XXIII.  Caesar now led his troops over the river, no one venturing to oppose him, and even the Suevi, the most valiant of the Germans, retired with their property into deep woody valleys.  After devastating with fire the enemy’s country and encouraging all those who favoured the Romans, he returned into Gaul after spending eighteen days in Germany.  His expedition against the Britanni[498] was notorious for its daring:  for he was the first who entered the western Ocean with an armament and sailed through the Atlantic sea, leading an army to war; and by attempting to occupy an island of incredible magnitude, which furnished matter for much dispute to numerous writers, who affirmed that the name and the accounts about it were pure inventions, for it never had existed and did not then exist, he extended the Roman supremacy beyond the inhabited world.  After twice crossing over to the island from the opposite coast of Gaul, and worsting the enemy in many battles rather than advantaging his own men, for there was nothing worth taking from men who lived so wretched a life and were so poor, he brought the war to a close not such as he wished, but taking hostages from the king and imposing a tribute, he retired from the island.  On his return he found letters which were just going to cross over to him from his friends in Rome, informing him of his daughter’s death, who died in child-birth in the house of her husband Pompeius.  Great was the grief of Pompeius, and great was the grief of Caesar; and their friends were also troubled, as the relationship was now dissolved which maintained peace and concord in the State, which but for this alliance was threatened with disturbance.  The child also died after surviving the mother only a few days.  Now the people, in spite of the tribunes, carried Julia[499] to the Field of Mars, where her obsequies were celebrated; and there she lies.

XXIV.  As the force of Caesar was now large, he was obliged to distribute it in many winter encampments.  But while he was on his road to Italy, according to his custom, there was another general rising of the Gauls, and powerful armies scouring the country attempted to destroy the winter camps, and attacked the Roman entrenchments.  The most numerous and bravest of the revolted Gauls under Abriorix destroyed Cotta[500] and Titurius with their army; and the legion under Cicero[501] they surrounded with sixty thousand men and blockaded, and they came very near taking the camp by storm, for all the Romans had been wounded and were courageously defending themselves above their strength.  When this intelligence reached Caesar, who was at a distance, he quickly turned about, and getting together seven thousand men in all, he hurried to release Cicero from the blockade.  The besiegers were aware of his approach and met him with the intention of cutting him off at once, for they despised the fewness of his numbers.  But Caesar, deceiving the enemy, avoided them continually, and having occupied a position