7.
As soon as his troops were collected, he marched against the
Bellovaci: and pitching his camp in their territories, detached
troops of horse all round the country, to take prisoners, from whom he might
learn the enemy's plan. The horse, having executed his orders bring him back
word, that but few were found in the houses: and that even these had not stayed
at home to cultivate their lands (for the emigration was general from all parts)
but had been sent back to watch our motions. Upon Caesar's inquiring from them, where the main body of the
Bellovaci were posted, and what was their design: they made
answer, "that all the Bellovaci, fit for carrying arms, had
assembled in one place, and along with them the Ambiani,
Aulerci, Caletes, Velocasses, and
Atrebates, and that they had chosen for their camp, an elevated
position, surrounded by a dangerous morass: that they had conveyed all their
baggage into the most remote woods: that several noblemen were united in the
management of the war; but that the people were most inclined to be governed by
Correus, because they knew that he had the strongest aversion
to the name of the Roman people: that a few days
before Comius had left the camp to engage the Germans to their aid whose nation bordered on theirs, and whose
numbers were countless: that the Bellovaci had come to a
resolution, with the consent of all the generals and the earnest desire of the
people, if Caesar should come with only three legions,
as was reported, to give him battle, that they might not be obliged to encounter
his whole army on a future occasion, when they should be in a more wretched and
distressed condition; but if he brought a stronger force, they intended to
remain in the position they had chosen, and by ambuscade to prevent the Romans from getting forage (which at that season was
both scarce and much scattered), corn, and other necessaries.
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.