some should band together, they would not prove at all superior
to us. For, to omit the rest,--our numbers, our age, our experience, our
deeds,--who is there ignorant of the fact that we have armor over all
our body alike, whereas they are for the most part naked, and that we
employ both plan and arrangement, whereas they, unorganized, rush at
everything in a rage. Be sure not to dread their charge nor the
greatness of either their bodies or their shout. For voice never yet
killed any man, and their bodies, having the same hands as we, can
accomplish no more, but will be capable of much greater damage through
being both big and naked. And though their charge is tremendous and
headlong at first, it is easily exhausted and lasts but a short time.
[-46-] To you who have doubtless experienced what I mention and have
conquered men like them I make these suggestions so that you need not
appear to have been influenced by my talk and may really feel a most
steadfast hope of victory as a result of what has already been
accomplished. However, a great many of the very Gauls who are like them
will be our allies, so that even if these nations did have anything
terrible about them, it will belong to us as well as to the others.

"Do you, then, look at matters in this way and instruct the rest. I
might as well tell you that even if some of you do hold opposite views,
I, for my part, fight just as I am and will never abandon the position
to which I was assigned by my country. The tenth legion will be enough
for me. I am sure that they, even if there should be need of going
through fire, would readily go through it naked. The rest of you be off
the quicker the better and cease consuming supplies here to no purpose,
recklessly spending the public money, laying claim to other men's
labors, and appropriating the plunder gathered by others."

[-47-] At the end of this speech of Caesar's not only did no one raise an
objection, even if some thought altogether the opposite, but they all
approved his words, especially those who were suspected by him of
spreading the talk they had heard mentioned. The soldiers they had no
difficulty in persuading to yield obedience: some had of their own free
will previously decided to do so and the rest were led to that course
through emulation of them. He had made an exception of the tenth legion
because for some reason he always felt kindly toward it. This was the
way the government troops were named, accord