11.
The Helvetii had by this time led their forces over through the
narrow defile and the territories of the Sequani, and had arrived
at the territories of the Aedui, and were ravaging their lands. The
Aedui, as they could not defend themselves and their
possessions against them, send embassadors to Caesar to
ask assistance, [pleading] that they had at all times so well deserved of the
Roman people, that their fields ought not to have
been laid waste-their children carried off into slavery-their towns stormed,
almost within sight of our army. At the same time the Ambarri, the
friends and kinsmen of the Aedui, apprize Caesar, that it was not easy for them, now that their fields had
been devastated, to ward off the violence of the enemy from their towns: the
Allobroges likewise, who had villages and possessions on the
other side of the
Rhone
, betake themselves in flight to Caesar, and
assure him that they had nothing remaining, except the soil of their land. Caesar, induced by these circumstances, decides, that he
ought not to wait until the Helvetii, after
destroying all the property of his allies, should arrive among the
Santones.
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