rebates, 15,000; the Ambiani, 10,000; the Morini, 25,000; the Menapu,
9000; the Caleti, 10,000; the Velocasses and the Veromandui as many; the
Aduatuci, 19,000; that the Condrusi, the Eburones, the Caeraesi, the
Paemani, who are called by the common name of Germans, [had promised],
they thought, to the number of 40,000.
V.--Caesar, having encouraged the Remi, and addressed them courteously,
ordered the whole senate to assemble before him, and the children of
their chief men to be brought to him as hostages; all which commands
they punctually performed by the day [appointed]. He, addressing himself
to Divitiacus the Aeduan, with great earnestness, points out how much it
concerns the republic and their common security, that the forces of the
enemy should be divided, so that it might not be necessary to engage
with so large a number at one time. [He asserts] that this might be
effected if the Aedui would lead their forces into the territories of
the Bellovaci, and begin to lay waste their country. With these
instructions he dismissed him from his presence. After he perceived that
all the forces of the Belgae, which had been collected in one place,
were approaching towards him, and learnt from the scouts whom he had
sent out, and [also] from the Remi, that they were not then far distant,
he hastened to lead his army over the Aisne, which is on the borders of
the Remi, and there pitched his camp. This position fortified one side
of his camp by the banks of the river, rendered the country which lay in
his rear secure from the enemy, and furthermore ensured that provisions
might without danger be brought to him by the Remi and the rest of the
states. Over that river was a bridge: there he places a guard; and on
the other side of the river he leaves Q. Titurus Sabinus, his
lieutenant, with six cohorts. He orders him to fortify a camp with a
rampart twelve feet in height, and a trench eighteen feet in breadth.
VI.--There was a town of the Remi, by name Bibrax, eight miles distant
from this camp. This the Belgae on their march began to attack with
great vigour. [The assault] was with difficulty sustained for that day.
The Gauls' mode of besieging is the same as that of the Belgae: when
after having drawn a large number of men around the whole of the
fortifications, stones have begun to be cast against the wall on all
sides, and the wall has been stript of its defenders, [then], forming a
testudo, they advance to the gates and u
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