waited for the tardy result of a general levy, which it would have required time to arm and equip, but had furnished each a contingent as far as their means allowed them. A numerous army was thus speedily collected round the circuit of the Roman entrenchments, and a ray of hope gleamed upon the ramparts of Alesia, when the signal was given for a simultaneous advance upon the invaders both from within and from without their lines. The Romans had furnished their fortifications with every implement of defence, in which art they were not less skilful than in that of attack. Pressed as they were by a great superiority of numbers, and scattered themselves along lines of immense extent, their activity and science supplied every deficiency; and, though the danger was imminent, they eventually succeeded in repelling every assault. The conflict indeed was repeated from day to day, but always with the same result. The assailants from within, animated by despair, renewed the attack with unabated vigour; but those without, whether worse armed or led by less experienced generals, or unnerved by the means of escape always open to them, gave way before the sallies of the besieged Romans, and at last broke up their camp and retreated in disorder.

Vercingetorix

himself for his

country.

The result of the original blockade was now inevitable. It could only remain a question with the Gauls, whether they should die with arms in their hands, or yield offers to devote themselves to the vengeance of the exasperated enemy. Then at last did Vercingetorix come forward and offer to give himself up as a ransom for the blood of the Gaulish nation. If conquered in the open field, no terms, he knew, would be granted to the combatants or their country; but if they capitulated, even at the last moment, some conditions might, perhaps, be extorted from the prudence, if not the clemency, of the conqueror. The wrath of the proconsul might, he hoped, be appeased by a splendid sacrifice. This indeed had not been a contest between rival nations; according to the maxims of the republic the confederation of Gaul was a rebellious conspiracy. Vercingetorix

himself had at one time cringed under the power of the intruding government; he was known personally to Cæsar; he had received favours from him; and he was marked out for signal vengeance for what was denominated his treason, not less than for his bitter hostility to Rome. The ancient superstition of many nations declared that the self-devotion of the chief is accepted by the Gods as an atonement for the people; and Vercingetorix, who had been the principal instigator as well as the most conspicuous leader of the revolt, now claimed the honour of being its last victim.

He surrenders

sar.

The Gauls were touched with their hero's generosity. Before accepting his magnanimous offer they sent a deputation to Cæsar to negotiate the terms of a capitulation. The answer was stern and ominous. It himself to Cædemanded the surrender of their chiefs, the delivery of their arms, the submission of the whole multitude to the discretion of the Roman general. Vercingetorix, with all the gallant gaiety of his nation, clad himself in his most splendid armour, and mounted his noblest charger. Cæsar had drawn up his troops in front of the lines, and had seated himself to receive his captives. The Gaul caused the gates of his encampment to be thrown wide, and galloped forth into the open space, in the attitude of a warrior charging. Having approached close to the proconsul's chair, he dexterously wheeled round, and again returning to the same spot sprang to the ground, and laid his arms at the feet of the conqueror. The army was touched with a sense of admiration akin to compassion, but Cæsar himself remained cold and unmoved.1 The Roman general had now broken the neck of resistWhatever further delay there might be in the complete pacification of Gaul, a judicious mixture of Harshness of forbearance and severity would disarm it of all Cæsar, and danger. It was his habit to calculate movement, nor at this crisis of his fortunes did he allow himself to yield to any impulse of impolitic magnanimity. To gratify the Roman populace he reserved the champion of

ance.

every

cruel fate of Vercingetorix.

1 Cæs. B. G. vii. 89.; Dion, xl. 41.; Plut. Cæs. 41.; Flor. iii. 10.

VOL. II.-3

Gaul to grace his future triumph. To appease the cupidity of his soldiers he allotted to each of them one of his captives as a slave. All the Arvernians and Æduans among them he liberated, with the view of winning back their countrymen to their former state of submission. We read of no punishment being inflicted upon the other Gaulish chieftains, and we may hope that an occasion which casts a deep shade upon Cæsar's character for generosity did not at least tarnish it with the stain of vindictiveness. Nevertheless, the worst remains to be told. At the spot where the triumphal car turned to the left to commence the winding ascent of the Capitoline hill, another path led in a contrary direction to the state prison in the rock. The noble captives who had thus far followed the wheels of the conqueror were here removed from the procession, and put to death in the fatal dungeon at the same moment that he entered the temple of Jupiter. Such had been the custom of the republic from the times of its original barbarism; hallowed by antiquity and perhaps by superstition, the progress of refinement had not availed to soften it; and thus the brave Vercingetorix ultimately suffered death, after six years of confinement.'

The lenient policy which the proconsul now adopted towards the Arvernians and the Æduans seems to have been eminently successful. The governing class in both these states had in fact been driven into the war Caesar's eighth against their own inclination; the elevation of Vercingetorix to supreme command had been a

Further disturbances in parts of Gaul.

and last cam

paign.

1 Dion, xl. 41. : ἀλλ ̓ εὐθὺς ἐν δεσμοῖς ἔδησε, καὶ ἐς τὰ ἐπινίκια μετὰ τοῦτο téμyas átékteive. In the same manner C. Pontius, the Samnite general, was sacrificed at the triumph of Q. Fabius Gurges, A. U. 464. Jugurtha was cast into prison and starved to death, A. U. 650. But Perseus and other conquered enemies were released. Compare Cicero (ii. in Verr. v. 30.): "At etiam qui triumphant eoque diutius vivos hostium duces servant, ut his per triumphum ductis pulcherrimum spectaculum fructumque victoriæ populus Romanus percipere possit; tamen quum de foro in Capitolium currum flectere incipiunt, illos duci in carcerem jubent; idemque dies et victoribus imperii et victis vitæ finem facit." It should be remarked, however, that Dion Cassius is the only authority for this fact, and that his charges of cruelty against Cæsar, where he can be confronted with the statements of others, are frequently disproved.

source of much bitter jealousy to the chieftains in both tribes, and they submitted again to the Roman yoke quietly, perhaps even gratefully. The spirit of resistance, however, was not quelled in other parts of Gaul. For the most part, indeed, the better organized governments declined a hopeless and ruinous struggle; but wherever the influence of any single chief was preeminent, or where, as among the Carnutes, the authority of the Druids was all-powerful, the smouldering flames found fuel among a restless and harassed population, and new armies continued to spring up in inexhaustible abundance. From the absence of a presiding spirit, they relapsed indeed into the same want of unity and concert which had paralysed their early efforts at defence.' Cæsar flew from state to state with the extraordinary activity which always distinguished him. He crushed the Bituriges by an incursion into their territory in the depth of winter. No sooner had he regained his quarters, than he rushed forth again upon the Carnutes, scattered all opposition, and drove the disaffected beyond their own frontiers to take refuge under the standards of the Belgians.

3

2

It was indeed in this quarter of Gaul, which had taken less part in the exhausting campaigns of the last two years, that the resistance to the Romans was most organized and effective. On the one hand, the Bellovaci

and Suessiones combined together, and having no

Cæsar defeats the submission

and accepts

of the Bello

vaci.

1 Auct. B. G. viii. 1. In the eighth book of the Commentaries on the Gallic war we have no longer Cæsar himself as our guide. Suetonius attributes it to one of his officers, Aulus Hirtius (Jul. 56.). The style is formed on the model of Cæsar's, but is inferior to it both in elegance and clearness. But, like the preceding books, it is the work of an eyewitness, and seems to be equally trustworthy. In this place the author gives as a reason for the desultory warfare into which the Gauls relapsed after the loss of Vercingetorix, their despair of overthrowing the enemy in a general engagement, and their hope of wearing out his troops by attacking them in detail. It is more probable that the loss of the only leader who had ever succeeded in uniting them in a common enterprize was irreparable.

16

Auct. B. G. viii. 2. He began his march the last day of the year 702: Pridie Kal. Jan. ab oppido Bibracte proficiscitur."

"Auct. B. G. viii. 3-6.

fortified towns to tempt them to defy the military science of their enemy, assembled in vast numbers in a position of peculiar natural strength, a hill enclosed in thick forests, and surrounded by impassable swamps. On the other, the Treviri, always proud to stand alone, defied the foreigner to set foot in their territory. Cæsar undertook the reduction of the first of these opponents, and deputed to Labienus that of the second. He threw causeways across the swamps, drew long lines of entrenchment before the face of the enemy, drove them from one position to another to avoid his circumvallations and the fate of the victims of Alesia, and at last compelled them to join in a general combat, the crisis by which every Gaulish campaign was finally decided. Thoroughly beaten and routed, with the loss of Correus, their king, and a vast number of their fighting population, the Bellovaci hastened to excuse their revolt, under the plea that the senate could not resist the influence which their sovereign possessed with the multitude. This excuse was probably not altogether false; but it suited Cæsar to rebuke it sternly, at the same time that he made a show of clemency, by sparing the nation which he had so effectually humbled.'

The Treviri

and Eburones

again put

of the Pictones

quelled.

2

Nor had Labienus in the mean time been less successful in defeating the forces of the Treviri; so that the campaign in Belgium was speedily reduced to the irregular warfare for which the country was so well adapdown: a revolt ted. Commius, the Atrebate, at the head of a band of German cavalry, whom he maintained by the plunder of Roman convoys or stations, was constantly flitting from place to place. Ambiorix continued to stimulate the zeal of the small remnant of the Eburones, till they were finally exterminated by a second massacre. In the west of Gaul, amidst loud notes of preparation for a general rising against the Romans, an important diversion was made in their favour by the adhesion to them of Duratius, one of the principal chiefs of the Pictones. He seized and occupied Lemo

1 Auct. B. G. viii. 6-22.

Auct. B. G. viii. 26.

2 Auct. B. G. viii. 25.