I've been reading the "War Commentaries of Caesar", translation by Rex Warner, my first exposure to them since trying to translate some of them in Latin class over 50 years ago. They are fascinating, and he was a helluva guy. One minor chief of a conquered territory whose army was conscripted into Caesar's was double-crossing him. Spying for an enemy, plotting defection. Caesar called in the fellow's brother, with whom he had a good working relationship and reported the activities. The brother pleaded, Caesar called in the offender, told him what he knew, and sent him forth to sin no more. And also placed informers so as to know the guy followed instructions.

Anyway, this is what the translation says he told Ariovistus when negotiating before a battle. Ariovistus had threatened to invade a part of Gaul which the Romans claimed as being in their sphere of influence.

"If the questionof sovereignty in Gaul was to be judged by the standard of 'who was there first,' then our claims were the more just; and if the judgment of the senate were to be upheld, then the country ought to be independent, since the senate had decided that although Gaul had been conquered, it should continue to be governed by it's own laws."

Arf