It is towards the end of the third consulship of Pompey that the lictors must have arrived in Rome, carrying, according to the custom, with their fasces crowned with laurels, the letters announcing the surrender of Alesia. The degenerate aristocracy, who placed their rancours above the interests of their country, would, no doubt, have preferred receiving the news of the loss of the Roman armies, to seeing Cæsar become greater than ever by new successes; but public opinion compelled the Senate to celebrate the victory gained at Mont Auxois: it ordered sacrifices during twenty days; still more, the people, to testify their joy, trebled the number.[772] CHAPTER VIII. EVENTS OF THE YEAR 703. [Sidenote: New Troubles in Gaul, and the Campaign on the Aisne.] I. The capture of Alesia and the defeat of the army of succour, composed of all the contingents of Gaul, must have encouraged the hope that the war was ended; but the popular waves, like those of the ocean, once agitated, require time to calm them. In 703, disturbances broke out on several points at the same time. Cæsar, who was wintering at Bibracte, was obliged to proceed with two legions into Berry, and, some time afterwards, into the country of Orleans, to restore order there; next he marched against the people of Beauvais, whose resistance threatened to be the more formidable, as they had taken but a slight part at the siege of Alesia. After having assembled four legions, he established his camp on Mont Saint-Pierre, in the forest of Compiègne, opposite the Gauls, who were posted on Mont Saint-Marc. At the end of a few weeks, unable to draw them to quit their post, and not considering his forces sufficient to surround on all sides the mountain which they occupied, he sent for three other legions, and then threatened to invest their camp, as had happened at Alesia. The Gauls left their position, and retired upon Mont Ganelon, from whence they sent troops to lay in ambush in the forest, in order to fall upon the Romans when they went to forage. The result was a combat in the plain of Choisy-au-Bac, in which the Gauls were defeated, and which led to the submission of the whole country. After this expedition, Cæsar turned his attention to the country situated between the Rhine and the Meuse, the populations of which, in spite of the hard lesson of 701, were again raising the standard of revolt under Ambiorix. The whole country was committed to fire and sword; but the invaders could not lay hold of the person of that implacable enemy of the Roman name.