Chapter 73

For the reasons above-mentioned Caesar was worried, and his old habitual dashing tactics had now given place to a more sedate and deliberate policy. And no wonder: for the troops he now commanded had been used to fighting in the flat terrain of Gaul against Gauls—men of forthright character with barely a trace of deceit, whose habit it is to rely on valour, not on guile, in their fighting: whereas now he had to perform the arduous task of accustoming his troops to recognise the tricks, traps and stratagems of the enemy, and what tactics could fittingly be adopted, and what avoided. Accordingly, to speed up this training of theirs, he took pains not to keep the legions confined to one area, but to keep them constantly on the move, first to one spot, then to another, ostensibly for foraging purposes, for the very reason that he reckoned the enemy forces would not fail to follow in his tracks. And two days later, when he had led forth his forces duly and carefully deployed, he marched past close to the enemy’s camp and challenged them to battle on level ground but when he saw the enemy reluctant to accept, he led his legions back to camp as evening was approaching.