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And since the barbarians were compelled to fight in their boats as if on land, while the foe could use his ships as at sea, great numbers perished then and there, and all the remainder were captured. Of these Caesar slew the most prominent and sold the rest.

for having no cities, and living only in huts, they conveyed their chief treasures to the most densely wooded parts of the mountains, so that they did the attacking parties of the Romans much more harm than they themselves suffered. Caesar attempted by cutting down the forests to make his way into the mountains themselves, but renounced his plan on account of their size and the nearness of winter, and retired.

but he induced them to make a reckless assault upon his camp, although it was on high ground. He did this by sending out towards evening, in the guise of a deserter, one of his allies who spoke their language, and thus persuaded them that Caesar had met with reverses . . .

Finding Caesar there, they became afraid and sent to him to make a truce, and to ask for land or at least the permission to take some. When they could obtain nothing, they at first promised voluntarily to return to their homes and requested an armistice.

Their elders, condemning their action, came to Caesar contrary to their advice and asked him to pardon them, laying the responsibility upon a few. He detained these emissaries with the assurance that he would give them an answer before long,

Caesar, then, at this time was the first of the Romans to cross the Rhine, and later, in the consulship of Pompey and Crassus, he crossed over to Britain.

To this land, then, Caesar desired to cross, now that he had won over the Morini and the rest of Gaul was quiet. He made the passage with the infantry by the most desirable course, but did not select the best landing-place; for the Britons, apprised beforehand of his voyage, had secured all the landings on the coast facing the mainland.

Not many of the barbarians fell, for their forces consisted of chariot-drivers and cavalry and so easily escaped the Romans whose cavalry had not yet arrived; but alarmed at the reports about them from the mainland and because they had dared to cross at all and had managed to set foot upon the land, they sent to Caesar some of the Morini, who were friends of theirs, to see about terms of peace. Upon his demanding hostages, they were willing at the time to give them;

they took some men who had been sent out to forage for provisions on the assumption that the country was friendly, and destroyed them all, save a few, to whose rescue Caesar came in haste. After that they assaulted the camp itself of the Romans. Here they accomplished nothing, but fared badly; they would not make terms, however, until they had been defeated many times.

Indeed, Caesar would have had no thought of making peace with them at all, except that the winter was approaching and that he was not equipped with a sufficient force to continue fighting at that season, since the additional force coming to his aid had met with mishap, and also that the Gauls in view of his absence had begun an uprising; so he reluctantly concluded a truce with them, demanding many hostages this time also, but obtaining only a few.

For not only he himself, appreciating the gravity of the charges on which he was being tried, spent vast sums of money, but the associates of Pompey and Caesar also very willingly aided him, declaring that a different time and different king were meant by the Sibyl, and, most important of all, that no punishment for his deeds was contained in her verses.

In fact when the people assembled outside the pomerium (since, as he already held the office of proconsul, he was not allowed to enter the city), he addressed them at length in behalf of Gabinius, and not only read to them a letter sent to him by Caesar in the man’s behalf, but also besought the jurymen,

At this same time the wife of Pompey died, after giving birth to a baby girl. And whether by the arrangement of his friends and Caesar’s or because there were some who wished in any case to do them a favour, they caught up the body, as soon as she had received proper eulogies in the Forum, and buried it in the Campus Martius. It was in vain that Domitius opposed them and declared among other things that it was sacrilegious for her to be buried in the sacred spot without a special decree.

These were the occurrences in Rome while the city was passing through its seven-hundredth year. In Gaul during the year of these same consuls, Lucius Domitius and Appius Claudius, Caesar among other undertakings constructed ships of a style half-way between his own swift vessels and the native ships of burden, endeavouring to make them at once as light and as seaworthy as possible and capable of being left high and dry without injury.

But Caesar by a powerful assault forced them to leave the stockade and later on by siege drove them from their fortress, while others repulsed a party of theirs that attacked the ships in the harbour. They then became terrified and made terms, giving hostages and agreeing to pay a yearly tribute.