easons which I have mentioned, had resolved to
cross the Rhine; but to cross by ships he neither deemed to be
sufficiently safe, nor considered consistent with his own dignity or
that of the Roman people. Therefore, although the greatest difficulty in
forming a bridge was presented to him, on account of the breadth,
rapidity, and depth of the river, he nevertheless considered that it
ought to be attempted by him, or that his army ought not otherwise to be
led over. He devised this plan of a bridge. He joined together at the
distance of two feet, two piles, each a foot and a half thick, sharpened
a little at the lower end, and proportioned in length to the depth of
the river. After he had, by means of engines, sunk these into the river,
and fixed them at the bottom, and then driven them in with rammers, not
quite perpendicularly, like a stake, but bending forward and sloping, so
as to incline in the direction of the current of the river; he also
placed two [other piles] opposite to these, at the distance of forty
feet lower down, fastened together in the same manner, but directed
against the force and current of the river. Both these, moreover, were
kept firmly apart by beams two feet thick (the space which the binding
of the piles occupied), laid in at their extremities between two braces
on each side; and in consequence of these being in different directions
and fastened on sides the one opposite to the other, so great was the
strength of the work, and such the arrangement of the materials, that in
proportion as the greater body of water dashed against the bridge, so
much the closer were its parts held fastened together. These beams were
bound together by timber laid over them in the direction of the length
of the bridge, and were [then] covered over with laths and hurdles; and
in addition to this, piles were driven into the water obliquely, at the
lower side of the bridge, and these serving as buttresses, and being
connected with every portion of the work, sustained the force of the
stream: and there were others also above the bridge, at a moderate
distance; that if trunks of trees or vessels were floated down the river
by the barbarians for the purpose of destroying the work, the violence
of such things might be diminished by these defences, and might not
injure the bridge.

XVIII.--Within ten days after the timber began to be collected, the
whole work was completed, and the whole army led over. Caesar, leaving a
str