The History of Rome, Book V: The Establishment of the Military MonarchyMommsen, Theodor
History
The History of Rome, Book V: The Establishment of the Military Monarchy
Mommsen, Theodor
Rome -- History
under the command of Labienus; they too desisted for the present
from continuing the struggle. Caesar not unwillingly postponed
farther measures against the revolted districts till the spring,
in order not to expose his troops which had suffered much to the whole
severity of the Gallic winter, and with the view of only reappearing
in the field when the fifteen cohorts destroyed should have
been replaced in an imposing manner by the levy of thirty new
cohorts which he had ordered. The insurrection meanwhile pursued
its course, although there was for the moment a suspension of arms.
Its chief seats in central Gaul were, partly the districts
of the Carnutes and the neighbouring Senones (about Sens), the latter
of whom drove the king appointed by Caesar out of their country;
partly the region of the Treveri, who invited the whole Celtic
emigrants and the Germans beyond the Rhine to take part
in the impending national war, and called out their whole force,
with a view to advance in the spring a second time into the territory
of the Remi, to capture the corps of Labienus, and to seek
a communication with the insurgents on the Seine and Loire.
The deputies of these three cantons remained absent from the diet
convoked by Caesar in central Gaul, and thereby declared war just
as openly as a part of the Belgic cantons had done by the attacks
on the camps of Sabinus and Cicero.
And Suppressed
The winter was drawing to a close when Caesar set out
with his army, which meanwhile had been considerably reinforced,
against the insurgents. The attempts of the Treveri to concentrate
the revolt had not succeeded; the agitated districts were kept in check
by the marching in of Roman troops, and those in open rebellion
were attacked in detail. First the Nervii were routed by Caesar
in person. The Senones and Carnutes met the same fate. The Menapii,
the only canton which had never submitted to the Romans,
were compelled by a grand attack simultaneously directed against them
from three sides to renounce their long-preserved freedom.
Labienus meanwhile was preparing the same fate for the Treveri.
Their first attack had been paralyzed, partly by the refusal
of the adjoining German tribes to furnish them with mercenaries,
partly by the fact that Indutiomarus, the soul of the whole movement
had fallen in a skirmish with the cavalry of Labienus. But they did
not on this account abandon their projects. With their whole levy
they appeared in front of Labienus and waited for the German bands
that were to follow, for their recruiting agents found a better
reception than they had met with from the dwellers on the Rhine,
among the warlike tribes of the interior of Germany, especially,
as it would appear, among the Chatti. But when Labienus seemed
as if he wished to avoid these and to march off in all haste, the Treveri
attacked the Romans even before the Germans arrived and in a most
unfavourable spot, and were completely defeated. Nothing remained
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