§5.11.1His rebus cognitis Caesar legiones equitatumque revocari atque in itinere resistere iubet, ipse ad naves revertitur; §5.11.2eadem fere quae ex nuntiis litterisque cognoverat coram perspicit, sic ut amissis circiter XL navibus reliquae tamen refici posse magno negotio viderentur. §5.11.3Itaque ex legionibus fabros deligit et ex continenti alios arcessi iubet; §5.11.4Labieno scribit, ut quam plurimas posset eis legionibus, quae sunt apud eum, naves instituat. §5.11.5Ipse, etsi res erat multae operae ac laboris, tamen commodissimum esse statuit omnes naves subduci et cum castris una munitione coniungi. §5.11.6In his rebus circiter dies X consumit ne nocturnis quidem temporibus ad laborem militum intermissis. §5.11.7Subductis navibus castrisque egregie munitis easdem copias, quas ante, praesidio navibus reliquit: ipse eodem unde redierat proficiscitur. §5.11.8Eo cum venisset, maiores iam undique in eum locum copiae Britannorum convenerant summa imperi bellique administrandi communi consilio permissa Cassivellauno, cuius fines a maritimis civitatibus flumen dividit, quod appellatur Tamesis, a mari circiter milia passuum LXXX. §5.11.9Huic superiore tempore cum reliquis civitatibus continentia bella intercesserant; sed nostro adventu permoti Britanni hunc toti bello imperioque praefecerant.
\nUpon learning these things, Caesar orders the legions and cavalry to be recalled and to halt on their march; he himself returns to the ships.\n\nHe perceives before his own eyes almost the same things which he had learned from the messengers and dispatches, so that, although about forty ships were lost, the remainder nevertheless seemed capable of being repaired with great difficulty.\n\nTherefore, he selects workmen from the legions and orders others to be summoned from the continent;\n\nhe writes to Labienus to construct as many ships as he can with those legions which are with him.\n\nHe himself, although the matter was of great trouble and labor, yet decided that it was most convenient for all the ships to be hauled up and connected with the camp by a single fortification.\n\nIn these matters he spends about ten days, the labor of the soldiers not being interrupted even during the night hours.\n\nHaving hauled up the ships and exceptionally fortified the camp, he left the same forces as before for the protection of the ships; he himself sets out for the same place from which he had returned.\n\nWhen he had arrived there, larger forces of the Britons had already assembled from all sides at that place, the chief command and management of the war having been entrusted by common counsel to Cassivellaunus, whose territories a river, which is called the Thames, divides from the maritime states, about eighty miles from the sea.\n\nPreviously, continuous wars had occurred between him and the remaining states; but the Britons, moved by our arrival, had placed him in command of the whole war and leadership.