Nowhere else could there be found a better recruiting ground for the legions, and nowhere also, on account of the general intelligence of the inhabitants, would the personal qualities of a general find a more immediate response. The tactfulness of Cæsar had already been put to the test in the arena of political life; he had learned how to make friends and to hold them. Apart from the technical gifts of military art, the personal charm of Cæsar’s character was a great factor in securing for him an army made up of devoted troops and officers. They trusted him, and they were held to him as a leader, because he seems from the first to have been able to establish close relations of a spontaneous and genuine type with those who were under him. His army was not a mere fighting machine, but an organism reflecting the individual driving power and coolness of the man who led it. The series of campaigns in Gaul begins with Cæsar’s successful blocking of the migration of the Helvetii. All that is known of the details of the strategy employed by the Romans is derived from Cæsar’s own report, which has been frequently criticised as intentionally obscure and misleading. It must be remembered that the famous commentaries on the Gallic wars were hurriedly dictated, and were meant to tell the public what the commander-in-chief wished them to know and nothing more. For example, many modern authorities are agreed that the numbers of the migrating Helvetii are very much overestimated by Cæsar and that the real purpose of their migration was artfully concealed. Napoleon, who was a past master in falsifying military records, declared that the campaign against the Helvetii as narrated by Cæsar was incomprehensible. The real situation in Gaul prior to the migration seems to have been as follows. As we have said, Ariovistus, the German king, was in control of the central part of the country. This overlordship was burdensome to the Gauls, who paid him a yearly tribute. A prince of the Ædui, Divitiacus, had turned to the Romans for help, but his request was rejected, for Ariovistus, during Cæsar’s own consulship, had been acknowledged as king and formally declared an ally and friend of the Roman people. There was another party among the Ædui, led by Dumnorix, the brother of Divitiacus, who favored throwing off the German yoke, and urged a general uprising of the Gauls, unassisted by the Romans.