r of population, a
third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Praeconius, the
lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known,
the Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was
long and vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired
to their principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted.
Crassus then marched into the territories of the Vocates and the
Tarusites, who raised a great host of men to carry on the war, but
suffered total defeat, after which the greater part of Aquitania of its
own accord surrendered to the Romans, sending hostages of their own
accord from different tribes. A few only--and those remote
nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to do this.

_IV.--The First Landing in Britain_

The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome,
55 before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.

The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
home, and going forth in their turn in other years.

Caesar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the Gauls
(whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from the
Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the army
earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had
taken place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the
Germans were then making excursions to greater distances, and had
advanced to the territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are
under the protection of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul,
Caesar thought proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had
discovered, and, having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and
ordered some cavalry to be raised, resolved to make war against the