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40Now Vercingetorix had at first, before he had been entirely cut off by the wall, sent out the cavalry to get fodder for the horses, as there was none on hand, and in order to let them disperse, each to his native land, and bring thence provisions and assistance. 2But as these delayed and food supplies began to fail the besieged, he thrust out the children and the women and the most useless among the rest, hoping either that the outcasts would be saved as booty by the Romans or else that those left in the town might survive by enjoying for a longer time the supplies that would have belonged to their companions. 3But he hoped in vain, for Caesar did not have sufficient food himself to feed others; and believing, moreover, that by returning the expelled he could make the enemy’s lack of food more severely felt (for he expected that they would of course be received again), he forced them all back. 4Now these perished most miserably between the city and the camp, because neither party would receive them. As for the relief looked for, the horsemen and the others they were bringing reached the barbarians before long, but these were then [defeated (?)] in a cavalry battle, as the Romans with the aid [of the Germans (?)] . . . 5Thereupon they tried to enter the city by night through the wall of circumvallation, but met with dire disaster; for the Romans had dug secret pits in the places which were passable for horses and had fixed stakes in them, afterward making the whole resemble on the surface the surrounding ground; 6thus horse and man, falling into them absolutely without warning, came to grief. The men did not give up, however, until they had arrayed themselves once more beside the very walls and had been defeated along with the people from the city who came out to fight.
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