The Sueves, who had
gone home, were far away in the interior. To lead the heavily armed
legions in pursuit of wild light-footed marauders, who had not a town
which could be burned, or a field of corn which could be cut for food, was
to waste their strength to no purpose, and to prove still more plainly
that in their own forests they were beyond the reach of vengeance. Caesar
drew back again, after a brief visit to his allies the Ubii, cut two
hundred feet of the bridge on the German side, and leaving the rest
standing with a guard to defend it, he went in search of Ambiorix, who had
as yet eluded him, in the Ardennes. Ambiorix had added treachery to
insurrection, and as long as he was free and unpunished the massacred
legion had not been fully avenged. Caesar was particularly anxious to
catch him, and once had found the nest warm which Ambiorix had left but a
few moments before.
In the pursuit he came again to Tongres, to the fatal camp which Sabinus
had deserted and in which the last of the legionaries had killed each
other, rather than degrade the Roman name by allowing themselves to be
captured. The spot was fated, and narrowly escaped being the scene of a
second catastrophe as frightful as the first. The entrenchments were
standing as they were left, ready to be occupied. Caesar, finding himself
encumbered by his heavy baggage in the pursuit of Ambiorix, decided to
leave it there with Quintus Cicero and the 14th legion.
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