4.
When Caesar inquired of them what states were in arms,
how powerful they were, and what they could do, in war, he received the
following information: that the greater part of the Belgae were
sprung, from the Germans, and that having crossed the
Rhine
at an early period, they had settled there, on account of the fertility
of the country, and had driven out the Gauls who
inhabited those regions; and that they were the only people who, in the memory
of our fathers, when all Gaul was overrun, had prevented
the Teutones and the Cimbri from entering their
territories; the effect of which was, that, from the recollection of those
events, they assumed to themselves great authority and haughtiness in military
matters. The
Remi
said, that they had known accurately every thing respecting their
number, because being united to them by neighborhood and by alliances, they had
learned what number each state had in the general council of the
Belgae promised for that war. That the Bellovaci
were the most powerful among them in valor, influence, and the number of men;
that these could muster 100,000 armed men, [and had] promised 60,000 picked men
out of that number, and demanded for themselves the command of the whole war.
That the Suessiones were their nearest neighbors and possessed a
very extensive and fertile country; that among them, even in our own memory,
Divitiacus, the most powerful man of all Gaul, had been king; who had held the government of a great part of
these regions, as well as of Britain; that
their king at present was Galba; that the direction of the whole
war was conferred by the consent of all, upon him, on account of his integrity
and prudence; that they had twelve towns; that they had promised 50,000 armed
men; and that the Nervii, who are reckoned the most warlike among
them, and are situated at a very great distance, [had promised] as many; the
Atrebates 15,000; the Ambiani, 10,000; the
Morini, 25,000; the Menapii, 9,000; the
Caleti, 10,000; the Velocasses and the
Veromandui as many; the Aduatuci 19,000; that the
Condrusi, the Eburones, the Caeraesi,
the Paemani, who are called by the common name of Germans [had promised], they thought, to the number of
40,000.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.