Note 509 — Chapter X · (Year of Rome 702.) (Book VII. of the “Commentaries.”) REVOLT OF GAUL—CAPTURE OF VELLAUNODUNUM, GENABUM, AND NOVIODUNUM—SIEGES OF AVARICUM AND GERGOVIA—CAMPAIGN OF LABIENUS AGAINST THE PARISII—SIEGE OF ALESIA.

Let us here recapitulate the numbers of the legions employed during the war in Gaul. Cæsar’s army, as we have seen, was composed in 696 of six legions, the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. In 697, two new legions were raised in Italy, the 13th and 14th. Probably, in the winter between 699 and 700, Cæsar brought several cohorts composed of soldiers and sailors who were to serve in the fleet; for, on his return from the second expedition into England, notwithstanding the losses he had sustained, he was at the head of eight legions and five cohorts (V. 24). He lost at Aduatuca one legion and a half, that is, the 14th legion, besides five cohorts; but in 701 three new legions replaced the cohorts lost, and even doubled their number. These legions were the 1st, lent by Pompey (De Bello Gallico, VIII. 54, and Lucan, Pharsalia, VII., 1. 218); the 14th, which took the number of the legion destroyed at Aduatuca (De Bello Gallico, VI. 32; VIII. 4); and the 15th; this last legion was afterwards, with the 1st, given to Pompey for the war of the Parthians; it figured in the Civil War, and took, in Pompey’s army, the number 3. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, III. 88.)

The 6th legion, judging from its number, must have been one of the oldest, for Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 47) informs us that the legions were designated according to their order of inscription on the rolls of the army; but, as it only appears for the first time in 702, it is probable that it had remained in garrison among the Allobroges or in Italy. A proof that this legion assisted in the siege of Alesia is found in the fact that, after the surrender of the place, it was sent to winter quarters on the Saône, where Cæsar found it a few months afterwards (De Bello Gallico, VIII. 4). The distribution of the troops in their winter quarters after the taking of Alesia confirms the number of legions given above. The re-distribution after the siege of Uxellodunum gives also the same result, for in book VII. c. 46 the “Commentaries” give the positions of ten legions, without reckoning the 15th, which, according to book VIII. c. 24, had been sent to Cisalpine Gaul. These facts are repeated again, book VIII. c. 54.