erely warded it off. That he had come into Gaul before the
Roman people. That never before this time did a Roman army go beyond the
frontiers of the province of Gaul. What [said he] does [Caesar] desire?
--why come into his [Ariovistus's] domains?--that this was his province
of Gaul, just as that is ours. As it ought not to be pardoned in him, if
he were to make an attack upon our territories; so, likewise, that we
were unjust to obstruct him in his prerogative. As for Caesar's saying
that the Aedui had been styled 'brethren' by the senate, he was not so
uncivilized nor so ignorant of affairs, as not to know that the Aedui in
the very last war with the Allobroges had neither rendered assistance to
the Romans, nor received any from the Roman people in the struggles
which the Aedui had been maintaining with him and with the Sequani. He
must feel suspicious that Caesar, though feigning friendship as the
reason for his keeping an army in Gaul; was keeping it with the view of
crushing him. And that unless he depart, and withdraw his army from
these parts, he shall regard him not as a friend, but as a foe; and
that, even if he should put him to death, he should do what would please
many of the nobles and leading men of the Roman people; he had assurance
of that from themselves through their messengers, and could purchase the
favour and the friendship of them all by his [Caesar's] death. But if he
would depart and resign to him the free possession of Gaul, he would
recompense him with a great reward, and would bring to a close whatever
wars he wished to be carried on, without any trouble or risk to him."

XLV.--Many things were stated by Caesar to the effect [to show]: "why he
could not waive the business, and that neither his nor the Roman
people's practice would suffer him to abandon most meritorious allies,
nor did he deem that Gaul belonged to Ariovistus rather than to the
Roman people; that the Arverni and the Ruteni had been subdued in war by
Quintus Fabius Maximus, and that the Roman people had pardoned them and
had not reduced them into a province or imposed a tribute upon them. And
if the most ancient period was to be regarded--then was the sovereignty
of the Roman people in Gaul most just: if the decree of the senate was
to be observed, then ought Gaul to be free, which they [the Romans] had
conquered in war, and had permitted to enjoy its own laws."

XLVI.--While these things are being transacted in the conference, i