liberty to fetch a pitcherful of four gallons and a half in a day from their neighbors'; for he thought it prudent to make provision against want, but not to supply laziness. He showed skill in his orders about planting, for any one that would plant another tree was not to set it within five feet of his neighbor's field; but if a fig or an olive, not within nine; for their roots spread farther, nor can they be planted near all sorts of trees without damage, for they draw away the nourishment, and in some cases are noxious by their effluvia. He that would dig a pit or a ditch was to dig it at the distance of its own depth from his neighbor's ground; and he that would raise stocks of bees was not to place them within three hundred feet of those which another had already raised.

He permitted only oil to be exported, and those that exported any other fruit, the archon was solemnly to curse, or else pay an hundred drachmas himself; and this law was written in his first table, and, therefore, let none think it incredible, as some affirm, that the exportation of figs was once unlawful, and the informer against the delinquents called a sycophant. He made a law, also, concerning hurts and injuries from beasts, in which he commands the master of any dog that bit a man to deliver him up with a log about his neck, four and a half feet long; a happy device for men's security. The law concerning naturalizing strangers is of doubtful character; he permitted only those to be made free of Athens who were in perpetual exile from their own country, or came with their whole family to trade there; this he did, not to discourage strangers, but rather to invite them to a permanent participation in the privileges of the government; and, besides, he thought those would prove the more faithful citizens who had been forced from their own country, or voluntarily forsook it. The law of public entertainment (parasitein is his name for it) is also peculiarly Solon's; for if any man came often, or if he that was invited refused, they were punished, for he concluded that one was greedy, the other a contemner of the state.

All his laws he established for an hundred years, and wrote them on wooden tables or rollers, named axones, which might be turned round in oblong cases; some of their relics were in my time still to be seen in the Prytaneum, or common hall, at Athens. These, as Aristotle states, were called cyrbes, and there is a passage of Cratinus the comedian,

By Solon, and by Draco, if you please,

Whose Cyrbes make the fibres that parch our peas.

But some say those are properly cyrbes, which contain laws. concerning sacrifices and the rites of religion, and all the others axones. The council all jointly swore to confirm the laws, and every one of the Thesmothetæ vowed for himself at the stone in the market-place, that if he broke any of the statutes, he would dedicate a golden statue, as big as himself, at Delphi.

Observing the irregularity of the months, and that the moon does not always rise and set with the sun, but often in the same day overtakes and gets before him, he ordered the day should be named the Old and New, attributing that part of it which was before the conjunction to the old moon, and the rest to the new, he being the first, it seems, that understood that verse of Homer,

The end and the beginning of the month,

and the following day he called the new moon. After the twentieth he did not count by addition, but, like the moon itself in its wane, by subtraction; thus up to the thirtieth.

Now when these laws were enacted, and some came to Solon every day, to commend or dispraise them, and to advise, if possible, to leave out or put in something, and many criticised, and desired him to explain, and tell the meaning of such and such a passage, he, knowing that to do it was useless, and not to do it would get him ill-will, and desirous to bring himself out of all straits, and to escape all displeasure and exceptions, it being a hard thing, as he himself says,

In great affairs to satisfy all sides,

as an excuse for travelling, bought a trading vessel, and, having leave for ten years' absence, departed, hoping that by that time his laws would have become familiar.

CHAPTER IV

CÆSAR'S COMMENTARIES 1

BOOK V

The Argument

I. Cæsar orders a large fleet of peculiarly constructed ships to be built; proceeds against the Pirusta; they submit. - II. Returns into Hither Gaul; marches against the Treviri. - III. Indutiomărus and Cingetorix.

- V. Cæsar goes to port Itius; his policy in taking certain Gallic chieftains with him to Britain. - VÍ. Dumnorix, who was to have been in that number, by craft and violence, escapes attending Cæsar, but is slain. VII. Cæsar proceeds on his second expedition against Britain. IX. The bold resistance of the Britons; they are defeated. — X. The Roman fleet suffers severely in a storm. XI. Cæsar gives orders to Labienus to build more ships; Cassivellaunus. XII-XIV. Description of Britain and its inhabitants. XVII. The Britains again prepare for war, and receive a signal defeat. XVIII. Cæsar advances into the territories of Cassivellaunus as far as the Thames; an engagement with that prince. - XIX. The stratagem of Cassivellaunus. XX. The Trinobantes send ambassadors to Cæsar respecting the conduct of Cassivellaunus towards Mandubratius. XXII. The latter induces four princes of Cantium to attack the Romans, by whom they are defeated. XXIII. Cæsar receives hostages, and leads back his army into Gaul. XXIV. He quarters his forces contrary to his custom, in several divisions. - XXV. Tasgetius. - XXVI. The revolt of Ambiorix and Cativoleus. XXVII. Ambiorix defends himself in reference to his share in the Gallic combination. XXVIII.-XXXI. Dispute between Titurius and Cotta. XXXII. The valor and conduct of Cotta. XXXVIII.-XLII. The quarters of Cicero attacked by the Eburones; he sends intelligence to Cæsar. - XLIV. The noble conduct of Pulfio and Varenus. - XLVIII.-LII. Cæsar marches to the relief of Cicero; defeats the Eburones. - LIII. Indutiomărus is thereby deterred from attacking the camp of Labienus. — LVI.-LVIII. Re-enforced, Indutiomărus attacks Labienus; his forces are routed, and he is slain; Gaul becomes more tranquil.

CHAP. XII. The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over from the country of the Belgae for the purpose of plunder and making war; almost all of whom are called by the names of those states from which being sprung they went thither, and having waged war, continued there and began to cultivate the lands. The number of the people is countless, and their buildings

[Reprinted from the literal translation published by DAVID MCKAY, Philadelphia, with the publisher's consent.]

exceedingly numerous, for the most part very like those of the Gauls the number of cattle is great. They use either brass or iron rings, determined at a certain weight, as their money. Tin is produced in the midland regions; in the maritime, iron; but the quantity of it is small: they employ brass, which is imported. There, as in Gaul, is timber of every description, except beech and fir. They do not regard it lawful to eat the hare, and the cock, and the goose; they, however, breed them for amusement and pleasure. The climate is more temperate than in Gaul, the colds being less severe.

CHAP. XIV. The most civilized of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent, which is entirely a maritime district, nor do they differ much from the Gallic customs. Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the Britains, indeed, dye themselves with woad, which occasions a bluish color, and thereby have a more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip. Ten and even twelve have wives common to them, and particularly brothers among brothers, and parents among their children; but if there be any issue by these wives, they are reputed to be the children of those by whom respectively each was first espoused when a virgin.

BOOK VI

The Argument

I. Cæsar, apprehending commotions in Gaul, levies additional forces. -II-VI. Defeats the Nervii, Senones, Carnutes, and Menapii. VII., VIII. Labienus defeats the Treviri. — IX. Cæsar again crosses the Rhine; the Ubii send ambassadors to plead the defence of their state. XI.-XX. The political factions of the Gallic states. The Druids, the second order or knights, the third order or commonalty, and the mythology of the Gauls. XXI.-XXVII. The Germans; their customs; account of some remarkable animals found in the Hercinian forest. XXIX.-XXXI. Cæsar returns to Gaul; Ambiorix is worsted; death of Cativoleus. - XXXII.-XXXIV. The territories of the Eburones are plundered. - XXXV.-XLII. The Sigambri attack the Roman camp; some extraordinary incidents connected therewith. Cæsar arrives and restores confidence. — XLIII., XLIV. Cæsar holds an investigation respecting the conspiracy of the Senones; Acco suffers capital punishment; the appointment of winter quarters; Cæsar departs for Italy.

CHAP. XI. Since we have come to this place, it does not appear to be foreign to our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul and Germany, and wherein these nations differ from each other. In Gaul there are factions not

only in all the states, and in all the cantons and their divisions, but almost in each family, and of these factions those are the leaders who are considered according to their judgment to possess the greatest influence, upon whose will and determination the management of all affairs and measures depends. And that seems to have been instituted in ancient times with this view, that no one of the common people should be in want of support against one more powerful; for none [of those leaders] suffers his party to be oppressed and defrauded, and if he do otherwise, he has no influence among his party. This same policy exists throughout the whole of Gaul; for all the states are divided into two factions.

CHAP. XIII. Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity: for the commonalty is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself and is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and punishments, if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices. This among them is the most heavy punishment. Those who have been thus interdicted are esteemed in the number of the impious and the criminal: all shun them, and avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive some evil from their contact; nor is justice administered to them when seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all these Druids one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his death, if any individual among the rest is preeminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency with arms. These assemble at a