27.
The Helvetii, compelled by the want of every thing, sent embassadors
to him about a surrender. When these had met him on the way and had thrown
themselves at his feet, and speaking in suppliant tone had with tears sued for
peace, and [when] he had ordered them to await his arrival, in the place, where
they then were, they obeyed his commands. When Caesar
arrived at that place, he demanded hostages, their arms, and the slaves who had
deserted to them. While those things are being sought for and got together,
after a night's interval, about 6000 men of that canton which is called the
Verbigene, whether terrified by fear, lest after delivering up
their arms, they should suffer punishment, or else induced by the hope of
safety, because they supposed that, amid so vast a multitude of those who had
surrendered themselves, their flight might either be concealed or entirely
overlooked, having at night-fall departed out of the camp of the Helvetii, hastened to the
Rhine
and the territories of the Germans.
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