They were lying about in confusion beside their
wagons, women and children dispersed among the men; hundreds of thousands
of human creatures, ignorant where to turn for orders, and uncertain
whether to fight or fly. In this condition the legions burst in on them,
furious at what they called the treachery of the previous day, and
merciless in their vengeance. The poor Germans stood bravely defending
themselves as they could; but the sight of their women flying in shrieking
crowds, pursued by the Roman horse, was too much for them, and the whole
host were soon rushing in despairing wreck down the narrowing isthmus
between the Meuse and the Rhine. They came to the junction at last, and
then they could go no further. Multitudes were slaughtered; multitudes
threw themselves into the water and were drowned. Caesar, who was not
given to exaggeration, says that their original number was 430,000. The
only survivors, of whom any clear record remains, were the detachments who
were absent from the battle, and the few chiefs who had come into Caesar's
camp and continued with him at their own request from fear of being
murdered by the Gauls.
This affair was much spoken of at the time, as well it might be. Questions
were raised upon it in the Senate. Cato insisted that Caesar had massacred
a defenceless people in a time of truce, that he had broken the law of
nations, and that he ought to be given up to the Germans.
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