German cavalry in his pay, encountered Vercingetorix near the Saone. Cæsar ran great danger in this battle; and it is even said that he left his sword in the hands of his enemies. But the infantry of the Roman legions received the furious charges or the Gauls with the utmost intrepidity, and even drove off the Gauls pursuing them to the walls of Alesia.

Alesia was situated on a lofty plateau, now named Mont Auxois, surrounded by other hills, and bounded by the valleys of the Ose and Oserain. At the east end, just below the plateau, there is a spring. The highest point of Mont Auxois is 418 metres (1375-22 feet); the plateau is bordered all round with steep rock, below which there is a gentle descent. To the west is the fertile plain of Les Laumes.

The place where Vercingetorix posted himself, and made his ditch and wall, was below the plateau, at the east end of Mont Auxois, between Mont Auxois and Mont Plevenel. Cæsar began the blockade by pitching his camps all round Alesia, in convenient positions. He also constructed twenty-three redoubts along a line of eleven Roman miles in circuit.

The first ditch made by Cæsar was in the plain of Les Laumes and along the valley. His parapet, or vallum, was 400 feet distant from the first ditch, and was still more extensive than the first line of circumvallation. It passed through Réa, Flavigny,

etc.

The great fight was at the lines at Réa, to which Vergasilaunus led 60,000 men.

Competent judges have remarked that at no period did the military genius of Caesar shine brighter than at the siege of Alesia. Vercingetorix traced a camp for his army, which reckoned about 80,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 horsemen. Cæsar conceived the bold thought of finishing the war at a stroke by besieging at the same time the town and the Gallic army that had come up to relieve it. Then commenced his prodigious labours. His ditch was twenty feet wide, and eleven miles round, the second ditch fifteen feet deep, and into the third he conducted the waters of a river. The latter was bordered with a terrace twelve feet high, surmounted with turrets, and loopholed, also palisaded all round with trunks of trees, and flanked with towers. In front of the ditches were five rows of cheveux-defrise, and eight lines of sharp stakes driven into the ground, and concealed by foliage; still nearer the camp he scattered traps, armed with sharp spikes. The same kind of works were repeated towards the line of contravallation facing the country, sixteen miles in circumference.

These works took 60,000 men only five weeks to complete. Vercingetorix sent away his cavalry; 60,000 picked men assembled from all points of Gaul, to deliver their brothers; but their efforts were foiled by the impregnable rampart of the legions.. After having stood several useless assaults, Cæsar turned from the defensive to attack, drove back the Gauls, cut in pieces their rearguard, and caused a panic in their ranks, which led them to disperse. This time Gaul was thoroughly and permanently conquered. The garrison of Alesia was obliged to accept the terms of the conqueror. Vercingetorix, hoping to soften the pro-consul in favour of his brethren, gave himself up of his own accord. Mounted on his charger, and covered with his richest armour, he galloped to the place where Cæsar was seated, jumped from his horse and threw his javelin, casque, and sword at the feet of the hard, impassible Roman. But Cæsar did not show his vaunted humanity on this occasion. Vercingetorix was led off by the lictors, and Cæsar, after keeping him a prisoner six years, made him disgrace his triumph, and then suffer death. Certain partial wars had to be continued for a time to complete the subjugation of Gaul. Thus Cæsar, indefatigable in his work, carried fire and sword into the territory of the Bituriges, crushed the Bellovaci, cast back Ambiorix across the Rhine, and ruined Uxellodunum, capital of the Cadurci. He passed B.C. 50 in organizing Gaul, and gaining over the people he had conquered. What is called by Napoleon III. La Gaule Chevalin had to pay a tribute of forty million sesterces, but the towns were allowed to retain their laws and government. A good many towns adopted his name and became his clients. In this way he secured a large number of adherents in Gaul.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CIVIL WAR (B.c. 490).

WHILE Cæsar was reducing Gaul, Crassus had been defeated and slain by the Parthians, the only nation, except the Germans, who successfully resisted the Romans at this time. Crassus was

now sixty years of age, and had not the genius requisite for such an undertaking. Leaving his province, Syria, he crossed the Euphrates (B.c. 54), but by procrastination, gave time to his enemies to assemble in strength, and then fell back again into his province. Crassus passed the winter plundering the temples, and squeezing out money in all quarters, and in the spring, crossing the Euphrates, he again plunged into the deserts of Mesopotamia.

Trusting to a perfidious Arab guide, secretly in the pay of Surenas, the Parthian general, he was led into the open plains of Mesopotamia and betrayed. Surenas soon came up with the Parthian host, worried the dense ranks of the Romans with their arrows, and continuing to send showers of darts, while feigning to retreat, led on the Roman army to destruction. The son of Crassus was killed, and the Romans, after suffering heavy losses, fell back to Carrhæ, the Haran of Scripture. Continuing their retreat, Surenas invited Crassus to an interview, seized him treacherously, and in the scuffle the Roman leader was slain. His head was presented to the Parthian king Orodes, who ordered melted gold to be poured into his mouth, with the words: "Sate thyself now with that metal, of which thou wast so greedy in life."

The Romans lost 20,000 slain and 10,000 captured in this expedition, one of the most disastrous in their history. Only a few escaped, and among them L. Cassius Longinus, afterwards one of Cæsar's assassins.

By the death of Crassus the Triumvirate became a Duumvirate, Pompey and Cæsar being the only men in power, and as Cæsar was in Gaul, Pompey had it all his own way at Rome, governing his province by lieutenants (B.c. 53). He was jealous of the great fame of Cæsar, and another tie had been broken between them by the death of Julia, Pompey's wife and Cæsar's daughter, B.C. 54. Pompey aimed at the dictatorship, and encouraged frays at Rome, leading to the murder of Clodius, candidate for the prætorship, by Milo, candidate for the consulship (B.C. 52). Pompey had tried to gain the people by completing his theatre, to hold 40,000 spectators.

These intrigues and crimes had filled Rome with corruption. Lying and venality had gone to excess, the public conscience was destroyed. In the midst of this abyss of crime, let the reader imagine the figure of a grand old Roman of the simple, honest type of former days. This man--a wondrous exception in that evil time-was named Cato, styled by a Roman historian, a man of most holy life (holy in the pagan sense, meaning of integrity). Cato, then a prætor, appears to us barefooted, and without a toga, sitting down in front of the tribunal, from which distributions were made to the people; conceive him there giving out, instead of handsful of gold, turnips, lettuces, and figs. It was natural that such an example should be lost in so degenerate an age, and among a people given up to Epicurean principles. For Cato was, in theory and practice, a true stoic, and belonged to that excep

tional body of Romans, who seemed still to retain a high sense of honesty and virtue, and to value them more than life.

Meanwhile, the attitude of Cæsar and Pompey became more and more hostile, and the senate at length demanded of Cæsar that he should dismiss his army. As, however, the great conqueror refused to do this unless Pompey would also give up his province, Cæsar was declared an enemy of his country, and the military forces and state treasures were given up to Pompey. When this intelligence reached Cæsar, he was with a small part of his army in Upper Italy. He immediately assembled his soldiers, related to them the wrongs which his opponents had inflicted on him, and claimed protection against his adversaries. All his men exclaimed with one voice, that they were prepared to avenge the injury he had suffered, and to follow him wherever he wished. When Cæsar felt perfectly sure of the support of these troops, he passed the Rubicon, a small river separating his province from Italy proper. The act of crossing this border river was tantamount to a declaration of civil war. Sunk in deep thought, the mighty Roman stood long on the bank of the river; at length he roused himself and dashed through the stream, uttering the words, "The die is cast." His army followed him (B.C. 49), and Italy was soon subdued.

After angry discussions, Pompey, being in no condition to cope with Cæsar, retired to Capua. Cæsar resolved to pursue him, and invested and soon took Corfinium, showing considerable humanity on the occasion, which helped to gain him still more popularity.

Meanwhile, Pompey retreated first to Brundusium, and having employed Cæsar some time in a useless siege, went over to Dyrrachium, in Illyricum. All Italy was thus left at the mercy of his rival. When Cæsar returned to Rome, he proceeded to secure the public treasure, which Pompey by a wonderful oversight had left behind him. On coming to the door of the treasury, Metellus, the tribune, refused to admit him, but Cæsar laying his hand on his sword with emotion, exclaimed: "Know, young man, it is easier to do this than to say it." This threat had its effect; Metellus retired, and Cæsar quietly secured 300,000 pounds of gold and an immense quantity of silver.

Having secured this, Cæsar, with his usual speed and decision, proceeded first to crush the army in Spain without a leader, in order after to crush the leader without an army. Having quickly reduced the peninsula, he followed Pompey to Greece. Pompey had not been idle, however, in providing means of defence. He was at the head of nine legions, and largely supplied with money

and necessaries. Of the lieutenants of Cæsar, Antony and Dolabella, he had defeated one and taken the other, and he had two hundred senators in his camp, among whom were Cicero and Cato.

Nevertheless, Cæsar started from Brundusium with five legions, and managed cleverly to slip through his enemies, crossing to Epirus in one day. The armies came in sight of each other on the Apsus, commanded by the two greatest generals of the age, but they did not come to blows. Cæsar had not received his reinforcements, and Pompey could not rely on his new levies. When Cæsar's troops had landed at Apollonia, Pompey retreated to an intrenched camp at Asparagium, where Cæsar began to blockade him. Much time was now passed in stratagems and attempts to outmanoeuvre each other. At length Pompey resolved to break through Cæsar's lines, and sending light troops and archers to attack the latter's intrenchments by sea, Pompey managed to get free, and Cæsar being vexed, resolved to force his antagonist to a battle, in which Cæsar's former son-in-law had the advantage, driving his adversary's troops with great precipitation before him, many perishing in the trenches and on the banks of the river. But Pompey fearing ambuscade, neglected this opportunity of completing his victory.

Cæsar then marched to Thessaly, and as the town of Gomphi refused to admit him, he caused it to be taken and plundered. He was soon master of all Thessaly. As Pompey's officers pressed him to fight, he drew down upon the plains of Pharsalia, where he was joined by Scipio and other troops, and resolved to engage Cæsar.

Cæsar had felt some apprehension, as his force of 22,000 foot and 1000 horse was far inferior to that of his opponent, who had 45,000 foot and 7000 horse. But Caesar was a prudent commander, and had picked some of his nimblest soldiers, and trained them to fight among his cavalry. By their assistance Cæsar's thousand horse were a match for the 7000 of Pompey.

Before the battle began each general addressed his troops, encouraging their men, and exciting their hopes. The word on Pompey's side was, "Hercules the Invincible;" that on Cæsar's, "Venus the Invincible." There was only just room to charge between the two armies. Pompey ordered his men to stand where they were to receive the first shock, while Cæsar's men rushed forward to charge with great impetuosity. A momentary pause took place in their advance, during which they all halted as it were by mutual consent. But presently Caesar's soldiers advanced.