Res Gestae

Now earthquakes take place in four ways; for they are either brasmatiae,[*](A Greek word from βράζειν. boil up. ) or upheavings, which lift up the ground from far within, like a tide and force upward huge masses, as in Asia Delos came to the surface, and Hiera, Anaphe, and Rhodes, called in former ages Ophiusa and Pelagia, and once drenched with a shower of gold;[*](Cf. Claudian, De Cons. Stil. iii. 226, Auratos Rhodiis imbres nascente Minerva indulsisse lovem perhibent: Iliad ii. 670; Pindar, Olymp. 7, 59 ff. (L.C.L. pp. 72 f.)) also Eleusis[*](An ancient town of Boeotia near Lake Copais. It was not swallowed up by an earthquake, but destroyed by an inundation (Strabo, ix. 2, 18; Paus. ix. 24, 2); and it was not an island.) in Boeotia, Vulcanus in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and many more islands. Or they are climatiae[*](Moving sidewise.) which rush along to one side and obliquely, levelling cities, buildings, and mountains. Or they are chasmatiae, or gaping, which with their intensive movement suddenly open abysses and swallow up parts of the earth; as in the Atlantic Ocean an island more extensive than all Europe,[*](Atlantis; see Plato, Timaeus, pp. 24e-25a.) and in the Crisaean Gulf,[*](Salona Bay, a part of the Corinthian Gulf; see Diod. xiv. 48, 49.) Helice and Bura; and in the Ciminian district of Italy the town of Saccumum;[*](Its exact location is unknown: it was near Lago di Vico.) these were all sunk into the deep abysses of Erebus, and lie hidden in eternal darkness.

Among these three sorts of earthquakes the mycematiae[*](Bellowing.) are heard with a threatening roar, when the elements break up into their component parts and clash of their own accord, or slide back when the ground settles. For then of necessity the crashing and rumbling of the earth must resound like the bellowing of a bull. But to return to the episode which we began.

Now Caesar, while wintering in Paris, hastened with the greatest diligence to forestall the Alamanni, who were not yet assembled in one body, but were all venturesome and cruel to the point of madness after the battle of Strasburg; and while waiting for the month of July, when the campaigns in Gaul begin, he was for a long time in much anxiety. For he could not leave until the grain supply was brought up from Aquitania during the mild summer season, after the breaking up of the cold weather and frost.

But as careful planning is victorious over nearly all difficulties, he turned over in his mind many various possibilities; and this at last he found to be the only one, namely, without waiting for the height of the season, to fall upon the savages before he was looked for. And having settled on this plan, he had the grain allowance for twenty days taken from what was to be consumed in the winter quarters, and baked up to serve for some time; he put this hard-tack (as they commonly call it) on the backs of his willing soldiers, and relying on this supply he set out under favourable auspices (as he did before), thinking that within the fifth or sixth month two urgent and inevitable campaigns might be brought to completion.

After these preparations he first of all aimed at the Franks, those namely whom custom calls the Salii,[*](They dwelt between the Maas and the Schelde.) who once had the great assurance to venture to

But quicker than a flash he followed them up after their departure, and sending his general Severus along the river bank, fell upon the whole troop suddenly and smote them like a thunderstorm; at once they took to entreaties rather than to resistance, and he turned the outcome of his victory into the timely direction of mercy by receiving them in surrender with their property and their children.

The Chamavi[*](A German people, living at the mouth of the Rhine; they later crossed the river, to drive the Salii from their homes.) also had ventured to make a similar attempt; with the same rapidity he attacked these, killed a part of them, and a part, who resisted stoutly and were taken alive, he put in irons; others, who made tracks for home in headlong flight, he allowed for the time to get away unharmed, in order not to tire his soldiers by a long chase. A little later they sent delegates to make supplication and to provide for their safety, and as they lay prostrate on the ground before his eyes he granted them peace on condition that they should return unmolested to their homes.