"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
great number of senators and Roman knights, would be in extreme danger.
In the meantime he encouraged his troops, disposed engines on the walls,
and assigned to each man a particular part of the city to defend. In a
speech to the soldiers he promised them lands out of his own estate; to
every private soldier four acres, and a corresponding share to the
centurions and veterans.
XVIII.--In the meantime, word was brought to Caesar that the people of
Sulmo, a town about seven miles distant from Corfinium, were ready to
obey his orders, but were prevented by Quintus Lucretius, a senator, and
Attius, a Pelignian, who were in possession of the town with a garrison
of seven cohorts. He sent Marcus Antonius thither, with five cohorts of
the eighth legion. The inhabitants, as soon as they saw our standards,
threw open their gates, and all the people, both citizens and soldiers,
went out to meet and welcome Antonius. Lucretius and Attius leaped off
the walls. Attius, being brought before Antonius, begged that he might
be sent to Caesar. Antonius returned the same day on which he had set
out with the cohorts and Attius. Caesar added these cohorts to his own
army, and sent Attius away in safety. The three first days Caesar
employed in fortifying his camp with strong works, in bringing in corn
from the neighbouring free towns, and waiting for the rest of his
forces. Within the three days the eighth legion came to him, and
twenty-two cohorts of the new levies in Gaul, and about three hundred
horse from the king of Noricum. On their arrival he made a second camp
on another part of the town, and gave the command of it to Curio. He
determined to surround the town with a rampart and turrets during the
remainder of the time. Nearly at the time when the greatest part of the
work was completed, all the messengers sent to Pompey returned.
XIX.--Having read Pompey's letter, Domitius, concealing the truth, gave
out in council that Pompey would speedily come to their assistance; and
encouraged them not to despond, but to provide everything necessary for
the defence of the town. He held private conferences with a few of his
most intimate friends, and determined on the design of fleeing. As
Domitius's countenance did not agree with his words, and he did
everything with more confusion and fear than he had shown on the
preceding days, and as he had several private meetings with his friends,
contrary to his usual practice, in order to take their advice, and as he
avoided all public councils and assemblies of the people, the truth
could be no longer hid nor dissembled; for Pompey had written back in
answer, "That he would not put matters to the last hazard; that Domitius
had retreated into the town of Corfinium, without either his advice or
consent. Therefore, if any opportunity should offer, he [Domitius]
should come to him with the whole force." But the blockade and works
round the town prevented his escape.
XX.--Domitius's design being noised abroad, the soldiers in Confinium
[**error in original: should be CORFINIUM] early in the evening began to
mutiny, and held a conference with each other by their tribunes and
centurions, and the most respectable amongst themselves: "that they were
besieged by Caesar; that his works and fortifications were almost
finished; that their general, Domitius, on whose hopes and expectations
they had confided, had thrown them off, and was meditating his own
escape; that they ought to provide for their own safety." At first the
Marsians differed in opinion, and possessed themselves of that part of
the town which they thought the strongest. And so violent a dispute
arose between them, that they attempted to fight and decide it by arms.
However, in a little time, by messengers sent from one side to the
other, they were informed of Domitius's meditated flight, of which they
were previously ignorant. Therefore they all with one consent brought
Domitius into public view, gathered round him, and guarded him; and sent
deputies out of their number to Caesar, to say that they were ready to
throw open their gates, to do whatever he should order, and to deliver
up Domitius alive into his hands.
XXI.--Upon intelligence of these matters, though Caesar thought it of
great consequence to become master of the town as soon as possible, and
to transfer the cohorts to his own camp, lest any change should be
wrought on their inclinations by bribes, encouragement, or fictitious
messages, because in war great events are often brought about by
trifling circumstances; yet, dreading lest the town should be plundered
by the soldiers entering into it, and taking advantage of the darkness
of the night, he commended the persons who came to him, and sent them
back to the town, and ordered the gates and walls to be secured. He
disposed his soldiers on the works, which he had begun, not at certain
intervals, as was his practice before, but in one continued range of
sentinels and stations, so that they touched each other, and formed a
circle round the whole fortification; he ordered the tribunes and
general officers to ride round; and exhorted them not only to be on
their guard against sallies from the town, but also to watch that no
single person should get out privately. Nor was any man so negligent or
drowsy as to sleep that night. To so great height was their expectation
raised, that they were carried away, heart and soul, each to different
objects, what would become of the Corfinians, what of Domitius, what of
Lentulus, what of the rest; what event would be the consequence of
another.
XXII.--About the fourth watch, Lentulus Spinther said to our sentinels
and guards from the walls, that he desired to have an interview with
Caesar, if permission were given him. Having obtained it, he was
escorted out of town; nor did the soldiers of Domitius leave him till
they brought him into Caesar's presence. He pleaded with Caesar for his
life, and entreated him to spare him, and reminded him of their former
friendship; and acknowledged that Caesar's favours to him were very
great; in that through his interest he had been admitted into the
college of priests; in that after his praetorship he had been appointed
to the government of Spain; in that he had been assisted by him in his
suit for the consulate. Caesar interrupted him in his speech, and told
him, "that he had not left his province to do mischief [to any man], but
to protect himself from the injuries of his enemies; to restore to their
dignity the tribunes of the people who had been driven out of the city
on his account, and to assert his own liberty, and that of the Roman
people, who were oppressed by a few factious men." Encouraged by this
address, Lentulus begged leave to return to the town, that the security
which he had obtained for himself might be an encouragement to the rest
to hope for theirs; saying that some were so terrified that they were
induced to make desperate attempts on their own lives. Leave being
granted him, he departed.
XXIII.--When day appeared Caesar ordered all the senators and their
children, the tribunes of the soldiers, and the Roman knights, to be
brought before him. Among the persons of senatorial rank were Lucius
Domitius, Publius Lentulus Spinther, Lucius Vibullius Rufus, Sextus
Quintilius Varus, the quaestor, and Lucius Rubrius, besides the son of
Domitius, and several other young men, and a great number of Roman
knights and burgesses, whom Domitius had summoned from the municipal
towns. When they were brought before him he protected them from the
insolence and taunts of the soldiers; told them in few words that they
had not made him a grateful return, on their part, for his very
extraordinary kindness to them, and dismissed them all in safety. Sixty
sestertia, which Domitius had brought with him and lodged in the public
treasury, being brought to Caesar by the magistrates of Corfinium, he
gave them back to Domitius, that he might not appear more moderate with
respect to the life of men than in money matters, though he knew that it
was public money, and had been given by Pompey to pay his army. He
ordered Domitius's soldiers to take the oath to himself, and that day
decamped and performed the regular march. He stayed only seven days
before Corfinium, and marched into Apulia through the country of the
Marrucinians, Frentanians, and Larinates.
XXIV.--Pompey, being informed of what had passed at Corfinium, marches
from Luceria to Canusium, and thence to Brundusium. He orders all the
forces raised everywhere by the new levies to repair to him. He gives
arms to the slaves that attended the flocks, and appoints horses for
them. Of these he made up about three hundred horse. Lucius, the
praetor, fled from Alba, with six cohorts: Rutilus Lupus, the praetor,
from Tarracina, with three. These having descried Caesar's cavalry at a
distance, which were commanded by Bivius Curius, and having deserted the
praetor, carried their colours to Curius and went over to him. In like
manner during the rest of his march, several cohorts fell in with the
main body of Caesar's army, others with his horse. Cneius Magius, from
Cremona, engineer-general to Pompey, was taken prisoner on the road and
brought to Caesar, but sent back by him to Pompey with this message: "As
hitherto he had not been allowed an interview, and was now on his march
to him at Brundusium, that it deeply concerned the commonwealth and
general safety that he should have an interview with Pompey; and that
the same advantage could not be gained at a great distance when the
proposals were conveyed to them by others, as if terms were argued by
them both in person."
XXV.--Having delivered this message he marched to Brundusium with six
legions, four of them veterans: the rest those which he had raised in
the late levy and completed on his march, for he had sent all Domitius's
cohorts immediately from Corfinium to Sicily. He discovered that the
consuls were gone to Dyrrachium with a considerable part of the army,
and that Pompey remained at Brundusium with twenty cohorts; but could
not find out, for a certainty, whether Pompey stayed behind to keep
possession of Brundusium, that he might the more easily command the
whole Adriatic sea, with the extremities of Italy and the coast of
Greece, and be able to conduct the war on either side of it, or whether
he remained there for want of shipping; and, being afraid that Pompey
would come to the conclusion that he ought not to relinquish Italy, he
determined to deprive him of the means of communication afforded by the
harbour of Brundusium. The plan of his work was as follows:--Where the
mouth of the port was narrowest he threw up a mole of earth on either
side, because in these places the sea was shallow. Having gone out so
far that the mole could not be continued in the deep water, he fixed
double floats, thirty feet on either side, before the mole. These he
fastened with four anchors at the four corners, that they might not be
carried away by the waves. Having completed and secured them, he then
joined to them other floats of equal size. These he covered over with
earth and mould, that he might not be prevented from access to them to
defend them, and in the front and on both sides he protected them with a
parapet of wicker work; and on every fourth one raised a turret, two
stories high, to secure them the better from being attacked by the
shipping and set on fire.
XXVI.--To counteract this, Pompey fitted out large merchant ships, which
he found in the harbour of Brundusium: on them he erected turrets three
stories high, and, having furnished them with several engines and all
sorts of weapons, drove them amongst Caesar's works, to break through
the floats and interrupt the works; thus there happened skirmishes every