[Footnote 495:  Tanusius Geminus wrote a history which is mentioned by Suetonius (Caesar, 9).  Cato’s opinion on this occasion was merely dictated by party hostility and personal hatred.  His proposal was unjust and absurd.  Caesar had good reason for writing his Anticato.]

[Footnote 496:  Or Sigambri, a German tribe on the east bank of the Lower Rhine.  They bordered on the Ubii, and were north of them.  The name probably remains in the Sieg, a small stream which enters the Rhine on the east bank, nearly opposite to Bonn.]

[Footnote 497:  Caesar describes the construction of this bridge (iv. 17) without giving any particulars as to the place where it was made.  The situation can only be inferred from a careful examination of the previous part of his history, and it has been subject of much discussion, in which opinions are greatly divided.  The narratives of Dion Cassius (39. c. 48) and Florus (iii. 10) give some assistance towards the solution of the question.  Professor Mueller, in an excellent article in the ’Jahrbuecher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande’ (vii. 1845), has proved that the bridge must have been built near Coblenz.  Caesar defeated the Germans in the angle between the Moselle and the Rhine.  He must have crossed the Moselle in order to find a convenient place for his bridge, which he would find near Neuwied.  The bridge abutted on the east bank on the territory of the Ubii, who were his friends.  The narrative of Caesar, when carefully examined, admits of no other construction than that which Mueller has put upon it; and if there were any doubt, it is removed by Caesar himself in another passage (Gallic War, vi. 9) where he speaks of his second bridge, which gave him a passage from the territory of the Treviri into that of the Ubii, and he adds that the site of the second bridge was near that of the first.

In the Gallic War (iv. 15) Caesar speaks of the junction (ad confluentem Mosae et Rheni) of the Mosa and the Rhine, where Mueller assumes that he means the Moselle, as he undoubtedly does.  Either the reading Mosa is wrong, or, what is not improbable, both the Moselle and the Maas had the same name, Mosa.  Mosella or Mosula is merely the diminution of Mosa.  At this confluence of the Moselle and Rhine the town of Coblenz was afterwards built, which retains the ancient name.  Caesar indicates which Mosa he means clearly enough by the words ’ad confluentem.’  There was no ‘confluens’ of the Great Mosa and the Rhenus.]

[Footnote 498:  The first expedition of Caesar to Britain was in the autumn of B.C. 55, and is described in his fourth book of the Gallic War, c. 20, &c.  He landed on the coast of Kent, either at Deal or between Sandgate and Hythe.  His second expedition was in the following year B.C. 54, which is described in the fifth book, c. 8 &c.  He crossed the Thamesis (Thames) in face of the forces of Cassivelaunus, whose territories were bounded on the south by the Thames.