13.
This battle ended, that he might be able to come up with the remaining forces of
the Helvetii, he procures a bridge to be made across
the
Saone
, and thus leads his army over. The Helvetii, confused by
his sudden arrival, when they found that he had effected in one day, what they,
themselves had with the utmost difficulty accomplished in twenty namely, the
crossing of the river, send embassadors to him; at the head of which embassy was
Divico, who had been commander of the Helvetii, in the war against Cassius. He thus treats
with Caesar:-that, "if the Roman people would make peace with the Helvetii they would go to that part and there remain, where Caesar might appoint and desire them to be; but if he
should persist in persecuting them with war that he ought to remember both the
ancient disgrace of the Roman people and the
characteristic valor of the Helvetii. As to his
having attacked one canton by surprise, [at a time] when those who had crossed
the river could not bring assistance to their friends, that he ought not on that
account to ascribe very much to his own valor, or despise them; that they had so
learned from their sires and ancestors, as to rely more on valor than on
artifice and stratagem. Wherefore let him not bring it to pass that
the place, where they were standing, should acquire a name, from the disaster of
the Roman people and the destruction of their army or
transmit the remembrance [of such an event to posterity]."
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