by them to the Roman people, yet that circumstance had happened no less
to the benefit of the land of Gaul than of the Roman people, because the
Helvetii, while their affairs were most flourishing, had quitted their
country with the design of making war upon the whole of Gaul, and
seizing the government of it, and selecting, out of a great abundance,
that spot for an abode which they should judge to be the most convenient
and most productive of all Gaul, and hold the rest of the states as
tributaries. They requested that they might be allowed to proclaim an
assembly of the whole of Gaul for a particular day, and to do that with
Caesar's permission, [stating] that they had some things which, with the
general consent, they wished to ask of him. This request having been
granted, they appointed a day for the assembly, and ordained by an oath
with each other, that no one should disclose [their deliberations]
except those to whom this [office] should be assigned by the general
assembly.

XXXI.--When that assembly was dismissed, the same chiefs of states, who
had before been to Caesar, returned, and asked that they might be
allowed to treat with him privately (in secret) concerning the safety of
themselves and of all. That request having been obtained, they all threw
themselves in tears at Caesar's feet, [saying] that they no less begged
and earnestly desired that what they might say should not be disclosed
than that they might obtain those things which they wished for; inasmuch
as they saw that, if a disclosure were made, they should be put to the
greatest tortures. For these Divitiacus the Aeduan spoke and told him:--
"That there were two parties in the whole of Gaul: that the Aedui stood
at the head of one of these, the Arverni of the other. After these had
been violently struggling with one another for the superiority for many
years, it came to pass that the Germans were called in for hire by the
Arverni and the Sequani. That about 15,000 of them [_i.e._ of the