nd to support them abroad: for he regarded every demonstration
against a weaker party as just, when it pleased the man whom weapons made
their superior. The Pannonians are settled near Dalmatia close along
the Ister from Noricum to European Moesia and lead the most miserable
existence of mankind. They are not well off in the matter of land or sky,
they cultivate no olives or vines except to the slightest extent, and
these wretched varieties, since the greater part of their days is passed
in the midst of most rigorous winter, but they drink as well as eat
barley and millet. They have been considered very brave, however, during
all periods of which we have cognizance. For they are very quick to anger
and ready to slay, inasmuch as they possess nothing which can give them
a happy life. This I know not by hearsay or reading only, but I have
learned it from actual experience as their governor. For after my term as
ruler in Africa and in Dalmatia,--the latter position my father also held
for a time,--I was appointed[55] to Upper Pannonia, so-called, and hence
my record is founded on exact knowledge of all conditions among them.
Their name is due to the fact that they cut up a kind of toga in a way
peculiar to themselves into strips which they call _panni_, and then
stitch these together into sleeved tunics for themselves.

They have been named so either for this or for some other reason; but
certain of the Greeks who were ignorant of the truth have spoken of them
as Paeones, which is an old word but does not belong there, but rather
applies to Rhodope, close to the present Macedonia, as far as the sea.
Wherefore I shall call the dwellers in the latter district Paeones, but
the others Pannonians, just as they themselves and as the Romans do.

[-37-] It was against this people, then, that Caesar at that time
conducted a campaign. At first he did not devastate or plunder at all,
although they abandoned their villages in the plain. He hoped to make
them his subjects of their free will. But when they harassed him as he
advanced to Siscia, he became angry, burned their land, and took all
the booty he could. When he drew near the city the natives for a moment
listened to their rulers and made terms with him and gave hostages, but
afterward shut their gates and accepted a state of siege. They possessed
strong walls and were in general encouraged by the presence of two
navigable rivers. The one named the Colops[56] flows past the very