So, when Caesar had returned to Italy, Gaul again conspired to take up arms, and many peoples combined at once. Their leader was Vercingetorix, on whose advice all the Gauls at once, of their own accord, set fire to their own cities; the first to be burned by its own people was Biturigo.
1 Igitur Caesare in Italiam reuerso Gallia rursus in arma coniurat multique simul populi coeunt. dux his Vercingetorix fuit, cuius consilio statim omnes Galli ciuitates suas ultro incenderunt: prima a suis incensa Biturigo.
Then they made an attack upon Caesar, who had hurried back secretly to his army by forced marches through the province of Narbonensis.
2 inde ad Caesarem, qui magnis itineribus per Narbonensem prouinciam clam ad exercitum recucurrerat, impetum faciunt.
Caesar had then shut in by siege a town named Cenabum. After it had long been assaulted, at last, after many disasters to the Romans, on a rainy day, when the thongs and sinews of the enemy’s engines had gone slack, towers were brought up to it, and it was taken and destroyed.1
3 Caesar tunc oppidum nomine Caenapum obsidione concluserat: quod diu oppugnatum, tandem post multas Romanorum clades pluuio die, cum hostilium machinarum agmenta neruique elanguerant, adplicitis turribus captum atque deletum est.
1The siege described here, with the rainy day, the towers and the 40,000 of whom barely 800 escaped, is that of Avaricum (Bourges) in Caesar (Gallic War 7.27–28), not of Cenabum (Orléans). Orosius has eighty for Caesar’s 800.
Forty thousand people are reported to have been there, of whom scarcely eighty slipped away in flight and reached the nearest camp of the Gauls.
4 quadraginta milia ibi hominum fuisse referuntur: ex quibus uix octoginta per fugam lapsi ad proxima Gallorum castra uenerunt.
Moreover the Arverni and the other neighbouring peoples, having also won the Aedui over to their side, made war against Caesar in many battles.
5 praeterea Aruerni ceterique confines, sollicitatis etiam ad se Aeduis, multis aduersum Caesarem proeliis bellauerunt.
When, worn out with fighting, they had withdrawn into a certain fort, the soldiers, gaping for plunder, set their minds on storming the town, while Caesar protested in vain at the unfavourable ground. And so there Caesar, pressed hard by the enemy bursting out upon them from above, lost a great part of his army and fled defeated.2
6 qui cum se pugnando fatigati in quoddam castellum recepissent, milites praedae inhiantes ad expugnationem oppidi animum intendunt, frustra Caesare de loci iniquitate causante. itaque ibi Caesar erumpentibus de super hostibus pressus, multa exercitus sui parte perdita, uictus aufugit.
2This is Caesar’s repulse at Gergovia in 52 BC, which Orosius does not name; the siege of Alesia followed.
While these things were being done at Alesia, Vercingetorix, whom all with equal consent had chosen as their king, urged that all from the whole of Gaul who could bear arms should present themselves for this war. For this, he said, was the one war from which there would follow either perpetual liberty, or eternal slavery, or the death of all.
7 dum haec ad Alesiam geruntur, Vercingetorix, quem omnes consensu pari regem praeoptauerant, suadet, uti ex tota Gallia omnes, qui arma ferre possint, huic bello praesto sint. hoc enim esse unum bellum, quo aut perpetua libertas aut aeterna seruitus aut mors omnium consequatur.
And so, besides the number, beyond counting, which he had gathered before, about 8,000 horse and 250,000 foot were brought together.
8 itaque absque eo numero, quem infinitum ante contraxerat, equitum circiter octo milia, peditum ducenta et quinquaginta milia contracta sunt.
Next the Romans and the Gauls occupied two hills facing one another. Fighting from these with frequent sallies and varying outcomes, the Romans at last won through the outstanding valour of the German horsemen, whom, long since their friends, they had now called in as auxiliaries.
9 dehinc duo colles sibi inuicem obuersos Romani Gallique ceperunt. unde multis saepe eruptionibus et uariis prouentibus proeliantes, tandem Romani praecipua Germanorum equitum, quos sibi iamdudum amicos nunc in auxilium acciuerant, uirtute uicerunt.
On another day Vercingetorix, gathering together all who had escaped by flight, said that he had in good faith been the author of the defence of their liberty and of the breaking of the treaty, and that now, whether they all offered themselves to the Romans for death or surrendered him alone on behalf of all, he would be ready in spirit.
10 Vercingetorix alia die congregatis omnibus, qui fuga euaserant, dixit se auctorem bona fide defendendae libertatis atque inrumpendi foederis fuisse et nunc, siue Romanis sese ad mortem omnes offerant siue se solum pro omnibus dedant, paratum animo fore.
And so the Gauls, as though taking up on the king’s own advice a wish which for some time they had concealed out of shame, at once begged pardon for themselves and surrendered him alone, as the author of a great crime.
11 itaque Galli uoluntatem, quam pudore aliquamdiu texerant, quasi ex consilio regis adsumerent, ilico sibi ueniam precantes, eum solum uelut auctorem magni sceleris dediderunt.
The Bellovaci were held, in their own opinion, to be braver than all the nations of the Gauls. These, under the leadership of Correus, renewed the war, and joined to themselves in the alliance of the war they had undertaken the Ambiani, Aulerci, Caleti, Veliocasses and Atrebates; they seized a certain place surrounded and obstructed on every side by marshes, and, joining battle, slaughtered a great band of the Remi who were serving as auxiliaries to the Romans.
12 Bellouagui omnibus Gallorum gentibus ipsorum opinione fortiores habebantur. hi Correo duce bellum instaurant sibique in hanc suscepti belli societatem Ambianos Aulercos Saletos Veliocasses Atrebatasque coniungunt et locum quendam cinctum atque impeditum undique paludibus capiunt, commissoque proelio magnam Remorum manum, quae auxilio Romanis erat, trucidant.
Then, when they had occupied a place they had picked out as suitable for an ambush, and the Romans, having discovered this, had come to the place of the ambush drawn up and in order, battle was joined, and the Romans shut the fleeing Gauls in by the very defences of the place within which they had been enclosed, and cut them all down to the point of extermination.
13 deinde cum opportunum ipsi locum insidiis prouisum occupauissent atque hoc conperto Romani ad insidiarum locum instructi ordinatique uenissent, commisso proelio Romani Gallos fugientes isdem locorum munitionibus, quibus clausi fuerant, incluserunt cunctosque ad internecionem ceciderunt.
There Correus, refusing either flight or surrender, by killing the Romans who pressed upon him to take him alive, forced them to kill him.
14 ibi Correus uel fugam uel deditionem detractans Romanos, ut uiuus caperetur, instantes occidendo, ut occideretur, coegit.
So, when Caesar thought that all Gaul was pacified and would not dare to aspire to any further risings, he dismissed the legions to winter quarters; he himself, however, laid waste with a horrible slaughter of men the territory of Ambiorix, who had stirred up so many wars.
15 Igitur cum pacatam esse uniuersam Galliam Caesar neque ausuram fore ad aliquos adspirare motus arbitraretur, legiones in hiberna dimisit, ipse tamen Ambiorigis fines, qui tot bella excitauerat, horrenda hominum strage uastauit.
But the legate Gaius Caninius found war among the Pictones: there a great multitude of the enemy surrounded a legion hampered on its march and brought it into extreme danger.
16 at uero C. Caninius legatus bellum apud Pictonas inuenit: ubi magna hostium multitudo impeditam itinere legionem circumdedit atque ad extremum discrimen adduxit.
Moreover the legate Fabius, on receiving Caninius’s letter, set out for the Pictones; and there, informed by prisoners of the advantages of the ground, he crushed the enemy unawares, and, after great slaughter, drove off a great deal of plunder.
17 porro autem Fabius legatus acceptis Caninii litteris in Pictonas proficiscitur ibique a captiuis de opportunitate locorum certior factus inopinantes hostes opprimit magnisque stragibus factis plurimas praedas agit.
Then, when he had given Caninius a signal of his arrival, Caninius suddenly sprang out with his whole camp and threw himself upon the enemy. Thus, with Fabius pressing on one side and Caninius on the other, in a very great and long-drawn battle countless forces of the Gauls were slaughtered.
18 deinde cum Caninio signum aduentus sui dedisset, Caninius totis castris subito exsiluit seseque iniecit hosti. ita Fabio ex alia parte et Caninio ex altera insistente, maximo et diuturno bello innumerae Gallorum copiae trucidatae sunt.
From there Fabius set out against the Carnutes; for he knew that Dumnacus, a leader and the earliest instigator of the whole rebellion, who had slipped away from this war, would again stir up the greatest tumults in Gaul if he were joined to the Armorican nations. But these, still trembling at the very novelty of things, he subdued with wonderful valour and speed.
19 inde Fabius in Carnutes profectus est; sciebat enim Domnacum ducem antiquissimum rebellionis totius incentorem ab hoc bello elapsum, si Aremoricis gentibus adiunctus esset, maximos iterum in Gallia tumultus esse moturum. sed eas adhuc ipsa nouitate trepidantes mira uirtute et celeritate perdomuit.
Meanwhile Drappes, and Lucterius with him, when they saw that Caninius and the legions were in their territory, gathered forces from every side and occupied the town of Uxellodunum.
20 interea Draptes unaque Lycterius cum adesse Caninium et legiones in finibus suis uiderent, undique collectis copiis oppidum Uxellodunum occupant.
This town hung on the loftiest summit of a mountain; on two sides it was girt, along sheer slopes, by a river of no small size; then, halfway down the descent, secure in a most abundant spring, and safe with a very great supply of grain within, it looked down from afar on the vain manoeuvres of the enemy.
21 hoc oppidum in editissima montis arce pendebat, duabus partibus per abrupta latera non paruo flumine cingebatur, medio deinde descensu largissimo fonte securum plurimaque introrsum copia frumenti tutum inritos procul discursus hostium despiciebat.
Caninius, doing the one thing that Roman foresight could do, lured both leaders out onto the plain with the greater part of their forces and overcame them in a very great battle. For one of the leaders was killed and the other fled with very few; none returned to the town. But to storm it, Caesar was needed.
22 Caninius, quod solum Romana prouisione potuit, ambos duces cum parte copiarum plurima in campum euocatos maximo proelio superauit. nam uno e ducibus interfecto alter cum paucissimis fugit, nullus in oppidum rediit. sed ad id oppugnandum Caesare opus fuit.
And so Caesar, informed by messengers, hastened up, and, having surveyed everything, saw that if he attempted to storm it by force, his army would be destroyed as a game and a spectacle for the enemy; and that there was only one resource: if by some means the enemy could be cut off from water.
23 itaque certior per nuntios factus Caesar accurrit circumspectisque omnibus uidet, si expugnare ui moliatur, ludo et spectaculo hostium delendum esse exercitum suum; unum solum esse praesidii, si quoquo modo hostes aqua arceantur.
But even this none but Caesar could have achieved, since the spring which they used for drinking poured out halfway down the sloping side of the mountain. Caesar ordered mantlets to be moved up close to the spring and a tower to be built. At once there was a great rush out of the town. As these fought without danger to themselves, a good many Romans were slain, though they resisted stubbornly and came up again and again to relieve one another.
24 sed et hoc quoque nisi Caesar non potuisset, siquidem fons, quo ad potum utebantur, medio deuexi montis latere fundebatur. Caesar ad proximum fontis admoueri uineas turrimque exstrui iubet. fit magnus ilico concursus ex oppido. quibus sine periculo proeliantibus Romani quamuis pertinaciter obsisterent crebriusque succederent, conplures tamen trucidantur.
So a mound was raised, and a tower of sixty feet, whose top could be level with the site of the spring, so that missiles could be hurled from equal height, and rolling rocks hurled down from above need not be feared.
25 igitur exstruitur agger et turris pedum sexaginta, cuius uertex aequare ad fontis locum possit, ut uel ex aequo tela conici queant uel praecipitata desuper saxorum uolumina non timeri.
But the townspeople, when they saw not only their cattle but also the weaker ages of men dying of thirst, filled barrels with pitch, tallow and shingles, set fire to them and sent them rolling down the slope, and they themselves, pouring out of the whole town, followed after them.
26 oppidani autem, ubi exanimari siti non solum pecora sua uerum etiam infirmiores hominum aetates uident, cupas pice sebo et scindulis repletas ac deinde inmisso igne in prona praecipitant easque ipsi toto oppido effusi subsequuntur.
As the engines burned, Caesar, seeing that the battle was grievous and dangerous for his men, ordered cohorts to go swiftly and secretly round the town and suddenly raise a vast shout on every side. When this was done, the townspeople, in consternation, wishing to run back to defend the town, withdrew from attacking the tower and demolishing the mound.
27 ardentibus machinis cum graue proelium suis Caesar ac periculosum uideret, cohortes in circuitum oppidi ire uelociter per occultum imperat atque undique subito uastum clamorem attollere. quo facto consternati oppidani dum recurrere ad muniendum oppidum uolunt, ab oppugnatione turris uel demolitione aggeris recesserunt.
Those, however, who under the cover of the mound were safely digging tunnels to cut the veins of the spring, found the hidden channels of the waters, and by dividing them into many parts made them thin out and spend themselves. The townspeople, their spring dried up, were seized by final despair and surrendered.
28 illi tamen, qui ad incidendas fontis uenas sub obtentu aggeris tuti cuniculos perfodiebant, repertos in abstruso aquarum meatus per multa diuidendo tenuari in semet ipsis consumique fecerunt. oppidani fonte siccato ultima desperatione correpti deditionem sui faciunt.
Caesar, however, cut off the hands of all who had borne arms and left them their lives, so that the punishment of the wicked might bear the more evident witness even to posterity.
29 Caesar autem omnibus, qui arma tulerant, manus sustulit et uitam reliquit, quo testatior esset etiam posteris poena improborum.
For an example of punishment set before men’s eyes has great power to restrain audacity, since the very sight of the wretch, present and living, both stirs the memory of those who know and compels those who do not know to inquire.
30 multum enim ad cohercendam audaciam ualet propositum punitionis exemplum, cum ipsa miseri praesens forma uiuentis et ad recordationem admonet conscios et ad sciscitationem cogit ignaros.