38.
Litavicus, having received the command of the army, suddenly
convened the soldiers, when he was about thirty miles distant from Gergovia , and, weeping, said, "Soldiers, whither are we going? All
our knights and all our nobles have perished. Eporedirix and
Viridomarus, the principal men of the state, being accused of
treason, have been slain by the Romans without any
permission to plead their cause. Learn this intelligence from those who have
escaped from the massacre; for I, since my brothers and all my relations have
been slain, am prevented by grief from declaring what has taken place. Persons
are brought forward whom he had instructed in what he would have them say, and
make the same statements to the soldiery as Litavicus had made:
that all the knights of the Aedui were slain because they were said
to have held conferences with the Arverni; that they had concealed
themselves among the multitude of soldiers, and had escaped from the midst of
the slaughter. The Aedui shout aloud and conjure
Litavicus to provide for their safety. As if, said he, it were
a matter of deliberation, and not of necessity, for us to go to Gergovia and unite ourselves to the Arverni. Or have
we any reasons to doubt that the Romans, after
perpetrating the atrocious crime, are now hastening to slay us? Therefore, if
there be any spirit in us, let us avenge the death of those who have perished in
a most unworthy manner, and let us slay these robbers." He points to the Roman citizens, who had accompanied them, in reliance
on his protection. He immediately seizes a great quantity of corn and
provisions, cruelly tortures them, and then puts them to death, sends messengers
throughout the entire state of the Aedui, and rouses them
completely by the same falsehood concerning the slaughter of their knights and
nobles; he earnestly advises them to avenge, in the same manner as he did, the
wrongs, which they had received.
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