"
A short speech; and an unattentive, and disheartened audience! For, the
embattled legions approached; and the crowd of townsmen, ill appointed and
novices in war, stood astonished, bereft of the present use of eyes and
hearing. On the other side, Silius, though he presumed the victory, and
thence might have spared exhortations, yet called to his men, "that they
might be with reason ashamed that they, the conquerors of Germany, should
be thus led against a rabble of Gauls as against an equal enemy: one
cohort had newly defeated the rebels of Tours; one regiment of horse,
those of Treves; a handful of this very army had routed the Sequanians:
the present Aeduans, as they are more abounding in wealth, as they wallow
more in voluptuousness, are by so much more soft and unwarlike: this is
what you are now to prove, and your task to prevent their escape." His
words were returned with a mighty cry. Instantly the horse surrounded the
foe; the foot attacked their front, and the wings were presently routed:
the iron band gave some short obstruction, as the bars of their coats
withstood the strokes of sword and pike: but the soldiers had recourse to
their hatchets and pick-axes; and, as if they had battered a wall, hewed
their bodies and armour: others with clubs, and some with forks, beat down
the helpless lumps, who as they lay stretched along, without one struggle
to rise, were left for dead.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267