lay
across the Roman provinces, they asked leave of Caesar to pass three
hundred and sixty thousand souls in all, counting women and children,
through the imperial territory.

The Roman commander, after giving them an evasive answer, met them in
the territory of the Sequani and Aedui and defeated them, driving them
back to their mountains. He next went to the aid of the Aedui, ancient
allies of Rome, against the Arverni and Sequani, who had invaded the
Aeduan territory under a German chieftain, Ariovistus. The result was
that Ariovistus was defeated and driven eastward across the Rhine. He
then defeated the Belgae, who, in B.C. 57, took up arms against the
garrisons which he had left in the country of the Sequani [dwellers on
the Seine]. He continued his conquest of the Belgic territory, and
subjected the three nations who occupied it, finally entering the
country of the warlike Nervii, whom he only conquered after a stubborn
and bloody battle. As soon as he had subjugated the whole of Gaul, he
crossed the Rhine for the purpose of intimidating the Germans and
teaching them to keep within their own boundaries.

He pursued the same policy with regard to the Britons, who, according to
information received by him, had sent aid to the Gauls in their struggle
with Rome. His ships were brought round from the Loire to that part of
the French coast now known as Boulogne, and he set out for Britain,
where he landed, and eventually received the submission of the British
chieftains.)

The Britons in their rude and barbarous state seemed to stand in need of
more polished instructors; and indeed whatever evils may attend the
conquest of heroes, their success has generally produced one good effect
in disseminating the arts of refinement and humanity. It ever happens
when a barbarous nation is conquered by another more advanced in the
arts of peace, that it gains in elegance a recompense for what it loses
in liberty.

The Britons had long remained in this rude but independent state, when
Caesar, having overrun Gaul with his victories, and willing still further
to extend his fame, determined upon the conquest of a country that
seemed to promise an easy triumph. He was allured neither by the riches
nor by the renown of the inhabitants; but being ambitious rather of
splendid than of useful conquests, he was willing to carry the Roman
arms into a country the remote situation of which would add seeming
difficulty to the enterprise an