FROM THE COMMENTARIES OF CESAR. 145 
state of the siege, and the danger the legion was 
in. Immediately he engages a Gaulish horse- 
man, by the promise of great rewards, to carry 
a letter to Cicero (the commander of the legion.) 
It was written in Greek characters, that if it fell 
into the enemies’ hands, it might not be intelli- 
gible to them.” 
Tuirp Extract: Lib. vr. 14. 
Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere di- 
cuntur: itaque nonnulli annos vicenos in discip- 
lina permanent; neque fas esse existimant ea 
litteris mandare, quum in reliquis fere rebus, 
publicis privatisque rationibus, Greecis litteris 
utantur. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse 
videntur; quod neque in vulgus disciplinam 
efferri velint; neque eos, qui discunt, litteris 
confisos, minus memorize studere: quod fere 
plerisque accidit, ut presidio litterarum, diligen- 
tiam in perdiscendo, ac memoriam remittant. 
TRANSLATION. 
“There (where the youths are prepared for 
the discipline and profession of the Druids,) 
they are taught to repeat a great number of 
verses by heart, and often spend twenty years 
L 
