CHAPTER IV

CÆSAR'S COMMENTARIES 1

BOOK V

The Argument

I. Cæsar orders a large fleet of peculiarly constructed ships to be built; proceeds against the Pirustæ; they submit. II. Returns into Hither Gaul; marches against the Treviri. III. Indutiomărus and Cingetorix.

V. Cæsar goes to port Itius; his policy in taking certain Gallic chieftains with him to Britain. VI. Dumnorix, who was to have been in that number, by craft and violence, escapes attending Cæsar, but is slain. - VII. Cæsar proceeds on his second expedition against rainst Britain.

IX. The bold resistance of the Britons; they are defeated. - X. The Roman fleet suffers severely in a storm. XI. Cæsar gives orders to Labienus to build more ships; Cassivellaunus. XII.-XIV. Description of Britain and its inhabitants. XVII. The Britains again prepare for war, and receive a signal defeat. XVIII. Cæsar advances into the territories of Cassivellaunus as far as the Thames; an engagement with that prince. XIX. The stratagem of Cassivellaunus. XX. The Trinobantes send ambassadors to Cæsar respecting the conduct of Cassivellaunus towards Mandubratius. XXII. The latter induces four princes of Cantium to attack the Romans, by whom they are defeated. XXIII. Cæsar receives hostages, and leads back his army into Gaul. - XXIV. He quarters his forces contrary to his custom, in several divisions. - XXV. Tasgetius. XXVI. The revolt of Ambiorix and Cativolcus. XXVII. Ambiorix defends himself in reference to his share in the Gallic combination. XXVIII.-XXXI. Dispute between Titurius and Cotta. XXXII. The valor and conduct of Cotta. XXXVIII.-XLII. The quarters of Cicero attacked by the Eburones; he sends intelligence to Cæsar. of Pulfio and Varenus. - XLVIII.-LII. Cæsar marches to the relief of Cicero; defeats the Eburones. LIII. Indutiomărus is thereby deterred from attacking the camp of Labienus. LVI.-LVIII. Re-enforced, Indutiomărus attacks Labienus; his forces are routed, and he is slain; Gaul becomes more tranquil.

XLIV. The noble conduct

CHAP. XII. - The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over from the country of the Belgæ for the purpose of plunder and making war; almost all of whom are called by the names of those states from which being sprung they went thither, and having waged war, continued there and began to cultivate the lands. The number of the people is countless, and their buildings exceedingly numerous, for the most part very like those of the Gauls: the number of cattle is great. They use either brass or iron rings, determined at a certain weight, as their money. Tin is produced in the midland regions; in the maritime, iron; but the quantity of it is small: they employ brass, which is imported. There, as in Gaul, is timber of every description, except beech and fir. They do not regard it lawful to eat the hare, and the cock, and the goose; they, however, breed them for amusement and pleasure. The climate is more temperate than in Gaul, the colds being less severe.

CHAP. XIV. - The most civilized of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent, which is entirely a maritime district, nor do they differ much from the Gallic customs. Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the Britains, indeed, dye themselves with woad, which occasions a bluish color, and thereby have a more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip. Ten and even twelve have wives common to them, and particularly brothers among brothers, and parents among their children; but if there be any issue by these wives, they are reputed to be the children of those by whom respectively each was first espoused when a virgin.

BOOK VI

The Argument

I. Cæsar, apprehending commotions in Gaul, levies additional forces. -II.-VI. Defeats the Nervii, Senõnes, Carnutes, and Menapii. VII., VIII. Labienus defeats the Treviri. IX. Cæsar again crosses the Rhine; the Ubii send ambassadors to plead the defence of their state. XI.-XX. The political factions of the Gallic states. The Druids, the second order or knights, the third order or commonalty, and the mythology of the Gauls. XXI.-XXVII. The Germans; their customs; account of some remarkable animals found in the Hercinian forest. XXIX.-XXXI. Cæsar returns to Gaul; Ambiorix is worsted; death of Cativolcus. XXXII.-XXXIV. The territories of the Eburones are plundered. XXXV.-XLII. The Sigambri attack the Roman camp; some extraordinary incidents connected therewith. Cæsar arrives and restores confidence. XLIII., XLIV. Cæsar holds an investigation respecting the conspiracy of the Senones; Acco suffers capital punishment; the appointment of winter quarters; Cæsar departs for Italy.

CHAP. XI. - Since we have come to this place, it does not appear to be foreign to our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul and Germany, and wherein these nations differ from each other. In Gaul there are factions not only in all the states, and in all the cantons and their divisions, but almost in each family, and of these factions those are the leaders who are considered according to their judgment to possess the greatest influence, upon whose will and determination the management of all affairs and measures depends. And that seems to have been instituted in ancient times with this view, that no one of the common people should be in want of support against one more powerful; for none [of those leaders] suffers his party to be oppressed and defrauded, and if he do otherwise, he has no influence among his party. This same policy exists throughout the whole of Gaul; for all the states are divided into two factions.

CHAP. XIII. - Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity: for the commonalty is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself and is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and punishments, if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices. This among them is the most heavy punishment. Those who have been thus interdicted are esteemed in the number of the impious and the criminal: all shun them, and avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive some evil from their contact; nor is justice administered to them when seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all these Druids one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his death, if any individual among the rest is preeminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated place in the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central region of the whole of Gaul. Hither all, who have disputes, assemble from every part, and submit to their decrees and determinations. This institution is supposed to have been devised in Britain, and to have been brought over from it into Gaul; and now those who desire to gain a more accurate knowledge of that system generally proceed thither for the purpose of studying it.

CHAP. XIV. - The Druids do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest; they have an exemption from military service and a dispensation in all matters. Induced by such great advantages, many embrace this profession of their own accord, and [many] are sent to it by their parents and relations. They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the people, nor those who learn, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory. They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets, that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another, and then think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded. They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many things respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods.

CHAP. XV. - The other order is that of the knights. These, when there is occasion and any war occurs (which before Cæsar's arrival was for the most part wont to happen every year, as either they on their part were inflicting injuries or repelling those which others inflicted on them), are all engaged in war. And those of them most distinguished by birth and resources, have the greatest number of vassals and dependents about them. They acknowledge this sort of influence and power only.

CHAP. XVI. - The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods cannot be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, of any other offence, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.

CHAP. XIX. - Whatever sums of money the husbands have received in the name of dowry from their wives, making an estimate of it, they add the same amount out of their own estates. An account is kept of all this money conjointly, and the profits are laid by: whichever of them shall have survived [the other], to that one the portion of both reverts together with the profits of the previous time. Husbands have power of life and death over their wives as well as over their children: and when the father of a family, born in a more than commonly distinguished rank, has died, his relations assemble, and, if the circumstances of his death are suspicious, hold an investigation upon the wives in the manner adopted towards slaves; and, if proof be obtained, put them to severe torture, and kill them. Their funerals, considering the state of civilization among the Gauls, are magnificent and costly; and they cast into the fire all things, including living creatures, which they suppose to have been dear to them when alive; and, a little before this period, slaves and dependents, who were ascertained to have been beloved by them, were, after the regular funeral rites were completed, burnt together with them.

CHAP. XX. - Those states which are considered to conduct their commonwealth more judiciously, have it ordained by their laws, that, if any person shall have heard by rumor and report from his neighbors anything concerning the commonwealth, he shall convey it to the magistrate and not impart it to any other; because it has been discovered that inconsiderate and inexperienced men were often alarmed by false reports and driven to some rash act, or else took hasty measures in affairs of the highest importance. The magistrates conceal those things which require to be kept unknown; and they disclose to the people whatever they determine to be