i; and surrounded
their whole army with their chariots and wagons, that no hope might be
left in flight. On these they placed their women, who, with disheveled
hair and in tears, entreated the soldiers, as they went forward to
battle, not to deliver them into slavery to the Romans.

Caesar appointed over each legion a lieutenant and a quaestor, that every
one might have them as witnesses of his valor. He himself began the
battle at the head of the right wing, because he had observed that part
of the enemy to be the least strong. Accordingly our men, upon the
signal being given, vigorously made an attack upon the enemy, and the
enemy so suddenly and rapidly rushed forward that there was no time for
casting the javelins at them. Throwing aside, therefore, their javelins,
they fought with swords hand to hand. But the Germans, according to
their custom, rapidly forming a phalanx, sustained the attack of our
swords. There were found very many of our soldiers who leaped upon the
phalanx, and with their hands tore away the shields and wounded the
enemy from above. Although the army of the enemy was routed on the left
wing and put to flight, they still pressed heavily on our men from the
right wing, by the great number of their troops. On observing this, P.
Crassus the Younger, who commanded the cavalry,--as he was more
disengaged than those who were employed in the fight,--sent the third
line as a relief to our men who were in distress.

Thereupon the engagement was renewed, and all the enemy turned their
backs, nor did they cease to flee until they arrived at the river Rhine,
about fifty miles from that place. There some few, either relying on
their strength, endeavored to swim over, or finding boats procured their
safety. Among the latter was Ariovistus, who, meeting with a small
vessel tied to the bank, escaped in it: our horse pursued and slew all
the rest of them. Ariovistus had two wives, one a Suevan by nation, whom
he had brought with him from home; the other a Norican, the sister of
King Vocion, whom he had married in Gaul, she having been sent thither
for that purpose by her brother. Both perished in that flight. Of their
two daughters, one was slain, the other captured. C. Valerius Procillus,
as he was being dragged by his guards in the flight, bound with a triple
chain, fell into the hands of Caesar himself, as he was pursuing the
enemy with his cavalry. This circumstance indeed afforded Caesar no less
pleasure th