In the conduct of his campaigns it is a question whether he was more cautious or more daring, for he never led his army where ambuscades were possible without carefully reconnoitring the country, and he did not cross to Britain without making personal inquiries about the harbours, the course, and the approach to the island. But on the other hand, when news came that his camp in Germany was beleaguered, he made his way to his men through the enemies’ pickets, disguised as a Gaul.1
In obeundis expeditionibus dubium cautior an audentior, exercitum neque per insidiosa itinera duxit umquam nisi perspeculatus locorum situs, neque in Britanniam transvexit, nisi ante per se portus et navigationem et accessum ad insulam explorasset. At idem obsessione castrorum in Germania nuntiata per stationes hostium Gallico habitu penetravit ad suos.
1Through Gaius Volusenus (Caes. B. G. 4. 21. 1). Suetonius’s words per se do not necessarily imply that Caesar went to Britain himself for this purpose.
He crossed from Brundisium to Dyrrachium in winter time, running the blockade of the enemy’s fleets; and when the troops which he had ordered to follow him delayed to do so, and he had sent to fetch them many times in vain, at last in secret and alone he boarded a small boat at night with his head muffled up; and he did not reveal who he was, or suffer the helmsman to give way to the gale blowing in their teeth, until he was all but overwhelmed by the waves.
A Brundisio Dyrrachium inter oppositas classes hieme transmisit cessantibusque copiis, quas subsequi iusserat, cum ad accersendas frustra saepe misisset, novissime ipse clam noctu parvulum navigium solus obvoluto capite conscendit, neque aut quis esset ante detexit aut gubernatorem cedere adversae tempestati passus est quam paene obrutus fluctibus.