The Gallic re-enforcements, beaten and slaughtered without mercy, dispersed; and Vercingetorix and the besieged were crowded back within their walls without hope of escape.

We have two accounts of the last moments of this great Gallic insurrection and its chief; one, written by Caesar himself, plain, cold, and harsh as its author; the other, by two later historians, who were neither statesmen nor warriors, Plutarch and Dion Cassius, has more detail and more ornament, following either popular tradition or the imagination of the writers.

It may be well to give both.

"The day after the defeat," says Caesar, "Vercingetorix convokes the assembly, and shows that he did not undertake the war for his own personal advantage, but for the general freedom.

Since submission must be made to fortune, he offers to satisfy the Romans either by instant death or by being delivered to them alive.
A deputation there anent is sent to Caesar, who orders the arms to be given up and the chiefs brought to him.