up, could look down upon his camp and kept making opportune charges.  If they ever advanced farther than was fitting and were beaten back, they quickly got within their own domain again; and the Romans in no way could come as near to the places as stones and javelins could be hurled.  The time was in general spent uselessly:  often when he assaulted the very height upon which their fortress was located, he would capture a certain portion of it so that he could wall it in and continue thence more easily his progress against the rest of it, but on the whole he met with reverses.  He lost a number of his soldiers, and saw that the enemy could not be captured.  Moreover, there was at this time an uprising among the Aedui, and while he was absent attending to them, the men left behind fared badly.  All these considerations led Caesar to raise the siege.

[-37-] The Aedui in the beginning abode by their agreements and sent him assistance, but later they made war rather involuntarily, being deceived by Litaviccus and others.  He, having been unable by any other course to persuade them to adopt a hostile attitude, managed to get the appointment of conveying some men to Caesar to be the latter’s allies.  He started off as if to fulfill this mission, but sent ahead also some horsemen and bade some of them return and say that their companions and the rest of their men in the camp of the Romans had been arrested by the latter and put to death.  Then he further excited the wrath of his soldiers by delivering a speech appropriate to the message.  In this way the Aedui themselves rose and led others to revolt with them.  Caesar, as soon as he ascertained this, sent to them the Aedui whom he had and was thought to have slain, so that they might be seen by all to be alive, and followed on with his cavalry.  On this occasion, then, they repented and made terms. [-38-] The Romans were later, by reason of Caesar’s absence, defeated close to Gergovia and then entirely withdrew from that country; wherefore those who had caused the uprising and were always desirous of a change in politics feared that if they delayed the Romans might exact vengeance[64] from them, and consequently rebelled entirely.  Members of their tribe who were campaigning with Caesar, when they learned of this, asked him to allow them to return home, promising that they would arrange everything.  Released on these conditions they came to Noviodunum where the Romans had deposited money and grain and many hostages, and with the cooeperation of the natives destroyed the garrisons, who were not expecting hostility, and became masters of all of them.  That city, because advantageous, they burned down, to prevent the Romans from making it a starting point for the war, and they next caused the remainder of the Aedui to revolt.  Caesar, therefore, attempted to march against them at once, but not being able, on account of the river Liger he turned his attention to the Lingones.  And not even there did he meet with success.  Labienus, however, occupied the island in the Sequana river by conquering its defenders on the shore, and crossed over at many points at once, both down stream and up, in order that his troops might not be hindered by all crossing at one spot.