Cæsar, when the conference was over, soon returned to the front, to deal with the Veneti in such an effective way that by their example the Gallic tribes might be taught the risks of braving the power of Rome. Divisions of the army were sent to various points of Gaul, where it seemed likely there might be sympathetic uprisings of the populations in favor of the national movement, led by the tribes about the Loire. The Veneti had against them Cæsar himself, and the problem of their subjugation offered some novel difficulties. Their fortified places were usually on headlands; sometimes inaccessible from the mainland except by ship. The country was cut up by many estuaries, and the Veneti, who were practised sailors, showed great mobility in their movements. They withdrew from one post to another, easily cutting themselves off from attack as the Romans, who were not familiar with the country, advanced to meet them with the hope of forcing a decisive engagement. Their power could be destroyed only in a naval battle, and it required both patience and ingenuity on Cæsar’s part before his men could be trained to meet the enemy in their own waters, or even before a fleet could be built suitable to overcome the special difficulties of navigation on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, so unlike the conditions in the Mediterranean. The fleet of the Veneti was finally destroyed; their ships were rendered helpless when the men on the Roman fleet cut their rigging with long poles having at the end sharp hooked knives, and boarding parties disposed of the warriors on the decks. Many of the brave tribe were put to death when they submitted, and the rest were sold as slaves. In the meantime the operations of the subordinate commanders had been successful, and conspicuous results had been reached in Aquitaine, where the younger Crassus had brought all the tribes to accept Roman sovereignty. Indeed the only failure to be registered this year was Cæsar’s own expedition in the far northern part of Gaul between the Somme and the Rhine, the dwelling place of the Morini and the Menapii. These tribes took refuge in their forests and could not be dislodged, and even some incidental defeats failed to break their obstinacy. The new year, as it opened, with news of a German invasion on a large scale, brought fresh anxieties to the commander. It was told him that warlike tribes living in and about the Thuringian forest were on the move towards the west, and that others had even crossed the Rhine, dispersing the Gallic tribes in their progress. In Gaul there was a disposition in some quarters to welcome them as deliverers; already some of the Gallic tribes were in communication with them on a friendly basis. (55 B.C.)