No general was ever so
careful of his soldiers' lives.
Soissons, a fortified Belgian town, surrendered the next day. From
Soissons Caesar marched on Breteuil and thence on Amiens, which
surrendered also. The Bellovaci sent in their submission, the leaders of
the war party having fled to Britain. Caesar treated them all with
scrupulous forbearance, demanding nothing but hostages for their future
good behavior. His intention at this time was apparently not to annex any
of these tribes to Rome, but to settle the country in a quasi-independence
under an Aeduan hegemony.
But the strongest member of the confederacy was still unsubdued. The
hardy, brave, and water-drinking Nervii remained defiant. The Nervii would
send no envoys; they would listen to no terms of peace.[5] Caesar
learnt that they were expecting to be joined by the Aduatuci, a tribe of
pure Germans, who had been left behind near Liege at the time of the
invasion of the Teutons. Preferring to engage them separately, he marched
from Amiens through Cambray, and sent forward some officers and pioneers
to choose a spot for a camp on the Sambre. Certain Gauls, who had observed
his habits on march, deserted to the Nervii, and informed them that
usually a single legion went in advance, the baggage-wagons followed, and
the rest of the army came in the rear.
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