to
the enemy in ravaging their lands and kindling fires only so far as
the legionary soldiers could, by their own exertion and marching,
accomplish it.

In the mean time the Trinobantes,[42] almost the most powerful state
of those parts, from which the young man Mandubratius, embracing the
protection of Caesar, had come to the continent of Gaul to [meet] him
(whose father, Imanuentius, had possest the sovereignty in that state,
and had been killed by Cassivelaunus; he himself had escaped death by
flight) send ambassadors to Caesar, and promise that they will
surrender themselves to him and perform his command: they entreat him
to protect Mandubratius from the violence of Cassivelaunus, and send
to their state some one to preside over it, and possess the
government. Caesar demands forty hostages from them, and corn for his
army, and sends Mandubratius to them. They speedily performed the
things demanded, and sent hostages to the number appointed, and the
corn.

The Trinobantes, being protected and secured from any violence of the
soldiers, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the
Bibroci, and the Cassi, sending embassies, surrender themselves to
Caesar.[43] From them he learns that the capital town of Cassivelaunus
was not far from that place, and was defended by woods and morasses,
and a very large number of men and of cattle had been collected in it.
(Now the Britons, when they have fortified the intricate woods, in
which they are wont to assemble for the purpose of avoiding the
incursion of an enemy with an entrenchment and a rampart, call them a
town.) Thither he proceeds with his legions; he finds the place
admirably fortified by nature and art; he, however, undertakes to
attack it in two directions. The enemy, having remained only a short
time, did not sustain the attack of our soldiers, and hurried away on
the other side of the town. A great amount of cattle was found there,
and many of the enemy were taken and slain in their flight....

III

OVERCOMING THE NERVII[44]

Caesar, having sent his cavalry on before, followed closely after them
with all his forces; but the plan and order of the march were
different from that which the Belgae had reported to the Nervii.[45]
For as he was approaching the enemy, Caesar, according to his custom,
led on [as the van] six legions unencumbered by baggage; behind them
he had placed the baggage-trains of the whole army; then the two
legions which had been