an 



the 



CHAP, ni.] ROMAN CA.VALRY. 91 



Ariovistus, he used his cavalry with great effect in the 

 pursuit, which seems to have been maintained by them 

 for fifty miles, and in which heavy loss was inflicted 

 upon the fugitive Germans.^ 



During the wars in Gaul, Csesar had increased his 

 cavalry to 10,000, but a portion of them consisted of 

 German, Spanish, and Numidian auxiliaries. For a long 

 period afterwards the Gauls furnished the greater part of 

 the cavalry of the Roman armies.^ 1 ucuUus had a force 

 of Gaulish horsemen, as already mentioned, at the battle 

 of Tigranocerta.^ 



Vercingetorix, the Gaulish chieftain who led the great 

 revolt against Csesar, used his cavalry very extensively, 

 and evinced a remarkable knowledge of the value and 

 uses of a mounted force. Csesar says that upon his 

 appointment as leader of the army of the Gauls, he set 

 himself to obtain above everything a good corps of 

 cavalry.* 



After Cseiiar, by his rapid movements, had gained two 

 or three slight successes, Vercingetorix called his council 

 together, and suggested, as they were superior to the 

 Romans in cavalry, that they should not employ that 

 force in any general engagement, but simply to ravage 

 the country arounr" Csesar, to cut off his foraging parties, 

 to destroy all provisions, to bum the villages, to leave 

 the country a desert, and to besiege the Roman army 

 with £.n intangible cordon of horsemen, and so to starve 

 it into submission.^ This resolution was adopted, and 

 for a time acted upon. Twenty villages and towns were 

 burnt in one day, and if the Gauls had persisted in the 

 plan, and carried it out as vigorously and as energetically 

 as it was carried out against their descendants by the 

 Russians in 1812, there is little doubt that the result to 

 Csesar would have been almost as disastrous as the 

 campaign of 1812 was to the great Napoleon.^ 



Vercingetorix was induced against his will to spare 

 Avaricum, and to rely more upon operations in the 

 field.^ Avaricum was, however, taken, and 40,000 of 



^ Csesar, i. 63, 2 Liskenne, iL 209. ^ Csesar, vii. 13. ♦ Ibid. 4. 



•^ Ibid. 14. « Ibid. 15. T Ibid. 28. 



