beyond the
Rhine, to promise that they would give hostages and execute his
commands. Which embassies Caesar, because he was hastening into Italy
and Illyricum, ordered to return to him at the beginning of the
following summer. He himself, having led his legions into winter-quarters
among the Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states
were close to those regions in which he had waged war, set out for
Italy; and a thanksgiving of fifteen days was decreed for those
achievements, upon receiving Caesar's letter; [an honour] which before
that time had been conferred on none.

BOOK III

I.--When Caesar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with
the twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
Veragri, and Seduni, who extend from the territories of the Allobroges,
and the lake of Geneva, and the river Rhone to the top of the Alps. The
reason for sending him was, that he desired that the pass along the
Alps, through which [the Roman] merchants had been accustomed to travel
with great danger, and under great imposts, should be opened. He
permitted him, if he thought it necessary, to station the legion in
these places, for the purpose of wintering. Galba having fought some
successful battles, and stormed several of their forts, upon ambassadors
being sent to him from all parts and hostages given and a peace
concluded, determined to station two cohorts among the Nantuates, and to
winter in person with the other cohorts of that legion in a village of
the Veragri, which is called Octodurus; and this village being situated
in a valley, with a small plain annexed to it, is bounded on all sides
by very high mountains. As this village was divided into two parts by a
river, he granted one part of it to the Gauls, and assigned the other,
which had been left by them unoccupied, to the cohorts to winter in. He
fortified this [latter] part with a rampart and a ditch.

II.--When several days had elapsed in winter quarters, and he had
ordered corn to be brought in, he was suddenly informed by his scouts
that all the people had gone off in the night from that part of the town
which he had given up to the Gauls, and that the mountains which hung
over it were occupied by a very large force of the Sedani and Veragri.
It had happened for several reasons that the Gauls suddenly formed the
design of renewing the war and cutting off that legion. First, because
they despised a single legion, on account of i