ing tale of the
formidable rising of all the Gauls against their conquerors, under the
leadership of Vercingetorix, an Arvernian chief. This man was a real
hero,--brave, patriotic, resourceful, perhaps the only worthy antagonist
that Caesar ever met. This war strained to the utmost Caesar's abilities
and the disciplined valor of his legions. The Gauls nearly succeeded in
undoing all the work of six years, in destroying the Roman army and in
throwing off the Roman yoke. In this campaign, more conspicuously than
ever before, Caesar's success was due to the unexampled rapidity of his
movements. So perfect had become the training of his troops and their
confidence in his ability to win under all circumstances, that after a
campaign of incredible exertions they triumphed over the countless hosts
of their gallant foes, and in the next two years the last embers of
Gaulish independence were finally stamped out. In all his later wars,
Caesar never had anything to fear from Gaul. As we read the story of
Avaricum, of Gergovia, of Alesia, our sympathy goes out to the brave
barbarians who were fighting for liberty--but we have to remember that
though the cause of freedom failed, the cause of civilization triumphed.
The eighth book, containing the account of the next two years, 51 and 50
B.C., was written by one of Caesar's officers, Aulus Hirtius.

The first book of the Civil War begins with the year 49 B.C., where the
struggle between Caesar and the Senatorial party opens with his crossing
of the Rubicon, attended by the advanced guard of his legions. Pompey
proved a broken reed to those who leaned upon him, and Caesar's conquest
of the Italian peninsula was little else than a triumphal progress
through the country. The enemy retired to the eastern shore of the
Adriatic to muster the forces of the East on the side of the
aristocracy, leaving Caesar in possession of the capital and of the
machinery of government. The latter part of the book contains the
account of the campaign against Pompey's lieutenants in Spain, which was
won almost without bloodshed, by masterly strategy, and which ended with
the complete possession of the peninsula. The second book describes the
capture of Marseilles after a long siege, and the tragic defeat and
death of Curio, a brave but rash young officer sent by Caesar to secure
the African province. In the third book (48 B.C.) we have the story of
the campaign against Pompey; first the audacious blockade fo