Caius Fabius had
a legion at St. Pol, between Calais and Arras; Trebonius one at Amiens;
Marcus Crassus one at Montdidier; Munatius Plancus one across the Oise,
near Compiegne. Roscius was far off, but in a comparatively quiet country.
The other camps lay within a circle, two hundred miles in diameter, of
which Bavay was the centre. Amiens was at one point on the circumference.
Tongres, on the opposite side of it, to the north-east. Sabinus, being the
most exposed, had, in addition to his legion, a few cohorts lately raised
in Italy. Caesar, having no particular business to take him over the Alps,
remained, with Trebonius attending to general business. His dispositions
had been carefully watched by the Gauls. Caesar, they supposed, would go
away as usual; they even believed that he had gone; and a conspiracy was
formed in the north to destroy the legions in detail.
The instigator of the movement was Induciomarus, the leader of the patriot
party among the Treveri, whose intrigues had taken Caesar to the Moselle
before the first visit to Britain. At that time Induciomarus had been able
to do nothing; but a fairer opportunity had arrived. The overthrow of the
great German horde had affected powerfully the semi-Teutonic populations
on the left bank of the Rhine. The Eburones, a large tribe of German race
occupying the country between Liege and Cologne, had given in their
submission; but their strength was still undiminished, and Induciomarus
prevailed on their two chiefs, Ambiorix and Catavoleus, to attack Sabinus
and Cotta.
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