In the provinces, and in
distant kingdoms, he pursued the same schemes. Every where he had a body
of mercenary partisans; kings are known to have taken his pay. And it is
remarkable that even in his character of commander in chief, where the
number of legions allowed to him for the accomplishment of his mission
raised him for a number of years above all fear of coercion or control, he
persevered steadily in the same plan of providing for the day when he
might need assistance, not from the state, but _against_ the state.
For amongst the private anecdotes which came to light under the researches
made into his history after his death, was this--that, soon after his
first entrance upon his government in Gaul, he had raised, equipped,
disciplined, and maintained, from his own private funds, a legion
amounting, perhaps, to six or seven thousand men, who were bound by no
sacrament of military obedience to the state, nor owed fealty to any
auspices except those of Caesar. This legion, from the fashion of their
crested helmets, which resembled the crested heads of a small bird of the
lark species, received the popular name of the _Alauda_ (or Lark)
legion.
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