terms with him, went back again to their native land whence they had set out, and there built up again the cities to live in.  The other refused to surrender arms, and, with the idea that they could get back again to their primeval dwelling-place, set out for the Rhine.  Being few in numbers and laboring under a defeat they were easily annihilated by the allies of the Romans through whose country they were passing.

[-34-] So went the first war that Caesar fought; but he did not remain quiet after this beginning.  Instead, he at the same time satisfied his own desire and did his allies a favor.  The Sequani and Aedui had marked the trend of his wishes[45] and had noticed that his deeds corresponded with his hopes:  consequently they were willing at one stroke to bestow a benefit upon him and to take vengeance upon the Celts that were their neighbors.  The latter had at some time in the past crossed the Rhine, cut off portions of their territory, and, holding hostages of theirs, had rendered them tributaries.  And because they happened to be asking what Caesar was yearning for, they easily persuaded him to assist them.

Now Ariovistus was the ruler of those Celts:  his dominion had been ratified by action of the Romans and he had been registered among their friends and allies by Caesar himself, in his consulship.  In comparison, however, with the glory to be derived from the war and the power which that glory would bring, the Roman general heeded none of these considerations, except in so far as he wished to get some excuse for the quarrel from the barbarian so that it should not be thought that there was any grievance against him at the start.  Therefore he sent for him, pretending that he wanted to hold some conversation with him.  Ariovistus, instead of obeying, replied:  “If Caesar wishes to tell me anything, let him come himself to me.  I am not in any way inferior to him, and a man who has need of any one must always go to that person.”  At this the other showed anger on the ground that he had insulted all the Romans, and he immediately demanded of him the hostages of the allies and forbade him either to set foot on their land or to bring against them any auxiliary force from home.  This he did not with the idea of scaring him but because he hoped to make him furious and by that means to gain a great and fitting pretext for the war.  What was expected took place.  The barbarian, enraged at the injunctions, made a long and outrageous reply, so that Caesar no longer bandied words with him but straightway, before any one was aware of his intentions, seized on Vesontio, the city of the Sequani, in advance.