of Lucius Aurunculeius
Cotta supported this view, the commandant determined to accept
the proposal of Ambiorix. The Roman troops accordingly marched
off next morning; but when they had arrived at a narrow valley about
two miles from the camp they found themselves surrounded
by the Eburones and every outlet blocked. They attempted to open
a way for themselves by force of arms; but the Eburones would not enter
into any close combat, and contented themselves with discharging
their missiles from their unassailable positions into the dense
mass of the Romans. Bewildered, as if seeking deliverance
from treachery at the hands of the traitor, Sabinus requested
a conference with Ambiorix; it was granted, and he and the officers
accompanying him were first disarmed and then slain. After the fall
of the commander the Eburones threw themselves from all sides
at once on the exhausted and despairing Romans, and broke their
ranks; most of them, including Cotta who had already been wounded,
met their death in this attack; a small portion, who had succeeded
in regaining the abandoned camp, flung themselves on their own
swords during the following night. The whole corps was annihilated.

Cicero Attacked

This success, such as the insurgents themselves had hardly ventured
to hope for, increased the ferment among the Celtic patriots
so greatly that the Romans were no longer sure of a single district
with the exception of the Haedui and Remi, and the insurrection
broke out at the most diverse points. First of all the Eburones
followed up their victory. Reinforced by the levy of the Aduatuci,
who gladly embraced the opportunity of requiting the injury done
to them by Caesar, and of the powerful and still unsubdued Menapii,
they appeared in the territory of the Nervii, who immediately
joined them, and the whole host thus swelled to 60,000 moved
forward to confront the Roman camp formed in the Nervian canton.
Quintus Cicero, who commanded there, had with his weak corps
a difficult position, especially as the besiegers, learning from the foe,
constructed ramparts and trenches, -testudines- and moveable towers
after the Roman fashion, and showered fire-balls and burning
spears over the straw-covered huts of the camp. The only hope
of the besieged rested on Caesar, who lay not so very far off
with three legions in his winter encampment in the region of Amiens.
But--a significant proof of the feeling that prevailed in Gaul-
for a cons