Caesar in Gaul.
“What security men derive from a resolute spirit.”
Caesar.
By the 'deal' of the triumvirate, Caesar was to have the government of Gaul for five years, while Crassus and Pompey were to remain in the city to look after the interests of the coalition. The bond was farther strengthened by the marriage of Pompey with Julia, Caesar's young and beautiful daughter.
Caesar, as we have seen, was over forty when he went to Gaul. He was more of a civilian than a soldier and was far more at home in the Forum than in the camp. Alexander, Hannibal, and Napoleon had been trained in war from childhood. The qualities that are most potent in war — hope, confidence, audacity, and pugnacity — are qualities that belong to youth. So Caesar is an anomaly in military history. In spite of his years and his comparative inexperience, he leaped at once to the highest place, and is counted to-day among the three or four greatest generals in history, if not the greatest of them all. He never lost a set battle and he showed infinite versatility in adapting means to ends, always doing the right thing at the right time. He never admits the possibility of defeat and overcomes the most stupendous difficulties with such ease that he rarely speaks of them. His promptness of decision and rapidity of execution were such that the enemy were constantly overwhelmed with awe and were led to regard him as a supernatural being. 'Forced marches,' 'continuous marching day and night,' 'as quickly as possible' are phrases that recur again and again in his narrative. Only a natural ruler of men could get things done with such swiftness. He carried out his plans with the greatest audacity and, at the same time, without recklessness. No one could be more minute and thorough in preparations than he. No one left less chance for luck, good or bad, to enter into the result. In all that was done, his was the masterful and presiding genius, and the legions rarely accomplished much in his absence. His relations with his soldiers were most cordial. They idolized him and he respected and admired them and constantly labored for their safety and comfort. He allows them to share in the glory of his victories and in his story lingers with delight over their heroic exploits. He shared all their dangers and privations, he excelled personally in deeds of arms, and he allowed himself no luxury but a favorite horse. It is not strange that when trouble came upon their master, his soldiers were true to him, and even volunteered to serve without pay. Only three of his officers, two of them Gauls, went over to the enemy, while thousands came to him from the other side.
After two successful campaigns in Gaul, in the spring of B. C. 56, Caesar met his two confederates at Luca, in Etruria, to arrange their future schemes. The conference was held with great display, almost like a royal court. More than two hundred senators were present, and one hundred and twenty lictors were in attendance, attached to the several magistrates. At this conference it was agreed that Pompey and Crassus should hold the consulship the following year, and, after their term of office, should receive by popular vote a similar command to that held by Caesar, — namely, that Pompey should command in Spain and Crassus in Syria for five years each; also that when Caesar's five years were up, he should receive in the same way a second term of five years. His ten years' administration would then close at the end of B. C. 49; after which time
— an interval of ten years having elapsed — he would be eligible again as consul.
The programme was duly carried out. Crassus departed (B. C. 54) to his province, where he was defeated the next year by the Parthians in the battle of Carrhae, and shortly after entrapped and killed. Pompey put his province into the hands of one of his subordinates, and remained in the neighborhood of Rome, unwilling to remove from the seat of his personal influence.
Caesar served eight campaigns in Gaul, an account of which is contained in the eight books of his Commentaries. Seven of these he wrote himself. The eighth was written by his friend and staff-officer, Hirtius. During these years he stormed more than 800 towns and subdued 300 tribes, engaged with more than 3,000,000 men, swept over a million human beings from the earth, and took a million more prisoners to be sold into slavery. "He was the first to lead an army into interior Gaul, the first to cross the Rhine into Germany, the first to bring a navy into the Western Ocean or to sail into the Atlantic with an army to make war." He left a magnificent country for the Romans to appropriate and retain until their increasing corruption left it in turn an easy prey to the Germans. He inspired such terror of the Roman arms that the tide of barbarian invasion was stayed for centuries.
