C. 54 was back at Portus Itius, making final preparations
for the invasion of Britain.
This invasion, glorious as it was to be, and full of the greatest
results for us, was accompanied all through by a series of petty
disasters. Caesar had purposed to set out certainly early in July, but
delay followed upon delay, and when he was ready at last, the wind
settled into the north-west and blew steadily from that quarter for
twenty-five days. It had been a dry summer and all Gaul was suffering
from drought. The great preparations which Caesar had been making for
at least a year were at last complete, the specially built ships, wide
and of shallow draft, of an intermediate size between his own swift-
sailing vessels and those of burthen which he had gathered locally,
were all ready to the number of six hundred, with twenty-eight _naves
longae_ or war vessels, and some two hundred of the older boats. But
the wind made a start impossible for twenty-five days.
It was not till August that the south-west came to his assistance. As
soon as might be he embarked five Legions, say twenty-thousand men,
with two thousand cavalry and horses, an enormous transport, and
doubtless a great number of camp followers, leaving behind on the
continent three legions and two thousand horse to guard the harbours
and provide corn, and to inform him what was going on in Gaul in his
absence, and to act in case of necessity.
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