There is a river -- the Arar -- which runs along the border beteween the Aedui and the Sequani tribes into the Rhone, with such incredible gentleness that the eyes cannot discern the direction in which it flows. The Helvetians were crossing it in rafts and tubs joined together. When Caesar was informed by scouts that the Helvetians had brought three parts of their force across the river, but that in fact a fourth part remained on his side of the Arar, he set out from camp with three legions during the third watch and reached the cohort that had had not yet crossed the river. He cut the large mass of them to pieces, attacking them as they were oblivious and weighted down with baggage. The rest took flight and hid in the nearby woods.
This group was known as Tigurines; for the entire Helvetian polity was divided into four districts, and it was the population of this district, when it had set out from its home, that killed Consul Lucius Cassius within the memory of our fathers and destroyed his army and sent them into slavery. And so whether by chance, or by the plan of the immortal gods, the portion of the Helvetian polity that had brought extraordinary calamity to the Roman people was the first to repay its debt.
