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At the news of this victory, the greater part of the peoples of Aquitaine²⁹¹ submitted to Crassus, and sent spontaneously him hostages; some, nevertheless, who were more distant, and reckoned on the advanced period of the season, refused to make their submission.²⁹²

March against the Morini and the Menapii.

VI. Towards the same time, Cæsar, in spite of the near approach of the end of the fine season, marched against the Morini and the Menapii, who alone, after the entire pacification of Gaul, remained in arms, and had not sent him deputies. These peoples had no towns: they dwelt in caverns²⁹³ or under the tent.²⁹⁴ Taught by the example of their neighbours, they avoided engaging in pitched battles, and withdrew into the recesses of woods and marshes. Cæsar, when he arrived in their country, was attacked by surprise at the moment he was beginning to fortify his camp. He drove them back into the woods, but not without experiencing some loss; then, to open himself a wider road in the forest which had become their asylum, he caused the trees between him and the enemy to be cut down, and, heaping them up to the right and the left, he formed two ramparts, which secured him from attacks on the flank. This work was executed in a few days over a great space with incredible celerity. Cæsar had already reached the place of refuge of the Morini and the Menapii, who retired further and further into the thickness of the forests; already he had captured their herds and baggage, which they were obliged to leave behind, when rain falling in torrents, no longer permitting the soldiers to remain under tents, compelled him to retire.²⁹⁵ He ravaged the country, burnt the habitations, and withdrew his army, which he placed in winter quarters (between the Seine and the Loire), among the Aulerci, the Lexovii, and the other peoples recently vanquished.²⁹⁶

Observations.

VII. The war of 698, directed almost exclusively against the peoples on the shores of the ocean, shows clearly that Cæsar already, at that time, entertained the design of making an expedition into the isle of Britain, for he not only destroys the only important fleet that could be brought against him, that of the Veneti, but he subjugates, either in person or by his lieutenants, all the countries which extend from Bayonne to the mouth of the Scheldt.

It is worthy of remark how much the Romans were superior to the barbarians, by discipline, tactics, and the art of sieges; with what facility they raised terraces, made dykes, or promptly cut down a forest to clear themselves a passage through it. Truly, it is to the genius of Cæsar that the glory of all these brilliant successes belongs; but we must also acknowledge that he had under his orders the best army in the world, and the men most experienced in the military profession. Among these were the chiefs placed over the machines and siege operations, named præfecti fabrorum. They rendered him the most signal services. Mention is made of L. Cornelius Balbus,²⁹⁷ who prepared the material of his army during his consulate, and Mamurra,²⁹⁸ who, in spite of the bad character Catullus gives him in his satires, gave proof of his genius during the wars in Gaul.

CHAPTER VII.
(Year of Rome 699.)

(Book IV of the “Commentaries.”)

INCURSIONS OF THE USIPETES AND THE TENCTERI – FIRST PASSAGE OF THE RHINE – FIRST DESCENT IN BRITAIN – CHASTISEMENT OF THE MORINI AND THE MENAPII

Cæsar’s March against the Usipetes and the Tencteri.

I. THE Usipetes and the Tencteri, German peoples driven out of their place by the Suevi, had wandered during three years in different countries of Germany, when, during the winter of 698 to 699, they resolved to pass the Rhine. They invaded the territory of the Menapii (established on the two banks), surprised them, massacred them, crossed the river not far from its mouth (towards Cleves²⁹⁹ and Xanten) (see Plate 14), and, after taking possession of the whole country, lived the rest of the winter on the provisions they found there.

Cæsar saw the necessity of being on his guard against the impression which this invasion would produce on the minds of the Gauls. It was to be feared they would be tempted to revolt, with the assistance of the Germans who had just crossed the Rhine.

To meet this danger, Cæsar crossed the mountains earlier than usual (maturius quam consuerat), and joined the army in the countries of the Aulerci and the Lexovii, between the Loire and the Seine, where it had wintered. His apprehensions were but too well founded. Several peoples of Gaul had invited the Germans to leave the banks of the Rhine and penetrate farther into the interior. Eager to respond to this appeal, the latter soon spread themselves far over the country, and already some of them had arrived at the countries of the Eburones and the Condrusi, the latter clients of the Treviri. On receiving news of this, Cæsar called together the Gaulish chiefs who had invited the Germans, feigned ignorance of their conduct, addressed kind words to them, obtained cavalry from them, and, after securing his provisions, began his march against this new irruption of barbarians. He foresaw a formidable war, for the number of the Tencteri and Usipetes amounted to no less than 430,000 individuals – men, women, and children. If we admit that among these peoples the proportion of the number of men capable of bearing arms was the same as in the emigration of the Helvetii, that is, one-fourth of the total population, we see that the Romans had to combat more than 100,000 enemies.³⁰⁰

Without knowing exactly the road taken by Cæsar, we may suppose that he promptly concentrated his army on the lower Seine to carry it towards the north, at Amiens, where he had convoked the Gaulish chiefs who had sought the support of the Germans. He followed, from Amiens, the road which passes by Cambrai, Bavay, Charleroy, Tongres, and Maestricht, where he crossed the Meuse. (See Plate 14.) He was only a few days’ march from the Germans, when deputies came to propose, in rather haughty language, an arrangement: – “Driven from their country, they have not taken the initiative in the war; but they will not seek to avoid it. The Germans have learnt from their ancestors, whoever may be the aggressor, to have recourse to arms, and never to prayers. They may be useful allies to the Romans, if lands are given to them, or if they are allowed to retain those they have conquered. Moreover, with the exception of the Suevi, to whom the gods themselves are not equal, they know no people capable of resisting them.” Cæsar imposed upon them, as a first condition, to quit Gaul; observing, “Those who have not been able to defend their own lands, have no right to claim the lands of others;” and he offered them a settlement among the Ubii, who were imploring his support against the Suevi. The deputies promised to bring an answer to this proposal in three days; meanwhile, they begged him to suspend his march. Cæsar considered that this demand was only a subterfuge to gain time to recall the cavalry, which had been sent a few days before to collect plunder and provisions among the Ambivariti,³⁰¹ beyond the Meuse. He rejected their proposal, and continued his advance.

At the appointed time, Cæsar, having passed the locality where Venloo now stands, was no longer more than twelve miles from the enemy; and the deputies returned as they had promised. They met the army in march, and earnestly entreated it should go no farther. When they found they could not prevail, they begged at least that the cavalry, which formed the vanguard, should not engage in action, and that they should be allowed a delay of three days, in order to send deputies to the Ubii; if the latter bound themselves by oath to receive them, they would accept Cæsar’s conditions. The latter was not the dupe of this new stratagem, yet he promised them to advance that day no more than four miles, for the purpose of finding water. He invited them, further, to send a more numerous deputation next day. His cavalry received the order not to provoke a combat, but to confine itself in case of being attacked, to remaining firm, and await the arrival of the legions.

When they learnt that Cæsar was approaching the Meuse and the Rhine, the Usipetes and Tencteri had concentrated their forces towards the confluence of those two rivers, in the most remote part of the country of the Menapii, and had established themselves on the river Niers, in the plains of Goch. Cæsar, on his side, after leaving Venloo, had borne to the right to march to the encounter of the enemy. Since, to the north of the Roer, there exists, between the Rhine and the Meuse, no other water-course but the Niers, he was evidently obliged to advance to that river to find water: he was four miles from it when he met, at Straelen, the German deputation.

The vanguard, consisting of 5,000 cavalry, marched without distrust, reckoning on the truce which had been concluded. Suddenly, 800 horsemen (all at the disposal of the Germans, since the greater part of their cavalry had passed the Meuse) appeared bearing down upon Cæsar’s cavalry from the greatest distance at which they could be seen. In an instant the ranks of the latter are thrown into disorder. They have succeeded in forming again, when the German horsemen, according to their custom, spring to the ground, stab the horses in the bellies, and overthrow their riders, who fly in terror till they come in sight of the legions. Seventy-four of the cavalry perished, among whom was the Aquitanian Piso, a man of high birth and great courage, whose grandfather had wielded the sovereign power in his country, and had obtained from the Senate the title of “Friend.” His brother, in the attempt to save him, shared his fate.

This attack was a flagrant violation of the truce, and Cæsar resolved to enter into no further negotiation with so faithless an enemy. Struck with the impression produced by this single combat on the fickle minds of the Gauls, he was unwilling to leave them time for reflection, but decided on delaying battle no longer; besides, it would have been folly to give the Germans leisure to wait the return of their cavalry. Next morning their chiefs came to the camp in great numbers, to offer their justification for the previous day’s attack in defiance of the convention, but their real object was to obtain by deception a prolongation of the truce. Cæsar, satisfied at seeing them deliver themselves into his power of their own accord, judged right to make use of reprisals, and ordered them to be arrested. The Roman army, then encamped on the Niers, was only eight miles distant from the Germans.³⁰²

Rout of the Usipetes and the Tencteri.

II. Cæsar drew all the troops out of his camp, formed the infantry in three lines,³⁰³ and placed the cavalry, still intimidated by the late combat, in the rear guard. After marching rapidly over the short distance which separated him from the Germans, he came upon them totally unexpected. Struck with terror at the sudden appearance of the army, and disconcerted by the absence of their chiefs, they had the time neither to deliberate nor to take their arms, and hesitated for a moment between flight and resistance.³⁰⁴ While their cries and disorder announce their terror, the Romans, provoked by their perfidious conduct on the previous day, rush upon the camp. As many of the Germans as are quick enough to gain their arms attempt to defend themselves, and combat among the baggage and wagons. But the women and children fly on every side. Cæsar sends the cavalry to pursue them. As soon as the barbarians, who still resisted, hear behind them the cries of the fugitives, and see the massacre of their companions, they throw down their arms, abandon their ensigns, and rush headlong out of the camp. They only cease their flight when they reach the confluence of the Rhine and the Meuse, where some are massacred and others are swallowed up in the river.³⁰⁵ This victory, which did not cost the Romans a single man, delivered them from a formidable war. Cæsar restored their liberty to the chiefs he had retained; but they, fearing the vengeance of the Gauls, whose lands they had ravaged, preferred remaining with him.³⁰⁶

First Passage of the Rhine.

III. After so brilliant a success, Cæsar, to secure the results, considered it a measure of importance to cross the Rhine, and so seek the Germans in their homes. For this purpose, he must choose the point of passage where the right bank was inhabited by a friendly people, the Ubii. The study of this and the following campaigns leads us to believe that this was Bonn.³⁰⁷ From the field of battle, then, he proceeded up the valley of the Rhine; he followed a direction indicated by the following localities: Gueldres, Crefeld, Neuss, Cologne, and Bonn. (See Plate 14.) Above all, it was Cæsar’s intention to put a stop to the rage of the Germans for invading Gaul, to inspire them with fears for their own safety, and to prove to them that the Roman army dared and could cross a great river. He had, moreover, a plausible motive for penetrating into Germany – the refusal of the Sicambri to deliver up to him the cavalry of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who had taken refuge among them after the battle. The Sicambri had replied to his demand, that the empire of the Roman people ended with the Rhine, and that beyond it Cæsar had no further claims. At the same time, the Ubii, who alone of the peoples beyond the Rhine had sought his alliance, claimed his protection against the Suevi, who were threatening them more seriously than ever. It would be a sufficient guarantee for their safety, they said, to show himself on the right bank of the Rhine, so great was the renown of the Roman army among even the most remote of the German nations, since the defeat of Ariovistus and the recent victory; and they offered him boats for passing the river. Cæsar declined this offer. It did not appear to him worthy of the dignity of himself or of the Roman people to have recourse to barbarians, and he judged it unsafe to transport the army in boats. Therefore, in spite of the obstacles presented by a wide, deep, and rapid river, he decided on throwing a bridge across it.

It was the first time that a regular army attempted to cross the Rhine. The bridge was constructed in the following manner. (See Plate 15.) Two trees (probably in their rough state), a foot and a half in thickness, cut to a point at one of their extremities, and of a length proportionate to the depth of the river, were bound together with cross-beams at intervals of two feet from each other; let down into the water, and stuck into the ground by means of machines placed in boats coupled together, they were driven in by blows of a rammer, not vertically, like ordinary piles, but obliquely, giving them an inclination in the direction of the current. Opposite them, and at a distance of forty feet below, another couple of piles were placed, arranged in the same manner, but inclined in a contrary direction, in order to resist the violence of the river. In the interval left between the two piles of each couple, a great beam was lodged, called the head-piece, of two feet square; these two couples (hæc utraque) were bound together on each side, beginning from the upper extremity, by two wooden ties (fibulæ), so that they could neither draw from nor towards each other, and presented, according to the “Commentaries,” a whole of a solidity so great, that the force of the water, so far from injuring it, bound all its parts tighter together.³⁰⁸ This system formed one row of piles of the bridge; and as many of them were established as were required by the breadth of the river. The Rhine at Bonn being about 430 mètres wide, the bridge must have been composed of fifty-six arches, supposing each of these to have been twenty-six Roman feet in length (7·70 mètres). Consequently, there were fifty-four rows of piles. The floor was formed of planks reaching from one head-piece to the other, on which were placed transversely smaller planks, which were covered with hurdles. Besides this, they drove in obliquely, below each row of piles, a pile which, placed in form of a buttress (quæ pro ariete subjectæ), and bound in with it, increased the resistance to the current. Other piles were similarly driven in at a little distance above the rows of piles, so as to form stockades, intended to stop trunks of trees and boats which the barbarians might have thrown down in order to break the bridge.

These works were completed in ten days, including the time employed for the transport of the materials. Cæsar crossed the river with his army, left a strong guard at each extremity of the bridge, and marched towards the territory of the Sicambri, proceeding, no doubt, up the valley of the Sieg and the Agger, (See Plate 14.) During his march, deputies from different peoples came to solicit his alliance. He gave them a friendly reception, and exacted hostages. As to the Sicambri, at the beginning of the erection of the bridge, they had fled to the deserts and forests, terrified by the reports of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who had taken refuge among them.

Cæsar remained only eighteen days beyond the Rhine. During this time he ravaged the territory of the Sicambri, returned to that of the Ubii, and promised them succour if they were attacked by the Suevi. The latter having withdrawn to the centre of their country, he renounced the prospect of combating them, and considered that he had thus accomplished his design.

It is evident, from what precedes, that Cæsar’s aim was not to make the conquest of Germany, but to strike a great blow which should disgust the barbarians with their frequent excursions across the Rhine. No doubt he hoped to meet with the Suevi, and give them battle; but learning that they had assembled at a great distance from the Rhine, he thought it more prudent not to venture into an unknown country covered with forests, but returned into Gaul, and caused the bridge to be broken.

It was not enough for Cæsar to have intimidated the Germans; he formed a still bolder project, that of crossing the sea, to go and demand a reckoning of the Britons for the succour which, in almost all his wars, and particularly in that of the Veneti, they had sent to the Gauls.³⁰⁹

Description of Britain in the time of Cæsar.

IV. The Romans had but imperfect information relating to Britain, which they owed to certain Greek writers, such as Pytheas of Marseilles, who had visited the Northern Sea in the fourth century before our era, and Timæus of Tauromenium. The Gauls who visited Britain for the sake of traffic, knew hardly more than the southern and south-eastern coasts. Nevertheless, a short time before the arrival of the Romans, one of the populations of Belgic Gaul, the Suessiones, then governed by Divitiacus, had extended their domination into this island.³¹⁰

It was only after having landed in Britain that Cæsar was able to form a tolerably exact idea of its form and extent. “Britain,” he says, “has the form of a triangle, the base of which, about 500 miles in extent, faces Gaul. The side which faces Spain, that is, the west, presents a length of about 700 miles. In this direction the island is separated from Hibernia (Ireland) by an arm of the sea, the breadth of which is apparently the same as the arm of the sea which separates Britain from Gaul;” and he adds that “the surface of Hibernia represents about one half the surface of Britain. The third part of the triangle formed by this latter island is eastward turned to the north, and 800 miles long; it faces no land; only one of the angles of this side looks towards Germany.”³¹¹ These imperfect estimates, which were to give place in the following century to others less inaccurate,³¹² led the great captain to ascribe to the whole of Britain twenty times 100,000 paces in circuit. He further gathered some information still more vague on the small islands in the vicinity of Britain. “One of them,” he writes, “is called Mona (the Isle of Man), and is situated in the middle of the strait which separates Britain from Hibernia.” The Hebrides, the Shetland islands (Acmodæ of the ancients), and the Orcades, which were only known to the Romans at the commencement of our era,³¹³ were confounded, in the minds of Cæsar and his contemporaries, with the archipelago of the Feroe isles and Scandinavia. Caledonia (Scotland) appeared only in an obscure distance.

Cæsar represents the climate of Britain as less cold and more temperate than that of Gaul. With the exception of the beech (fagus) and the fir (abies), the same timbers were found in the forests of this island as on the neighbouring continent.³¹⁴ They grew wheat there, and bred numerous herds of cattle.³¹⁵ “The soil, if it is not favourable to the culture of the olive, the vine, and other products of warm climates,” writes Tacitus,³¹⁶ “produces in their place grain and fruits in abundance. Although they grow quickly, they are slow in ripening.”

Britain contained a numerous population. The interior was inhabited by peoples who believed themselves to be autochthones, and the southern and eastern coasts by a race who had emigrated from Belgic Gaul, and crossed the Channel and the Northern Sea, attracted by the prospect of plunder. After having made war on the natives, they had established themselves in the island, and became agriculturalists.³¹⁷ Cæsar adds that nearly all these tribes which had come from the continent had preserved the names of the civitates from whence they had issued. And, in fact, among the peoples of Britain named by geographers in the ages subsequent to the conquest of Gaul, we meet, on the banks of the Thames and the Severn, with the names of Belgæ and Atrebates.

The most powerful of the populations of Belgic origin were found in Cantium (Kent), which was placed, by its commercial relations, in more habitual intercourse with Gaul.³¹⁸ The “Commentaries” mention only a small number of British nations. These are the Trinobantes (the people of Essex and Middlesex), who proved the most faithful to the Romans,³¹⁹ and whose principal oppidum was probably already, in the time of Cæsar, Londinium (London), mentioned by Tacitus;³²⁰ the Cenimagni³²¹ (Suffolk, to the north of the Trinobantes); the Segontiaci (the greater part of Hampshire and Berkshire, southern counties); the Bibroci (inhabiting a region then thickly wooded, over which extended the celebrated forest of Anderida);³²² their territory comprised a small part of Hampshire and Berkshire, and embraced the counties of Surrey and Sussex and the most western part of Kent; the Ancalites (a more uncertain position, in the north of Berkshire and the western part of Middlesex); the Cassii (Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, central counties). Each of these little nations was governed by a chieftain or king.³²³

The Belgæ of Britain possessed the same manners as the Gauls, but their social condition was less advanced. Strabo³²⁴ gives this proof, that, having milk in abundance, the Britons did not know how to make cheese, an art, on the contrary, carried to great perfection in certain parts of Gaul. The national character of the two populations, British and Gaulish, presented a great analogy: – “The same boldness in seeking danger, the same eagerness to fly from it when it is before them,” writes Tacitus; “although the courage of the Britons has more of pride in it.”³²⁵ This resemblance of the two races showed itself also in their exterior forms. Yet, according to Strabo, the stature of the Britons was taller than that of the Gauls, and their hair was less red. Their dwellings were but wretched huts made of stubble and wood;³²⁶ they stored up their wheat in subterranean repositories; their oppida were situated in the middle of forests, defended by a rampart and a fosse, and served for places of refuge in case of attack.³²⁷

The tribes of the interior of the island lived in a state of greater barbarism than those of the maritime districts. Clothed in the skins of animals, they fed upon milk and flesh.³²⁸ Strabo even represents them as cannibals; and assures us that the custom existed among them of eating the bodies of their dead relatives.³²⁹ The men wore their hair very long, and a moustache; they rubbed their skin with woad, which gave them a blue colour, and rendered their aspect as combatants singularly hideous.³³⁰ The women also coloured themselves in the same manner for certain religious ceremonies, in which they appeared naked.³³¹ Such was the barbarism of the Britons of the interior, that the women were sometimes common to ten or twelve men, a promiscuousness which was especially customary amongst the nearest relatives. As to the children who were born of these incestuous unions, they were considered to belong to the first who had received into his house the mother while still a girl.³³² The Britons of the Cape Belerium (Cornwall) were very hospitable, and the trade they carried on with foreign merchants had softened their manners.³³³

The abundance of metals in Britain, especially of tin, or plumbum album, which the Phœnicians went to seek there from a very remote antiquity,³³⁴ furnished the inhabitants with numerous means of exchange. At all events, they were not acquainted with money, and only made use of pieces of copper, gold, or iron, the value of which was determined by weighing. They did not know how to make bronze, but received it from abroad.³³⁵

The religion of the Britons, on which Cæsar gives us no information, must have differed little from that of the Gauls, since Druidism passed for having been imported from Britain into Gaul.³³⁶ Tacitus, in fact, tells us that the same worship and the same superstitions were found in Britain as among the Gauls.³³⁷ Strabo speaks, on the authority of Artemidorus, of an island neighbouring to Britain, where they celebrated, in honour of two divinities, assimilated by the latter to Ceres and Proserpine, rites which resembled those of the mysteries of Samothrace.³³⁸ Under the influence of certain superstitious ideas, the Britons abstained from the flesh of several animals, such as the hare, the hen, and the goose, which, nevertheless, they domesticated as ornamental objects.³³⁹

The Britons, though living in an island, appear to have possessed no shipping in the time of Cæsar. They were foreign ships which came to the neighbourhood of Cape Belerium to fetch the tin, which the inhabitants worked with as much skill as profit.³⁴⁰ About a century after Cæsar, the boats of the Britons were still only frames of wicker-work covered with leather.³⁴¹ The inhabitants of Britain were less ignorant in the art of war than in that of navigation. Protected by small bucklers,³⁴² and armed with long swords, which they handled with skill, but which became useless in close combat, they never combated in masses: they advanced in small detachments, which supported each other reciprocally.³⁴³ Their principal force was in their infantry;³⁴⁴ yet they employed a great number of war-chariots armed with scythes.³⁴⁵ They began by driving about rapidly on all sides, and hurling darts, seeking thus to spread disorder in the enemy’s ranks by the mere terror caused by the impetuosity of the horses and the noise of the wheels; then they returned into the intervals of their cavalry, leaped to the ground, and fought on foot mixed with the horsemen. During this time the drivers withdrew themselves with the chariots so as to be ready in case of need to receive the combatants.³⁴⁶ The Britons thus united the movableness of cavalry with the steadiness of infantry; daily exercise had made them so dexterous that they maintained their horses at full speed on steep slopes, drew them in or turned them at will, ran upon the shaft, held under the yoke, and thence threw themselves rapidly into their chariots.³⁴⁷ In war they used their dogs as auxiliaries, which the Gauls procured from Britain for the same purpose. These dogs were excellent for the chase.³⁴⁸

In short, the Britons were less civilised than the Gauls. If we except the art of working certain metals, their manufactures were limited to the fabrication of the coarsest and most indispensable objects; and it was from Gaul they obtained collars, vessels of amber and glass, and ornaments of ivory for the bridles of their horses.³⁴⁹

It was known also that pearls were in the Scottish sea, and people easily believed that it concealed immense treasures.

These details relating to Britain were not collected until after the Roman expeditions, for that country was previously the subject of the most mysterious tales; and when Cæsar resolved on its conquest, this bold enterprise excited people’s minds to the highest degree by the ever-powerful charm of the unknown. As to him, in crossing the Channel, he obeyed the same thought which had carried him across the Rhine: he wished to give the barbarians a high notion of Roman greatness, and prevent them from lending support to the insurrections in Gaul.

First Expedition to Britain.

V. Although the summer approached its end, the difficulties of a descent upon Britain did not stop him. Even supposing, indeed, that the season should not permit him to obtain any decisive result by the expedition, he looked upon it as an advantage to gain a footing in that island, and to make himself acquainted with the locality, and with the ports and points for disembarking. None of the persons whom he examined could or would give him any information, either on the extent of the country, or on the number and manners of its inhabitants, or on their manner of making war, or on the ports capable of receiving a large fleet.

Desirous of obtaining some light on these different points before attempting the expedition, Cæsar sent C. Volusenus, in a galley, with orders to explore everything, and return as quickly as possible with the result of his observations. He proceeded in person with his army into the country of the Morini, from whence the passage into Britain was shortest. There was on that coast a port favourably situated for fitting out an expedition against this island, the Portius Itius, or, as we shall endeavour to prove farther on, the port of Boulogne. The ships of all the neighbouring regions, and the fleet constructed in the previous year for the war against the Veneti, were collected there.