Note 174 — Chapter III · CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE HELVETII. (Year of Rome 696.) (Book I. of the “Commentaries.”)

Cæsar had deferred his reply till the Ides of April (April the 8th). If it were then decided to bring the legions from Aquileia, the time necessary to bring them would have been as follows:

6 days employed by the couriers to proceed from Geneva to Aquileia. This time does not appear to us too short, since Cæsar had employed 8 days to go from Rome to Geneva, and that the distance from Geneva to Aquileia is only 1,000 kilomètres, while it is 1,200 from Geneva to Rome;

8 days to assemble the legions—in 581, it required only eleven days to enroll four legions (Titus Livius, XLIII. 45);

28 days from Aquileia to Ocelum (Usseau) (681 kilom.)reckoning 24 kilomètres for a day’s march;

6 days’ halts;

7 days from Ocelum to Grenoble (174 kilom.) (De Bello Gallico, I. 10);

5 days from Grenoble to Lyons (126 kilom.)

60

According to this reckoning, Cæsar required 60 days, reckoning from the moment when he decided on this course, to transport his legions from Aquileia to Lyons; that is to say, if he sent, as is probable, couriers on the 8th of April, the day he refused the passage to the Helvetii, the head of his column arrived at Lyons towards the 7th of June.