[*] 232.21. Alesiam: this famous fortress （now called Alise Ste. Reine） was on the territory lying just north of the Haeduan frontier. Its natural advantages—summed up in the succeeding chapters—are thus described: "Alesia, like Gergovia, is on a hill sloping off all round, with steep and, in places, precipitous sides. It lies between two small rivers, both of which fall into the Brenne, and thence into the Seine. Into this peninsula, witih the rivers on each side of him, Vercingetorix had thrown himself with 80,000 men. Alesia as a position was impregnable except to famine. The water supply was secure. The position was of extraordinary strength. The rivers formed natural trenches. Below the town, to the west, they ran parallel for three miles through an open alluvial plain before they reached the Brenne. In every other direction rose rocky hills of equal height with the central plateau, originally perhaps one wide tableland, through which the water had ploughed out the valley. To attack Ver-cingetorix where he had placed himself was out of the question; but to blockade him there, to capture the leader of the insurrection and his whole and so in one blow mal;e an end with it, on a survey of the situation seemed not impossible."—Froude's "Caesar." See plan, Fig. 103.
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BOOK FIRST. — B.C. 58.
book 2
BOOK THIRD. — B.C. 56.
BOOK FOURTH. — B.C. 55.
BOOK FIFTH.—B.C. 54.
BOOK VI. BOOK SIXTH.—B.C. 53.
BOOK SEVENTH.—B.C. 52.
Caesar's Gallic War. J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge and M. Grant Daniell. Boston. Ginn and Company. 1898.
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