The History of Rome, Book V eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 917 pages of information about The History of Rome, Book V.

The History of Rome, Book V eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 917 pages of information about The History of Rome, Book V.

25.  Caesar’s Suebi thus were probably the Chatti; but that designation certainly belonged in Caesar’s time, and even much later, also to every other German stock which could be described as a regularly wandering one.  Accordingly if, as is not to be doubted, the “king of the Suebi” in Mela (iii. i) and Pliny (H.  N. ii. 67, 170) was Ariovistus, it by no means therefore follows that Ariovistus was a Chattan.  The Marcomani cannot be demonstrated as a distinct people before Marbod; it is very possible that the word up to that point indicates nothing but what it etymologically signifies—­the land, or frontier, guard.  When Caesar (i, 51) mentions Marcomani among the peoples fighting in the army of Ariovistus, he may in this instance have misunderstood a merely appellative designation, just as he has decidedly done in the case of the Suebi.

26.  IV.  V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along the Danube

27.  IV.  V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along the Danube

28.  IV.  V. Teutones in the Province of Gaul

29.  The arrival of Ariovistus in Gaul has been placed, according to Caesar, i. 36, in 683, and the battle of Admagetobriga (for such was the name of the place now usually, in accordance with a false inscription, called Magetobriga), according to Caesar i. 35 and Cicero Ad.  Att. i. 19, in 693.

30.  V. VII.  Wars and Revolts There

31.  That we may not deem this course of things incredible, or even impute to it deeper motives than ignorance and laziness in statesmen, we shall do well to realize the frivolous tone in which a distinguished senator like Cicero expresses himself in his correspondence respecting these important Transalpine affairs.

32.  IV.  V. Inroad of the Helvetii into Southern Gaul

33.  According to the uncorrected calendar.  According to the current rectification, which however here by no means rests on sufficiently trustworthy data, this day corresponds to the 16th of April of the Julian calendar.

34.  IV.  V. The Cimbri, Teutones, and Helvetii Unite

35. -Julia Equestris-, where the last surname is to be taken as in other colonies of Caesar the surnames of sextanorum, decimanorum, etc.  It was Celtic or German horsemen of Caesar, who, of course with the bestowal of the Roman or, at any rate, Latin franchise, received land-allotments there.

36.  Goler (Caesars gall.  Krieg, p. 45, etc.) thinks that he has found the field of battle at Cernay not far from Muhlhausen, which, on the whole, agrees with Napoleon’s (Precis, p. 35) placing of the battle-field in the district of Belfort.  This hypothesis, although not certain, suits the circumstances of the case; for the fact that Caesar required seven days’ march for the short space from Besancon to that point, is explained by his own remark (i. 41) that he had taken a circuit of fifty miles to avoid the mountain paths; and the whole description

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