y face to face, and again sought flight into another quarter; and
the camp-followers who from the Decuman Gate and from the highest ridge
of the hill had seen our men pass the river as victors, when, after
going out for the purposes of plundering, they looked back and saw the
enemy parading in our camp, committed themselves precipitately to
flight; at the same time there arose the cry and shout of those who came
with the baggage-train; and they (affrighted) were carried some one way,
some another. By all these circumstances the cavalry of the Treviri were
much alarmed (whose reputation for courage is extraordinary among the
Gauls, and who had come to Caesar, being sent by their state as
auxiliaries), and, when they saw our camp filled with a large number of
the enemy, the legions hard pressed and almost held surrounded, the
camp-retainers, horsemen, slingers, and Numidians fleeing on all sides
divided and scattered, they, despairing of our affairs, hastened home,
and related to their state that the Romans were routed and conquered,
[and] that the enemy were in possession of their camp and baggage-train.

XXV.--Caesar proceeded, after encouraging the tenth legion, to the right
wing; where he perceived that his men were hard pressed, and that in
consequence of the standards of the twelfth legion being collected
together in one place, the crowded soldiers were a hindrance to
themselves in the fight; that all the centurions of the fourth cohort
were slain, and the standard-bearer killed, the standard itself lost,
almost all the centurions of the other cohorts either wounded or slain,
and among them the chief centurion of the legion, P. Sextius Baculus, a
very valiant man, who was so exhausted by many and severe wounds, that
he was already unable to support himself; he likewise perceived that the
rest were slackening their efforts, and that some, deserted by those in
the rear, were retiring from the battle and avoiding the weapons; that
the enemy [on the other hand], though advancing from the lower ground,
were not relaxing in front, and were [at the same time] pressing hard on
both flanks; he also perceived that the affair was at a crisis, and that
there was not any reserve which could be brought up; having therefore
snatched a shield from one of the soldiers in the rear (for he himself
had come without a shield), he advanced to the front of the line, and
addressing the centurions by name, and encouraging the rest of the
sol