C^SAR. 283 ilance took precautions against all innovations. For there were three legions now come to him to simply the place of the men he had lost, of which Pompey furnished him with two, out of those under his command ; the other was newly raised in the part of Gaul by the Po. But in a while the seeds of war, which had long since been secretly sown and scattered by the most powerful men in those warlike nations, broke forth into the greatest and most dangerous war that ever was in those parts, both as regards the number of men in the vigor of their youth who were gathered and armed from all quarters, the vast funds of money collected to maintain it, the strength of the towns, and the difficulty of the country where it was carried on. It being winter, the rivers were frozen, the woods covered with snow, and the level country flooded, so that in some places the ways were lost through the depth of the snow ; in others, the overflowing of marshes and streams made every kind of passage uncertain. All which difficulties made it seem impracticable for Caesar to make any attempt upon the insurgents. Many tribes had revolted together, the chief of them being the Ar- verni and Carnutini;* the general who had the supreme command in war was Vergentorix, whose father the Gaula had put to death on suspicion of his aiming at absolute government. He having disposed his army in several bodies, and set officers over them, drew over to him all the country round about as far as those that lie upon the Arar, and having intelligence of the opposition which Caesar now ex- perienced at Eome, thought to engage all Gaul in the
- The Arverai, the same people pears to be a Greek abbreviation
whom he presently calls the Am- of Vercingetorix, the full name veni, of the mountains of Auvergne, given by Cassar, which is itself con- and the Carnutes of the country ceived to have been not a proper around Orleans. Vergentorix ap- name, but a title.
