his hands behind him and, holding them close
together on his back, to put the horse to his full speed. In that
campaign he also practised himself in dictating letters as he was
riding and thus giving employment to two scribes, and as Oppius[484]
says, to more. He is said also to have introduced the practice of
communicating with his friends by letters, as there was no time for
personal interviews on urgent affairs, owing to the amount of business
and the size of the city. This anecdote also is cited as a proof of
his indifference as to diet. On one occasion when he was entertained
at supper by his host Valerius Leo[485] in Mediolanum, asparagus was
served up with myrum poured on it instead of oil, which Caesar ate
without taking any notice of it, and reproved his friends who were out
of humour on the occasion. "You should be content," he said, "not to
eat what you don't like; but to find fault with your host's
ill-breeding is to be as ill-bred as himself." Once upon a journey he
was compelled by a storm to take shelter in a poor man's hut, which
contained only a single chamber and that hardly large enough for one
person, on which he observed to his friends that the post of honour
must be given to the worthiest and the place of safety to the weakest;
and he bade Oppius lie down while he and the rest slept in the porch.

XVIII. Caesar's first Gallic campaign was against the Helvetii[486] and
Tigurini, who had burnt their cities, twelve in number, and their
villages, of which there were four hundred, and were advancing through
that part of Gaul which was subject to the Romans, like the Cimbri and
Teutones of old, to whom they were considered to be not inferior in
courage and in numbers equal, being in all three hundred thousand, of
whom one hundred and ninety thousand were fighting men. The Tigurini
were not opposed by Caesar in person, but by Labienus, who was sent
against them by Caesar and totally defeated them near the Arar. The
Helvetii fell on Caesar unexpectedly as he was leading his forces to a
friendly city, but he succeeded in making his way to a strong
position, where he rallied his army and prepared for battle. A horse
being brought to him, he said, "I shall want this for the pursuit
after I have defeated the enemy; but let us now move on against them;"
and accordingly he made the charge on foot. After a long and difficult
contest, the Helvetian warriors were driven back, but the hardest
struggle was about the