Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0001/00019.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 29KB | 438 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00019}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Julius Caesar
Chapter IV: The Conquest Of Gaul}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{caesar
army
ariovistus
gaul
time
every
himself
shore
upon
now}
$Date{1900}
$Log{}
Title:       Julius Caesar
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter IV: The Conquest Of Gaul

     In attaining to the consulship, Caesar had reached the highest point of
elevation which it was possible to reach as a mere citizen of Rome.  His
ambition was, however, of course, not satisfied.  The only way to acquire
higher distinction and to rise to higher power was to enter upon a career of
foreign conquest.  Caesar therefore aspired now to be a soldier.  He
accordingly obtained the command of an army, and entered upon a course of
military campaigns in the heart of Europe, which he continued for eight years.
These eight years constitute one of the most important and strongly-marked
periods of his life.  He was triumphantly successful in his military career,
and he made, accordingly, a vast accession to his celebrity and power, in his
own day, by the results of his campaigns.  He also wrote, himself, an account
of his adventures during this period, in which the events are recorded in so
lucid and in so eloquent a manner, that the narrations have continued to be
read by every successive generation of scholars down to the present day, and
they have had a great influence in extending and perpetuating his fame.

     The principal scenes of the exploits which Caesar performed during the
period of this his first great military career, were the north of Italy,
Switzerland, France, Germany, and England, a great tract of country, nearly
all of which he overran and conquered.  A large portion of this territory was
called Gaul in those days; the part on the Italian side of the Alps being
named Cisalpine Gaul, while that which lay beyond was designated as
Transalpine.  Transalpine Gaul was substantially what is now France.  There
was a part of Transalpine Gaul which had been already conquered and reduced to
a Roman province.  It was called The Province then, and has retained the name,
with a slight change in orthography, to the present day.  It is now known as
Provence.

     The countries which Caesar went to invade were occupied by various
nations and tribes, many of which were well organized and warlike, and some of
them were considerably civilized and wealthy.  They had extended tracts of
cultivated land, the slopes of the hills and the mountain sides being formed
into green pasturages, which were covered with flocks of goats, and sheep, and
herds of cattle, while the smoother and more level tracts were adorned with
smiling vineyards and broadly-extended fields of waving grain.  They had
cities, forts, ships, and armies.  Their manners and customs would be
considered somewhat rude by modern nations, and some of their usages of war
were half barbarian.  For example, in one of the nations which Caesar
encountered, he found, as he says in his narrative, a corps of cavalry, as a
constituent part of the army, in which, to every horse, there were two men,
one the rider, and the other a sort of foot soldier and attendant If the
battle went against them, and the squadron were put to their speed in a
retreat, these footmen would cling to the manes of the horses, and then, half
running, half flying, they would be borne along over the field, thus keeping
always at the side of their comrades, and escaping with them to a place of
safety.

     But, although the Romans were inclined to consider these nations as only
half civilized, still there would be great glory, as Caesar thought, in
subduing them, and probably great treasure would be secured in the conquest,
both by the plunder and confiscation of governmental property, and by the
tribute which would be collected in taxes from the people of the countries
subdued.  Caesar accordingly placed himself at the head of an army of three
Roman legions, which he contrived, by means of a great deal of political
maneuvering and management, to have raised and placed under his command.  One
of these legions, which was called the tenth legion, was his favorite corps,
on account of the bravery and hardihood which they often displayed.  At the
head of these legions, Caesar set out for Gaul.  He was at this time not far
from forty years of age.

     Caesar had no difficulty in finding pretexts for making war upon any of
these various nations that he might desire to subdue.  They were, of course,
frequently at war with each other, and there were at all times standing topics
of controversy and unsettled disputes among them.  Caesar had, therefore, only
to draw near to the scene of contention, and then to take sides with one party
or the other, it mattered little with which, for the affair almost always
resulted, in the end, in his making himself master of both.  The manner,
however, in which this sort of operation was performed, can best be
illustrated by an example, and we will take for the purpose the case of
Ariovistus.

     Ariovistus was a German king.  He had been nominally a sort of ally of
the Romans.  He had extended his conquests across the Rhine into Gaul, and he
held some nations there as his tributaries.  Among these, the Aeduans were a
prominent party, and, to simplify the account, we will take their name as the
representative of all who were concerned.  When Caesar came into the region of
the Aeduans, he entered into some negotiations with them, in which they, as he
alleges, asked his assistance to enable them to throw off the dominion of
their German enemy.  It is probable, in fact, that there was some proposition
of this kind from them, for Caesar had abundant means of inducing them to make
it, if he was disposed; and the receiving of such a communication furnished
the most obvious and plausible pretext to authorize and justify his
interposition.

     Caesar accordingly sent a messenger across the Rhine to Ariovistus,
saying that he wished to have an interview with him on business of importance,
and asking him to name a time which would be convenient to him for the
interview, and also to appoint some place in Gaul where he would attend.

     To this Ariovistus replied, that if he had, himself, any business with
Caesar, he would have waited upon him to propose it; and, in the same manner,
if Caesar wished to see him, he must come into his own dominions.  He said
that it would not be safe for him to come into Gaul without an army, and that
it was not convenient for him to raise and equip an army for such a purpose at
that time.

     Caesar sent again to Ariovistus to say, that since he was so unmindful of
his obligations to the Roman people as to refuse an interview with him on
business of common interest, he would state the particulars that he required
of him.  The Aeduans, he said, were now his allies, and under his protection;
and Ariovistus must send back the hostages which he held from them, and bind
himself henceforth not to send any more troops across the Rhine, nor make war
upon the Aeduans, or injure them in any way.  If he complied with these terms,
all would be well.  If he did not, Caesar said that he should not himself
disregard the just complaints of his allies.

     Ariovistus had no fear of Caesar.  Caesar had, in fact, thus far, not
begun to acquire the military renown to which he afterward attained Ariovistus
had, therefore, no particular cause to dread his power.  He sent him back word
that he did not understand why Caesar should interfere between him and his
conquered province.  "The Aeduans," said he, "tried the fortune of war with
me, and were overcome; and they must abide the issue. The Romans manage their
conquered provinces as they judge proper, without holding themselves
accountable to any one.  I shall do the same with mine. All that I can say is,
that so long as the Aeduans submit peaceably to my authority, and pay their
tribute, I shall not molest them; as to your threat that you shall not
disregard their complaints, you must know that no one has ever made war upon
me but to his own destruction, and, if you wish to see how it will turn out in
your case, you may make the experiment whenever you please."

     Both parties immediately prepared for war Ariovistus, instead of waiting
to be attacked, assembled his army, crossed the Rhine, and advanced into the
territories from which Caesar had undertaken to exclude him.

     As Caesar, however, began to make his arrangements for putting his army
in motion to meet his approaching enemy, there began to circulate throughout
the camp such extraordinary stories of the terrible strength and courage of
the German soldiery as to produce a very general panic.  So great, at length,
became the anxiety and alarm, that even the officers were wholly dejected and
discouraged; and as for the men, they were on the very eve of mutiny.

     When Caesar understood this state of things, he called an assembly of the
troops, and made an address to them.  He told them that he was astonished to
learn to what an extent an unworthy despondency and fear had taken possession
of their minds, and how little confidence they reposed in him, their general.
And then, after some further remarks about the duty of a soldier to be ready
to go wherever his commander leads him, and presenting also some
considerations in respect to the German troops with which they were going to
contend, in order to show them that they had no cause to fear, he ended by
saying that he had not been fully decided as to the time of marching, but that
now he had concluded to give orders for setting out the next morning at three
o'clock, that he might learn, as soon as possible, who were too cowardly to
follow him.  He would go himself, he said, if he was attended by the tenth
legion alone.  He was sure that they would not shrink from any undertaking in
which he led the way.

     The soldiers, moved partly by shame, partly by the decisive and
commanding tone which their general assumed, and partly reassured by the
courage and confidence which he seemed to feel, laid aside their fears, and
vied with each other henceforth in energy and ardor.  The armies approached
each other.  Ariovistus sent to Caesar, saying that now, if he wished it, he
was ready for an interview.  Caesar acceded to the suggestion, and the
arrangements for a conference were made, each party, as usual in such cases,
taking every precaution to guard against the treachery of the other.

     Between the two camps there was a rising ground, in the middle of an open
plain, where it was decided that the conference should be held. Ariovistus
proposed that neither party should bring any foot soldiers to the place of
meeting, but cavalry alone; and that these bodies of cavalry, brought by the
respective generals, should remain at the foot of the eminence on either side,
while Caesar and Ariovistus themselves, attended each by only ten followers on
horseback, should ascend it.  This plan was acceded to by Caesar, and a long
conference was held in this way between the two generals, as they sat upon
their horses, on the summit of the hill.

     The two generals, in their discussion, only repeated in substance what
they had said in their embassages before, and made no progress toward coming
to an understanding.  At length Caesar closed the conference and withdrew.
Some days afterward Ariovistus sent a request to Caesar, asking that he would
appoint another interview, or else that he would depute one of his officers to
proceed to Ariovistus's camp and receive a communication which he wished to
make to him.  Caesar concluded not to grant another interview, and he did not
think it prudent to send any one of his principal officers as an embassador,
for fear that he might be treacherously seized and held as a hostage.  He
accordingly sent an ordinary messenger, accompanied by one or two men.  These
men were all seized and put in irons as soon as they reached the camp of
Ariovistus, and Caesar now prepared in earnest for giving his enemy battle.

     He proved himself as skillful and efficient in arranging and managing the
combat as he had been sagacious and adroit in the negotiations which preceded
it.  Several days were spent in maneuvers and movements, by which each party
endeavored to gain some advantage over the other in respect to their position
in the approaching struggle.  When at length the combat came, Caesar and his
legions were entirely and triumphantly successful.  The Germans were put
totally to flight.  Their baggage and stores were all seized, and the troops
themselves fled in dismay by all the roads which led back to the Rhine; and
there those who succeeded in escaping death from the Romans, who pursued them
all the way, embarked in boats and upon rafts, and returned to their homes.
Ariovistus himself found a small boat, in which, with one or two followers, he
succeeded in getting across the stream.

     As Caesar, at the head of a body of his troops, was pursuing the enemy in
this their flight, he overtook one party who had a prisoner with them confined
by iron chains fastened to his limbs, and whom they were hurrying rapidly
along.  This prisoner proved to be the messenger that Caesar had sent to
Ariovistus's camp, and whom he had, as Caesar alleges, treacherously detained.
Of course, he was overjoyed to be recaptured and set at liberty. The man said
that three times they had drawn lots to see whether they should burn him alive
then, or reserve the pleasure for a future occasion, and that every time the
lot had resulted in his favor.

     The consequence of this victory was, that Caesar's authority was
established triumphantly over all that part of Gaul which he had thus freed
from Ariovistus's sway.  Other parts of the country, too, were pervaded by the
fame of his exploits, and the people every where began to consider what action
it would be incumbent on them to take, in respect to the new military power
which had appeared so suddenly among them.  Some nations determined to submit
without resistance, and to seek the conqueror's alliance and protection.
Others, more bold, or more confident of their strength, began to form
combinations and to arrange plans for resisting him.  But, whatever they did,
the result in the end was the same.  Caesar's ascendency was every where and
always gaining ground.  Of course, it is impossible in the compass of a single
chapter, which is all that can be devoted to the subject in this volume, to
give any regular narrative of the events of the eight years of Caesar's
military career in Gaul.  Marches, negotiations, battles, and victories
mingled with and followed each other in a long succession, the particulars of
which it would require a volume to detail, every thing resulting most
successfully for the increase of Caesar's power and the extension of his fame.

     Caesar gives, in his narrative, very extraordinary accounts of the
customs and modes of life of some of the people that he encountered.  There
was one country, for example, in which all the lands were common, and the
whole structure of society was based on the plan of forming the community into
one great martial band.  The nation was divided into a hundred cantons, each
containing two thousand men capable of bearing arms.  If these were all
mustered into service together, they would form, of course, an army of two
hundred thousand men.  It was customary, however, to organize only one half of
them into an army, while the rest remained at home to till the ground and tend
the flocks and herds.  These two great divisions interchanged their work every
year, the soldiers becoming husbandmen, and the husbandmen soldiers. Thus they
all became equally inured to the hardships and dangers of the camp, and to the
more continuous but safer labors of agricultural toil.  Their fields were
devoted to pasturage more than to tillage, for flocks and herds could be
driven from place to place, and thus more easily preserved from the
depredations of enemies than fields of grain.  The children grew up almost
perfectly wild from infancy, and hardened themselves by bathing in cold
streams, wearing very little clothing, and making long hunting excursions
among the mountains.  The people had abundance of excellent horses, which the
young men were accustomed, from their earliest years, to ride without saddle
or bridle, the horses being trained to obey implicitly every command.  So
admirably disciplined were they that sometimes, in battle, the mounted men
would leap from their horses and advance as foot soldiers to aid the other
infantry, leaving the horses to stand until they returned.  The horses would
not move from the spot; the men, when the object for which they had dismounted
was accomplished, would come back, spring to their seats again, and once more
become a squadron of cavalry.

     Although Caesar was very energetic and decided in the government of his
army, he was extremely popular with his soldiers in all these campaigns.  He
exposed his men, of course, to a great many privations and hardships, but
then, he evinced, in many cases, such a willingness to bear his share of them,
that the men were very little inclined to complain.  He moved at the head of
the column when his troops were advancing on a march, generally on horseback,
but often on foot; and Suetonius says that he used to go bareheaded on such
occasions, whatever was the state of the weather, though it is difficult to
see what the motive of this apparently needless exposure could be, unless it
was for effect, on some special or unusual occasion. Caesar would ford or swim
rivers with his men whenever there was no other mode of transit, sometimes
supported, it was said, by bags inflated with air, and placed under his arms.
At one time he built a bridge across the Rhine, to enable his army to cross
that river.  This bridge was built with piles driven down into the sand, which
supported a flooring of timbers.  Caesar, considering it quite an exploit thus
to bridge the Rhine, wrote a minute account of the manner in which the work
was constructed, and the description is almost exactly in accordance with the
principles and usages of modern carpentry.

     After the countries which were the scene of these conquests were pretty
well subdued, Caesar established on some of the great routes of travel a
system of posts, that is, he stationed supplies of horses at intervals of from
ten to twenty miles along the way, so that he himself, or the officers of his
army, or any couriers whom he might have occasion to send with dispatches
could travel with great speed by finding a fresh horse ready at every stage.
By this means he sometimes traveled himself a hundred miles in a day.  This
system, thus adopted for military purposes in Caesar's time, has been
continued in almost all countries of Europe to the present age, and is applied
to traveling in carriages as well as on horseback.  A family party purchase a
carriage, and arranging within it all the comforts and conveniences which they
will require on the journey, they set out, taking these post horses, fresh at
each village, to draw them to the next.  Thus they can go at any rate of speed
which they desire, instead of being limited in their movements by the powers
of endurance of one set of animals, as they would be compelled to be if they
were to travel with their own.  This plan has, for some reason, never been
introduced into America, and it is now probable that it never will be, as the
railway system will doubtless supersede it.

     One of the most remarkable of the enterprises which Caesar undertook
during the period of these campaigns was his excursion into Great Britain. The
real motive of this expedition was probably a love of romantic adventure, and
a desire to secure for himself at Rome the glory of having penetrated into
remote regions which Roman armies had never reached before. The pretext,
however, which he made to justify his invading the territories of the Britons
was, that the people of the island were accustomed to come across the Channel
and aid the Gauls in their wars.

     In forming his arrangements for going into England, the first thing was,
to obtain all the information which was accessible in Gaul in respect to the
country.  There were, in those days, great numbers of traveling merchants, who
went from one nation to another to purchase and sell, taking with them such
goods as were most easy of transportation.  These merchants, of course, were
generally possessed of a great deal of information in respect to the countries
which they had visited, and Caesar called together as many of them as he could
find, when he had reached the northern shores of France, to inquire about the
modes of crossing the Channel, the harbors on the English side, the
geographical conformation of the country, and the military resources of the
people.  He found, however, that the merchants could give him very little
information.  They knew that Britain was an island, but they did not know its
extent or its boundaries; and they could tell him very little of the character
or customs of the people.  They said that they had only been accustomed to
land upon the southern shore, and to transact all their business there,
without penetrating at all into the interior of the country.

     Caesar then, who, though undaunted and bold in emergencies requiring
prompt and decisive action, was extremely cautious and wary at all other
times, fitted up a single ship, and, putting one of his officers on board with
a proper crew; directed him to cross the Channel to the English coast, and
then to cruise along the land for some miles in each direction, to observe
where were the best harbors and places for landing, and to examine generally
the appearance of the shore.  This vessel was a galley, manned with numerous
oarsmen, well selected and strong, so that it could retreat with great speed
from any sudden appearance of danger.  The name of the officer who had the
command of it was Volusenus.  Volusenus set sail, the army watching his vessel
with great interest as it moved slowly away from the shore.  He was gone five
days, and then returned, bringing Caesar an account of his discoveries.

     In the mean time, Caesar had collected a large number of sailing vessels
from the whole line of the French shore, by means of which he proposed to
transport his army across the Channel.  He had two legions to take into
Britain, the remainder of his forces having been stationed as garrisons in
various parts of Gaul.  It was necessary, too, to leave a considerable force
at his post of debarkation, in order to secure a safe retreat in case of any
disaster on the British side.  The number of transport ships provided for the
foot soldiers which were to be taken over was eighty.  There were, besides
these, eighteen more, which were appointed to convey a squadron of horse. This
cavalry force was to embark at a separate port, about eighty miles distant
from the one from which the infantry were to sail.

     At length a suitable day for the embarkation arrived; the troops were put
on board the ships, and orders were given to sail.  The day could not be fixed
beforehand, as the time for attempting to make the passage must necessarily
depend upon the state of the wind and weather.  Accordingly, when the
favorable opportunity arrived, and the main body of the army began to embark
it took some time to send the orders to the port where the cavalry had
rendezvoused; and there were, besides, other causes of delay which occurred to
detain this corps, so that it turned out, as we shall presently see, that the
foot soldiers had to act alone in the first attempt at landing on the British
shore.

     It was one o'clock in the morning when the fleet set sail.  The Britons
had, in the mean time, obtained intelligence of Caesar's threatened invasion,
and they had assembled in great force, with troops, and horsemen, and
carriages or war, and were all ready to guard the shore.  The coast, at the
point where Caesar was approaching, consists of a line of chalky cliffs, with
valley-like openings here and there between them, communicating with the
shore, and sometimes narrow beaches below.  When the Roman fleet approached
the land, Caesar found the cliffs every where lined with troops of Britons,
and every accessible point below carefully guarded.  It was now about ten
o'clock in the morning, and Caesar, finding the prospect so unfavorable in
respect to the practicability of effecting a landing here, brought his fleet
to anchor near the shore, but far enough from it to be safe from the missiles
of the enemy.

     Here he remained for several hours, to give time for all the vessels to
join him.  Some of them had been delayed in the embarkation, or had made
slower progress than the rest in crossing the Channel.  He called a council,
too, of the superior officers of the army on board his own galley, and
explained to them the plan which he now adopted for the landing.  About three
o'clock in the afternoon he sent these officers back to their respective
ships, and gave orders to make sail along the shore.  The anchors were raised
and the fleet moved on, borne by the united impulse of the wind and the tide.
The Britons, perceiving this movement, put themselves in motion on the land,
following the motions of the fleet so as to be ready to meet their enemy
wherever they might ultimately undertake to land.  Their horsemen and
carriages went on in advance, and the foot soldiers followed, all pressing
eagerly forward to keep up with the motion of the fleet, and to prevent
Caesar's army from having time to land before they should arrive at the spot
and be ready to oppose them.

     The fleet moved on until, at length, after sailing about eight miles,
they came to a part of the coast where there was a tract of comparatively
level ground, which seemed to be easily accessible from the shore.  Here
Caesar determined to attempt to land; and drawing up his vessel, accordingly,
as near as possible to the beach, he ordered the men to leap over into the
water, with their weapons in their hands.  The Britons were all here to oppose
them, and a dreadful struggle ensued, the combatants dyeing the waters with
their blood as they fought, half submerged in the surf which rolled in upon
the sand.  Some galleys rowed up at the same time near to the shore, and the
men on board of them attacked the Britons from the decks, by the darts and
arrows which they shot to the land.  Caesar at last prevailed; the Britons
were driven away, and the Roman army established themselves in quiet
possession of the shore.

     Caesar had afterward a great variety of adventures, and many narrow
escapes from imminent dangers in Britain, and, though he gained considerable
glory by thus penetrating into such remote and unknown regions, there was very
little else to be acquired.  The glory, however, was itself of great value to
Caesar.  During the whole period of his campaigns in Gaul, Rome, and all Italy
in fact, had been filled with the fame of his exploits, and the expedition
into Britain added not a little to his renown.  The populace of the city were
greatly gratified to hear of the continued success of their former favorite.
They decreed to him triumph after triumph, and were prepared to welcome him,
whenever he should return, with greater honors and more extended and higher
powers than he had ever enjoyed before.

     Caesar's exploits in these campaigns were, in fact, in a military point
of view, of the most magnificent character.  Plutarch, in summing up the
results of them, says that he took eight hundred cities, conquered three
hundred nations, fought pitched battles at separate times with three millions
of men, took one million of prisoners, and killed another million on the
field.  What a vast work of destruction was this for a man to spend eight
years of his life in performing upon his fellow-creatures, merely to gratify
his insane love of dominion.