next explorer is Julius Caesar. As Alexander the Great had combined
the conqueror with the explorer, so now history repeats itself, and
we find the Roman Caesar not only conquering, but exploring. It was
Caesar who first dispelled the mist that lay over the country about
the French Seine, the German Rhine, the English Thames--Caesar who
gives us the first graphic account of crossing the English Channel
from France to England. Pytheas had hinted at the fog-bound lands of
the north--Caesar brought them into the light of day.

Since the days of Alexander the centre of Empire had shifted from Greece
to Rome, and Rome was now conquering and annexing land, as Persia had
done in the olden days. Hence it was that Julius Caesar was in the
year 58 B.C. appointed Governor of a new province recently brought
under Roman sway, stretching from the Alps to the Garonne and northward
to the Lake of Geneva, which at this time marked the frontier of the
Roman Empire. Caesar made no secret of his intentions to subdue the
tribes to the north of his province and bring all Gaul under the
dominion of Rome. His appointment carried with it the command of four
legions, including some twenty thousand soldiers. His chance soon came,
and we find Caesar, with all the ability of a great commander, pushing
forward with his army into the very heart of France one hundred and
fifty miles beyond the Roman frontier.

On the banks of the river Saone he defeated a large body of Celtic
people who were migrating from Switzerland to make their homes in the
warmer and roomier plains at the foot of the Pyrenees.

While the defeated Celts returned to their chilly homes among the
mountains, victorious Caesar resolved to push on at the head of his
army toward the Rhine, where some German tribes under a "ferocious
headstrong savage" threatened to overrun the country. After marching
through utterly unknown country for three days, he heard that fresh
swarms of invaders had crossed the Rhine, intending to occupy the more
fertile tracts on the French side. They were making for the town we
now call Besancon--then, as now, strongly fortified, and nearly
surrounded by the river Doubs. By forced marches night and day, Caesar
hastened to the town and took it before the arrival of the invaders.

Accounts of the German tribes even now approaching were brought in
by native traders and Gaulish chiefs, until the Roman soldiers were
seized with alarm. Yes, said the traders, these