There has been some discussion on the place where Caesar crossed the Thames.  Camden (p. 882, ed.  Gibson) fixes the place at Cowey Stakes near Oatlands on the Thames, opposite to the place where the Wey joins the Thames.  Bede, who wrote at the beginning of the eighth century, speaks of stakes in the bed of the river at that place, which so far corresponds to Caesar’s description, who says that the enemy had protected the ford with stakes on the banks and across the bed of the river.  Certain stakes still exist there, which are the subject of a paper in the Archaeologia, 1735, by Mr. Samuel Gale.  The stakes are as hard as ebony; and it is evident from the exterior grain that the stakes were the entire bodies of young oak trees.  Caesar places the ford eighty miles from the coast of Kent where he landed, which distance agrees very well with the position of Oatlands, as Camden remarks.

Cassivelaunus had been appointed Commander-in-chief of all the British forces.  This is the king whom Plutarch means.  He agreed to pay an annual tribute to the Romans (Gallic War, v. 22), and gave them hostages.  Compare Cicero, Ad Attic. iv. 17.

Caesar wrote two letters to Cicero while he was in Britain.  He wrote one letter on the 1st of September, which Cicero received on the 28th of September (Ad Quintum Fratrem, iii. 1).  Cicero here alludes to Caesar’s sorrow for his daughter’s death, of which Caesar had not received intelligence when he wrote to Cicero; but Cicero knew that the news had gone to him.  On the 24th of October, Cicero received another letter written from the British coast from Caesar, and one from his brother Quintus who was with Caesar.  This letter was written on the 26th of September.  Caesar states (Gallic War, v. 23) that it was near the time of the equinox when he was leaving Britain.]

[Footnote 499:  See the Life of Crassus, c. 16, and the Life of Pompeius, c. 53.]

[Footnote 500:  L. Aurunculeius Cotta and Q. Titurius Sabinus were sent into the country of the Eburones, the chief part of which was between the Maas and the Rhine, in the parallels of Namur and Liege.  This king, who is called Abriorix, is named Ambiorix by Caesar (Gallic War, 24, &c.) The Gauls, after an unsuccessful attempt on the camp, persuaded the Romans to leave it under a promise that they should have a safe passage through the country of the Eburones.  Ambiorix made them believe that there was going to be a general rising of the Gauls, and that their best plan was to make their way to the camp of Q. Cicero or Labienus.  When they had left their camp, the Gauls fell upon them in a convenient spot and massacred most of them.]

[Footnote 501:  Quintus Cicero was encamped in the country of the Nervii in Hainault.  The attack on his camp is described by Caesar (Gallic War, v. 39, &c.) Caesar says, when he is speaking of his own camp (v. 50), ’Jubet ... ex omnibus partibus castra altiore vallo muniri portasque obstrui, &c.... cum simulatione terroris;’ of which Plutarch has given the meaning.]