Note 520 — 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.

We read (De Bello Gallico, VII. 68) the words, Altero die ad Alesiam castra fecit. We have before sought to prove that the words altero die must be translated by the second day after, and not by the next day. [See page 279, note (1).] It took Cæsar, therefore, two days’ march to move from the field of battle to Alesia.

A study of the country fully confirms the interpretation we give to the expression altero die. In fact, to the north and east of Alise-Sainte-Reine (Alesia), to less than two days’ march, the ground is so cut up and broken that no cavalry battle would be possible upon it. It retains this character as far as fifty-five or sixty kilomètres from Alise, to the east of the road from Pranthoy to Dijon, where it becomes more easy and open. The battle-field of the Vingeanne, which we consider as the true one, is at a distance of sixty-five kilomètres from Alise. Supposing that, on the day of the victory, the Roman army had pursued the Gauls over a space of fifteen kilomètres, it would have had to traverse in the two following days, before arriving at Alesia, a distance of fifty kilomètres, that is to say, twenty-five kilomètres a day.