44
MIGRATION OF THE SUEVI.
The Arverni never recovered their former position. Gaul, as I
have already remarked, was in a state of dissolution, and may
have been exhausted by emigrations, although emigrations do
not, in times of prosperity, exhaust a country, unless they be
like that of the Helvetians; for even if we suppose that as many
as two-thirds of the inhabitants of a country emigrate, the popula-
tion will, if circumstances are not unfavourable, be restored to its
original numbers, in a period of from seventy to eighty years.
The causes which then induced the German tribes to cross
the Bhine are hidden in utter obscurity. They formerly
inhabited a vast extent of country, which probably reached as
far as the valleys of the Alps, before the Gauls occupied those
districts. The passage of Livy2, in which he states that the
valleys of the Pennine Alps were inhabited by Germans, is a
proof of this : they must have been overpowered by the Celts,
for the Germans had not gone there as a conquering nation.
Ariovistus had settled in the country of the Sequani, and his
mode of acting was the same as that which we afterwards find
always adopted by the Germans. He divided the land for
cultivation between the old inhabitants and his own people,
some of whom cultivated it themselves, while others employed
the conquered to do it for them. The Aedui and Sequani
now implored the protection of Caesar against him. Caesar
entered upon the undertaking, although it was a very bold
one, for the Suevi were held to be irresistible; but he did so
just because it was a difficult matter. He took upon himself
what he had legally no right to do as proconsul, for Ario-
vistus had been recognised by the Roman people as sovereign
king in the year of Caesar’s consulship. The soldiers of
Caesar looked forward with great apprehension to the decisive
moment, but they gained a complete victory in the neighbour-
hood of Besançon, in which most of the Suevi were killed ;
the survivors fled across the Rhine, whither Caesar was wise
enough not to follow them.
Caesar now commanded seven legions, with as many auxiliary
troops as he had been able to obtain from his allies’, and he
2 xxi.38.
3 Socii are now no longer mentioned in the Roman aιmies, but only Auxiha,
and there is a great difference between the two. The Socu were now true
Roman legionaries, and were armed in the Roman fashion; whereas the Auxiha
formed cohorts, and the majority of them did not bear Roman arms, but had
their own national weapons.—N.
SUBJUGATION OF THE BELGIANS.
45
had. the administration, not only of all the countries north of
the Alps, but of Cisalpine Gaul as far as Romagna and the
foot of the Apennines—the country of the Ligurians did not
belong to his province—and Illyricum, as far as the frontiers
of Macedonia, while on the side of the barbarians, Illyricum
had no boundaries at all, the whole forming an empire not
inferior to the greatest in modern Europe. After his victory
over the Germans, something must have happened which
excited the fear of the Belgians, that he would turn his arms
against them. In his own account, no mention is made of
anything of the kind. It always appears, on the contrary, as if
the Gauls might have remained quiet without any danger, and
that they themselves were ill-disposed towards the Romans.
All the Belgians between the Seine, Marne, and Rhine, with
the exception of the Remi, the most distinguished tribe among
them, rose in arms against the Romans. My belief is that the
Remi intrigued with Caesar, in order to obtain, through his
influence, the supremacy among the Belgians, whereby the
other tribes would have been reduced to a sort of clientship.
The condition of Gaul is excellently described by Caesar.
The Belgians and Gauls were weak nations, because the mass
of the population was not free. The nation consisted of
druids, knights, and serfs : the last of these classes often fought
very bravely ; but on many occasions they shewed that they
had no desire to make any sacrifice for their country, for they
could not forget that they were serfs. When provoked, they
would often fight like lions, but they had no perseverance.
As regards the Nervii, however, we might almost believe that
they had no serfs. Caesar decided the fate of the Belgians in
two battles, on the Aisne and Sambre, and penetrated into the
modern Brabant, the country of the Nervii, who fought very
gallantly, but nearly their whole nation was extirpated.
The Aedui and Arverni, and, in fact, most of the nations as
far as the sea-coast, now tacitly recognised Rome’s supremacy.
Caesar took up extensive winter quarters among the Belgians,
from whom he expected more serious opposition. There he
again came in contact with the Germans. The Usipetes and
Tonchteri had come across the Rhine, and made war upon the
Belgians on the Meuse. Caesar, being always ready to avail
himself of such an opportunity, advanced against them ; and it
is against these tribes that Caesar committed one of the foulest