OBSERVATION.
IT shall not be amisse to enter a little into the consideration of this bridge, as well in regard of the ingenious Architecture thereof, as also that we may somewhat imitate Caesar; whom we may observe to insist with as great plenty of wit and el••quence, in presenting unto us the subtilty of his invention in such manner of handy-works, as upon any other part of his actions; as this particular description of the bridge may suffici∣ently witnesse: besides the fortifications at Ale∣sia, and the intrenchments in Britany, for the safety of his shipping, with many other works, which he might well record as the greatest de∣signes of an heroick spirit, and the wonderfull effects of magnanimous industry, that succeeding ages might not boast either of Art or prowesse which his vertue had not expressed, or otherwise might wonder at that worth which they them∣selves could not attain unto. And to that pur∣pose he entertained Vuruvius the Father of Ar∣chitecture, and as worthily to be imitated in that faculty, as his Master Caesar is in feats of Armes. By whose example a great Commander may learn, how much it importeth the eternity of his fame to beautify his greatest designes with Art, and to esteem of such as are able to intreat the Mathematicall Muses to shew themselves under the shape of a sensible form; which albeit, through the rudenesse of the matter, fall far short of the truth of their intellectuall nature, yet their beauty expresseth such a majesty of Art, that no time will suffer the memory thereof to pe∣rish.
The workmanship of this bridge consisted chiefly in the oblique situation of the double posts, whereof the first order bending with the stream, and the lower rank against the stream, when they came to be coupled together with overthwart beams, which were fastened in the couplings with braces which he nameth Fibulas, the more violent the stream fell upon the work, the faster the joynts of the building were united, as may better appear by a modell of that making, then can be expressed by any circumstance of words.
I might hence take occasion to speak of the di∣versity of bridges, and of the practices which an∣tiquity hath devised to transport Armies over Ri∣vers: but inasmuch as it is a common subject for all that undertake this Military task,* 1.1 and hath been handled by Lapsius upon the occasion of this bridge, I will refer the Reader to that place; and only note the singular disposition of this a∣ction, inasmuch as Caesar made the means cor∣respondent to that end which he intended. For considering that the chiefest end of his passage was, to let the Germans understand that the power of the Roman Empire was not bounded with the Rhene, and that a river could not so se∣parate their territories, but that they were able to joyn both the Continents together, and make a common road-way where it seemed most unpas∣sable: he thought it best to passe over his Army by a bridge, that so the Germans might know the power of his forces, and also conceit their Terri∣to••ies as united unto Gallia, or to be united at the pleasure of the Romans with a firm Isthmus, and plain passage by foot, which in times past had alwayes been separated by a mighty river. Neither would a transportation by boat have wrought that effect, forasmuch as the daily use thereof was so familiar to the Germans, that it nothing altered their imagination of an unacces∣sible passage: but when they saw so strange a thing attempted, and so suddenly performed, they would easily understand that they were not so