A fragment on the war with the
Helvetii:
...
At day-break, when the summit of the mountain was in the possession of Titus
Labienus, and he himself was not further off than a mile and half from the
enemy's camp, nor, as he afterward ascertained from the captives, had either his
arrival or that of Labienus been discovered; Considius, with his horse at full
gallop, comes up to him says that the mountain which he [Caesar] wished should
be seized by Labienus, is in possession of the enemy; that he has discovered
this by the Gallic arms and ensigns. Caesar leads off his forces to the next
hill: [and] draws them up in battle-order. Labienus, as he had been ordered by
Caesar not to come to an engagement unless [Caesar's] own forces were seen near
the enemy's camp, that the attack upon the enemy might be made on every side at
the same time, was, after having taken possession of the mountain, waiting for
our men, and refraining from battle. When, at length, the day was far advanced,
Caesar learned through spies, that the mountain was in possession of his own
men, and that the Helvetii had moved their camp, and that Considius, struck with
fear, had reported to him, as seen, that which he had not seen. On that day he
follows the enemy at his usual distance, and pitches his camp three miles from
theirs.
The next day (as there remained in all only two day's space [to the time] when
he must serve out the corn to his army, and as he was not more than eighteen
miles from Bibracte, by far the largest and best-stored town of the Aedui), he
thought that he ought to provide for a supply of corn; and diverted his march
from the Helvetii, and advanced rapidly to Bibracte. This circumstance is
reported to the enemy by some deserters from Lucius Aemilius, a captain, of the
Gallic horse. The Helvetii, either because they thought that the Romans, struck
with terror, were retreating from them, the more so, as the day before, though
they had seized on the higher grounds, they had not joined battle or because
they flattered themselves that they might be cut of from the provisions,
altering their plan and changing their route, began to pursue, and to annoy our
men in the rear.
Caesar, when he observes this, draws off his forces to the next hill, and sent
the cavalry to sustain the attack of the enemy. He himself, meanwhile, drew up
on the middle of the hill a triple line of his four veteran legions in such a
manner, that he placed above him on the very summit the two legions, which he
had lately levied in Hither Gaul, and all the auxiliaries; and he ordered that
the whole mountain should be covered with men, and that meanwhile the baggage
should be brought together into one place, and the position be protected by
those who were posted in the upper line. The Helvetii having followed with all
their wagons, collected their baggage into one place: they themselves, after
having repulsed our cavalry and formed a phalanx, advanced up to our front line
in very close order.
Caesar, having removed out of sight first his own horse, then those of all, that
he might make the danger of all equal, and do away with the hope of flight,
after encouraging his men, joined battle. His soldiers hurling their javelins
from the higher ground, easily broke the enemy's phalanx. That being dispersed,
they made a charge on them with drawn swords. It was a great hinderance to the
Gauls in fighting, that, when several of their bucklers had been by one stroke
of the (Roman) javelins pierced through and pinned fast together, as the point
of the iron had bent itself, they could neither pluck it out, nor, with their
left hand entangled, fight with sufficient ease; so that many, after having long
tossed their arm about, chose rather to cast away the buckler from their hand,
and to fight with their person unprotected. At length, worn out with wounds,
they began to give way, and, as there was in the neighborhood a mountain about a
mile off, to betake themselves thither. When the mountain had been gained, and
our men were advancing up, the Boii and Tulingi, who with about 15,000 men
closed the enemy's line of march and served as a guard to their rear, having
assailed our men on the exposed flank as they advanced [prepared] to surround
them; upon seeing which, the Helvetii who had betaken themselves to the
mountain, began to press on again and renew the battle. The Romans having faced
about, advanced to the attack in two divisions; the first and second line, to
withstand those who had been defeated and driven off the field; the third to
receive those who were just arriving.
Thus, was the contest long and vigorously carried on with doubtful success. When
they could no longer withstand the attacks of our men, the one division, as they
had begun to do, betook themselves to the mountain; the other repaired to their
baggage and wagons. For during the whole of this battle, although the fight
lasted from the seventh hour [i.e. 12 (noon) 1 P. M.] to eventide, no one could
see an enemy with his back turned. The fight was carried on also at the baggage
till late in the night, for they had set wagons in the way as a rampart, and
from the higher ground kept throwing weapons upon our men, as they came on, and
some from between the wagons and the wheels kept darting their lances and
javelins from beneath, and wounding our men. After the fight had lasted some
time, our men gained possession of their baggage and camp. There the daughter
and one of the sons of Orgetorix was taken. After the battle about 130,000 men
[of the enemy] remained alive, who marched incessantly during the whole of that
night; and after a march discontinued for no part of the night, arrived in the
territories of the Lingones on the fourth day, while our men, having stopped for
three days, both on account of the wounds of the soldiers and the burial of the
slain, had not been able to follow them. Caesar sent letters and messengers to
the Lingones [with orders] that they should not assist them with corn or with
any thing else; for that if they should assist them, he would regard them in the
same light as the Helvetii. After the three days' interval he began to follow
them himself with all his forces.
The Helvetii, compelled by the want of every thing, sent embassadors to him
about a surrender. When these had met him on the way and had thrown themselves
at his feet, and speaking in suppliant tone had with tears sued for peace, and
[when] he had ordered them to await his arrival, in the place, where they then
were, they obeyed his commands. When Caesar arrived at that place, he demanded
hostages, their arms, and the slaves who had deserted to them. While those
things are being sought for and got together, after a night's interval, about
6000 men of that canton which is called the Verbigene, whether terrified by
fear, lest after delivering up their arms, they should suffer punishment, or
else induced by the hope of safety, because they supposed that, amid so vast a
multitude of those who had surrendered themselves, their flight might either be
concealed or entirely overlooked, having at night-fall departed out of the camp
of the Helvetii, hastened to the Rhine and the territories of the Germans.
But when Caesar discovered this, he commanded those through whose territory they
had gone, to seek them out and to bring them back again, if they meant to be
acquitted before him; and considered them, when brought back, in the light of
enemies; he admitted all the rest to a surrender, upon their delivering up the
hostages, arms, and deserters. He ordered the Helvetii, the Tulingi, and the
Latobrigi, to return to their territories from which they had come, and as there
was at home nothing whereby they might support their hunger, all the productions
of the earth having been destroyed, he commanded the Allobroges to let them have
a plentiful supply of corn; and ordered them to rebuild the towns and villages
which they had burned. This he did, chiefly, on this account, because he was
unwilling that the country, from which the Helvetii had departed, should be
untenanted, lest the Germans, who dwell on the other side of the Rhine, should,
on account of the excellence of the lands, cross over from their own territories
into those of the Helvetii, and become borderers upon the province of Gaul and
the Allobroges. He granted the petition of the Aedui, that they might settle the
Boii, in their own (i. e. in the Aeduan) territories, as these were known to be
of distinguished valor, to whom they gave lands, and whom they afterward
admitted to the same state of rights and freedom as themselves.
...