(Year of Rome 699.)
(BOOK IV OF THE “COMMENTARIES.”)
INCURSIONS OF THE USIPETES AND THE TENCTERI--FIRST PASSAGE OF THE
RHINE--FIRST DESCENT IN BRITAIN--CHASTISEMENT OF THE MORINI AND THE
MENAPII.
[Sidenote: Cæsar’s March against the Usipetes and the Tencteri.]
I. The Usipetes and the Tencteri, German peoples driven out of their
place by the Suevi, had wandered during three years in different
countries of Germany, when, during the winter of 698 to 699, they
resolved to pass the Rhine. They invaded the territory of the Menapii
(established on the two banks), surprised them, massacred them, crossed
the river not far from its mouth (towards Cleves[300] and Xanten) (_see
Plate 14_), and, after taking possession of the whole country, lived
the rest of the winter on the provisions they found there.
Cæsar saw the necessity of being on his guard against the impression
which this invasion would produce on the minds of the Gauls. It was to
be feared they would be tempted to revolt, with the assistance of the
Germans who had just crossed the Rhine.
To meet this danger, Cæsar crossed the mountains earlier than usual
(_maturius quam consuerat_), and joined the army in the countries of the
Aulerci and the Lexovii, between the Loire and the Seine, where it had
wintered. His apprehensions were but too well founded. Several peoples
of Gaul had invited the Germans to leave the banks of the Rhine and
penetrate farther into the interior. Eager to respond to this appeal,
the latter soon spread themselves far over the country, and already some
of them had arrived at the countries of the Eburones and the Condrusi,
the latter clients of the Treviri. On receiving news of this, Cæsar
called together the Gaulish chiefs who had invited the Germans, feigned
ignorance of their conduct, addressed kind words to them, obtained
cavalry from them, and, after securing his provisions, began his march
against this new irruption of barbarians. He foresaw a formidable war,
for the number of the Tencteri and Usipetes amounted to no less than
430,000 individuals--men, women, and children. If we admit that among
these peoples the proportion of the number of men capable of bearing
arms was the same as in the emigration of the Helvetii, that is,
one-fourth of the total population, we see that the Romans had to
combat more than 100,000 enemies.[301]
Without knowing exactly the road taken by Cæsar, we may suppose that he
promptly concentrated his army on the lower Seine to carry it towards
the north, at Amiens, where he had convoked the Gaulish chiefs who had
sought the support of the Germans. He followed, from Amiens, the road
which passes by Cambrai, Bavay, Charleroy, Tongres, and Maestricht,
where he crossed the Meuse. (_See Plate 14._) He was only a few days’
march from the Germans, when deputies came to propose, in rather haughty
language, an arrangement:--“Driven from their country, they have not
taken the initiative in the war; but they will not seek to avoid it.
The Germans have learnt from their ancestors, whoever may be the
aggressor, to have recourse to arms, and never to prayers. They may be
useful allies to the Romans, if lands are given to them, or if they are
allowed to retain those they have conquered. Moreover, with the
exception of the Suevi, to whom the gods themselves are not equal, they
know no people capable of resisting them.” Cæsar imposed upon them, as a
first condition, to quit Gaul; observing, “Those who have not been able
to defend their own lands, have no right to claim the lands of others;”
and he offered them a settlement among the Ubii, who were imploring his
support against the Suevi. The deputies promised to bring an answer to
this proposal in three days; meanwhile, they begged him to suspend his
march. Cæsar considered that this demand was only a subterfuge to gain
time to recall the cavalry, which had been sent a few days before to
collect plunder and provisions among the Ambivariti,[302] beyond the
Meuse. He rejected their proposal, and continued his advance.
At the appointed time, Cæsar, having passed the locality where Venloo
now stands, was no longer more than twelve miles from the enemy; and the
deputies returned as they had promised. They met the army in march, and
earnestly entreated it should go no farther. When they found they could
not prevail, they begged at least that the cavalry, which formed the
vanguard, should not engage in action, and that they should be allowed a
delay of three days, in order to send deputies to the Ubii; if the
latter bound themselves by oath to receive them, they would accept
Cæsar’s conditions. The latter was not the dupe of this new stratagem,
yet he promised them to advance that day no more than four miles, for
the purpose of finding water. He invited them, further, to send a more
numerous deputation next day. His cavalry received the order not to
provoke a combat, but to confine itself in case of being attacked, to
remaining firm, and await the arrival of the legions.
When they learnt that Cæsar was approaching the Meuse and the Rhine, the
Usipetes and Tencteri had concentrated their forces towards the
confluence of those two rivers, in the most remote part of the country
of the Menapii, and had established themselves on the river Niers, in
the plains of Goch. Cæsar, on his side, after leaving Venloo, had borne
to the right to march to the encounter of the enemy. Since, to the north
of the Roer, there exists, between the Rhine and the Meuse, no other
water-course but the Niers, he was evidently obliged to advance to that
river to find water: he was four miles from it when he met, at Straelen,
the German deputation.
The vanguard, consisting of 5,000 cavalry, marched without distrust,
reckoning on the truce which had been concluded. Suddenly, 800 horsemen
(all at the disposal of the Germans, since the greater part of their
cavalry had passed the Meuse) appeared bearing down upon Cæsar’s cavalry
from the greatest distance at which they could be seen. In an instant
the ranks of the latter are thrown into disorder. They have succeeded in
forming again, when the German horsemen, according to their custom,
spring to the ground, stab the horses in the bellies, and overthrow
their riders, who fly in terror till they come in sight of the legions.
Seventy-four of the cavalry perished, among whom was the Aquitanian
Piso, a man of high birth and great courage, whose grandfather had
wielded the sovereign power in his country, and had obtained from the
Senate the title of “Friend.” His brother, in the attempt to save him,
shared his fate.
This attack was a flagrant violation of the truce, and Cæsar resolved to
enter into no further negotiation with so faithless an enemy. Struck
with the impression produced by this single combat on the fickle minds
of the Gauls, he was unwilling to leave them time for reflection, but
decided on delaying battle no longer; besides, it would have been folly
to give the Germans leisure to wait the return of their cavalry. Next
morning their chiefs came to the camp in great numbers, to offer their
justification for the previous day’s attack in defiance of the
convention, but their real object was to obtain by deception a
prolongation of the truce. Cæsar, satisfied at seeing them deliver
themselves into his power of their own accord, judged right to make use
of reprisals, and ordered them to be arrested. The Roman army, then
encamped on the Niers, was only eight miles distant from the
Germans.[303]
[Sidenote: Rout of the Usipetes and the Tencteri.]
II. Cæsar drew all the troops out of his camp, formed the infantry in
three lines,[304] and placed the cavalry, still intimidated by the late
combat, in the rear guard. After marching rapidly over the short
distance which separated him from the Germans, he came upon them totally
unexpected. Struck with terror at the sudden appearance of the army, and
disconcerted by the absence of their chiefs, they had the time neither
to deliberate nor to take their arms, and hesitated for a moment between
flight and resistance.[305] While their cries and disorder announce
their terror, the Romans, provoked by their perfidious conduct on the
previous day, rush upon the camp. As many of the Germans as are quick
enough to gain their arms attempt to defend themselves, and combat among
the baggage and wagons. But the women and children fly on every side.
Cæsar sends the cavalry to pursue them. As soon as the barbarians, who
still resisted, hear behind them the cries of the fugitives, and see the
massacre of their companions, they throw down their arms, abandon their
ensigns, and rush headlong out of the camp. They only cease their flight
when they reach the confluence of the Rhine and the Meuse, where some
are massacred and others are swallowed up in the river.[306] This
victory, which did not cost the Romans a single man, delivered them
from a formidable war. Cæsar restored their liberty to the chiefs he had
retained; but they, fearing the vengeance of the Gauls, whose lands they
had ravaged, preferred remaining with him.[307]
[Sidenote: First Passage of the Rhine.]
III. After so brilliant a success, Cæsar, to secure the results,
considered it a measure of importance to cross the Rhine, and so seek
the Germans in their homes. For this purpose, he must choose the point
of passage where the right bank was inhabited by a friendly people, the
Ubii. The study of this and the following campaigns leads us to believe
that this was Bonn.[308] From the field of battle, then, he proceeded
up the valley of the Rhine; he followed a direction indicated by the
following localities: Gueldres, Crefeld, Neuss, Cologne, and Bonn. (_See
Plate 14._) Above all, it was Cæsar’s intention to put a stop to the
rage of the Germans for invading Gaul, to inspire them with fears for
their own safety, and to prove to them that the Roman army dared and
could cross a great river. He had, moreover, a plausible motive for
penetrating into Germany--the refusal of the Sicambri to deliver up to
him the cavalry of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who had taken refuge among
them after the battle. The Sicambri had replied to his demand, that the
empire of the Roman people ended with the Rhine, and that beyond it
Cæsar had no further claims. At the same time, the Ubii, who alone of
the peoples beyond the Rhine had sought his alliance, claimed his
protection against the Suevi, who were threatening them more seriously
than ever. It would be a sufficient guarantee for their safety, they
said, to show himself on the right bank of the Rhine, so great was the
renown of the Roman army among even the most remote of the German
nations, since the defeat of Ariovistus and the recent victory; and they
offered him boats for passing the river. Cæsar declined this offer. It
did not appear to him worthy of the dignity of himself or of the Roman
people to have recourse to barbarians, and he judged it unsafe to
transport the army in boats. Therefore, in spite of the obstacles
presented by a wide, deep, and rapid river, he decided on throwing a
bridge across it.
It was the first time that a regular army attempted to cross the Rhine.
The bridge was constructed in the following manner. (_See Plate 15._)
Two trees (probably in their rough state), a foot and a half in
thickness, cut to a point at one of their extremities, and of a length
proportionate to the depth of the river, were bound together with
cross-beams at intervals of two feet from each other; let down into the
water, and stuck into the ground by means of machines placed in boats
coupled together, they were driven in by blows of a rammer, not
vertically, like ordinary piles, but obliquely, giving them an
inclination in the direction of the current. Opposite them, and at a
distance of forty feet below, another couple of piles were placed,
arranged in the same manner, but inclined in a contrary direction, in
order to resist the violence of the river. In the interval left between
the two piles of each couple, a great beam was lodged, called the
_head-piece_, of two feet square; these two couples (_hæc utraque_) were
bound together on each side, beginning from the upper extremity, by two
wooden ties (_fibulæ_), so that they could neither draw from nor towards
each other, and presented, according to the “Commentaries,” a whole of a
solidity so great, that the force of the water, so far from injuring it,
bound all its parts tighter together.[309] This system formed one row of
piles of the bridge; and as many of them were established as were
required by the breadth of the river. The Rhine at Bonn being about 430
mètres wide, the bridge must have been composed of fifty-six arches,
supposing each of these to have been twenty-six Roman feet in length
(7·70 mètres). Consequently, there were fifty-four rows of piles. The
floor was formed of planks reaching from one head-piece to the other, on
which were placed transversely smaller planks, which were covered with
hurdles. Besides this, they drove in obliquely, below each row of piles,
a pile which, placed in form of a buttress (_quæ pro ariete subjectæ_),
and bound in with it, increased the resistance to the current. Other
piles were similarly driven in at a little distance above the rows of
piles, so as to form stockades, intended to stop trunks of trees and
boats which the barbarians might have thrown down in order to break the
bridge.
These works were completed in ten days, including the time employed for
the transport of the materials. Cæsar crossed the river with his army,
left a strong guard at each extremity of the bridge, and marched towards
the territory of the Sicambri, proceeding, no doubt, up the valley of
the Sieg and the Agger, (_See Plate 14._) During his march, deputies
from different peoples came to solicit his alliance. He gave them a
friendly reception, and exacted hostages. As to the Sicambri, at the
beginning of the erection of the bridge, they had fled to the deserts
and forests, terrified by the reports of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who
had taken refuge among them.
Cæsar remained only eighteen days beyond the Rhine. During this time he
ravaged the territory of the Sicambri, returned to that of the Ubii, and
promised them succour if they were attacked by the Suevi. The latter
having withdrawn to the centre of their country, he renounced the
prospect of combating them, and considered that he had thus accomplished
his design.
It is evident, from what precedes, that Cæsar’s aim was not to make the
conquest of Germany, but to strike a great blow which should disgust the
barbarians with their frequent excursions across the Rhine. No doubt he
hoped to meet with the Suevi, and give them battle; but learning that
they had assembled at a great distance from the Rhine, he thought it
more prudent not to venture into an unknown country covered with
forests, but returned into Gaul, and caused the bridge to be broken.
It was not enough for Cæsar to have intimidated the Germans; he formed a
still bolder project, that of crossing the sea, to go and demand a
reckoning of the Britons for the succour which, in almost all his wars,
and particularly in that of the Veneti, they had sent to the Gauls.[310]
[Sidenote: Description of Britain in the time of Cæsar.]
IV. The Romans had but imperfect information relating to Britain, which
they owed to certain Greek writers, such as Pytheas of Marseilles, who
had visited the Northern Sea in the fourth century before our era, and
Timæus of Tauromenium. The Gauls who visited Britain for the sake of
traffic, knew hardly more than the southern and south-eastern coasts.
Nevertheless, a short time before the arrival of the Romans, one of the
populations of Belgic Gaul, the Suessiones, then governed by Divitiacus,
had extended their domination into this island.[311]
It was only after having landed in Britain that Cæsar was able to form a
tolerably exact idea of its form and extent. “Britain,” he says, “has
the form of a triangle, the base of which, about 500 miles in extent,
faces Gaul. The side which faces Spain, that is, the west, presents a
length of about 700 miles. In this direction the island is separated
from Hibernia (_Ireland_) by an arm of the sea, the breadth of which is
apparently the same as the arm of the sea which separates Britain from
Gaul;” and he adds that “the surface of Hibernia represents about one
half the surface of Britain. The third part of the triangle formed by
this latter island is eastward turned to the north, and 800 miles long;
it faces no land; only one of the angles of this side looks towards
Germany.”[312] These imperfect estimates, which were to give place in
the following century to others less inaccurate,[313] led the great
captain to ascribe to the whole of Britain twenty times 100,000 paces in
circuit. He further gathered some information still more vague on the
small islands in the vicinity of Britain. “One of them,” he writes, “is
called Mona (_the Isle of Man_), and is situated in the middle of the
strait which separates Britain from Hibernia.” The Hebrides, the
Shetland islands (_Acmodæ_ of the ancients), and the Orcades, which were
only known to the Romans at the commencement of our era,[314] were
confounded, in the minds of Cæsar and his contemporaries, with the
archipelago of the Feroe isles and Scandinavia. Caledonia (_Scotland_)
appeared only in an obscure distance.
Cæsar represents the climate of Britain as less cold and more temperate
than that of Gaul. With the exception of the beech (_fagus_) and the fir
(_abies_), the same timbers were found in the forests of this island as
on the neighbouring continent.[315] They grew wheat there, and bred
numerous herds of cattle.[316] “The soil, if it is not favourable to
the culture of the olive, the vine, and other products of warm
climates,” writes Tacitus,[317] “produces in their place grain and
fruits in abundance. Although they grow quickly, they are slow in
ripening.”
Britain contained a numerous population. The interior was inhabited by
peoples who believed themselves to be _autochthones_, and the southern
and eastern coasts by a race who had emigrated from Belgic Gaul, and
crossed the Channel and the Northern Sea, attracted by the prospect of
plunder. After having made war on the natives, they had established
themselves in the island, and became agriculturalists.[318] Cæsar adds
that nearly all these tribes which had come from the continent had
preserved the names of the _civitates_ from whence they had issued. And,
in fact, among the peoples of Britain named by geographers in the ages
subsequent to the conquest of Gaul, we meet, on the banks of the Thames
and the Severn, with the names of Belgæ and Atrebates.
The most powerful of the populations of Belgic origin were found in
Cantium (_Kent_), which was placed, by its commercial relations, in more
habitual intercourse with Gaul.[319] The “Commentaries” mention only a
small number of British nations. These are the Trinobantes (the people
of _Essex_ and _Middlesex_), who proved the most faithful to the
Romans,[320] and whose principal _oppidum_ was probably already, in the
time of Cæsar, Londinium (_London_), mentioned by Tacitus;[321] the
Cenimagni[322] (_Suffolk_, to the north of the Trinobantes); the
Segontiaci (the greater part of _Hampshire_ and _Berkshire_, southern
counties); the Bibroci (inhabiting a region then thickly wooded, over
which extended the celebrated forest of Anderida);[323] their territory
comprised a small part of _Hampshire_ and _Berkshire_, and embraced the
counties of _Surrey_ and _Sussex_ and the most western part of _Kent_;
the Ancalites (a more uncertain position, in the north of _Berkshire_
and the western part of _Middlesex_); the Cassii (_Hertfordshire_ and
_Bedfordshire_, central counties). Each of these little nations was
governed by a chieftain or king.[324]
The Belgæ of Britain possessed the same manners as the Gauls, but their
social condition was less advanced. Strabo[325] gives this proof, that,
having milk in abundance, the Britons did not know how to make cheese,
an art, on the contrary, carried to great perfection in certain parts of
Gaul. The national character of the two populations, British and
Gaulish, presented a great analogy:--“The same boldness in seeking
danger, the same eagerness to fly from it when it is before them,”
writes Tacitus; “although the courage of the Britons has more of pride
in it.”[326] This resemblance of the two races showed itself also in
their exterior forms. Yet, according to Strabo, the stature of the
Britons was taller than that of the Gauls, and their hair was less red.
Their dwellings were but wretched huts made of stubble and wood;[327]
they stored up their wheat in subterranean repositories; their _oppida_
were situated in the middle of forests, defended by a rampart and a
fosse, and served for places of refuge in case of attack.[328]
The tribes of the interior of the island lived in a state of greater
barbarism than those of the maritime districts. Clothed in the skins of
animals, they fed upon milk and flesh.[329] Strabo even represents them
as cannibals; and assures us that the custom existed among them of
eating the bodies of their dead relatives.[330] The men wore their hair
very long, and a moustache; they rubbed their skin with woad, which gave
them a blue colour, and rendered their aspect as combatants singularly
hideous.[331] The women also coloured themselves in the same manner for
certain religious ceremonies, in which they appeared naked.[332] Such
was the barbarism of the Britons of the interior, that the women were
sometimes common to ten or twelve men, a promiscuousness which was
especially customary amongst the nearest relatives. As to the children
who were born of these incestuous unions, they were considered to belong
to the first who had received into his house the mother while still a
girl.[333] The Britons of the Cape Belerium (_Cornwall_) were very
hospitable, and the trade they carried on with foreign merchants had
softened their manners.[334]
The abundance of metals in Britain, especially of tin, or _plumbum
album_, which the Phœnicians went to seek there from a very remote
antiquity,[335] furnished the inhabitants with numerous means of
exchange. At all events, they were not acquainted with money, and only
made use of pieces of copper, gold, or iron, the value of which was
determined by weighing. They did not know how to make bronze, but
received it from abroad.[336]
The religion of the Britons, on which Cæsar gives us no information,
must have differed little from that of the Gauls, since Druidism passed
for having been imported from Britain into Gaul.[337] Tacitus, in fact,
tells us that the same worship and the same superstitions were found in
Britain as among the Gauls.[338] Strabo speaks, on the authority of
Artemidorus, of an island neighbouring to Britain, where they
celebrated, in honour of two divinities, assimilated by the latter to
Ceres and Proserpine, rites which resembled those of the mysteries of
Samothrace.[339] Under the influence of certain superstitious ideas, the
Britons abstained from the flesh of several animals, such as the hare,
the hen, and the goose, which, nevertheless, they domesticated as
ornamental objects.[340]
The Britons, though living in an island, appear to have possessed no
shipping in the time of Cæsar. They were foreign ships which came to
the neighbourhood of Cape Belerium to fetch the tin, which the
inhabitants worked with as much skill as profit.[341] About a century
after Cæsar, the boats of the Britons were still only frames of
wicker-work covered with leather.[342] The inhabitants of Britain were
less ignorant in the art of war than in that of navigation. Protected by
small bucklers,[343] and armed with long swords, which they handled with
skill, but which became useless in close combat, they never combated in
masses: they advanced in small detachments, which supported each other
reciprocally.[344] Their principal force was in their infantry;[345] yet
they employed a great number of war-chariots armed with scythes.[346]
They began by driving about rapidly on all sides, and hurling darts,
seeking thus to spread disorder in the enemy’s ranks by the mere terror
caused by the impetuosity of the horses and the noise of the wheels;
then they returned into the intervals of their cavalry, leaped to the
ground, and fought on foot mixed with the horsemen. During this time the
drivers withdrew themselves with the chariots so as to be ready in case
of need to receive the combatants.[347] The Britons thus united the
movableness of cavalry with the steadiness of infantry; daily exercise
had made them so dexterous that they maintained their horses at full
speed on steep slopes, drew them in or turned them at will, ran upon the
shaft, held under the yoke, and thence threw themselves rapidly into
their chariots.[348] In war they used their dogs as auxiliaries, which
the Gauls procured from Britain for the same purpose. These dogs were
excellent for the chase.[349]
In short, the Britons were less civilised than the Gauls. If we except
the art of working certain metals, their manufactures were limited to
the fabrication of the coarsest and most indispensable objects; and it
was from Gaul they obtained collars, vessels of amber and glass, and
ornaments of ivory for the bridles of their horses.[350]
It was known also that pearls were in the Scottish sea, and people
easily believed that it concealed immense treasures.
These details relating to Britain were not collected until after the
Roman expeditions, for that country was previously the subject of the
most mysterious tales; and when Cæsar resolved on its conquest, this
bold enterprise excited people’s minds to the highest degree by the
ever-powerful charm of the unknown. As to him, in crossing the Channel,
he obeyed the same thought which had carried him across the Rhine: he
wished to give the barbarians a high notion of Roman greatness, and
prevent them from lending support to the insurrections in Gaul.
[Sidenote: First Expedition to Britain.]
V. Although the summer approached its end, the difficulties of a
descent upon Britain did not stop him. Even supposing, indeed, that the
season should not permit him to obtain any decisive result by the
expedition, he looked upon it as an advantage to gain a footing in that
island, and to make himself acquainted with the locality, and with the
ports and points for disembarking. None of the persons whom he examined
could or would give him any information, either on the extent of the
country, or on the number and manners of its inhabitants, or on their
manner of making war, or on the ports capable of receiving a large
fleet.
Desirous of obtaining some light on these different points before
attempting the expedition, Cæsar sent C. Volusenus, in a galley, with
orders to explore everything, and return as quickly as possible with the
result of his observations. He proceeded in person with his army into
the country of the Morini, from whence the passage into Britain was
shortest. There was on that coast a port favourably situated for fitting
out an expedition against this island, the _Portius Itius_, or, as we
shall endeavour to prove farther on, the port of Boulogne. The ships of
all the neighbouring regions, and the fleet constructed in the previous
year for the war against the Veneti, were collected there.
The news of his project having been carried into Britain by the
merchants, the deputies of several nations in the island came with
offers of submission. Cæsar received them with kindness; and on their
return he sent with them Commius, whom he had previously made king of
the Atrebates. This man, whose courage, prudence, and devotion he
appreciated, enjoyed great credit among the Britons. He directed him to
visit the greatest possible number of tribes, to keep them in good
feelings, and to announce his speedy arrival.
While Cæsar remained among the Morini, waiting the completion of the
preparations for his expedition, he received a deputation which came in
the name of a great part of the inhabitants to justify their past
conduct. He accepted their explanations readily, unwilling to leave
enemies behind him. Moreover, the season was too far advanced to allow
of combating the Morini, and their entire subjection was not a matter of
sufficient importance to divert him from his enterprise against Britain:
he was satisfied with exacting numerous hostages. Meanwhile Volusenus
returned, at the end of five days, to report the result of his mission:
as he had not ventured to land, he had only performed it imperfectly.
The forces destined for the expedition consisted of two legions, the 7th
and the 10th, commanded probably by Galba and Labienus, and of a
detachment of cavalry, which made about 12,000 legionaries and 450
horses.
Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Aurunculeius Cotta received the command of
the troops left on the continent to occupy the territory of the Menapii
and that of the country of the Morini which had not submitted. The
lieutenant P. Sulpicius Rufus was charged with the guard of the port
with a sufficient force.
They had succeeded in collecting eighty transport ships, judged capable
of containing the two legions of the expedition, with all their baggage,
and a certain number of galleys, which were distributed among the
quæstor, the lieutenants, and the prefects. Eighteen other vessels,
destined for the cavalry, were detained by contrary winds in a little
port (that of _Ambleteuse_) situated eight miles to the north of
Boulogne.[351] (_See Plate 16._)
Having made these dispositions, Cæsar, taking advantage of a favourable
wind, started in the night between the 24th and 25th of August (we shall
endeavour to justify this date farther on), towards midnight, after
giving orders to the cavalry to proceed to the port above
(_Ambleteuse_); he reached the coast of Britain at the fourth hour of
the day (ten o’clock in the forenoon), opposite the cliffs of Dover. The
cavalry, which had embarked but slowly, had not been able to join him.
From his ship Cæsar perceived the cliffs covered with armed men. At this
spot the sea was so close to these cliffs that a dart thrown from the
heights could reach the beach.[352] The place appeared to him in no
respect convenient for landing. This description agrees with that which
Q. Cicero gave to his brother, of “coasts surmounted by immense
rocks.”[353] (_See Plate 17._) Cæsar cast anchor, and waited in vain
until the fifth hour (half-past three) (see the Concordance of Hours,
_Appendix B_), for the arrival of the vessels which were delayed. In the
interval, he called together his lieutenants and the tribunes of the
soldiers, communicated to them his plans as well as the information
brought by Volusenus, and urged upon them the instantaneous execution of
his orders on a simple sign, as maritime war required, in which the
manœuvres must be as rapid as they are varied. It is probable that
Cæsar had till then kept secret the point of landing.
When he had dismissed them, towards half-past three o’clock, the wind
and tide having become favourable at the same time, he gave the signal
for raising their anchors, and, after proceeding about seven miles to
the east, as far as the extremity of the cliffs, and having, according
to Dio Cassius, doubled a lofty promontory,[354] the point of the South
Foreland (_see Plate 16_), he stopped before the open and level shore
which extends from the castle of Walmer to Deal.
From the heights of Dover it was easy for the Britons to trace the
movement of the fleet; guessing that it was making for the point where
the cliffs ended, they hastened thither, preceded by their cavalry and
their chariots, which they used constantly in their battles. They
arrived in time to oppose the landing, which had to be risked under the
most difficult circumstances. The ships, on account of their magnitude,
could only cast anchor in the deep water; the soldiers, on an unknown
coast, with their hands embarrassed, their bodies loaded with the weight
of their arms, were obliged to throw themselves into the waves, find a
footing, and combat. The enemy, on the contrary, with the free use of
their limbs, acquainted with the ground, and posted on the edge of the
water, or a little way in advance in the sea, threw their missiles with
confidence, and pushed forward their docile and well-disciplined horses
into the midst of the waves. Thus the Romans, disconcerted by this
concurrence of unforeseen circumstances, and strangers to this kind of
combat, did not carry to it their usual ardour and zeal.
In this situation, Cæsar detached from the line of transport ships the
galleys--lighter ships, and of a form which was new to the
barbarians--and directed them by force of rowing upon the enemy’s
uncovered flank (that is, on his right side), in order to drive him from
his position by means of slings, arrows, and darts thrown from the
machines. This manœuvre was of great assistance; for the Britons,
struck with the look of the galleys, the movement of the oars, and the
novel effect of the machines, halted and drew back a little. Still the
Romans hesitated, on account of the depth of the water, to leap out of
the ships, when the standard-bearer of the 10th legion, invoking the
gods with a loud voice, and exhorting his comrades to defend the eagle,
leaps into the sea and induces them to follow.[355] This example is
imitated by the legionaries embarked in the nearest ships, and the
combat begins. It was obstinate. The Romans being unable to keep their
ranks, or gain a solid footing, or rally round their ensigns, the
confusion was extreme; all those who leapt out of the ships to gain the
land singly, were surrounded by the barbarian cavalry, to whom the
shallows were known, and, when they were collected in mass, the enemy,
taking them on the uncovered flank, overwhelmed them with missiles. On
seeing this, Cæsar caused the galleys’ boats and the small vessels which
served to light the fleet to be filled with soldiers, and sent them
wherever the danger required. Soon the Romans, having succeeded in
establishing themselves on firm ground, formed their ranks, rushed upon
the enemy, and put him to flight; but a long pursuit was impossible for
want of cavalry, which, through contrary winds in the passage, had not
been able to reach Britain. In this alone fortune failed Cæsar.
In this combat, in which, no doubt, many acts of courage remained
unknown, a legionary, whose name, Cæsius Scæva, has been preserved by
Valerius Maximus, distinguished himself in a very remarkable manner.
Having thrown himself into a boat with four men, he had reached a
rock,[356] whence, with his comrades, he threw missiles against the
enemy; but the ebb rendered the space between the rock and the land
fordable. The barbarians then rushed to them in a crowd. His companions
took refuge in their boat; he, firm to his post, made an heroic defence,
and killed several of his enemies; at last, having his thigh
transpierced with an arrow, his face bruised by the blow of a stone, his
helmet broken to pieces, his buckler covered with holes, he trusted
himself to the mercy of the waves, and swam back towards his companions.
When he saw his general, instead of boasting of his conduct, he sought
his pardon for returning without his buckler. It was, in fact, a
disgrace among the ancients to lose that defensive arm; but Cæsar loaded
him with praise, and rewarded him with the grade of a centurion.
The landing having been effected, the Romans established their camp near
the sea, and, as everything leads us to believe, on the height of
Walmer. The galleys were hauled on the strand, and the transport ships
left at anchor not far from the shore.
The enemies, who had rallied after their defeat, decided on peace. They
joined with their deputies; sent, to solicit it, some of the Morini,
with whom they lived on friendly terms,[357] and Commius, the King of
the Atrebates, who had been previously sent on a mission to Britain. The
barbarians had seized his person the moment he landed, and loaded him
with fetters. After the combat, they set him at liberty, and came to ask
pardon for this offence, throwing the fault upon the multitude. Cæsar
reproached them with having received him as an enemy, after they had, of
their own motion, sent deputies to him on the continent to treat of
peace. Nevertheless, he pardoned them, but required hostages; part of
these were delivered to him immediately, and the rest promised within a
few days. Meanwhile they returned to their homes, and from all sides the
chiefs came to implore the protection of the conqueror.
Peace seemed to be established. The army had been four days in Britain,
and the eighteen ships which carried the cavalry, quitting the upper
port with a light breeze, approached the coast, and were already in view
of the camp, when suddenly a violent tempest arose which drove them out
of their course. Some were carried back to the point whence they had
started, whilst others were driven towards the south of the island,
where they cast anchor; but, beaten by the waves, they were obliged, in
the midst of a stormy night, to put to sea and regain the continent.
This night, between the 30th and 31st of August, coincided with full
moon; the Romans were ignorant of the fact that this was the period of
the highest tides on the ocean. The water soon submerged the galleys
which had been drawn upon the dry beach, and the transport ships which
had remained at anchor, yielding to the tempest, were broken on the
coast or disabled. The consternation became general; the Romans were in
want of everything at once, both of the means of transport, of materials
for repairing their ships, and even of provisions; for Cæsar, not
intending to winter in Britain, had carried thither no supplies.
At the moment of this disaster, the chiefs of the Britains had again
assembled to carry out the conditions imposed upon them; but, informed
of the critical position of the Romans, and judging the small number of
the invaders by the diminutive proportions of their camp, which was the
more contracted as the legions had embarked without baggage[358] they
determined on again resorting to arms. The opportunity seemed favourable
for intercepting provisions, and prolonging the struggle till winter, in
the firm conviction that, if they annihilated the Romans and cut them
off from all retreat, nobody would dare in future to carry the war into
Britain.
A new league is forming. The barbarian chiefs depart one after another
from the Roman camp, and secretly recall the men they had sent away.
Cæsar as yet was ignorant of their design; but their delay in delivering
the rest of the hostages, and the disaster which had befallen his fleet,
soon led him to anticipate what would happen. He therefore took his
measures to meet all eventualities. Every day the two legions repaired
in turn to the country to reap; the fleet was repaired with the timber
and copper of the ships which had suffered most, and the materials of
which they were in want were brought over from the continent. Thanks to
the extreme zeal of the soldiers, all the ships were set afloat again,
with the exception of twelve, which reduced the fleet to sixty-eight
vessels instead of eighty, its number when it left Gaul.
During the execution of these works, Britons came backwards and forwards
to the camp freely, and nothing predicted the approach of hostilities;
but one day, when the seventh legion, according to custom, had proceeded
to no great distance from the camp to cut wheat, the soldiers on guard
before the gates suddenly came to announce that a thick cloud of dust
arose in the direction taken by the legion. Cæsar, suspecting some
attack from the barbarians, assembles the cohorts on guard, orders two
others to replace them, and the rest of the troops to arm and follow him
without delay, and hurries forward in the direction indicated. What had
happened was this. The Britons, foreseeing that the Romans would repair
to the only spot which remained to reap (_pars una erat reliqua_), had
concealed themselves the previous night in the forests. After waiting
till the soldiers of the 7th legion had laid aside their arms and begun
to cut the grain, they had fallen upon them unexpectedly, and, while the
legionaries in disorder were forming, they had surrounded them with
their cavalry and chariots.
This strange manner of combating had thrown the soldiers of the 7th
legion into disorder. Closely surrounded, and resisting with difficulty
under a shower of missiles, they would perhaps have succumbed, when
Cæsar appeared at the head of his cohorts; his presence restored
confidence to his own men and checked the enemy. Nevertheless, he did
not judge it prudent to risk a battle, and, after remaining a certain
length of time in position, he withdrew his troops. The 7th legion had
experienced considerable loss.[359] Continual rains, during some days,
rendered all operations impossible; but eventually the barbarians,
believing that the moment had arrived to recover their liberty,
assembled from all parts, and marched against the camp.
Deprived of cavalry, Cæsar foresaw well that it would go the same with
this combat as with the preceding, and that the enemy, when repulsed,
would escape easily by flight; nevertheless, as he had at his disposal
thirty horses brought into Britain by Commius, he believed that he could
use them with advantage;[360] he drew up his legions in battle at the
head of the camp, and ordered them to march forward. The enemy did not
sustain the shock long, and dispersed; the legionaries pursued them as
quickly and as far as their arms permitted; they returned to the camp,
after having made a great slaughter, and ravaged everything within a
vast circuit.
The same day, the barbarians sent deputies to ask for peace. Cæsar
doubled the number of hostages he had required before, and ordered them
to be brought to him on the continent. In all Britain, two states only
obeyed this order.
As the equinox approached, he was unwilling to expose vessels ill
repaired to a navigation in winter. He took advantage of favourable
weather, set sail a little after midnight, and regained Gaul with all
his ships without the least loss. Two transport vessels only were unable
to enter the port of Boulogne with the fleet, and were carried a little
lower towards the south. They had on board about 300 soldiers, who, once
landed, marched to rejoin the army. In their way, the Morini, seduced by
the prospect of plunder, attacked them by surprise, and soon, increasing
to the number of 6,000, succeeded in surrounding them. The Romans formed
in a circle; in vain their assailants offered them their lives if they
would surrender. They defended themselves valiantly during more than
four hours, until the arrival of all the cavalry, which Cæsar sent to
their succour. Seized with terror, the Morini threw down their arms, and
were nearly all massacred.[361]
[Sidenote: Chastisement of the Morini and Menapii.]
VI. On the day after the return of the army to the continent, Labienus
received orders to reduce, with the two legions brought back from
Britain, the revolted Morini, whom the marshes, dried up by the summer
heats, no longer sheltered from attack, as they had done the year
before. On another side, Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Cotta rejoined
Cæsar, after laying waste and burning the territory of the Menapii, who
had taken refuge in the depths of their forests. The army was
established in winter quarters among the Belgæ. The Senate, when it
received the news of these successes, decreed twenty days of
thanksgiving.[362]
[Sidenote: Order for Rebuilding the Fleet. Departure for Illyria.]
VII. Before he left for Italy, Cæsar ordered his lieutenants to repair
the old ships, and to construct during the winter a greater number, of
which he fixed the form and dimensions. That it might be easier to load
them and draw them on land, he recommended them to be made a little
lower than those which were in use in Italy; this disposition presented
no inconvenience, for he had remarked that the waves of the channel rose
to a less elevation than those of the Mediterranean, which he attributed
wrongly to the frequency of the motions of the tide and ebb. He desired
also to have greater breadth in the vessels on account of the baggage
and beasts of burden he had to transport, and ordered them to be
arranged so as to be able to employ oars, the use of which was
facilitated by the small elevation of the side-planks. According to Dio
Cassius, these ships held the mean between the light vessels of the
Romans and the transport ships of the Gauls.[363] He procured from Spain
all the rigging necessary for the equipment of these vessels.
Having given these instructions, Cæsar went into Italy to hold the
assembly of Citerior Gaul, and afterwards started for Illyria, on the
news that the Pirustes (_peoples of the Carnic Alps_) were laying the
frontier waste. Immediately on his arrival, by prompt and energetic
measures, he put a stop to these disorders, and re-established
tranquillity.[364]
[Sidenote: Points of Embarking and Landing. Date of the Arrival in
Britain.]
VIII. We have indicated, in the preceding pages, Boulogne as the port at
which Cæsar embarked, and Deal as the point where he landed in Britain.
Before explaining our reasons, it will not be useless to state that in
this first expedition, as well as in the second, the account of which
will follow, the places of embarking and landing were the same. In the
first place, the terms used in the “Commentaries” lead us to suppose it;
next, as we will endeavour to prove, he could only start from Boulogne;
and lastly, according to the relation of Dio Cassius, he landed on both
occasions at the same spot.[365] It is, then, convenient to treat here
the question for both expeditions, and to anticipate in regard to
certain facts.
Writers of great repute have placed the Portus Itius, some at Wissant,
others at Calais, Etaples, or Mardyke; but the Emperor Napoleon I, in
his _Précis des Guerres de César_, has not hesitated in preferring
Boulogne. It will be easy for us to prove in effect that the port of
Boulogne is the _Portus Itius_, which alone answers the necessities of
the text, and at the same time satisfies the requirements of a
considerable expedition.[366]
To proceed logically, let us suppose the absence of all kind of data.
The only means to approach the truth would then be to adopt, as the
place where Cæsar embarked, the port mentioned most anciently by
historians; for, in all probability, the point of the coast rendered
famous by the first expeditions to Britain would have been chosen in
preference for subsequent voyages. Now, as early as the reign of
Augustus, Agrippa caused a road to be constructed, which went from Lyons
to the ocean, across the country of the Bellovaci and the Ambiani,[367]
and was to end at Gesoriacum (_Boulogne_), since the Itinerary of
Antoninus traces it thus.[368] It was at Boulogne that Caligula caused a
pharos to be raised,[369] and that Claudius embarked for Britain.[370]
It was thence that Lupicinus, under the Emperor Julian,[371] and
Theodosius, under the Emperor Valentinian,[372] Constantius
Chlorus,[373] and lastly, in 893, the Danes,[374] set sail. This port,
then, was known and frequented a short time after Cæsar, and continued
to be used during the following centuries, while Wissant and Calais are
only mentioned by historians three or four centuries later. Lastly, at
Boulogne, Roman antiquities are found in abundance; none exist at Calais
or Wissant. Cæsar’s camp, of which certain authors speak as situated
near Wissant, is only a small modern redoubt, incapable of containing
more than 200 men.
To this first presumption in favour of Boulogne we may add another: the
ancient authors speak only of a single port on the coast of Gaul nearest
to Britain; therefore, they very probably give different names to the
same place, among which names figures that of _Gesoriacum_. Florus[375]
calls the place where Cæsar embarked the port of the Morini. Strabo[376]
says that this port was called _Itius_; Pomponius Mela, who lived less
than a century after Cæsar, cites _Gesoriacum_ as the port of the Morini
best known;[377] Pliny expresses himself in analogous terms.[378]
Let us now show that the port of Boulogne agrees with the conditions
specified in the “Commentaries.”
1. Cæsar, in his first expedition, repaired _to the country of the
Morini, whence the passage from Gaul to Britain is shortest_. Now,
Boulogne is actually situated on the territory of that people which,
occupying the western part of the department of the Pas-de-Calais, was
the nearest to England.
2. In his second expedition, Cæsar _embarked at the port Itius, which he
had found to offer the most convenient passage for proceeding to
Britain, distant from the continent about thirty Roman miles_. Now, even
at the present day, it is from Boulogne that the passage is easiest to
arrive in England, because the favourable winds are more frequent than
at Wissant and Calais. As to _the distance of about thirty miles_
(forty-four kilometres), Cæsar gives it evidently as representing the
distance from Britain to the _Portus Itius_: it is exactly the distance
from Boulogne to Dover, whereas Wissant and Calais are farther from
Dover, the one twenty, the other twenty-three Roman miles.
3. _To the north, at eight miles’ distance from the Portus Itius,
existed another port, where the cavalry embarked_. Boulogne is the only
port on this coast at eight miles from which, towards the north, we meet
with another, that of Ambleteuse. The distance of eight miles is exact,
not as a bird flies, but following the course of the hills. To the north
of Wissant, on the contrary, there is only Sangatte or Calais. Now
Sangatte is six Roman miles from Wissant, and Calais eleven.
4. _The eighteen ships of the upper port were prevented by contrary
winds from rallying the fleet at the principal port_. We understand
easily that these ships, detained at Ambleteuse by winds from the
south-west or west-south-west, which prevail frequently in the Channel,
were unable to rally the fleet at Boulogne. As to the two ships of
burthen, which, at the return of the first expedition, could not make
land in the same port as the fleet, but were dragged by the current more
to the south, nothing is said in the “Commentaries” which would show
that they entered a port; it is probable, indeed, that they were driven
upon the shore. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that they may have
landed in the little fishers’ ports of Hardelot and Camiers. (_See
Plate_ 15.)
We see from what precedes that the port of Boulogne agrees with the text
of the “Commentaries.” But the peremptory reason why, in our opinion,
the port where Cæsar embarked is certainly that of Boulogne, is, that it
would have been impossible to prepare elsewhere an expedition against
England, Boulogne being the only place which united the conditions
indispensable for collecting the fleet and embarking the troops. In
fact, it required a port capable of containing either eighty transport
ships and galleys, as in the first expedition, or 800 ships, as in the
second; and extensive enough to allow the ships to approach the banks
and embark the troops in a single tide. Now these conditions could only
be fulfilled where a river sufficiently deep, flowing into the sea,
formed a natural port; and, on the part of the coasts nearest to
England, we find only at Boulogne a river, the Liane, which presents all
these advantages. Moreover, it must not be forgotten, all the coast has
been buried in sand. It appears that it is not more than a century and
a half that the natural basin of Boulogne has been partly filled; and,
according to tradition and geological observations, the coast advanced
more than two kilomètres, forming two jetties, between which the high
tide filled the valley of the Liane to a distance of four kilomètres
inland.
None of the ports situated to the north of Boulogne could serve as the
basis of Cæsar’s expedition, for none could receive so great a number of
vessels, and we cannot suppose that Cæsar would have left them on the
open coast, during more than a month, exposed to the tempests of the
ocean, which were so fatal to him on the coasts of Britain.
Boulogne was the only point of the coast where Cæsar could place in
safety his depôts, his supplies, and his spare stores. The heights which
command the port offered advantageous positions for establishing his
camps,[379] and the little river Liane allowed him to bring with ease
the timber and provisions he required. At Calais he would have found
nothing but flats and marshes, at Wissant nothing but sands, as
indicated by etymology of the word (_white sand_).
It is worthy of remark, that the reasons which determined Cæsar to start
from Boulogne were the same which decided the choice of Napoleon I. in
1804. In spite of the difference in the times and in the armies, the
nautical and practical conditions had undergone no change. “The Emperor
chose Boulogne,” says M. Thiers, “because that port had long been
pointed out as the best point of departure of an expedition directed
against England; he chose Boulogne, because its port is formed by the
little river Liane, which allowed him, with some labour, to place in
safety from 1,200 to 1,300 vessels.”
We may point out, as another similarity, that certain flat boats,
constructed by order of the Emperor, had nearly the same dimensions as
those employed by Cæsar. “There required,” says the historian of the
‘Consulate and the Empire,’ “boats which would not need more, when they
were laden, than seven or eight feet of water to float, and which would
go with oars, so as to pass, either in calm or fog, and strand without
breaking on the flat English shores. The great gun-boats carried four
pieces of large bore, and were rigged like brigs, that is, with two
masts, manœuvred by twenty-four sailors, and capable of carrying a
company of a hundred men, with its staff, and its arms and munitions....
These boats offered a vexatious inconvenience, that of falling to the
leeward, that is, yielding to the currents. This was the result of their
clumsy build, which presented more hold to the water than their masts to
the wind.”[380]
Cæsar’s ships experienced the same inconvenience, and, drawn away by the
currents in his second expedition, they went to the leeward rather far
in the north.
We have seen that Cæsar’s transport boats were flat-bottomed, that they
could go either with sails or oars; carry if necessary 150 men, and be
loaded and drawn on dry ground with promptness (_ad celeritatem
onerandi subductionesque_). They had thus a great analogy with the
flat-bottomed boats of 1804. But there is more, for the Emperor Napoleon
had found it expedient to imitate the Roman galleys. “He had seen the
necessity,” says M. Thiers, “of constructing boats still lighter and
more movable than the preceding, drawing only two or three feet of
water, and calculated for landing anywhere. They were large boats,
narrow, sixty feet long, having a movable deck which could be laid or
withdrawn at will, and were distinguished from the others by the name of
pinnaces. These large boats were provided with sixty oars, carried at
need a light sail, and moved with extreme swiftness. When sixty
soldiers, practised in handling the oar as well as the sailors, set them
in motion, they glided over the sea like the light boats dropped from
the sides of our great vessels, and surprised the eye by the rapidity of
their course.”
The point of landing has been equally the subject of a host of contrary
suppositions. St. Leonards, near Hastings, Richborough (_Rutupiœ_),
near Sandwich, Lymne, near Hythe, and Deal, have all been proposed.
The first of these localities, we think, must be rejected, for it
answers none of the conditions of the relation given in the
“Commentaries,” which inform us that, in the second expedition, the
fleet sailed with a gentle wind from the south-west. Now, this is the
least favourable of all winds for taking the direction of Hastings, when
starting from the coasts of the department of the Pas-de-Calais. In this
same passage, Cæsar, after having been drawn away from his course during
four hours of the night, perceived, at daybreak, that he had left
Britain to his left. This fact cannot possibly be explained if he had
intended to land at St. Leonards. As to Richborough, this locality is
much too far to the north. Why should Cæsar have gone so far as
Sandwich, since he could have landed at Walmer and Deal? Lymne, or
rather Romney Marsh, will suit no better. This shore is altogether unfit
for a landing-place, and none of the details furnished by the
“Commentaries” can be made to suit it.[381]
There remains Deal; but before describing this place, we must examine
if, on his first passage, when Cæsar sailed, after remaining five days
opposite the cliffs of Dover, the current of which he took advantage
carried him towards the north or towards the south. (_See Page_ 177.)
Two celebrated English astronomers, Halley and Mr. Airy, have studied
this question; but they agree neither on the place where Cæsar embarked,
nor on that where he landed. We may, nevertheless, arrive at a solution
of this problem by seeking the day on which Cæsar landed. The year of
the expedition is known by the consulate of Pompey and Crassus--it was
the year 699. The month in which the departure took place is known by
the following data, derived from the “Commentaries;” the fine season was
near its end, _exuigua parte œstatis reliqua_ (IV. 20); the wheat had
been reaped everywhere, except in one single spot, _omni ex reliquis
partibus demesso frumento, una pars erat reliqua_ (IV. 32); the equinox
was near at hand, _propinqua die œquinoctii_ (IV. 36). These data
point sufficiently clearly to the month of August. Lastly, we have,
relative to the day of landing, the following indications:--After four
days past since his arrival in Britain.... there arose suddenly so
violent a tempest.... That same night it was full moon, which is the
period of the highest tides of the ocean, _Post diem quartam, quam est
in Britanniam ventum_([382]).... _tanta tempestas subita coorta est....
Eadem nocte accidit, ut esset luna plena, qui dies maritimos æstus
maximos in Oceano efficere consuevit_.
According to this, we consider that the tempest took place after four
days, counted from the day of landing; that the full moon fell on the
following night; and lastly, that this period coincided not with the
highest _tide_, but with the highest _tides_ of the ocean. Thus we
believe that it would be sufficient for ascertaining the exact day of
landing, to take the sixth day which preceded the full moon of the month
of August, 699; now this phenomenon, according to astronomical tables,
happened on the 31st, towards three o’clock in the morning. On the eve,
that is, on the 30th, the tempest had occurred; four full days had
passed since the landing; this takes us back to the 25th. Cæsar then
landed on the 25th of August. Mr. Airy, it is true, has interpreted the
text altogether differently from our explanation: he believes that the
expression _post diem quartum_ may be taken in Latin for the third day;
on another hand, he doubts if Cæsar had in his army almanacks by which
he could know the exact day of the full moon; lastly, as the highest
tide takes place a day and a half after the full moon, he affirms that
Cæsar, placing these two phenomena at the same moment, must have been
mistaken, either in the day of the full moon, or in that of the highest
tide; and he concludes from this that the landing may have taken place
on the second, third, or fourth day before the full moon.
Our reasoning has another basis. Let us first state that at that time
the science of astronomy permitted people to know certain epochs of the
moon, since, more than a hundred years before, during the war against
Perseus, a tribune of the army of Paulus Æmilius announced on the
previous day to his soldiers an eclipse of the moon, in order to
counteract the effect of their superstitious fears.[383] Let us remark
also, that Cæsar, who subsequently reformed the calendar, was well
informed in the astronomical knowledge of his time, already carried to a
very high point of advance by Hipparchus, and that he took especial
interest in it, since he discovered, by means of water-clocks, that the
nights were shorter in Britain than in Italy.
Everything, then, authorises us in the belief that Cæsar, when he
embarked for an unknown country, where he might have to make night
marches, must have taken precautions for knowing the course of the moon,
and furnished himself with calendars. But we have put the question
independently of these considerations, by seeking among the days which
preceded the full moon of the end of August, 699, which was the one in
which the shifting of the currents of which Cæsar speaks could have been
produced at the hour indicated in the “Commentaries.”
Supposing, then, the fleet of Cæsar at anchor at a distance of half a
mile opposite Dover, as it experienced the effect of the shifting of the
currents towards half-past three o’clock in the afternoon, the question
becomes reduced to that of determining the day of the end of the month
of August when this phenomenon took place at the above hour. We know
that in the Channel the sea produces, in rising and falling, two
alternate currents, one directed from the west to the east, called
_flux_ (_flot_), or current of the rising tide; the other directed from
the east to the west, named _reflux_ (_jusant_), or current of the
falling tide. In the sea opposite Dover, at a distance of half a mile
from the coast, the flux begins usually to be sensible two hours before
high tide at Dover, and the reflux four hours after.
So that, if we find a day before the full moon of the 31st of August,
699, on which it was high tide at Dover, either at half-past five in the
afternoon or at midday, that will be the day of landing; and further, we
shall know whether the current carried Cæsar towards the east or towards
the west. Now, we may admit, according to astronomical data, that the
tides of the days which preceded the full moon of the 31st of August,
699, were sensibly the same as those of the days which preceded the full
moon of the 4th of September, 1857; and, as it was the sixth day before
the full moon of the 4th of September, 1857, that it was high tide at
Dover towards half-past five in the afternoon (_see the Annuaire des
Marées des Côtes de France for the year_ 1857),[384] we are led to
conclude that the same phenomenon was produced also at Dover on the
sixth day before the 31st of August, 699; and that it was on the 25th of
August that Cæsar arrived in Britain, his fleet being carried forward by
the current of the rising tide.
This last conclusion, by obliging us to seek the point of landing to the
north of Dover, constitutes the strongest theoretic presumption in
favour of Deal. Let us now examine if Deal satisfies the requirements of
the Latin text.
The cliffs which border the coasts of England towards the southern part
of the county of Kent form, from Folkestone to the castle of Walmer, a
vast quarter of a circle, convex towards the sea, abrupt on nearly all
points; they present several bays or creeks, as at Folkestone, at Dover,
at St. Margaret’s, and at Oldstairs, and, diminishing by degrees in
elevation, terminate at the castle of Walmer. From this point,
proceeding towards the north, the coast is flat, and favourable for
landing on an extent of several leagues.
The country situated to the west of Walmer and Deal is itself flat as
far as the view can reach, or presents only gentle undulations of
ground. We may add that it produces, in great quantities, wheat of
excellent quality, and that the nature of the soil leads us to believe
that it was the same at a remote period. These different conditions
rendered the shore of Walmer and Deal the best place of landing for the
Roman army.
Its situation, moreover, agrees fully with the narrative of the
“Commentaries.” In the first expedition, the Roman fleet, starting from
the cliffs of Dover and doubling the point of the South Foreland, may
have made the passage of seven miles in an hour; it would thus have
come to anchor opposite the present village of Walmer. The Britons,
starting from Dover, might have made a march of eight kilomètres quickly
enough to oppose the landing of the Romans. (_See Plate_ 16.)
The combat which followed was certainly fought on the part of the shore
which extends from Walmer Castle to Deal. At present the whole extent of
this coast is covered with buildings, so that it is impossible to say
what was its exact form nineteen centuries ago; but, from a view of the
locality, we can understand without difficulty the different
circumstances of the combat described in Book IV. of the “Commentaries.”
Four days completed after the arrival of Cæsar in Britain, a tempest
dispersed the eighteen ships which, after quitting Ambleteuse, had
arrived just within sight of the Roman camp. All the sailors of the
Channel who have been consulted believe it possible that the same
hurricane, according to the text, might have driven one part of the
ships towards the South Foreland and the other part towards the coast of
Boulogne and Ambleteuse. The conformation of the ground itself indicates
the site of the Roman camp on the height where the village of Walmer
rises. It was situated there at a distance of 1,000 or 1,200 mètres from
the beach, in a position which commanded the surrounding country. And it
is thus easy to understand, from the aspect of the locality, the details
relative to the episode of the 7th legion, surprised while it was
mowing.[385] It might be objected that at Deal the Roman camp was not
near to a water-course, but they could dig wells, which is the only
method by which the numerous population of Deal at the present day
obtain water.
From all that has just been said, the following facts appear to us to be
established in regard to the first expedition. Cæsar, after causing all
his flotilla to go out of the port the day before, started in the night
between the 24th and 25th of August, towards midnight, from the coast of
Boulogne, and arrived opposite Dover towards six o’clock in the morning.
He remained at anchor until half-past three in the afternoon, and then,
having wind and tide in his favour, he moved a distance of seven miles
and arrived near Deal, probably between Deal and Walmer Castle, at
half-past four. As in the month of August twilight lasts till after
half-past seven, and its effect may be prolonged by the moon, which at
that hour was in the middle of the heaven, Cæsar had still four hours
left for landing, driving back the Britons, and establishing himself on
the British soil. As the sea began to ebb towards half-past five, this
explains the anecdote of Cæsius Scæva told by Valerius Maximus; for,
towards seven o’clock, the rocks called the _Malms_ might be left
uncovered by the ebb of the tide.
After four entire days, reckoned from the moment of landing, that is, on
the 30th of August, the tempest arose, and full moon occurred in the
following night.
This first expedition, which Cæsar had undertaken too late in the
season, and with too few troops, could not lead to great results. He
himself declares that he only sought to make an appearance in Britain.
In fact, he did not remove from the coast, and he left the island
towards the 17th of September, having remained there only twenty-three
days.[386]
[Sidenote: _Résumé_ of the Dates of the Campaign of 699.]
IX. We recapitulate as follows the probable dates of the campaign of
699:--
Cæsar crosses the mountains
_earlier than usual_. April 10.
His arrival at the army between the
Loire and the Seine. April 22.
Abode with the army, and informations.
From April 22 to May 10.
March to between the Meuse and the
Rhine From May 11 to May 28.
Victory over the Usipetes and Tencteri June 4.
Arrival at Bonn for the passage of the
Rhine June 11.
Construction of the bridge of piles (10
days) From June 12 to June 21.
The campaign beyond the Rhine (18
days) From June 22 to July 9.
March from Bonn to Boulogne,
From July 11 to July 28.
Preparations for the expedition to Britain
From July 28 to August 24.
Departure. Night between Aug. 24 and Aug. 25.
Landing. August 25.
The tempest. August 30.
Duration of the abode in Britain (18
days). From August 25 to Sept. 12.
Return to Gaul. Sept. 12.
Autumnal equinox. Sept. 26.