[Sidenote:  Defeat of the Germans.]

He proved himself as skillful and efficient in arranging and managing the combat as he had been sagacious and adroit in the negotiations which preceded it.  Several days were spent in maneuvers and movements, by which each party endeavored to gain some advantage over the other in respect to their position in the approaching struggle.  When at length the combat came, Caesar and his legions were entirely and triumphantly successful.  The Germans were put totally to flight.  Their baggage and stores were all seized, and the troops themselves fled in dismay by all the roads which led back to the Rhine; and there those who succeeded in escaping death from the Romans, who pursued them all the way, embarked in boats and upon rafts, and returned to their homes.  Ariovistus himself found a small boat, in which, with one or two followers, he succeeded in getting across the stream.

[Sidenote:  Release of Caesar’s messenger.]

As Caesar, at the head of a body of his troops, was pursuing the enemy in this their flight, he overtook one party who had a prisoner with them confined by iron chains fastened to his limbs, and whom they were hurrying rapidly along.  This prisoner proved to be the messenger that Caesar had sent to Ariovistus’s camp, and whom he had, as Caesar alleges, treacherously detained.  Of course, he was overjoyed to be recaptured and set at liberty.  The man said that three times they had drawn lots to see whether they should burn him alive then, or reserve the pleasure for a future occasion, and that every time the lot had resulted in his favor.

[Sidenote:  Results of the victory.] [Sidenote:  Caesar’s continued success.]

The consequence of this victory was, that Caesar’s authority was established triumphantly over all that part of Gaul which he had thus freed from Ariovistus’s sway.  Other parts of the country, too, were pervaded by the fame of his exploits, and the people every where began to consider what action it would be incumbent on them to take, in respect to the new military power which had appeared so suddenly among them.  Some nations determined to submit without resistance, and to seek the conqueror’s alliance and protection.  Others, more bold, or more confident of their strength, began to form combinations and to arrange plans for resisting him.  But, whatever they did, the result in the end was the same.  Caesar’s ascendency was every where and always gaining ground.  Of course, it is impossible in the compass of a single chapter, which is all that can be devoted to the subject in this volume, to give any regular narrative of the events of the eight years of Caesar’s military career in Gaul.  Marches, negotiations, battles, and victories mingled with and followed each other in a long succession, the particulars of which it would require a volume to detail, every thing resulting most successfully for the increase of Caesar’s power and the extension of his fame.