12.2He attempted to take it by assault directly from the march, because he heard that it had no defenders, but owing to the breadth of the ditch and the height of the wall he was unable to capture it, though only a few men defended it.

SECTION 2.12.3After fortifying his camp, he began to advance covered galleries and prepare everything needed for the assault.

SECTION 2.12.4Meanwhile, during the following night, the entire host of the Suessiones that had escaped the rout assembled within the town.

SECTION 2.12.5When the covered galleries had swiftly been advanced toward the town, a ramp constructed, and towers erected, the Gauls, shaken by the magnitude of works such as they had never before seen or heard of and by the speed of the Romans, sent envoys to Caesar to arrange their surrender; and when the Remi petitioned that they be spared, their request was granted.

CHAPTER 2.13

SECTION 2.13.1Caesar accepted the surrender of the Suessiones after receiving as hostages the foremost men of the state and two sons of King Galba himself, and after all the weapons in the town had been delivered. He then led his army against the Bellovaci.

SECTION 2.13.2They had brought themselves and all their possessions into the town of Bratuspantium. When Caesar and his army were about five miles from the town, all the elders came out, stretched out their hands toward Caesar, and began to declare aloud that they placed themselves under his protection and authority and would not contend in arms against the Roman people.

SECTION 2.13.3Likewise, when he approached the town and was pitching camp there, the boys and women, with hands outstretched from the wall, begged the Romans for peace in their customary manner.

CHAPTER 2.14

SECTION 2.14.1Diviciacus spoke on their behalf—for after the departure of the Belgae he had dismissed the forces of the Haedui and returned to Caesar:

SECTION 2.14.2The Bellovaci had always been loyal friends of the Haeduan state;

SECTION 2.14.3they had been incited by their chiefs, who claimed that the Haedui had been reduced to slavery by Caesar and were enduring every kind of indignity and insult, and so had revolted from the Haedui and made war on the Roman people.

SECTION 2.14.4The leaders of that policy, realizing what a great calamity they had brought upon their state, had fled to Britain.

SECTION 2.14.5Not only the Bellovaci but also the Haedui on their behalf begged Caesar to exercise his accustomed clemency and forbearance toward them.

SECTION 2.14.6If he did so, he would increase the authority of the Haedui among all the Belgae, by whose auxiliary troops and resources they had customarily sustained themselves whenever wars arose.

CHAPTER 2.15

SECTION 2.15.1Out of regard for Diviciacus and the Haedui, Caesar said that he would receive the Bellovaci under his protection and preserve them; but because their state possessed great authority among the Belgae and surpassed them in population, he demanded six hundred hostages.

SECTION 2.15.2After these had been delivered and all the weapons in the town surrendered, he proceeded from that place into the territory of the Ambiani, who without delay surrendered themselves and all their possessions.

SECTION 2.15.3The Nervii bordered upon their territory. When Caesar inquired into the character and customs of that people, he learned the following:

SECTION 2.15.4Merchants were allowed no access to them; they permitted no wine or other articles tending toward luxury to be imported, because they believed that such things weakened their spirits and diminished their courage;

SECTION 2.15.5they were a fierce people of great valor; they bitterly reproached and accused the other Belgae for surrendering to the Roman people and casting aside their ancestral courage;

SECTION 2.15.6and they firmly declared that they would neither send envoys nor accept any terms of peace.

CHAPTER 2.16

SECTION 2.16.1After marching for three days through their territory, Caesar learned from prisoners that the river Sabis was no more than ten miles from his camp;

SECTION 2.16.2that all the Nervii had taken up their position beyond that river and were awaiting the arrival of the Romans there, together with the Atrebates and Viromandui, their neighbors

SECTION 2.16.3—for they had persuaded both these peoples to share the same fortune in war—;

SECTION 2.16.4that the forces of the Atuatuci were also expected by them and were on the march;

SECTION 2.16.5and that they had gathered the women and all who seemed too young or too old to fight in a place to which an army had no access because of the marshes.

CHAPTER 2.17

SECTION 2.17.1On learning these facts, Caesar sent scouts and centurions ahead to select a suitable site for a camp.

SECTION 2.17.2A considerable number of the surrendered Belgae and other Gauls were following Caesar and marching with him. Some of these, as was later learned from prisoners, had observed the army’s customary order of march during those days, and went by night to the Nervii. They explained that a great mass of baggage came between each legion and the next, and that there would be no difficulty, once the first legion had reached the campsite while the other legions were still a long way off, in attacking it while it was burdened with its packs;

SECTION 2.17.3once it had been driven off and the baggage plundered, the remaining legions would not dare to stand against them.

SECTION 2.17.4The plan of those who brought this information was also aided by the fact that from ancient times the Nervii, having no strength in cavalry—for even to this day they pay no attention to that arm, but all the power they possess lies in their infantry—had sought to obstruct the cavalry of their neighbors more easily if they entered their territory for the sake of plunder. They cut into young trees and bent them over, and, as numerous branches grew out sideways, interwove brambles and thornbushes among them, creating hedges that afforded protection like a wall, through which it was impossible not merely to enter but even to see.

SECTION 2.17.5Since these obstacles impeded the march of our column, the Nervii decided that they must not let the proposed opportunity pass.

CHAPTER 2.18

SECTION 2.18.1The nature of the ground our men had selected for the camp was as follows. From its summit a hill sloped evenly down toward the river Sabis, which we mentioned above.

SECTION 2.18.2From that river another hill rose with a like ascent, facing and opposite the first. Its lower part was open for about two hundred paces, but its upper part was wooded, so that it was not easy to see into its interior.

SECTION 2.18.3The enemy kept themselves concealed within those woods. In the open ground along the river a few cavalry outposts were visible. The river was about three feet deep.

CHAPTER 2.19

SECTION 2.19.1Caesar had sent the cavalry ahead and was following with all his forces, but the arrangement and order of his column differed from what the Belgae had reported to the Nervii.

SECTION 2.19.2For as he was approaching the enemy, Caesar, in accordance with his custom, was leading six legions unencumbered by baggage;

SECTION 2.19.3behind them he had placed the baggage of the entire army; then the two legions most recently levied closed the whole column and guarded the baggage.

SECTION 2.19.4Our cavalry, together with the slingers and archers, crossed the river and engaged the enemy’s cavalry.

SECTION 2.19.5The enemy repeatedly withdrew to their own men in the woods and then charged our men again from the forest, while our men did not dare to pursue them in retreat beyond the point where the open ground extended. Meanwhile the six legions that had arrived first marked out the work and began to fortify the camp.

SECTION 2.19.6As soon as the first part of our army’s baggage was sighted by those who lay hidden in the woods—the moment they had agreed upon for beginning the battle—the enemy, who had formed their battle line and ranks within the forest and steeled themselves for the attack, suddenly rushed forth with all their forces and charged our cavalry.

SECTION 2.19.7Having easily driven and scattered them, they ran down to the river with incredible speed, so that the enemy seemed almost at the same instant to be at the woods, in the river, and already upon us.

SECTION 2.19.8With the same speed they pressed uphill toward our camp and against the men occupied with the fortifications.

CHAPTER 2.20

SECTION 2.20.1Caesar had to do everything at once: the battle flag had to be displayed, the signal for the men to run to arms; the trumpet call had to be sounded; the soldiers had to be recalled from the work; those who had gone a little farther away to fetch materials for the rampart had to be summoned back; the battle line had to be formed; the soldiers had to be exhorted; and the signal for battle had to be given.

SECTION 2.20.2The shortness of the time and the enemy’s assault prevented a large part of these measures from being carried out.

SECTION 2.20.3Two things offered relief amid these difficulties: the knowledge and experience of the soldiers, who, trained in earlier battles, could prescribe for themselves what had to be done no less ably than others could instruct them; and Caesar’s order that each lieutenant remain with his respective legion at the work until the camp had been fortified.

SECTION 2.20.4Because of the enemy’s nearness and speed, these officers no longer waited for commands from Caesar but carried out on their own whatever measures seemed best.

CHAPTER 2.21

SECTION 2.21.1After issuing the necessary commands, Caesar ran down to exhort the soldiers in whatever quarter chance presented and came to the Tenth Legion.

SECTION 2.21.2He exhorted the soldiers in no longer a speech than to remember their former valor, not to lose heart, and stoutly to withstand the enemy’s assault;

SECTION 2.21.3and because the enemy was no farther away than the distance to which a missile could be hurled, he gave the signal to begin battle.

SECTION 2.21.4Then, as he went to another part of the line for the same purpose of exhortation, he found the men already fighting.

SECTION 2.21.5So little time was available, and the enemy’s spirit was so ready for combat, that there was no time not only to fasten on their insignia but even to put on their helmets and strip the coverings from their shields.

SECTION 2.21.6Each man took his stand in whatever part of the line he happened to reach from the work and beside whatever standards he first caught sight of, lest he lose time for fighting in searching for his own unit.

CHAPTER 2.22

SECTION 2.22.1The army was drawn up more as the nature of the ground, the slope of the hill, and the urgency of the moment demanded than as military method and order required. The legions were separated, each resisting the enemy in a different quarter, while the extremely dense hedges described above obstructed the view; therefore no fixed reserves could be posted, no provision could be made for what was needed in each part of the field, and all commands could not be directed by a single man.

SECTION 2.22.2Accordingly, amid such unfavorable circumstances, the turns of fortune were also varied.

CHAPTER 2.23

SECTION 2.23.1The soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth Legions, who had taken their stand on the left of the battle line, hurled their pila and swiftly drove the Atrebates—for that was the enemy assigned to their part of the field—down from the higher ground into the river, exhausted and breathless from their run and covered with wounds. Our men pursued them as they attempted to cross and killed with their swords a great part of them while they were struggling in the water.

SECTION 2.23.2They themselves did not hesitate to cross the river, and though they advanced onto unfavorable ground, they renewed the battle when the enemy again made a stand and put them to flight.

SECTION 2.23.3Likewise, in another part of the field, two separated legions, the Eleventh and the Eighth, routed the Viromandui, with whom they had engaged, and fought their way down from the higher ground to the very banks of the river.

SECTION 2.23.4But almost the whole camp had been left exposed in front and on the left. The Twelfth Legion was posted on the right wing, with the Seventh at no great distance from it, and all the Nervii, in a densely packed column under the leadership of Boduognatus, who held the supreme command, hastened toward that point. Some of them began to surround the legions on their exposed flank, while others made for the highest part of the camp.

CHAPTER 2.24

SECTION 2.24.1At the same time our cavalry and lightly armed infantry, who had been with them and whom I said had been driven back by the enemy’s first assault, encountered the enemy face-to-face as they withdrew into camp and once more fled in another direction;

SECTION 2.24.2and the camp servants, who from the rear gate and the summit of the ridge had seen our victorious troops crossing the river and had gone out to plunder, looked back and saw the enemy moving about within our camp, whereupon they hurled themselves headlong into flight.

SECTION 2.24.3At the same moment a clamor and uproar arose among those arriving with the baggage, and in terror they rushed in every direction.

SECTION 2.24.4 Moved by all these circumstances, the Treveran cavalry—whose reputation for valor is unrivaled among the Gauls, and who had been sent by their state to Caesar as auxiliaries—when they saw our camp filling with a multitude of enemies, the legions hard pressed and held almost completely surrounded, and the camp servants, cavalry, slingers, and Numidians fleeing apart and scattered in every direction, despaired of our fortunes and hastened home.

SECTION 2.24.5 They reported to their state that the Romans had been routed and defeated and that the enemy had gained possession of their camp and baggage.

CHAPTER 2.25

SECTION 2.25.1 Caesar, leaving his exhortation of the Tenth Legion and proceeding to the right wing, saw that his men were being hard pressed; that, with the standards brought together in one place, the soldiers of the Twelfth Legion were so densely packed that they hindered one another in fighting; that all the centurions of the fourth cohort had been killed, its standard-bearer slain, and its standard lost; that nearly all the centurions of the remaining cohorts had been either wounded or killed, among them the chief centurion, Publius Sextius Baculus, a man of exceptional courage, who had been disabled by many severe wounds and could no longer support himself; that the rest were losing heart, while some in the rear were abandoning their posts, withdrawing from the battle, and avoiding the missiles; that the enemy, advancing uphill from the lower ground, did not slacken their frontal attack and were pressing hard on both flanks; and that the situation had become critical, with no reserve available to be sent forward.

SECTION 2.25.2 Since he himself had come there without a shield, he took one from a soldier in the rear and advanced into the front line. Addressing the centurions by name and encouraging the remaining soldiers, he ordered them to advance the standards and open out the maniples so that they could use their swords more readily.

SECTION 2.25.3 His arrival gave the soldiers hope and restored their courage. Since every man, even in this extremity, was eager to do his utmost under the eyes of his commander, the enemy’s assault was checked for a time.

CHAPTER 2.26

SECTION 2.26.1 When Caesar saw that the Seventh Legion, which had taken its stand nearby, was likewise being hard pressed by the enemy, he instructed the military tribunes to bring the legions gradually together and, wheeling about, to advance their standards against the enemy.

SECTION 2.26.2 Once this was done, each body supported the other, and, no longer fearing that they would be surrounded from behind by the enemy, they began to resist more boldly and fight more vigorously.

SECTION 2.26.3 Meanwhile, the soldiers of the two legions that had been guarding the baggage at the rear of the column, upon receiving word of the battle, broke into a run and came into the enemy’s view on the summit of the hill;

SECTION 2.26.4 and Titus Labienus, having taken possession of the enemy’s camp and observed from the higher ground what was happening in our own, sent the Tenth Legion to the assistance of our men.

SECTION 2.26.5 From the flight of the cavalry and camp servants, the soldiers learned the state of affairs, the position of the battle, and the grave danger threatening the camp, the legions, and the commander; and they spared no effort to increase their speed.

CHAPTER 2.27

SECTION 2.27.1 Their arrival brought about so great a change in fortune that even those of our men who had fallen, disabled by their wounds, propped themselves upon their shields and renewed the fight, while the camp servants, seeing the enemy terrified, attacked armed men even though they themselves were unarmed;

SECTION 2.27.2 and the cavalry, determined to wipe out the disgrace of their flight by valor, everywhere in the battle sought to surpass the legionaries.

SECTION 2.27.3 But the enemy, even when their last hope of safety was gone, displayed such courage that, when their front ranks had fallen, those nearest stepped upon the bodies of the dead and fought from atop them;

SECTION 2.27.4 and when these too had been struck down and the corpses lay heaped together, the survivors used the pile as a mound from which to hurl missiles at our men and catch our javelins and throw them back.

SECTION 2.27.5 Thus it must be judged that men of such courage had not without reason dared to cross a very broad river, climb its exceedingly high banks, and advance over ground of the greatest disadvantage: their greatness of spirit had made the most difficult undertakings easy.

CHAPTER 2.28

SECTION 2.28.1 After this battle had been fought and the people and name of the Nervii had been reduced almost to annihilation, the elders—who, as we have said, had been gathered with the women and children in the tidal marshes and swamps—received news of the battle and concluded that nothing could hinder the victors and that nowhere was safe for the defeated.

SECTION 2.28.2 With the unanimous consent of all who survived, they sent envoys to Caesar and surrendered to him. In recounting the calamity that had befallen their state, they said that their six hundred senators had been reduced to three, and that of sixty thousand men able to bear arms scarcely five hundred remained.

SECTION 2.28.3 Caesar, wishing it to appear that he had shown mercy toward the wretched and suppliant people, took the greatest care to preserve them, ordered them to continue in possession of their own territory and towns, and commanded their neighbors to restrain themselves and their dependents from injury and outrage against them.

CHAPTER 2.29

SECTION 2.29.1 The Atuatuci, of whom we have spoken above, were coming with all their forces to the assistance of the Nervii; but when news of this battle reached them, they turned back from their march and returned home.

SECTION 2.29.2 Abandoning all their towns and strongholds, they gathered all their possessions into a single town exceptionally well fortified by nature.

SECTION 2.29.3 On every side around it this town had very high cliffs and steep descents, except at one point, where there remained a gently sloping approach no more than two hundred feet wide. This place they had fortified with an exceedingly high double wall, and they were then placing stones of great weight and sharpened timbers upon the wall.

SECTION 2.29.4 They themselves were descended from the Cimbri and Teutones, who, when making their way into our Province and Italy, had left on this side of the Rhine the baggage they could neither drive nor carry with them, and had also left six thousand of their own men together to guard and defend it.

SECTION 2.29.5 For many years after the destruction of their countrymen, these men were harried by the neighboring peoples, at one time making war upon them and at another defending themselves against their attacks. At last, after peace had been concluded by common consent among them all, they chose this place for their dwelling.

CHAPTER 2.30

SECTION 2.30.1 At the first arrival of our army, they made frequent sorties from the town and engaged our men in minor skirmishes.

SECTION 2.30.2 Later, when they had been enclosed by a rampart twelve feet high, extending for fifteen miles around them and strengthened by numerous redoubts, they kept within the town.

SECTION 2.30.3 When they saw the covered galleries being advanced, the siege mound being constructed, and a tower being erected at a distance, they at first laughed from the wall and assailed us with taunts, because so vast a machine was being built so far away:

SECTION 2.30.4 with what hands or with what strength, they asked, could men of such puny stature hope to place a tower of so enormous a weight upon their wall? For because of their own great bodily size, the Gauls generally hold our shortness of stature in contempt.

CHAPTER 2.31

SECTION 2.31.1 But when they saw the tower moving and approaching their walls, they were struck by the strange and unfamiliar sight and sent envoys to Caesar to sue for peace. These spoke as follows:

SECTION 2.31.2 they did not believe that the Romans could wage war without divine assistance, since they were able to move forward machines of such great height with such speed;

SECTION 2.31.3 and they said that they entrusted themselves and all they possessed to Roman power.

SECTION 2.31.4 They had only one request and entreaty: if Caesar, in accordance with the clemency and humanity of which they had heard from others, should decide that the Atuatuci were to be spared, he should not strip them of their arms.

SECTION 2.31.5 Nearly all their neighbors were their enemies and envied their valor; if they surrendered their arms, they would be unable to defend themselves against them.

SECTION 2.31.6 If they were to be reduced to such a condition, it would be better for them to suffer any fate at the hands of the Roman people than to be tortured to death by those over whom they had been accustomed to rule.

CHAPTER 2.32

SECTION 2.32.1 To this Caesar replied that, more from his own customary practice than from any merit of theirs, he would preserve their state, provided they surrendered before the battering ram touched their wall;

SECTION 2.32.2 but there could be no terms of surrender unless their arms were handed over. He would do what he had done in the case of the Nervii and would command their neighbors not to inflict any injury upon those who had surrendered to the Roman people.

SECTION 2.32.3 When this answer had been reported to their people, they said that they would obey his commands.

SECTION 2.32.4 A great quantity of arms was thrown from the wall into the ditch before the town, so that the heaps of weapons rose almost to the height of the top of the wall and the siege mound. Nevertheless, as was later discovered, approximately a third had been concealed and retained within the town. The gates were opened, and for that day they enjoyed peace.

CHAPTER 2.33

SECTION 2.33.1 Toward evening Caesar ordered the gates to be closed and the soldiers to leave the town, so that the townspeople might suffer no injury from them during the night.

SECTION 2.33.2 The Atuatuci had previously formed a plan, as was afterward learned, because they believed that once their surrender had been accepted, our men would withdraw their guards or at least keep watch less carefully. Some took the weapons they had retained and concealed; others carried shields made of bark or woven wicker, which, as the shortness of time required, they had hastily covered with hides. During the third watch, at the point where the ascent to our fortifications seemed least difficult, they suddenly made a sortie from the town with all their forces.

SECTION 2.33.3 Fires were immediately kindled as signals, in accordance with Caesar’s previous orders, and men hurried to the spot from the nearest redoubts.

SECTION 2.33.4 The enemy fought as fiercely as brave men, with their last hope of safety at stake and on unfavorable ground, were bound to fight against troops hurling missiles from the rampart and towers, when all hope depended upon valor alone.

SECTION 2.33.5 About four thousand of them were killed, and the remainder were driven back into the town.

SECTION 2.33.6 On the following day, when the gates had been broken down and no one remained to defend them, our soldiers were admitted, and Caesar sold the entire population and property of the town at auction.

SECTION 2.33.7 The purchasers reported to him that the number of persons sold was fifty-three thousand.

CHAPTER 2.34

SECTION 2.34.1 At the same time Caesar was informed by Publius Crassus, whom he had sent with one legion against the Veneti, Venelli, Osismi, Coriosolites, Esuvii, Aulerci, and Redones—maritime states bordering upon the Ocean—that all those states had been brought under the dominion and power of the Roman people.

CHAPTER 2.35

SECTION 2.35.1 With these achievements completed and all Gaul pacified, so great a reputation for this war spread among the barbarians that nations dwelling beyond the Rhine sent embassies to Caesar, promising to give hostages and carry out his commands.

SECTION 2.35.2 Since Caesar was hastening to Italy and Illyricum, he ordered these embassies to return to him at the beginning of the following summer.

SECTION 2.35.3 He himself placed the legions in winter quarters among the Carnutes, Andes, Turoni, and the other states near the regions where he had waged war, and then departed for Italy.

SECTION 2.35.4 In consequence of these achievements, upon receipt of Caesar’s dispatches, the Senate decreed a thanksgiving of fifteen days, an honor that before this time had been granted to no one.

CHAPTER 2.1

SECTION 2.1.1While Caesar was in Cisalpine Gaul [in winter quarters], as we have explained above, frequent reports were brought to him, and he was also informed by letters from Labienus, that all the Belgae—who, as we have said, made up one-third of Gaul—were conspiring against the Roman people and exchanging hostages with one another.

SECTION 2.1.2The reasons for the conspiracy were these: first, they feared that once all Gaul had been pacified, our army would be led against them;

SECTION 2.1.3second, they were being urged on by certain Gauls. Some of these, just as they had not wanted the Germans to remain in Gaul any longer, resented the Roman people’s army wintering in Gaul and establishing a permanent presence there. Others, because of their fickle and impulsive nature, were eager for new governments.

SECTION 2.1.4Still others urged them on because, in Gaul, kingships were commonly seized by the more powerful men and by those who had the resources to hire retainers; under our rule, these men could not achieve that objective so easily.

CHAPTER 2.2

SECTION 2.2.1Moved by these reports and letters, Caesar raised two new legions in Cisalpine Gaul and, at the beginning of summer, sent his lieutenant Quintus Pedius to lead them into Transalpine Gaul.

SECTION 2.2.2He himself went to the army as soon as forage began to be available.

SECTION 2.2.3He instructed the Senones and the other Gauls bordering the Belgae to find out what was happening among them and keep him informed of these matters.

SECTION 2.2.4They all consistently reported that armed bands were being assembled and an army was being concentrated in one place. Caesar then concluded that he should have no hesitation about marching against them. After arranging for grain supplies, he broke camp and reached the borders of the Belgae in about fifteen days.

CHAPTER 2.3

SECTION 2.3.1When he arrived there unexpectedly and sooner than anyone had anticipated, the Remi, the Belgic people nearest Gaul, sent Iccius and Andebrogius, the leading men of their state, as envoys to him.

SECTION 2.3.2They said that they were entrusting themselves and all they possessed to the protection and authority of the Roman people; that they had neither joined the other Belgae nor conspired against the Roman people;

SECTION 2.3.3and that they were prepared to give hostages, carry out his orders, receive him into their towns, and assist him with grain and other supplies.

SECTION 2.3.4All the other Belgae were under arms, and the Germans living on this side of the Rhine had joined them.

SECTION 2.3.5The frenzy of them all was so great that the Remi had been unable to deter even the Suessiones—their own brothers and blood relatives, who enjoyed the same rights and laws and shared one government and one chief magistrate with them—from joining the others.

CHAPTER 2.4

SECTION 2.4.1When Caesar asked them which states were under arms, how large they were, and what military strength they possessed, he learned the following: most of the Belgae were descended from Germans, had crossed the Rhine long ago, had settled there because of the fertility of the land, and had driven out the Gauls who inhabited those regions. They alone were the people who,

SECTION 2.4.2within the memory of our fathers, when all Gaul was being ravaged, had prevented the Teutones and Cimbri from entering their territory.

SECTION 2.4.3As a result, the memory of those events led them to claim great authority and to have great confidence in their military ability.

SECTION 2.4.4The Remi said that they had obtained complete information about the Belgae’s numbers because, being connected with them by ties of blood and marriage, they had learned how large a force each people had promised for that war at the general council of the Belgae.

SECTION 2.4.5The Bellovaci were the strongest among them in courage, influence, and population. They could muster one hundred thousand armed men, had promised sixty thousand picked men from that number, and demanded supreme command of the entire war.

SECTION 2.4.6The Suessiones were their neighbors and possessed a very extensive territory and extremely fertile fields.

SECTION 2.4.7Within our own memory their king had been Diviciacus, the most powerful man in all Gaul, who had ruled not only a large part of these regions but also Britain. Galba was now their king. Because of his justice and exceptional judgment, the supreme command of the entire war was being conferred upon him by unanimous consent. They had twelve towns and promised fifty thousand armed men. The Nervii promised the same number,

SECTION 2.4.8and were regarded as the fiercest of all the Belgae and lived farthest away.

SECTION 2.4.9The Atrebates promised fifteen thousand, the Ambiani ten thousand, the Morini twenty-five thousand, the Menapii seven thousand, the Caleti ten thousand, the Veliocasses and Viromandui the same number, and the Atuatuci nineteen thousand.

SECTION 2.4.10They estimated that the Condrusi, Eburones, Caerosi, and Paemani, who are collectively called Germans, would supply about forty thousand.

CHAPTER 2.5

SECTION 2.5.1Caesar encouraged the Remi and addressed them graciously. He ordered their entire senate to assemble before him and the children of their leading men to be brought to him as hostages. They carefully fulfilled all these requirements by the appointed day.

SECTION 2.5.2Caesar himself strongly urged Diviciacus the Haeduan to act, explaining how important it was to the Roman state and to their common security for the enemy’s forces to be kept apart, so that they would not have to fight so great a multitude at one time.

SECTION 2.5.3This could be accomplished if the Haedui led their forces into the territory of the Bellovaci and began ravaging their fields.

SECTION 2.5.4After giving him these instructions, Caesar sent him away. When Caesar saw that all the forces of the Belgae had been assembled in one place and were advancing against him, and learned from the scouts he had sent out and from the Remi that they were no longer far away, he hurried to lead his army across the Axona River, which lies at the farthest edge of the Remi’s territory, and pitched camp there.

SECTION 2.5.5This position protected one side of the camp with the riverbanks, secured the area behind him against the enemy, and made it possible for supplies from the Remi and the other states to be brought to him without danger.

SECTION 2.5.6There was a bridge over the river. Caesar stationed a garrison there and left his lieutenant Quintus Titurius Sabinus with six cohorts on the opposite side of the river. He ordered the camp to be fortified with a rampart twelve feet high and a trench eighteen feet wide.

CHAPTER 2.6

SECTION 2.6.1A town of the Remi called Bibrax was eight miles from this camp. On their march, the Belgae began to attack it with great force. It was defended with difficulty that day.

SECTION 2.6.2The Gauls and the Belgae use the same method of attacking towns. After a great mass of men has surrounded the entire circuit of the walls, stones begin to be hurled against the wall from every direction. Once the wall has been stripped of defenders, the attackers form a testudo, advance to the gates, and undermine the wall. This was easily done on that occasion.

SECTION 2.6.3For when so great a multitude was hurling stones and missiles, no one had any possibility of holding his position on the wall.

SECTION 2.6.4When night brought the assault to an end, Iccius the Remian, a man of the highest birth and influence among his people, who was then in command of the town and was one of the envoys who had come to Caesar to discuss peace, sent him a message saying that unless reinforcements were sent to him, he could not hold out any longer.

CHAPTER 2.7

SECTION 2.7.1Around midnight Caesar used as guides the same men who had brought the message from Iccius and sent Numidians, Cretan archers, and Balearic slingers to reinforce the townspeople.

SECTION 2.7.2Their arrival gave the Remi both hope of successful defense and greater eagerness to resist, while for the same reason the enemy lost hope of capturing the town.

SECTION 2.7.3Accordingly, after remaining near the town for a short time and devastating the fields of the Remi, the enemy burned every village and building they could reach, then marched with all their forces toward Caesar’s camp and pitched camp less than two miles away.

SECTION 2.7.4Their camp, as the smoke and fires indicated, extended more than eight miles across.

CHAPTER 2.8

SECTION 2.8.1At first Caesar decided to avoid battle, both because of the enemy’s great numbers and because of their exceptional reputation for courage.

SECTION 2.8.2Nevertheless, through daily cavalry engagements he tested the enemy’s fighting ability and the boldness of our own men.

SECTION 2.8.3When he realized that our men were not inferior, he chose the naturally advantageous and suitable ground in front of the camp for drawing up his battle line. The hill on which the camp stood rose slightly above the plain and extended across the front only as far as a deployed battle line could occupy. It had steep slopes on both flanks, while at the front it descended gently and gradually returned to the level of the plain. From each side of this hill Caesar dug a crosswise trench about four hundred paces long

SECTION 2.8.4and built redoubts at the ends of the trenches, where he positioned artillery. Thus, when he had formed his battle line, the enemy, who were so powerful because of their numbers, would not be able to fight around the flanks and surround his men.

SECTION 2.8.5After doing this, he left the two legions he had most recently raised in camp so that they could be brought up as reinforcements wherever they were needed, and formed the other six legions in battle line in front of the camp. The enemy likewise led their forces out of camp and formed their line.

CHAPTER 2.9

SECTION 2.9.1There was a small marsh between our army and the enemy’s. The enemy waited to see whether our men would cross it, while our men remained under arms, ready to attack them while they were encumbered if they began crossing first.

SECTION 2.9.2Meanwhile, a cavalry engagement was fought between the two battle lines. When neither side began to cross, Caesar, after the cavalry action had gone more favorably for our men, led his forces back into camp.

SECTION 2.9.3The enemy immediately marched from that place to the Axona River, which, as has been explained, lay behind our camp.

SECTION 2.9.4There, after finding fords, they tried to lead part of their forces across, intending, if they could, to storm the fort commanded by the lieutenant Quintus Titurius and destroy the bridge;

SECTION 2.9.5or, if they could not, to ravage the lands of the Remi, who were of great assistance to us in conducting the war, and cut our men off from supplies.

CHAPTER 2.10

SECTION 2.10.1When Titurius informed Caesar of this, Caesar led all the cavalry, the lightly armed Numidians, the slingers, and the archers across the bridge and hurried toward them. There was fierce fighting at that spot.

SECTION 2.10.2Our men attacked the enemy while they were encumbered in the river and killed a great number of them;

SECTION 2.10.3they drove back with a barrage of missiles the rest, who were making a most daring attempt to cross over the bodies of their comrades, and surrounded with cavalry and killed those who had crossed first.

SECTION 2.10.4When the enemy realized that their hopes had failed both of storming the town and of crossing the river, saw that our men would not advance onto less favorable ground for the sake of fighting, and began themselves to run short of grain, they called a council and decided that the best course was for each people to return home and for them all to assemble from every direction to defend whichever people’s territory the Romans first invaded with their army. In this way they would fight in their own territory rather than another’s and use their domestic supplies of grain.

SECTION 2.10.5Among the other reasons, this consideration also led them to that decision: they had learned that Diviciacus and the Haedui were approaching the territory of the Bellovaci. It was impossible to persuade the Bellovaci to delay any longer and not bring aid to their own people.

CHAPTER 2.11

SECTION 2.11.1Once this decision had been made, they left camp during the second watch with great noise and confusion, without any fixed order or command. Since each man sought the first place on the march for himself and hurried to reach home, their departure looked very much like a rout.

SECTION 2.11.2Caesar immediately learned of this from his scouts, but because he had not yet discovered why they were leaving, he feared an ambush and kept the army and cavalry in camp.

SECTION 2.11.3At daybreak, after scouts confirmed the facts, he sent all the cavalry ahead to delay the enemy’s rear guard. He placed the lieutenants Quintus Pedius and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta in command of them and ordered the lieutenant Titus Labienus to follow with three legions.

SECTION 2.11.4They attacked the rear guard, pursued it for many miles, and cut down a great multitude of the fleeing enemy. The men at the end of the column whom they overtook would halt and bravely withstand the attack of our soldiers,

SECTION 2.11.5but those farther ahead, because they seemed removed from danger and were restrained by neither necessity nor command, broke ranks when they heard the shouting and all sought safety in flight.

SECTION 2.11.6Thus, without any danger to themselves, our men killed as great a number of them as the daylight allowed. At sunset they stopped the pursuit and, as ordered, withdrew to camp.

CHAPTER 2.12

SECTION 2.12.1The next day, before the enemy could recover from their panic and flight, Caesar led his army into the territory of the Suessiones, who were nearest to the Remi, and, after completing a forced march, hurried to the town of Noviodunum.

SECTION 2.12.2He attempted to storm it directly from the march because he had heard that it was without defenders, but despite the small number defending it, he could not take it because of the width of the ditch and the height of the wall.

SECTION 2.12.3After fortifying his camp, he began moving covered galleries forward and preparing everything needed for an assault.

SECTION 2.12.4Meanwhile, during the following night, the entire host of Suessiones who had escaped the rout assembled in the town.

SECTION 2.12.5The covered galleries were quickly brought up to the town, a siege ramp was built, and towers were erected. Shaken by the scale of these works, which the Gauls had neither seen nor heard of before, and by the speed of the Romans, they sent envoys to Caesar to negotiate their surrender and, at the request of the Remi, obtained permission for their lives to be spared.

CHAPTER 2.13

SECTION 2.13.1After receiving as hostages the leading men of the state, along with two sons of King Galba himself, and after all the weapons in the town had been handed over, Caesar accepted the surrender of the Suessiones and led his army against the Bellovaci.

SECTION 2.13.2They had taken themselves and all their possessions into the town of Bratuspantium. When Caesar and his army were about five miles from that town, all the older men came out, stretched out their hands toward Caesar, and began declaring aloud that they were placing themselves under his protection and authority and would not take up arms against the Roman people.

SECTION 2.13.3Likewise, when he approached the town and began establishing his camp there, the boys and women, with outstretched hands, asked the Romans for peace from the wall in their customary manner.

CHAPTER 2.14

SECTION 2.14.1Diviciacus spoke on their behalf—for after the Belgae’s departure, he had dismissed the forces of the Haedui and returned to Caesar:

SECTION 2.14.2The Bellovaci had always been loyal to and on friendly terms with the Haeduan state;

SECTION 2.14.3they had been incited by their leaders, who said that Caesar had reduced the Haedui to slavery and that they were enduring every kind of outrage and humiliation, and had therefore revolted from the Haedui and made war on the Roman people.

SECTION 2.14.4The leaders responsible for that policy, realizing what a great disaster they had brought upon their state, had fled to Britain.

SECTION 2.14.5Not only the Bellovaci but also the Haedui on their behalf were asking Caesar to treat them with his customary clemency and mercy.

SECTION 2.14.6If he did so, he would increase the authority of the Haedui among all the Belgae, by whose military support and resources they were accustomed to sustain themselves whenever wars arose.

CHAPTER 2.15

SECTION 2.15.1Out of regard for Diviciacus and the Haedui, Caesar said that he would accept the Bellovaci under his protection and spare them. Because their state possessed great authority among the Belgae and had a very large population, he demanded six hundred hostages.

SECTION 2.15.2After these had been handed over and all the weapons had been brought out of the town, he proceeded from there into the territory of the Ambiani, who surrendered themselves and all their possessions without delay.

SECTION 2.15.3The territory of the Nervii bordered theirs. When Caesar inquired into the character and customs of the Nervii, he learned the following:

SECTION 2.15.4Merchants had no access to them; they permitted no wine or other articles associated with luxury to be imported because they believed that such things weakened their spirit and relaxed their courage;

SECTION 2.15.5they were fierce people of great courage; they rebuked and condemned the other Belgae for surrendering to the Roman people and casting aside their ancestral valor;

SECTION 2.15.6they declared emphatically that they would neither send envoys nor accept any terms of peace.

CHAPTER 2.16

SECTION 2.16.1After marching through their territory for three days, Caesar learned from prisoners that the River Sabis was no more than ten miles from his camp;

SECTION 2.16.2all the Nervii had taken up positions across that river and were awaiting the Romans’ arrival there together with the Atrebates and Viromandui, their neighbors

SECTION 2.16.3(for they had persuaded both peoples to share the same fortunes in the war);

SECTION 2.16.4the forces of the Atuatuci were also expected by them and were on the way;

SECTION 2.16.5they had gathered the women and those who seemed too young or too old to be useful in battle at a place that an army could not approach because of the marshes.

CHAPTER 2.17

SECTION 2.17.1After learning these facts, Caesar sent scouts and centurions ahead to select a suitable site for a camp.

SECTION 2.17.2A number of the surrendered Belgae and other Gauls were accompanying Caesar and marching with him. Some of them, as was later learned from prisoners, had observed the army’s marching routine during those days and went to the Nervii by night. They explained that a large quantity of baggage came between each legion and the next and that it would be no difficult matter, once the first legion had entered camp and the remaining legions were still a long distance away, to attack it while it was burdened with its packs;

SECTION 2.17.3once that legion had been routed and the baggage plundered, the others would not dare to stand against them.

SECTION 2.17.4The plan of those bringing this intelligence was also assisted by the fact that from ancient times the Nervii, being powerless in cavalry—for even now they pay no attention to that arm but possess all their strength in infantry—had cut into young trees and bent them over so that numerous branches grew out sideways, then planted brambles and thornbushes among them. In this way they had made these hedges provide a fortification like a wall, which not only could not be penetrated but could not even be seen through, so that they could more easily obstruct the cavalry of neighboring peoples if it entered their territory to raid.

SECTION 2.17.5Since these obstacles hindered the march of our column, the Nervii decided that they must not let this plan pass unused.

CHAPTER 2.18

SECTION 2.18.1The terrain of the place our men had selected for the camp was as follows. A hill sloped evenly downward from its summit to the River Sabis, which we mentioned above.

SECTION 2.18.2Across from and opposite this hill, another rose from the river with an equally steep slope. Its lower two hundred paces were open, but its upper part was wooded, so that it was not easy to see into it.

SECTION 2.18.3The enemy kept themselves hidden within these woods; in the open ground along the river, only a few cavalry outposts could be seen. The river was about three feet deep.

CHAPTER 2.19

SECTION 2.19.1Caesar sent the cavalry ahead and followed with all his forces, but the arrangement and order of the column differed from what the Belgae had reported to the Nervii.

SECTION 2.19.2Since he was approaching the enemy, Caesar, following his customary practice, led six legions unencumbered by baggage;

SECTION 2.19.3behind them he had placed the baggage of the entire army; then the two legions most recently raised brought up the rear of the whole column and guarded the baggage.

SECTION 2.19.4Our cavalry, together with the slingers and archers, crossed the river and engaged the enemy’s cavalry.

SECTION 2.19.5The enemy repeatedly withdrew into the woods to their own men and then charged our men again from the woods, while our men did not dare pursue them in retreat beyond the point to which the open ground extended. Meanwhile, the six legions that had arrived first marked out the work and began fortifying the camp.

SECTION 2.19.6When the men concealed in the woods saw the first part of our army’s baggage—the moment they had agreed among themselves to begin the battle—they suddenly charged out with all their forces and attacked our cavalry, having drawn up their battle line and ranks within the woods and encouraged one another.

SECTION 2.19.7After easily routing and driving them off, the enemy ran down to the river with incredible speed, so that almost at the same moment they appeared at the woods, in the river, and already at close quarters with our men.

SECTION 2.19.8With the same speed, they charged uphill toward our camp and the men occupied with the fortification work.

CHAPTER 2.20

SECTION 2.20.1Caesar had to do everything at once: display the flag, which was the signal that the men had to rush to arms; give the trumpet call; recall the soldiers from the work; summon those who had gone a little farther away to gather materials for the rampart; form the battle line; encourage the soldiers; and give the signal for battle.

SECTION 2.20.2The shortage of time and the enemy’s assault prevented a large part of these measures.

SECTION 2.20.3Two things provided support amid these difficulties: the soldiers’ knowledge and experience, because their training in previous battles enabled them to decide for themselves what needed to be done no less effectively than they could be instructed by others; and the fact that Caesar had forbidden each lieutenant to leave the work and his assigned legion until the camp had been fortified.

SECTION 2.20.4Because the enemy was so close and moved so quickly, these officers no longer waited for Caesar’s commands but carried out on their own whatever measures seemed best.

CHAPTER 2.21

SECTION 2.21.1After issuing the necessary orders, Caesar ran down to encourage the soldiers in whatever direction chance presented and came to the Tenth Legion.

SECTION 2.21.2He encouraged the soldiers with no longer a speech than to remember their former courage, not to lose heart, and to withstand the enemy’s attack bravely;

SECTION 2.21.3and because the enemy was no farther away than the distance a missile could be thrown, he gave the signal to begin battle.

SECTION 2.21.4Then, as he set out in another direction to encourage the troops there as well, he found them already fighting.

SECTION 2.21.5So little time was available and so ready was the enemy to fight that there was no time not only to attach their insignia but even to put on their helmets and remove the covers from their shields.

SECTION 2.21.6Each man took his position wherever he happened to arrive from the work and beside whatever standards he first saw, so that he would not waste time for fighting by searching for his own unit.

CHAPTER 2.22

SECTION 2.22.1The army was drawn up more as the nature of the ground, the choice of the hill, and the urgency of the moment demanded than as military method and order required. The separate legions were resisting the enemy in different sectors, and the extremely dense hedges lying between them, as described above, obstructed their view. Consequently, definite reserves could not be posted, what was needed in each sector could not be foreseen, and all commands could not be directed by one man.

SECTION 2.22.2Therefore, amid such unfavorable circumstances, the outcomes produced by fortune also varied.

CHAPTER 2.23

SECTION 2.23.1The soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth Legions, who had taken position on the left side of the battle line, threw their javelins and quickly drove the Atrebates—for that was the enemy assigned to their sector—down from the higher ground into the river, exhausted and out of breath from running and covered with wounds. They pursued them as they tried to cross and killed with their swords a large part of them while they were encumbered in the river.

SECTION 2.23.2They did not hesitate to cross the river themselves, and after advancing onto unfavorable ground, they renewed the battle and put the enemy to flight when they resisted again.

SECTION 2.23.3Likewise, in another sector, two separate legions, the Eleventh and the Eighth, routed the Viromandui, whom they had engaged, and fought from the higher ground along the riverbanks themselves.

SECTION 2.23.4But almost the entire camp had been left exposed at the front and on the left side. The Twelfth Legion was positioned on the right wing, with the Seventh not far from it, and all the Nervii, massed in a very dense formation and led by Boduognatus, who held supreme command, hurried toward that point. Some of them began to outflank the legions on their exposed side, while others made for the highest point of the camp.

CHAPTER 2.24

SECTION 2.24.1At the same time, our cavalry and lightly armed infantry who had been with them—the men I said had been routed by the enemy’s first assault—encountered the enemy head-on as they withdrew into camp and again fled in another direction;

SECTION 2.24.2and the camp servants, who had gone out through the rear gate and from the crest of the hill after seeing our victorious men cross the river, intending to plunder, looked back and saw the enemy moving about in our camp, whereupon they threw themselves headlong into flight.

SECTION 2.24.3At the same time, shouting and uproar arose among those arriving with the baggage, and in their terror they rushed off in different directions.

SECTION 2.24.4Shaken by all these events, the Treveran cavalrymen, whose reputation for courage is outstanding among the Gauls and who had been sent by their state to Caesar as auxiliaries, saw our camp filling with enemy troops, the legions being hard-pressed and nearly surrounded, and the camp servants, cavalrymen, slingers, and Numidians fleeing in different directions and scattering everywhere. Despairing of our situation, they hurried home.

SECTION 2.24.5They reported to their state that the Romans had been routed and defeated and that the enemy had taken possession of their camp and baggage.

CHAPTER 2.25

SECTION 2.25.1After encouraging the Tenth Legion, Caesar went to the right wing. There he saw that his men were being hard-pressed and that, because the standards of the Twelfth Legion had been brought together in one place, the soldiers were packed so tightly that they hindered one another in fighting. All the centurions of the fourth cohort had been killed, its standard-bearer had been slain, and its standard had been lost. Nearly all the centurions of the remaining cohorts had either been wounded or killed, among them the chief centurion, Publius Sextius Baculus, a man of exceptional courage, who had been disabled by many severe wounds and could no longer support himself. Caesar saw that the other soldiers were losing momentum, that some in the rear were abandoning their positions, withdrawing from the battle, and trying to avoid the missiles, that the enemy coming up from lower ground did not let up their frontal attack and were pressing in from both sides, that the situation was desperate, and that there were no reserves available to send in.

SECTION 2.25.2Since he himself had come there without a shield, he took one from a soldier in the rear and advanced to the front line. Calling the centurions by name and encouraging the rest of the soldiers, he ordered them to advance the standards and spread out the maniples so that they could use their swords more easily.

SECTION 2.25.3His arrival gave the soldiers hope and renewed their spirit. Since each man, even in this most desperate situation, wanted to do his best under the commander’s eyes, the enemy’s attack was slowed somewhat.

CHAPTER 2.26

SECTION 2.26.1When Caesar saw that the Seventh Legion, which had taken its position nearby, was likewise being hard-pressed by the enemy, he instructed the military tribunes to have the two legions gradually join together, turn their standards, and advance against the enemy.

SECTION 2.26.2Once this was done, the men could support one another and no longer feared being surrounded by the enemy from behind, so they began to resist more boldly and fight more fiercely.

SECTION 2.26.3Meanwhile, the soldiers of the two legions that had been guarding the baggage at the rear of the column were informed of the battle, broke into a run, and came into view of the enemy on the crest of the hill.

SECTION 2.26.4Titus Labienus had taken possession of the enemy’s camp and, after observing from the higher ground what was happening in our camp, sent the Tenth Legion to support our men.

SECTION 2.26.5When its soldiers learned from the flight of the cavalry and camp servants what the situation was and how great a danger threatened the camp, the legions, and the commander, they made every possible effort to move quickly.

CHAPTER 2.27

SECTION 2.27.1Their arrival produced such a complete reversal that even our men who had collapsed from their wounds leaned on their shields and resumed the fighting, while the camp servants, seeing the enemy terrified, attacked armed men even though they themselves were unarmed.

SECTION 2.27.2The cavalrymen, meanwhile, wanting to erase the shame of their flight through courage, placed themselves ahead of the legionaries at every point in the battle.

SECTION 2.27.3But even when their last hope of survival was gone, the enemy displayed such courage that, when the men in their front rank fell, those behind them stood on their bodies and fought from there.

SECTION 2.27.4When these men too were struck down and the bodies were piled up, the survivors used the heap as a mound from which to hurl missiles at our men and catch our javelins and throw them back.

SECTION 2.27.5It must therefore be judged that men of such courage had not acted without reason when they dared to cross a very broad river, climb its extremely high banks, and advance over the most unfavorable ground. Their greatness of spirit had turned the most difficult tasks into easy ones.

CHAPTER 2.28

SECTION 2.28.1After this battle, the people and very name of the Nervii had nearly been annihilated. When news of the battle reached the elders, whom, as we said, they had sent with the children and women into the tidal marshes and swamps, they believed that nothing could obstruct the victors and that nowhere was safe for the defeated.

SECTION 2.28.2With the unanimous consent of all the survivors, they sent envoys to Caesar and surrendered to him. In describing their state’s disaster, they said that their senators had been reduced from six hundred to three and that, out of sixty thousand men, barely five hundred remained capable of bearing arms.

SECTION 2.28.3To show that he was treating these wretched suppliants with mercy, Caesar took the greatest care to preserve them. He ordered them to continue using their own territory and towns, and commanded their neighbors to refrain from injuring or mistreating them or their people.

CHAPTER 2.29

SECTION 2.29.1The Atuatuci, whom we mentioned above, were coming with all their forces to assist the Nervii. When they received news of this battle, they turned around on the march and returned home.

SECTION 2.29.2They abandoned all their towns and forts and brought everything they possessed into a single town exceptionally well fortified by nature.

SECTION 2.29.3On every side around it, this town had very high cliffs and steep slopes. On only one side was there a gently rising approach no more than two hundred feet wide. They had fortified this place with a very high double wall and were now placing heavy stones and sharply pointed beams on the wall.

SECTION 2.29.4They were descended from the Cimbri and Teutones. When those peoples were marching toward our province and Italy, they had left on this side of the Rhine the baggage that they could not drive or carry with them, together with six thousand of their own men to guard and defend it.

SECTION 2.29.5For many years after the destruction of the Cimbri and Teutones, these men were continually harassed by neighboring peoples, sometimes attacking them and sometimes defending themselves against attack. At last, after making peace by common agreement with all of them, they chose this place as their home.

CHAPTER 2.30

SECTION 2.30.1When our army first arrived, they made frequent sorties from the town and engaged our men in minor skirmishes.

SECTION 2.30.2Later, after they had been surrounded by a rampart twelve feet high and fifteen miles in circumference, with forts at frequent intervals, they kept themselves inside the town.

SECTION 2.30.3When they saw covered galleries being advanced, a siege ramp being constructed, and a tower being erected some distance away, they at first mocked us from the wall and shouted insults because such a massive piece of machinery was being set up so far away.

SECTION 2.30.4With what hands or what strength, they asked, did men of such short stature expect to place a tower of such enormous weight against the wall? For because of their own great size, the Gauls generally regard our shortness with contempt.

CHAPTER 2.31

SECTION 2.31.1But when they saw the tower moving and approaching the walls, they were shaken by this strange and unfamiliar sight and sent envoys to Caesar to negotiate peace. The envoys spoke as follows:

SECTION 2.31.2They did not believe that the Romans were waging war without divine assistance, since they could move forward machines of such great height with such speed.

SECTION 2.31.3They said that they entrusted themselves and everything they possessed to Roman power.

SECTION 2.31.4They had only one request and plea: if Caesar, in keeping with the clemency and gentleness of which they had heard from others, decided to spare the Atuatuci, he should not strip them of their weapons.

SECTION 2.31.5Nearly all their neighbors were their enemies and envied their courage, and they would be unable to defend themselves against them once they had surrendered their weapons.

SECTION 2.31.6If they were reduced to that condition, it would be better for them to suffer any fate at the hands of the Roman people than to be tortured to death by those over whom they had been accustomed to rule.

CHAPTER 2.32

SECTION 2.32.1Caesar replied that he would spare their state more because of his own customary practice than because they deserved it, provided that they surrendered before the battering ram touched their wall.

SECTION 2.32.2But there could be no terms of surrender unless they handed over their weapons. He would do what he had done in the case of the Nervii and would order their neighbors not to inflict any injury on people who had surrendered to the Roman people.

SECTION 2.32.3When this reply was reported to their people, they said that they would do as commanded.

SECTION 2.32.4They threw such a great quantity of weapons from the wall into the ditch in front of the town that the piles of weapons almost reached the top of the wall and the siege ramp. Nevertheless, as was later discovered, they concealed and retained about one-third of them in the town. The gates were opened, and for that day they enjoyed peace.

CHAPTER 2.33

SECTION 2.33.1Toward evening Caesar ordered the gates closed and the soldiers to leave the town, so that the townspeople would not suffer any abuse from them during the night.

SECTION 2.33.2As was later learned, the townspeople had already formed a plan. They believed that, once their surrender had been accepted, our men would withdraw their guards or at least keep watch less carefully. Some armed themselves with the weapons they had retained and concealed; others used shields made of bark or woven from wicker, which, because time was short, they had hurriedly covered with hides. During the third watch, at the point where the climb to our fortifications appeared least steep, they suddenly made a sortie from the town with all their forces.

SECTION 2.33.3As Caesar had previously ordered, a signal was quickly given with fires, and men rushed there from the nearest forts.

SECTION 2.33.4The enemy fought as fiercely as brave men in their last hope of survival were bound to fight on unfavorable ground against troops hurling missiles from the rampart and towers, when all hope depended on courage alone.

SECTION 2.33.5About four thousand of them were killed, and the rest were driven back into the town.

SECTION 2.33.6The next day, since no one was now defending the gates, they were broken down and our soldiers were admitted. Caesar sold the entire population and property of the town at auction.

SECTION 2.33.7The purchasers reported to him that the number of persons sold was fifty-three thousand.

CHAPTER 2.34

SECTION 2.34.1At the same time, Caesar received a report from Publius Crassus, whom he had sent with one legion against the Veneti, Venelli, Osismi, Coriosolites, Esuvii, Aulerci, and Redones—the coastal states bordering the Ocean—that all those states had been brought under the dominion and authority of the Roman people.

CHAPTER 2.35

SECTION 2.35.1After these achievements had brought peace to all Gaul, the fame of this war spread so widely among the barbarians that peoples living across the Rhine sent delegations to Caesar promising to give hostages and obey his commands.

SECTION 2.35.2Because Caesar was hurrying to Italy and Illyricum, he ordered these delegations to return to him at the beginning of the following summer.

SECTION 2.35.3After leading the legions into winter quarters among the Carnutes, Andes, Turoni, and the states near the regions where he had waged war, Caesar himself departed for Italy.

SECTION 2.35.4As a result of these achievements, the Senate, upon receiving Caesar’s dispatches, decreed fifteen days of public thanksgiving, an honor that had never before been granted to anyone.