Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/320

282

Above all Cæsar approached Cicero on his most sensitive side by constant kindness and attention to his brother Quintus, who was now serving as lieutenant-general in Gaul. The two were together in Britain during the summer of 54 B.C., and when the troops went into winter camps, the choice of quarters was allowed to Quintus, who selected the territory of the Nervii, one of the Belgic tribes. The younger Cicero was a brave and skilful officer. By a sudden rising the Gauls overwhelmed one division of the Roman army, and they next made a furious attack on the isolated station of Quintus. The whole country was in arms, and it was long before a messenger could get through to Cæsar. Quintus Cicero defended his post with unwearied though almost desperate valour. It was like the stand made at Lucknow after the disaster of Cawnpore in the Indian mutiny. When the relieving force, led by Cæsar in person, at length appeared, the Roman eagle still crowned the camp of Cicero's legion, but of those who had kept it so well nine out of ten were either killed or wounded.

Cæsar's reception of the first proposal that Quintus should serve under him, gives a characteristic picture both of the man and of the situation. Marcus Cicero had, it appears, written to Cæsar to make the offer of his brother's services. The mail in which this offer was conveyed got soaked on the road and Cicero's letter was reduced to such a state of pulp, that it could not even be recognised for his. Fortunately a letter of Balbus in the same packet had