Gnaeus Pompeius appears to have later personally reported to Caesar in detail on this meeting and subsequent events, because Caesar was to repeat Ambiorix’s words in his memoirs. <>
The officers attending this meeting included Sabinus’s deputy, Brigadier General Cotta, the cavalry commander Colonel Junius, Colonel Arpineius, and the five other tribunes of the 14th, as well as the five colonels leading the force’s other unidentified cohorts. The Legion's name was then changed in accordance with this decree, ... - After enduring solar months of filth and indignity in battle against the Putrid Choir, the Astra Militarum's 14th Volpone Bluebloods can take no more, and beg Nurgle to spare them from the corruption. For hour upon hour Sabinus tried to respect the opinion of his deputy, but finally, as the pair stood toe-to-toe in the flickering torchlight of the praetorium, red-faced and glaring at each other, the senior general’s patience gave way. Around him, thousands of men of the 14th Legion also died fighting. When the Roman officers’ weapons lay on the grass, Ambiorix beckoned them closer. By the Gallic calculation, the old day ended at sunset, and the new day began with the arrival of night, so that Gauls spoke of the passing of time not in terms of days, as the Romans did and as we do, but in nights. When Ambiorix indicated he should go on, Sabinus began to detail terms that would be acceptable to him. 1 0 obj
This faction is awesome and people should join it. Some officers suggested that they wait and see if Ambiorix’s prediction proved correct, banking on their hunch that the Germans would fail to appear, that Ambiorix was attempting to bluff the Romans into leaving. This was possibly Chief Centurion Balventius. As the first fingers of the new day’s light stretched above the horizon, Colonel Junius’s small Spanish cavalry detachment led the way west. It’s not hard to imagine groups of legionaries crowded around players at a dice board and a cry going up when someone rolled basilicus, the highest throw of the dice. The few remaining soldiers of the 14th Legion held off their wearying assailants until nightfall, when the attackers finally withdrew. Cotta had yet to see any proof of a widespread uprising and was convinced that Ambiorix was trying to trick them into giving up their camp. Daily, just before sunset, the tribune of the watch provided the commander with a register of the able-bodied men in camp and in return received the watchword or password for the next twenty-four hours.