The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0095/00955.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 31KB | 449 lines

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$Pretitle{}
$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part II}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Plutarch}
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$Subject{caesar
upon
pompey
gaul
himself
army
having
country
hundred
rome}
$Date{c75}
$Log{}
Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Caesar
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part II

     His second war was in defence of the Gauls against the Germans, though
some time before he had made Ariovistus, their king, recognized at Rome as an
ally. But they were very insufferable neighbours to those under his
government; and it was probable, when occasion offered, they would renounce
the present arrangements, and march on to occupy Gaul. But finding his
officers timorous, and especially those of the young nobility who came along
with him in hopes of turning their campaigns with him into a means for their
own pleasure or profit, he called them together, and advised them to march
off, and not run the hazard of a battle against their inclinations, since they
had such weak and unmanly feelings; telling them that he would take only the
tenth legion, and march against the barbarians, whom he did not expect to find
an enemy more formidable than the Cimbri, nor, he added, should they find him
a general inferior to Marius. Upon this, the tenth legion deputed some of
their body to pay him their acknowledgments and thanks, and the other legions
blamed their officers, and all, with great vigor and zeal, followed him many
days' journey till they encamped within two hundred furlongs of the enemy.
Ariovistus' courage to some extent was cooled upon their very approach; for
never expecting the Romans would attack the Germans, whom he had thought it
more likely they would not venture to withstand even in defence of their own
subjects, he was the more surprised at Caesar's conduct, and saw his army to
be in consternation. They were still more discouraged by the prophecies of
their holy women, who foretell the future by observing the eddies of rivers,
and taking signs from the windings and noise of streams, and who now warned
them not to engage before the next new moon appeared. Caesar having had
intimation of this, and seeing the Germans lie still, thought it expedient to
attack them whilst they were under these apprehensions, rather than sit still
and wait their time. Accordingly he made his approaches to the strongholds and
hills on which they lay encamped, and so galled and fretted them, that at last
they came down with great fury to engage. But he gained a signal victory, and
pursued them for four hundred furlongs, as far as the Rhine; all which space
was covered with spoils and bodies of the slain. Ariovistus made shift to pass
the Rhine with the small remains of an army, for it is said the number of the
slain amounted to eighty thousand.

     After this action, Caesar left his army at their winter-quarters in the
country of the Sequani, and in order to attend to affairs at Rome, went into
that part of Gaul which lies on the Po, and was part of his province; for the
river Rubicon divides Gaul, which is on this side the Alps, from the rest of
Italy. There he sat down and employed himself in courting people's favor;
great numbers coming to him continually, and always finding their requests
answered; for he never failed to dismiss all with present pledges of his
kindness in hand, and further hopes for the future. And during all this time
of the war in Gaul, Pompey never observed how Caesar was on the one hand using
the arms of Rome to effect his conquests, and on the other was gaining over
and securing to himself the favor of the Romans, with the wealth which those
conquests obtained him. But when he heard that the Belgae, who were the most
powerful of all the Gauls, and inhabited a third part of the country, were
revolted, and had got together a great many thousand men in arms, he
immediately set out and took his way thither with great expedition, and
falling upon the enemy as they were ravaging the Gauls, his allies, he soon
defeated and put to flight the largest and least scattered division of them.
For though their numbers were great, yet they made but a slender defence, and
the marshes and deep rivers were made passable to the Roman foot by the vast
quantity of dead bodies. Of those who revolted, all the tribes that lived near
the ocean came over without fighting, and he, therefore, led his army against
the Nervii, the fiercest and most warlike people of all in those parts. These
live in a country covered with continuous woods, and having lodged their
children and property out of the way in the depth of the forest, fell upon
Caesar with a body of sixty thousand men, before he was prepared for them,
while he was making his encampment. They soon routed his cavalry, and having
surrounded the twelfth and seventh legions, killed all the officers, and had
not Caesar himself snatched up a buckler, and forced his way through his own
men to come up to the barbarians, or had not the tenth legion, when they saw
him in danger, run in from the tops of the hills, where they lay, and broken
through the enemy's ranks to rescue him, in all probability not a Roman would
have been saved. But now, under the influence of Caesar's bold example, they
fought a battle, as the phrase is, of more than human courage, and yet with
their utmost efforts they were not able to drive the enemy out of the field,
but cut them down fighting in their defence. For out of sixty thousand men, it
is stated that not above five hundred survived the battle, and of four hundred
of their senators not above three.

     When the Roman senate had received news of this, they voted sacrifices
and festivals to the gods, to be strictly observed for the space of fifteen
days, a longer space than ever was observed for any victory before. The danger
to which they had been exposed by the joint outbreak of such a number of
nations was felt to have been great; and the people's fondness for Caesar gave
additional lustre to successes achieved by him. He now, after settling
everything in Gaul, came back again, and spent the winter by the Po, in order
to carry on the designs he had in hand at Rome. All who were candidates for
offices used his assistance, and were supplied with money from him to corrupt
the people and buy their votes, in return of which, when they were chosen,
they did all things to advance his power. But what was more considerable, the
most eminent and powerful men in Rome in great numbers came to visit him at
Lucca, Pompey, and Crassus, and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos,
the proconsul of Spain, so that there were in the place at one time one
hundred and twenty lictors, and more than two hundred senators. In
deliberation here held, it was determined that Pompey and Crassus should be
consuls again for the following year; that Caesar should have a fresh supply
of money, and that his command should be renewed to him for five years more.
It seemed very extravagant to all thinking men, that those very persons who
had received so much money from Caesar should persuade the senate to grant him
more, as if he were in want. Though in truth it was not so much upon
persuasion as compulsion, that, with sorrow and groans for their own acts,
they passed the measure. Cato was not present, for they had sent him
seasonably out of the way into Cyprus; but Favonius, who was a zealous
imitator of Cato, when he found he could do no good by opposing it, broke out
of the house, and loudly declaimed against these proceedings to the people,
but none gave him any hearing; some slighting him out of respect to Crassus
and Pompey, and the greater part to gratify Caesar, on whom depended their
hopes.

     After this, Caesar returned again to his forces in Gaul, where he found
that country involved in a dangerous war, two strong nations of the Germans
having lately passed the Rhine, to conquer it; one of them called the Usipes,
the other Tenteritae. ^2 Of the war with this people, Caesar himself has given
this account in his comm