The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say
that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the island
itself; the maritime portion by those who had passed over from the
country of the Belgae[37] for the purpose of plunder and making war;
almost all of whom are called by the names of those states from which
being sprung they went thither, and having waged war, continued there
and began to cultivate the lands. The number of the people is
countless, and their buildings exceedingly numerous, for the most part
very like those of the Gauls; the number of cattle is great. They use
either brass or iron rings, determined at a certain weight, as their
money. Tin is produced in the midland regions; in the maritime, iron;
but the quantity of it is small; they employ brass, which is imported.
There, as in Gaul, is timber of every description, except beech and
fir. They do not regard it lawful to eat the hare and the cock and the
goose; they, however, breed them for amusement and pleasure. The
climate is more temperate than in Gaul, the cold being less severe.
The island is triangular in its form, and one of its sides is opposite
to Gaul. One angle of this side, which is in Kent, whither almost all
ships from Gaul are directed, [looks] to the east; the lower looks to
the south. This side extends about 500 miles. Another side lies toward
Spain,[38] and the west, on which part is Ireland, less, as is
reckoned, than Britain, by one half; but the passage [from it] into
Britain is of equal distance with that from Gaul. In the middle of
this voyage is an island which is called Mona;[39] many smaller
islands besides are supposed to lie [there], of which islands some
have written that at the time of the winter solstice it is night
there for thirty consecutive days. We, in our inquiries about that
matter, ascertained nothing, except that, by accurate measurements
with water, we perceived the nights to be shorter there than on the
continent. The length of this side, as their account states, is 700
miles. The third side is toward the north, to which portion of the
island no land is opposite; but an angle of that side looks
principally toward Germany. This side is considered to be 800 miles in
length. Thus the whole island is [about] 2,000 miles in circumference.
The most civilized of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent,
which is entirely a maritime district, nor do their customs differ
much from Gallic. Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but
live on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the Britains,
indeed, dye themselves with wood, which occasions a bluish color, and
thereby have a more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair
long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and
upper lip. Ten and even twelve have wives common to them, and
particularly brothers among brothers, and parents among their
children; but if there be any issue by these wives, they are reputed
to be the children of those by whom respectively each was first
espoused when a virgin.
The horse and charioteers of the enemy contended vigorously in a
skirmish with our cavalry on the march; yet so that our men were
conquerors in all parts, and drove them to their woods and hills; but,
having slain a great many, they pursued too eagerly, and lost some of
their men. However, the enemy, after some time had elapsed, when our
men were off their guard, and occupied in the fortification of the
camp, rushed out of the woods, and making an attack upon those who
were placed on duty before the camp, fought in a determined manner;
and two cohorts being sent by Caesar to their relief, and these
severally the first of two legions, when these had taken up their
position at a very small distance from each other, as our men were
disconcerted by the unusual mode of battle, the enemy broke through
the middle of them most courageously, and retreated thence in safety.
That day, Q. Laberius Durus, a tribune of the soldiers, was slain. The
enemy, since more cohorts were sent against them, were repulsed.
In the whole of this method of fighting since the engagement took
place under the eyes of all and before the camp, it was perceived that
our men, on account of the weight of their arms, inasmuch as they
could neither pursue [the enemy when] retreating, nor dare quit their
standards, were little suited to this kind of enemy; that the horse
also fought with great danger, because they [the Britons] generally
retreated even designedly, and, when they had drawn off our men a
short distance from the legions, leapt from their chariots and fought
on foot in unequal [and to them advantageous] battle. But the system
of cavalry engagement is wont to produce equal danger, and indeed the
same, both to those who retreat and those who pursue. To this was
added, that they never fought in close order, but in small parties and
at great distances, and had detachments placed [in different parts],
and then the one relieved the other, and the vigorous and fresh
succeeded the wearied.
The following day the enemy halted on the hills, a distance from our
camp, and presented themselves in small parties, and began to
challenge our horse to battle with less spirit than the day before.
But at noon, when Caesar had sent three legions, and all the cavalry
with C. Trebonius, the lieutenant, for the purpose of foraging, they
flew upon the foragers suddenly from all quarters, so that they did
not keep off [even] from the standards and the legions. Our men,
making an attack on them vigorously, repulsed them; nor did they cease
to pursue them until the horse, relying on relief, as they saw the
legions behind them, drove the enemy precipitately before them, and,
slaying a great number of them, did not give them the opportunity
either of rallying, or halting, or leaping from their chariots. After
this retreat the auxiliaries departed; nor after that time did the
enemy ever engage with us in very large numbers.
Caesar, discovering their design, leads his army into the territories
of Cassivelaunus[40] to the river Thames, which river can be forded in
one place only, and that with difficulty. When he had arrived there,
he perceives that numerous forces of the enemy were marshaled on the
other bank of the river; the bank also was defended by sharp
stakes[41] fixt in front, and stakes of the same kind fixt under the
water were covered by the river. These things being discovered from
[some] prisoners and deserters, Caesar, sending forward the cavalry,
ordered the legions to follow them immediately. But the soldiers
advanced with such speed and such ardor, tho they stood above the
water by their heads only, that the enemy could not sustain the attack
of the legions and of the horse, and quitted the banks, and committed
themselves to flight.
Cassivelaunus, as we have stated above, all hope [rising out] of
battle being laid aside, the greater part of his forces being
dismissed, and about 4,000 charioteers only being left, used to
observe our marches and retire a little from the road, and conceal
himself in intricate and woody places, and in those neighborhoods in
which he had discovered we were about to march, he used to drive the
cattle and the inhabitants from the fields into the woods; and, when
our cavalry, for the sake of plundering and ravaging the more freely,
scattered themselves among the fields, he used to send out charioteers
from the woods by all the well-known roads and paths, and, to the
great danger of our horse, engaged with them; and this source of fear
hindered them from straggling very extensively. The result was that
Caesar did not allow excursions to be made to a great distance from the
main body of the legions, and ordered that damage should be done to
the enemy in ravaging their lands and kindling fires only so far as
the legionary soldiers could, by their own exertion and marching,
accomplish it.
In the mean time the Trinobantes,[42] almost the most powerful state
of those parts, from which the young man Mandubratius, embracing the
protection of Caesar, had come to the continent of Gaul to [meet] him
(whose father, Imanuentius, had possest the sovereignty in that state,
and had been killed by Cassivelaunus; he himself had escaped death by
flight) send ambassadors to Caesar, and promise that they will
surrender themselves to him and perform his command: they entreat him
to protect Mandubratius from the violence of Cassivelaunus, and send
to their state some one to preside over it, and possess the
government. Caesar demands forty hostages from them, and corn for his
army, and sends Mandubratius to them. They speedily performed the
things demanded, and sent hostages to the number appointed, and the
corn.
The Trinobantes, being protected and secured from any violence of the
soldiers, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the
Bibroci, and the Cassi, sending embassies, surrender themselves to
Caesar.[43] From them he learns that the capital town of Cassivelaunus
was not far from that place, and was defended by woods and morasses,
and a very large number of men and of cattle had been collected in it.
(Now the Britons, when they have fortified the intricate woods, in
which they are wont to assemble for the purpose of avoiding the
incursion of an enemy with an entrenchment and a rampart, call them a
town.) Thither he proceeds with his legions; he finds the place
admirably fortified by nature and art; he, however, undertakes to
attack it in two directions. The enemy, having remained only a short
time, did not sustain the attack of our soldiers, and hurried away on
the other side of the town. A great amount of cattle was found there,
and many of the enemy were taken and slain in their flight....