tenth legion, was his favorite corps, on account of the bravery and
hardihood which they often displayed. At the head of these legions,
Caesar set out for Gaul. He was at this time not far from forty years
of age.

[Sidenote: His pretexts.]

Caesar had no difficulty in finding pretexts for making war upon any of
these various nations that he might desire to subdue. They were, of
course, frequently at war with each other, and there were at all times
standing topics of controversy and unsettled disputes among them. Caesar
had, therefore, only to draw near to the scene of contention, and then
to take sides with one party or the other, it mattered little with
which, for the affair almost always resulted, in the end, in his making
himself master of both. The manner, however, in which this sort of
operation was performed, can best be illustrated by an example, and we
will take for the purpose the case of Ariovistus.

[Sidenote: Ariovistus.]
[Sidenote: The Aeduans.]

Ariovistus was a German king. He had been nominally a sort of ally of
the Romans. He had extended his conquests across the Rhine into Gaul,
and he held some nations there as his tributaries. Among these, the
Aeduans were a prominent party, and, to simplify the account, we will
take their name as the representative of all who were concerned. When
Caesar came into the region of the Aeduans, he entered into some
negotiations with them, in which they, as he alleges, asked his
assistance to enable them to throw off the dominion of their German
enemy. It is probable, in fact, that there was some proposition of this