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I. THE Gauls coming to invade Italy, are several times defeated. II. Cae∣sar going against the Gauls conquers them, and is the first of all the Roman Generals that passed into England or crossed the Rhine.
THE Gauls were the first of any people in the World, that [ I] came to make War upon the Romans, they set the whole City on fire after they had taken it, saving only the Capitol. Camillus defeated them, and chased them from Rome, and sometime after being returned in Arms to the Gates of the City, the same Camillus again defeated them, and triumphed at the age of fourscore Years. They undertook a third expedition into Italy, but the Roman Army commanded by T. Quintus, enclosed them round, and made a horrible slaughter. After that the Boiens the most valiant of all the Gauls, being entred in Arms into the Roman Territories, Sulpitius the Dictator, went against them and overcame them, by this way of fighting, he divided his Forces into four Battalions, of which the first went and dis∣charged their piles upon the Enemy, and presently retired; the second did the like, and so the third, and fourth in their order, avoyding by this means the Darts thrown at them by the Enemy. And after they had all discharged they joyned their Bodies, and with terrible shouts ran desperately with their Swords in their hands upon the gross of their Enemies, for they thought the Gauls already maimed with showers of Piles, would be abso∣lutely daunted, when they saw themselves so furiously charged, by so ma∣ny men together. And indeed all the Army of the Boiens were cut in pie∣ces by the Romans, who with much bravery, put the Orders into Execu∣tion; now the Pile is a sort of Arms differing from the Javelin; for the Shaft is square, and the Iron of the same length with the Shaft, square in like manner and only sharp at the point. Popilius defeated likewise ano∣ther Army of the Gauls, and after him Camillus, the Son of the first Camil∣lus another. Aemilius Probus likewise erected Trophies for a Victory gain∣ed ore the same Nation, but sometime before the consulate of Marius, a prodigious multitude of Gauls, all valiant men, and in the Flower of their Age, made an Irruption into Italy, and into the Narbonese Province; where having beaten some Roman Consuls, and pillaged their very Camps, Ma∣rius was sent against them, who cut them all in pieces.
The last and greatest of all the Wars the Romans had against the Gauls, [ II] was under Caesar, for in ten Years that he commanded in Gallia, he de∣feated four Millions of men, of which one Million were taken Prisoners in Fight, and as many slain, he reduced under his obedience four hundred Nations, and eight hundred Cities, reckoning as well those who being revolted he forced to return to their duty, as those he conquered. It is true that before Marius, Fabius Maximus Aemilianus, having with a small Power assailed a vast Army of Gauls, killed sixscore thousand of them, in one only Battel; and though he was then afflicted with a Wound new∣ly received, yet he performed this noble Action by going through the Ranks sometimes in his Litter, and sometimes on foot, sustained only by two men on each side of him, encouraging his men, and teaching them how to deal with the Barbarians.
To proceed. Caesar having began his War by the Helvetians and Ti∣gurians put two hundred thousand of them to the Rout; of whom the first were defeated by Labienus his Lieutenant, and the other with the Tri∣courians that assisted them, by himself (these were the same Tigurians who formerly had caused the Army of Piso and Cassius, to pass under the Yoak, as we read in the Chronicle of Claudius Paulus) After which he
made War upon Ariovistus and the Germans, the lowest of whom was tal∣ler then the tallest Roman. They were fierce and salvage, despisers of death (being perswaded they should one day rise again) equally patient of heat and cold, and upon a need could live themselves on raw Herbs, and feed their Horses with the green Sprouts of Trees. Yet they seemed to be people not addicted to labour, and who fought not so much with Reason and Discipline, as with fierce and brutish Violence, in which the Ro∣mans had the advantage of them, for they for their parts ran on all toge∣ther with such a fury that they made whole Legions recoyl, whilst the Romans easily giving ground without breaking their Ranks, got the day by their Conduct, and at last cut in pieces fourscore thousand of them. After this Victory Caesar having assailed the Belgians at the Passage of a certain River, and killed such numbers, that the heaps of dead Bodies served for a Bridge to pass over his Army, but he was hard put to it by the Nervians who surprising him in his March, before he could put his Army in order, made a horrible slaughter. Most of his Tribunes and Centurions were slain in this conflict, and himself forced to retreat to a Hill with his Guards, where the Enemies kept him besieged, till the tenth Legion falling into the Besiegers Rear cut them all in pieces, though they were no less then sixty thousand men descended of the Cimbrians and the Teutons. The same Caesar defeated the Allobroges, and slew four hun∣dred thousand Usipetes and Tencterians, as well armed as disarmed, but the Sicambres assaulting at unawares five thousand of his Horse only with five hundred put them to flight, yet they were afterwards defeated, and paid dear for their boldness. Caesar was likewise the first of the Ro∣mans that crossed the Rhine, or passed over into Brittain, an Island so great that it seems another Continent, and of which till then the Romans had no knowledge, He took his time when the Sea was low to embarque his men, and the Flood coming in, his Fleet was raysed up by the Waves, at first insensibly, then a little faster, till at last having Wind and Tide, he came over into Brittain.
Burbon••i▪
Suisses.
Canton of Zurick.
Hollanders.
Those of the Diocess of Cambray.
Savoyards.
Dutchies of Zupthen Cleves and Berg.