Caesar defeated the Germans
in the angle between the Moselle and the Rhine. He must have crossed
the Moselle in order to find a convenient place for his bridge, which
he would find near Neuwied. The bridge abutted on the east bank on the
territory of the Ubii, who were his friends. The narrative of Caesar,
when carefully examined, admits of no other construction than that
which Mueller has put upon it; and if there were any doubt, it is
removed by Caesar himself in another passage (_Gallic War_, vi. 9)
where he speaks of his second bridge, which gave him a passage from
the territory of the Treviri into that of the Ubii, and he adds that
the site of the second bridge was near that of the first.
In the Gallic War (iv. 15) Caesar speaks of the junction (ad
confluentem Mosae et Rheni) of the Mosa and the Rhine, where Mueller
assumes that he means the Moselle, as he undoubtedly does. Either the
reading Mosa is wrong, or, what is not improbable, both the Moselle
and the Maas had the same name, Mosa. Mosella or Mosula is merely the
diminution of Mosa. At this confluence of the Moselle and Rhine the
town of Coblenz was afterwards built, which retains the ancient name.
Caesar indicates which Mosa he means clearly enough by the words 'ad
confluentem.' There was no 'confluens' of the Great Mosa and the
Rhenus.]
[Footnote 498: The first expedition of Caesar to Britain was in the
autumn of B.
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