matters of the highest importance to both of them. To this embassy
Ariovistus replied, that if he himself had had need of anything from
Caesar, he would have gone to him; and that if Caesar wanted anything
from him he ought to come to him. That, besides, neither dare he go
without an army into those parts of Gaul which Caesar had possession of,
nor could he, without great expense and trouble, draw his army together
to one place; that to him, moreover, it appeared strange what business
either Caesar or the Roman people at all had in his own Gaul, which he
had conquered in war.

XXXV.--When these answers were reported to Caesar, he sends ambassadors
to him a second time with this message "Since, after having been treated
with so much kindness by himself and the Roman people (as he had in his
consulship [B.C. 59] been styled 'king and friend' by the senate), he
makes this recompense to [Caesar] himself and the Roman people, [viz.]
that when invited to a conference he demurs, and does not think that it
concerns him to advise and inform himself about an object of mutual
interest, these are the things which he requires of him; first, that he
do not any more bring over any body of men across the Rhine into Gaul;
in the next place, that he restore the hostages which he has from the
Aedui, and grant the Sequani permission to restore to them with his
consent those hostages which they have, and that he neither provoke the
Aedui by outrage nor make war upon them or their allies; if he would
accordingly do this," [Caesar says] that "he himself and the Roman
people will entertain a perpetual feeling of favour and friendship
towards him; but that if he [Caesar] does not obtain [his desires], that
he (forasmuch as in the consulship of Marcus Messala and Marcus Piso
[B.C. 61] the senate had decreed that, whoever should have the
administration of the province of Gaul should, as far as he could do so
consistently with the interests of the republic, protect the Aedui and