So Caesar, having accomplished great things in Gaul and having decided to set out for Italy, sent Galba with the twelfth legion to the Veragri and the Seduni.
1 Igitur Caesar magnis in Gallia rebus gestis cum in Italiam proficisci decreuisset, Galbam cum legione duodecima ad Veragros Sedunosque misit.
Galba had settled in a village of the Veragri named Octodurus to winter, and had granted to the inhabitants the half of the town that was divided off by a torrent; but one day he saw that they had left during the night and occupied the nearest hill.
2 qui cum hiemandi causa in uico Veragrorum, cui nomen erat Octodurus, consedisset mediamque oppidi partem, quae torrente distinguebatur, accolis concessisset, quadam die eosdem discessisse per noctem ac proximo insedisse colli uidet.
For they, despising the small number of barely half a legion, reckoned it a prize that had offered itself and would fall to them with no trouble, and had called their neighbours into this partnership of slaughter and plunder.
3 quippe illi paucitatem uix mediae legionis despectui habentes ultroneam sibi praedam nullo cessuram negotio arbitrabantur finitimosque suos in hanc caedis ac praedae societatem uocauerant.
So while Galba was hemmed in by such immediate dangers and alarmed, and, amid various consultations, uncertain of any firm plan, the Gauls suddenly poured down the mountainside, surrounded the unfinished camp, and overwhelmed the few defenders along the rampart with stones and missiles.
4 igitur Galba tam praesentibus periculis circumsaepto ac trepido atque inter uarias consultationes certi consilii incerto, repente Galli descensu montis effusi castra inperfecta circumdant, raros per uallum propugnatores saxis telisque onerant.
And when the camp was already being broken into, on the advice of Pacuvius, the chief centurion, and Volusenus, the tribune, all the Romans burst out of the gates, and, suddenly attacking the unwary enemy, first threw them into confusion, then turned them to flight and routed them with pitiable slaughter. For more than thirty thousand barbarians are reported to have been slain on that occasion.1
5 cumque iam castra inrumperentur, Pacuuii primipilaris et Voluseni tribuni consilio cuncti Romani portis eruperunt incautosque subito adgressi hostes primum perturbauerunt, deinde in fugam uersos miserabili strage fuderunt. nam amplius triginta milia barbarorum tunc caesa referuntur.
1Caesar names the chief centurion as Publius Sextius Baculus; Orosius’s Pacuvius appears to be a corruption of Baculus. Caesar also says that of more than 30,000 attackers over a third were killed, not that 30,000 fell.
So Caesar, when he thought that all the nations of Gaul were now pacified, was drawn back into a new and very great war.
6 Igitur Caesar cum iam pacatas uniuersas Galliarum gentes putaret, ad nouum et maximum bellum retractus est.
For while the young Publius Crassus was wintering with the seventh legion among the Andicavi, on the shore of the Ocean, the Veneti and their neighbours suddenly conspired to take up arms, put the Roman envoys in chains, and informed the Romans that they would return them only if they received back their own hostages.
7 namque dum P. Crassus adulescens cum legione septima Oceano tenus apud Andicauos hiemat, Veneti ceterique confines repente in arma coniurant, legatos Romanorum uinciunt eosque ita demum se reddituros, si obsides suos recipiant, Romanis indicant.
As allies for this war they took to themselves the Osismi, Lexovii, Namnetes, Ambivariti, Morini, Diablintes and Menapii; they also summoned auxiliaries from Britain.
8 socios sibi ad id bellum Osismos Lexouios Namnetes Ambiuaritos Morinos Diablintes et Menapios adsciscunt; auxilia quoque a Britannia arcessunt.
Caesar, informed by Crassus of the rebellion of nations that had surrendered, though he understood how great a difficulty there was in entering upon the war, nevertheless judged that a matter of such consequence was not to be neglected, lest by such an example the licence for like daring should be loosened for the rest;
9 Caesar per Crassum de rebellione dediticiarum gentium certior factus, quamuis intellegeret quanta ineundi belli difficultas esset, tamen rem tanti negotii non neglegendam ratus, ne ceteris exemplo eiusmodi audendi licentia laxaretur,
and so, having vainly attempted to pursue the enemy by fighting on land — since the enemy were protected by the estuaries flowing in from the Ocean and by inaccessible retreats in safe recesses of the land — he ordered long ships to be built on the river Loire.
10 itaque terrestri proelio persequi hostes frustra adgressus - quippe cum hostes per interfusa ex Oceano aestuaria atque inaccessos recessus tutis terrarum sinibus munirentur - naues longas aedificari in Ligeri fluuio iubet:
As soon as these, brought down it into the Ocean, were seen by the enemy, at once 220 of their ships, made ready and most fully equipped with every kind of arms, came out of harbour and took up position opposite.
11 per quem in Oceanum deductae mox ut hostibus uisae sunt, continuo ducentae uiginti naues eorum paratae atque omni genere armorum instructissimae progressae portu ex aduerso constiterunt.
Brutus perceived that the contest of ships was far from equal, because the ships of the barbarians, built of solid oak and hardened with very strong frames, blunted like rocks the blows of the beaked ships driven against them;
12 Bruto circumspicienti imparem longe nauium esse conflictum, quia barbarorum naues solido robore intextae cauernisque praeualidis obduratae saxorum modo adactos rostratarum ictus retundebant,
the first help in this was that he had prepared very sharp sickles, not fixed firmly to poles but fastened to ropes, with which, when need arose, they could catch hold of the rigging from a distance and then, drawing back the shafts, cut it through by pulling the sickle back on its rope.
13 hoc primum auxilio fuit quod falces acutissimas non pertinaciter contis praefixas funibus autem subnexas parauerat, quibus cum opus esset adprehensos eminus rudentes subductis hastilibus per funem falcem retrahendo succiderent.
When these had been quickly made ready, he ordered the tackle of the enemy’s yards to be torn away; thus, as the yards came crashing down, he at once rendered a good many ships motionless, as though captured.
14 his celeriter expeditis disrumpi hostilium antemnarum armamenta praecepit: ita antemnis ruentibus conplures ilico naues uelut captas immobiles reddidit.
Others, terrified by this danger, hoisted their sails and tried to flee wherever the wind might drive them; but soon, when the wind dropped, they were left stranded as a sport for the Romans;
15 alii hoc periculo territi, suspensis uelis qua uentus intenderet fugere conati, cessante mox uento destituti ludibrio fuere Romanis;
and so, when all the ships had been burned and those of the Gauls who had fought had been killed, all the rest surrendered.
16 itaque incensis omnibus nauibus interfectisque his qui pugnauerant Gallis, reliqui sese omnes dediderunt.
But Caesar, chiefly because of the outrage done to the envoys, and to brand a nation fickle in all its counsels with the mark of a terrible example, put all the chief men to death by torture and sold the rest into slavery.
17 sed Caesar maxime ob iniuriam legatorum et ut genti ad omnia consilia mobili terribilis exempli notam inureret, cunctis principibus per tormenta interfectis reliquos sub corona uendidit.
In those same days Titurius Sabinus, by making a sally, destroyed with incredible slaughter the Aulerci Eburovices and the Lexovii, who had killed their own leading men because these were unwilling to be the authors of renewing the war.
18 isdem diebus Titurius Sabinus Aulercos Eburouices Lixouiosque, qui primates suos, cur auctores belli resuscitandi esse nollent, interfecerant, eruptione facta incredibili caede deleuit.
Publius Crassus, however, when he had reached Aquitania, was met with war. For the Sontiates, attacking the Romans with a great body of cavalry and very strong infantry forces, long and gravely threw them into disorder;
19 Publius uero Crassus cum in Aquitaniam peruenisset, bello exceptus est. namque Sontiates magno equitatu pedestribusque copiis praeualidis Romanos adorti diu grauiter turbauerunt;
afterwards, defeated, driven into the town of the Sontiates and besieged, when they saw that they were being stormed, they handed over their arms and were received in surrender.
20 post uicti atque in oppidum Sontiatum coacti obsessique, cum se expugnari uiderent, armis traditis in deditionem recepti sunt.
The Aquitanians, deeply moved by the disaster, gathered an army from every side; they also summoned auxiliaries from Hither Spain; and they put in command of the war above all those who had served with Sertorius.
21 Aquitani clade permoti undique exercitum contrahunt; de citeriore quoque Hispania auxilia accersunt; duces bello maxime eos praeficiunt, qui cum Sertorio militauerant.
All of these, while they were preparing to besiege Crassus, were destroyed in their own camp, Crassus overwhelming them. For of the Aquitanians and Cantabrians, fifty thousand of whom had then come as auxiliaries, thirty-eight thousand are reported to have been slain.
22 ii omnes dum obsidionem Crasso parant, in castris suis Crasso obruente deleti sunt. nam ex Aquitanis et Cantabris, quorum quinquaginta milia tunc in auxilium uenerant, triginta et octo milia caesa referuntur.
Caesar attacked in war the Germans who had crossed the Rhine with immense forces and were at the same time preparing to subdue the whole of Gaul, and cut them down to the point of extermination. Their number is said to have been 440,000.2
23 Caesar Germanos, qui Rhenum cum immensis copiis transmiserant, simul et totas Gallias subicere sibi parabant, bello adortus usque ad internecionem cecidit. quorum fuisse numerum ad quadringenta quadraginta milia ferunt.
2These were the Usipetes and Tencteri; Caesar (Gallic War 4.15) gives their number as 430,000.