Kitap 1
64
At early dawn it was observed from the higher ground adjacent to Caesar’s camp that the enemy’s rear was being hard pressed by the attack of our cavalry, and that sometimes the end of the column was being held up and even being cut off from the rest, while at other times their colours were pushed forward and our men were driven back by a charge of the cohorts in a body, and then again wheeled round and pursued the foe. And now throughout the camp the men gathered in groups, indignantly complaining that the enemy were being let slip from their hands, and that the war was being needlessly protracted to an undue length. They went to the centurions and military tribunes, and besought them to assure Caesar that he was not to shrink from exposing them to labour or peril. We are ready, they said; we can and we dare cross the river by the way the cavalry passed over. Caesar, urged by their zeal and their clamour, though he feared to expose his army to such a strength of current, nevertheless decides that he must attempt the experiment. So he orders the weaker men, whose spirit or strength seemed unequal to the effort, to be set aside from all the centuries. These he leaves with one legion to guard the camp. The rest of the legions he leads out lightly equipped, and after placing a great number of pack-horses in the river above and below leads across his force. A few of these men were carried away by the strength of the current, but were caught and supported by the horsemen; not one, however, was lost. When his army had been led across without loss, he draws up his forces and proceeds to lead his battle in three lines. And there was such zeal in the soldiery that, though a circuit of six miles was added to their route and a long delay was interposed at the ford, they overtook by the ninth hour of the day those who had gone out at the third watch.
