not to recover their
ancient glory in war, and that freedom which they had received from
their forefathers.

II.--Whilst these things are in agitation, the Carnutes declare "that
they would decline no danger for the sake of the general safety," and
promise that they would be the first of all to begin the war; and since
they cannot at present take precautions, by giving and receiving
hostages, that the affair shall not be divulged they require that a
solemn assurance be given them by oath and plighted honour, their
military standards being brought together (in which manner their most
sacred obligations are made binding), that they should not be deserted
by the rest of the Gauls on commencing the war.

III.--When the appointed day came, the Carnutes, under the command of
Cotuatus and Conetodunus, desperate men, meet together at Genabum, and
slay the Roman citizens who had settled there for the purpose of trading
(among the rest, Caius Fusius Cita, a distinguished Roman knight, who by
Caesar's orders had presided over the provision department), and plunder
their property. The report is quickly spread among all the states of
Gaul; for, whenever a more important and remarkable event takes place,
they transmit the intelligence through their lands and districts by a
shout; the others take it up in succession, and pass it to their
neighbours, as happened on this occasion; for the things which were done
at Genabum at sunrise were heard in the territories of the Arverni
before the end of the first watch, which is an extent of more than a
hundred and sixty miles.

IV.--There in like manner, Vercingetorix the son of Celtillus the
Arvernian, a young man of the highest power (whose father had held the
supremacy of entire Gaul, and had been put to death by his fellow
citizens, for this reason, because he aimed at sovereign power),
summoned together his dependents, and easily excited them. On his design
being made known, they rush to arms: he is expelled from the town of
Gergovia by his uncle Gobanitio and the rest of the nobles, who were of
opinion, that such an enterprise ought not to be hazarded: he did not
however desist, but held in the country a levy of the needy and
desperate. Having collected such a body of troops, he brings over to his
30 sentiments such of his fellow citizens as he has access to: he
exhorts them to take up arms in behalf of the general freedom, and
having assembled great forces he drives from the state his