The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome — John Shaqi
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome
History
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome
Literature -- Collections
At the same time, our horsemen, and light-armed infantry, who had been
with those who, as I have related, were routed by the first assault of
the enemy, as they were betaking themselves into the camp, met the
enemy face to face, and again sought flight into another quarter; and
the camp-followers, who from the Decuman Gate, and from the highest
ridge of the hill had seen our men pass the river as victors, when,
after going out for the purposes of plundering, they looked back and
saw the enemy parading in our camp, committed themselves precipitately
to flight; at the same time there arose the cry and shout of those who
came with the baggage-train; and they (affrighted) were carried some
one way, some another. By all these circumstances the cavalry of the
Treviri were much alarmed (whose reputation for courage is
extraordinary among the Gauls, and who had come to Caesar, being sent
by their state as auxiliaries), and, when they saw our camp filled
with a large number of the enemy, the legions hard prest and almost
held surrounded, the camp-retainers, horsemen, slingers, and Numidians
fleeing on all sides divided and scattered, they, despairing of our
affairs, hastened home, and related to their state that the Romans
were routed and conquered, [and] that the enemy were in possession of
their camp and baggage-train.
Caesar proceeded, after encouraging the tenth legion, to the right
wing, where he perceived that his men were hard prest, and that in
consequence of the standards of the twelfth legion being collected
together in one place, the crowded soldiers were a hindrance to
themselves in the fight; that all the centurions of the fourth cohort
were slain, and the standard-bearer killed, the standard itself lost,
almost all the centurions of the other cohorts either wounded or
slain, and among them the chief centurion of the legion, P. Sextius
Baculus, a very valiant man, who was so exhausted by many and severe
wounds that he was already unable to support himself; he likewise
perceived that the rest were slackening their efforts, and that some,
deserted by those in the rear, were retiring from the battle and
avoiding the weapons; that the enemy [on the other hand], tho
advancing from the lower ground, were not relaxing in front, and were
[at the same time] pressing hard on both flanks; he perceived also
that the affair was at a crisis; and that there was not any reserve
which could be brought up; having therefore snatched a shield from one
of the soldiers in the rear (for he himself had come without a
shield), he advanced to the front of the line, and addressing the
centurions by name, and encouraging the rest of the soldiers, he
ordered them to carry forward the standards, and extend the companies,
that they might the more easily use their swords. On his arrival, as
hope was brought to the soldiers and their courage restored, while
every one for his own part, in the sight of his general, desired to
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