to break into the Province, and to make to∣wards
Narbo. Which being known, Caesar
resolved by all means to put him by that pur∣pose,
and went himself to Narbo. At his
coming he incouraged such as stood doubtfull
or timorous, and placed garrisons amongst the
Rutheni, the Volsci, and about Narbo, which
were frontier places and near unto the enemy,
and commanded part of the forces which were
in the Province, together with those supplies
which he had brought out of Italy, to go a∣gainst
the Helvii, which are adjoyning upon
the Arverni. Things being thus ordered,
Lucterius being now suppressed and removed
holding it to be dangerous to enter among the
garrisons, he himself went towards the Hel∣vii.
And albeit the hill Gebenna, which di∣videth
the Arverni from the Helvii, by reason
of the hard time of winter and the depth of
the snow, did hinder their passage; yet by the
industry of the souldier making way through
snow of six foot deep, they came into the con∣fines
of the Arverni: who being suddenly and
unawares suppressed, little mistrusting an in∣vasion
over the hill Gebenna, which incloseth
them in as a wall, and at that time of the year
doth not afford a path to a single man alone,
he commanded the horsemen to scatter them∣selves
far and near to make the enemy the
more afraid. These things being speedily
carried to Vercingetorix, all the Arverni full
of fear and amazement flocked about him, be∣seeching
him to have a care of their State, and
not to suffer themselves to be sacked by the e∣nemy,
especially now at this time, when as all
the war was transferred upon them. Upon
their instant intreaty he removed his camp
out of the territories of the Bituriges, and mar∣ched
towards the country of the Arverni. But
Caesar having continued two dayes in those
places, forasmuch as he understood both by use
and opinion, what course Vercingetorix was
like to take; he left the army, pretending some
supplies of horse, which he went to raise, and
appointed young Brutus to command those for∣ces,
admonishing him to send out the horsemen
into all quarters, and that he himself would
not be absent from the camp above three dayes.
These things being thus settled, none of his
followers knowing his determination, by great
journeys he came to Vienna; where taking
fresh horse, which he had layd there many
dayes before, he ceased neither night nor day,
untill he came through the confines of the Hedui
to the Lingones, where two legions wintered:
to the end if the Hedui should undertake any
thing against him, he might with speed pre∣vent
it. Being there, he sent to the rest of the
Legions, and brought them all to one place,
before the Arverni could possibly have notice
of it.
OBSERVATIONS.
CAesar upon his first entrance into Gallia,
was perplexed how to get to his army: and
the matter stood in such terms, as brought ei∣ther
the legions or his own person into hazard.
For (as he saith) if he should send for the le∣gions
to come unto him, they should doubt∣lesse
be fought withall by the way, which he
was loath to adventure, unlesse himself had
been present: or otherwise if he himself had
gone unto them, he doubted of the entertain∣ment
of the revolting Galles, and might have o∣verthrown
his army, by the losse of his own per∣son.
In this extremity of choice, he resolved
upon his own passage to the army, as lesse
dangerous and more honourable, rather then to
call the legions out of their wintering camps,
where they stood as a check to bridle the inso∣lency
of the mutinous Galles, and so to bring
them to the hazard of battel in fetching their
Generall into the field: whereby he might have
lost the victory before he had begun the wars.
And for his better safety in this passage, he u∣sed
this cunning. Having assured the Roman
Province by strong and frequent garrisons on
the frontiers, and removed Lucterius from those
parts; gathering together such supplies as he
had brought with him out of Italy, with other
forces which he found in the Province, he went
speedily into the territories of the Arverni,
making a way over the hill Gebenna, at such
a time of the year as made it unpassable for any
forces, had they not been led by Caesar; only
for this purpose, to have it noised abroad, that
whereas Vercingetorix and the Arverni had
principally undertook the quarrell against the
Romans, and made the beginning of a new war,
Caesar would first deal with them, and lay the
weight thereof upon their shoulders, by calling
their fortunes first in question, to the end he
might possesse the world with an opinion of his
presence in that country, and draw Vercinge∣torix
back again to defend his state, whilst he
in the mean time did slip to his army without
suspition or fear of perill: for staying there no
longer then might serve to give a sufficient co∣lour
to that pretence, and leaving those forces
to execute the rest, and to make good the secret
of the project, he conveyed himself to his army
with such speed and celerity, as doth verify the
saying of Suetonius; quod persaepe nuncios de
se praevenit, that he often outwent the ordinary
messengers.
These blinds and false intendments are of
speciall use in matter of war, and serve as well to
get advantages upon an enemy, as to clear a
difficulty by cleanly evasion: neither is a Com∣mander
the lesse valued for fine conveyance in
military projects, but deserveth rather greater