All the neighboring tribes joined
in the league against the common enemy, and tidings were brought to
Caesar that the whole country round the Loire was in a state of revolt.
In the heart of winter he hurried back, and took the Gauls by surprise
by crossing the snows that lay thick on the wild waste of the Cebenna,
which the Arverni had always considered as their impenetrable barrier
throughout the winter. The towns quickly fell into his hands, and he was
rapidly recovering all he had lost, when Vercingetorix, collecting his
chief supporters, represented to them that their best hope would be in
burning all the inhabited places themselves and driving off all the
cattle, then lying in wait to cut off all the convoys of provisions that
should be sent to the enemy, and thus starving them into a retreat. He
said that burning houses were indeed a grievous sight, but it would be
more grievous to see their wives and children dragged into captivity. To
this all the allies agreed, and twenty towns in one district were burnt
in a single day; but when they came to the city of Avaricum, now called
Bourges, the tribe of Bituriges, to whom it belonged, entreated on their
knees not to be obliged to destroy the most beautiful city in the
country, representing that, as it had a river on one side, and a morass
everywhere else, except at a very narrow entrance, it might be easily
held out against the enemy, and to their entreaties Vercingetorix
yielded, though much against his own judgment.
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