Vercingetorix ex arce Alesiae suos conspicatus ex oppido egreditur: crates, longurios, musculos, fasces, reliquaque quae eruptionis causa paraverat profert. Pugnatur uno tempore omnibus locis atque omnia temptantur; quae minime visa pars firma est huc {5} concurritur. Romanorum manus tantis munitionibus distinetur nec facile pluribus locis occurrit. . . . Labienus, postquam neque aggeres neque fossae vim hostium sustinere poterant, coactis XI cohortibus, quas ex proximis praesidiis deductas fors obtulit, {10} Caesarem per nuntios facit certiorem quid faciendum existimet. Accelerat Caesar ut proelio intersit. Eius adventu ex colore vestitus cognito (quo insigni in proeliis uti consuerat), turmisque equitum et cohortibus visis quas se sequi iusserat, ut de locis {15} superioribus haec declivia et devexa cemebantur, hostes proelium committunt. Utrimque clamore sublato excipit rursus ex vallo atque omnibus munitionibus clamor. Nostri omissis pilis gladiis rem gerunt. Repente post tergum equitatus cernitur: {20} cohortes aliae appropinquant. Hostes terga vertunt; fugientibus equites occurrunt: fit magna caedes: pauci ex tanto numero se incolumes in castra recipiunt. CAESAR, _de B. G._ vii. 84, 87, 88. +Context.+ After his successful defence of Gergovia, Vercingetorix allowed his judgment to be overruled, and attacked Caesar’s army (now united to the division of Labienus) on the march. Caesar shook off the enemy with the help of his German cavalry, and turned their retreat into a rout. V. then threw himself with all his forces into Alesia. Caesar constructed an inner line of investment and an outer line of defence, and was thus able to wear out the besieged and +beat back the relieving host of the Gauls+. [Linenotes: 1. +suos+, i.e. the host (some 250,000) of the relieving army of Gauls. 2. +musculos+ (dimin. of _mus_) = _pent-houses_ or _sheds_. 4. +omnibus locis+, i.e. along the whole length of Caesar’s outer line of defence, _where it ran along the slope of Mont Réa_, to the N.W. of Alesia. This, as the relieving Gauls were quick to see, was the weakest point of the whole line. 13. +ex colore vestitus+, i.e. the purple or scarlet paludamentum.] +Vercingetorix.+ The Celtic officers delivered up V. to Caesar, to be led in triumph five years later, and beheaded as a traitor. In 1865 a statue was erected on the summit of Alesia, in honour of the heroic Gaul. +The fall of Alesia decided the fate of Gaul.+ B44 CICERO IN EXILE, MARCH 58 B.C.-AUGUST 57 B.C. (1) _His Banishment._