[-35-] Meanwhile reports reached the soldiers.  “Ariovistus is making vigorous preparations,” was “There are many other Celts, some of whom have already crossed the Rhine undoubtedly to assist him, while others have collected on the very bank of the river to attack us suddenly,” was another.  Hence they fell into deep dejection.  Alarmed by the stature of their enemies, by their numbers, their boldness, and consequent ready threats, they were in such a mood as to feel that they were going to contend not against men, but against uncanny and ferocious beasts.  And the talk was that they were undertaking a war which was none of their business and had not been decreed, merely on account of Caesar’s personal ambition; and they threatened, also, to leave him in the lurch if he should not change his course.  He, when he heard of it, did not make any address to the body of soldiers.  It was not a good plan, he thought, to discuss such matters before the multitude, especially when his words would reach the enemy; and he was afraid that they might by refusing obedience somehow raise a tumult and do some harm.  Therefore he assembled his lieutenants and the subalterns, before whom he spoke as follows.

[-36-] “My friends, we must not, I think, deliberate about public interests in the same way as about private.  In fact, I do not see that the same mark is set up for each man privately as for all together publicly.  For ourselves it is proper both to plan and to perform what looks best and what is safest, but for the public what is most advantageous.  In private matters we must be energetic:  so only can a good appearance be preserved.  Again, a man who is freest from outside entanglements is thought to be also safest.  Yet a state, especially if holding sovereignty, would be very rapidly overthrown by such a course.  These laws, not drawn up by man but enacted by nature herself, always did exist, do exist, and will exist so long as the race of mortals endures.

“This being so, no one of you at this juncture should have an eye to what is privately pleasant and safe rather than to what is suitable and beneficial for the whole body of Romans.  For besides many other considerations that might naturally arise, reflect that we who are so many and of such rank (members of the senate and knights) have come here accompanied by a great mass of soldiers and with money in abundance not to be idle or careless, but for the purpose of managing rightly the affairs of our subjects, preserving in safety the property of those bound by treaty, repelling any who undertake to do them wrong, and increasing our own possessions.  If we have not come with this in mind, why in the world did we take the field at all instead of staying at home with some occupation or other and on our private domains?  Surely it were better not to have undertaken the campaign than when assigned to it to throw it over.  If, however, some of us are here because compelled by the laws