The insurrection had shaken the whole
of Gaul. The distant tribes had all joined in it, either actively or by
sympathy; and the patriots who had seized the control, despairing of
pardon, thought their only hope was in keeping rebellion alive. During
winter they believed themselves secure. The Carnutes of the Eure and
Loire, under a new chief named Gutruatus,[7] and the Bituriges,
untaught by or savage at the fate of Bourges, were still defiant. When the
winter was at its deepest, Caesar suddenly appeared across the Loire. He
caught the country people unprepared, and captured them in their farms.
The swiftness of his marches baffled alike flight and resistance; he
crushed the whole district down, and he was again at his quarters in forty
days. As a reward to the men who had followed him so cheerfully in the
cold January campaign, he gave each private legionary 200 sesterces and
each centurion 2,000. Eighteen days' rest was all that he allowed himself,
and with fresh troops, and in storm and frost, he started for the
Carnutes. The rebels were to have no rest till they submitted. The
Bellovaci were now out also. The Remi alone of all the Gauls had continued
faithful in the rising of Vercingetorix. The Bellovaci, led by Commius of
Arras, were preparing to burn the territory of the Remi as a punishment.
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