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CHAP. XLI. CÆSAR'S ADMINISTRATION IN GAUL.

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the borders of his province against foreign succors. Gaul was now occupied within and fortified from without; the proconsul might · hope to devote the remainder of his term to utilizing its resources for his own future aggrandizement. His name was daily repeated at home with the liveliest acclamations; the great orator himself, forgetful both of his dignity and of his calling, was preparing to celebrate the "Britannic War" in heroic verse. The chief of the popular party at Rome had adhered to the traditional policy of the Senate in supporting the nobles against the democracy abroad, and hoped to rule by the divisions he fostered between them. Wherever the popular form of government was suffered to exist he had been careful to create a Roman party, which swayed the assemblies and corrupted the Senate. He maintained a general convention of the states as a fiscal instrument, and with the tribute levied from one tribe purchased the services of another, while be soothed all alike with the charms of Roman civilization and the prospect of Roman citizenship. But in fact the general resistance of the Gauls had not yet begun. Hitherto a few tribes had combated separately, and had one by one succumbed. The first great revolt against the Roman domination arose in the Belgic Gaul, and had for its centre the country of the Treviri. Among the nations who joined in it were the Nervii, the Eburones, and farther to the south and east the Lingones; but the Remi remained steadfast to Rome, and the Senones on the line of the Seine kept the movement from spreading southward. The Ædui between the Seine and Saone assisted in maintaining Cæsar's communications with Italy. The campaign of the year 54 was signalized by a great disaster to the Roman arms; but Cæsar promptly retrieved it, and relieved the camp of his lieutenant, the brother of Cicero, by a brilliant victory over the Nervii. In the following year he succeeded in quelling the insurrection of the North, and induced the tribes which had kept faith with him to 0.53. wreak his vengeance upon the less faithful of their countrymen, whom he proclaimed public enemies, and looked on complacently while the whole nation of the Eburones was butchered.

U.O. 701.

Gaul was pacified a second time, and the proconsul could again withdraw beyond the Alps to observe the intrigues of the capital. But in the mean while fresh conspiracies were afloat among the conquered people, and this time it was among the central nations, between the Seine and the Garonne, that the flame burst forth and spread rapidly. It was kindled by the Druids, who were most powerful among the Carnutes, and who were closely connected with the national aristocracy of the country. At Genabus, on the Loire, the Roman traders had already established themselves in considerable numbers. The population rose; the strangers were surprised and

massacred. The command of this widespread revolt was taken by Vercingetorix, a chief of the Arverni, the only name among the Gauls which attained to any distinction in these wars, and that perhaps a title rather than a personal appellative. But the man who bore it deserves to be better known to us, for even in the record of his enemy, Cæsar, he stands forth as a great military genius, and the struggle he maintained, brief as it was, is one of the noblest in the Roman annals. It was signalized by the victory of the Gauls at Gergovia, near the Allier, in which Cæsar's own sword was taken from him, and his retreat into Italy was cut off. To escape, indeed, from the Gauls would have been to throw himself into the hands of his enemies at home, and he had no alternative perhaps but to conquer beyond the Alps, or perish within them. His forces were still numerous to the north of the Seine; his lieutenant Labienus checked and worsted the tribes which had there assailed him, and the proconsul was enabled to unite all his legions and turn with a bold front upon the populations that were rising behind him. Thereupon another engagement ensued, and this time Cæsar was victorious. Vercingetorix led his routed followers to the city of Alesia, near the modern Dijon, and collected a force of 80,000 warriors behind the lines with which he surrounded it. Cæsar pursued, and completed another circumvallation in which he enclosed the whole Gaulish force, together with a vast number of unarmed fugitives who had sought shelter under their ramparts. This multitude perished with hunger between the two contending armies, and after many attempts to break out the troops of Vercingetorix were induced also to surrender by famine. Their gallant chief offered himself, indeed, as a sacrifice for them, and the lives of his followers were spared, but he was himself carried off as a captive, and reserved for the future triumph of the conqueror and the cruel death of a Pontius and a Perseus. The subjugation of the vast region between the Alps, the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and the ocean was finally completed in the eighth year of Cæsar's proU.C. 703. consulship. In eight campaigns he is said-but the B.C. 51. boast is Plutarch's, not his own-to have taken more than 800 cities, worsted 300 nations, and encountered 3,000,000 of men in arms, of whom he had slain 1,000,000, and made an equal number prisoners.

The final reduction of Gaul found the work of pacification already far advanced. Cæsar's policy differed from that of former provincial governors. The provinces on either side of the Alps had been placed under the control of garrisons and colonies. Great portions of their land had been wrested from the inhabitants, and conferred upon such Roman citizens as would exchange security at home for possessions to be maintained at the risk of their own

CHAP. XLI.

CÆSAR'S POLICY IN GAUL.

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lives abroad. But the ancient system of the republic could not be extended to the vast territories which she had now to organize. Nor was it Cæsar's wish to bring Rome, as it were, into the provinces; his object was rather to introduce the Gaulish provincials to Rome, and give them an interest in the city of their conquerors. The first step towards making them citizens was to lighten for them the Roman yoke. He established among them no badges of subjection in the shape of military colonies. He left them their lands as well as their laws and their religion. He allowed ,to most of their states a specious show of freedom. They retained their magistrates and Senates, guided perhaps by Roman agents. The tribute required of the provincials was softened by the title of military assessment. Honors and privileges were showered upon their chiefs and cities. But after all the manner of the magnanimous Roman won as many hearts as his benefactions. When he saw the sword which had been wrested from him in battle with the Arvernians suspended in the temple of its captors, he refused to reclaim it, saying, with a gracious smile, that the offering was sacred.

But Cæsar had yet another enemy within the bounds of his ample province. The Senate, towards whom his position had become one of open defiance, had established a stronghold of its own interests in the cities of the Narbonensis. From the time that Pompeius had led his legions through that country against Sertorius, driving the remnant of the Marians before him, the south of Gaul had been filled with the agents of the Senatorial party, and its resources applied to the furtherance of its policy. Since his return to Rome Pompeius had continued, in fact, to govern the district by the hands of Fonteius and other proconsuls, up to the moment of Cæsar's arrival. The new governor set himself to undo the work of his predecessors. He exerted himself to recover the favor of the Massilians by doubling the benefits his rival had already conferred upon them. He extended the limits of their territory; he projected, at least, the building of a city and naval station at Forum Julii. His adherents, both Roman and provincial, he rewarded with lands and largess, and placed the machine of government wholly in their hands. Meanwhile he kept his legions ready for future service, and at the same time placed himself at the head of the gallant youth of Gaul, from which he amply recruited them. The warriors, indeed, with whom he had effected the conquest had been principally of Gaulish blood; the republic had furnished him with no troops from Italy, and a contingent which he had borrowed from Pompeius he had sent back when his jealous ally demanded it. The legions numbered the seventh, eignth, and ninth, which Cæsar found in the Cisalpine, were prob

ably the levies of Metellus in that region when he closed the Alps against the retreat of Catilina. The tenth legion had been raised by Pomptinus in the Transalpine Province to combat the Allobroges. The eleventh and twelfth were the proconsul's hasty conscription within his province at the commencement of his first campaign. The thirteenth and fourteenth were enlisted also in Gaul to oppose the great confederacy of the Belgians. Of these the latter had been cut in pieces by the Eburones: but another fourteenth and a fifteenth also were afterwards levied in the Gaulish territories. But a small portion of these soldiers could have been of genuine Roman or Italian extraction; they were mainly levied no doubt from the native population of the states which had been endowed with the rights of Latium. The legions themselves were attended by an unlimited number of foreign cohorts, equipped as the legionaries and placed under the same discipline. The common dangers and glories of a few campaigns, side by side, had rendered these auxiliaries no less efficient than their regular comrades. One entire legion Cæsar did not scruple to compose of Gauls only, an innovation which perhaps caused some dismay among his countrymen. The helmets of these soldiers were distinguished by the figure of a lark, or a tuft of its plumage, whence the legion itself received its name Alauda. The Gauls admired the spirit and vivacity of the bird, and rejoiced in the omen. Fond of the excitement of a military life, vain of the consideration attached to the profession of arms, proud of themselves and of their leaders, they found united in Cæsar's service all the charms which most attracted them. No captain ever knew better how to win the personal affection of his soldiers, while he commanded their respect. The general severity of his discipline enhanced the favor of his indulgence. Among Caesar's contemporaries it was remarked with admiration that throughout his Gallic campaigns his soldiers never mutinied. The toils and privations they endured more dismayed the enemy than their well-known prowess in the field. Nothing could induce them, when captured, to turn their arms against him, while Pompeius and Lucullus had been constantly confronted by renegades from their own ranks. Gaul had been conquered under Cæsar by the Gauls themselves, and it was the Gauls who were now about to conquer the empire of Rome.

CHAP. XLII. REPORT OF CÆSAR'S SUCCESSES.

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CHAPTER XLII.

Reception of the report of Cæsar's successes at Rome. Pompeius takes Spain and Crassus receives Syria for his province. - Crassus goes forth from the city and is denounced by the tribune Ateius. His proceedings in the East. His attack upon Parthia.-Difficulties of his march beyond the Euphrates. - Disaster at Carrhæ. - Crassus and a large part of his army fall into the hands of the Parthians.-Crassus slain, and his remains insulted. (B.c. 55-53.)

WHILE Cæsar kept his view steadily fixed on Rome during the long period of his absence, not less did his countrymen follow watchfully the career of their proconsul, his marches and retreats, his perils and his victories. They listened to the detail of his successes recited in the solemn decrees of the Senate. They beheld the buildings with which he decorated the city covered with the trophies of the conquered Gauls, and admired the eulogies of their favorite orator, who had exalted his triumphs above the exploits of all their ancient imperators. "Marius," exclaimed Cicero, "arrested the deluge of the Gauls in Italy; but he never penetrated into their abodes, he never subdued their cities. Cæsar has not only repulsed the Gauls, he has conquered them. The Alps were once the barrier between Italy and the barbarians; the gods had placed them there for that very purpose-to shelter Rome in the weakness of her infancy. Now let them sink, and welcome; from the Alps to the ocean she has no enemy to fear."

And this was the man whom she had only known a few years before as the profligate spendthrift, the elegant debauchee, whose amours with noble matrons had offended her grave and pious citizens. Cæsar's transcendent genius had, indeed, extorted her acknowledgments through the growing lustre of his civil career, but his enemies might still hope, from the apparent weakness of his bodily frame, that he would sink under the toils of protracted warfare. But as one campaign followed another his countrymen heard with amazement how this sickly gallant was climbing mountains on foot, swimming rivers on skins, riding his charger without a bridle, and making his bed among the rains and snows of the inhospitable North, in the depths of forests and morasses. If he allowed himself to be carried in a litter, he spared his body only to exercise his mind: he read and wrote on various and abstruse

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