Their baggage and stores were all seized, and the troops themselves fled in dismay by all the roads which led back to the Rhine; and there those who succeeded in escaping death from the Romans, who pursued them all the way, embarked in boats and upon rafts, and returned to their homes.

Ariovistus himself found a small boat, in which, with one or two followers, he succeeded in getting across the stream.
[Sidenote: Release of Caesar's messenger.] As Caesar, at the head of a body of his troops, was pursuing the enemy in this their flight, he overtook one party who had a prisoner with them confined by iron chains fastened to his limbs, and whom they were hurrying rapidly along.

This prisoner proved to be the messenger that Caesar had sent to Ariovistus's camp, and whom he had, as Caesar alleges, treacherously detained.

Of course, he was overjoyed to be recaptured and set at liberty.

The man said that three times they had drawn lots to see whether they should burn him alive then, or reserve the pleasure for a future occasion, and that every time the lot had resulted in his favor.
[Sidenote: Results of the victory.] [Sidenote: Caesar's continued success.] The consequence of this victory was, that Caesar's authority was established triumphantly over all that part of Gaul which he had thus freed from Ariovistus's sway.